April 28, 2004
Game night goodbye
Greg P, Erin, Ryan, and Greg W's hands around the Ticket to Ride board
The good news is that we did play games last night. It was at my house for the first time in a long while, and we had five people. That meant that our "Game of the Month" didn't get played, because New England is for a maximum of four. That's okay, there's no law against playing it next week as well as our new GotM.
Instead, we started with Ticket to Ride which you see above. This was my third try at the game, about the same for other players, and two newbies. The game feels as it did at the Gathering: unremarkable, but I mean that in the best possible way. My wife has told me that at Bunco nights the people do more talking, letting the game serve as just a backdrop to the conversations. TtR has more going on than that, but among gamers it's kind of got that low-key appeal. Just keep on playing, don't have to think too hard, it's pleasant and pretty.
After that we played Members Only, an older Knizia game that someone should reprint (Out of the Box? Uberplay?). It's got that older-Knizia feel to it, a game slimmed all the way down to an interesting mechanic and pasted on theme. I think that's where Knizia works best, not at the Amun-Re level. Now Schacht is starting to take over that end of the spectrum. MO is a tough betting game (tougher with a full boat of five players, since everyone gets fewer turns and less control than with three or four), one that's got some fun drama built into the final card flips of each round. Good stuff. Maybe next time we have just three we'll leave Medici for a time when we have more, opting for Members Only instead.
Unfortunately the real story from last night's session is the departure of one of our players, Greg Pettit. Greg moved here from the Houston area just over two years ago, and now he's heading back there. Our loss is Texas' gain. Rats, I guess we just had that guy on loan. He says he'll make it back for visits often enough, and we all hope that works out. Hopefully he'll get back online soon enough so that we can "meet" at BSW and through play-by-web games, too.
See ya, buddy! :-(