An update

[thebitterguy]

Holiday is going nicely. Saturday was fairly quiet, but Sunday we got to journey to viktor_haag's place of VikCon 2, Son of VikCon. Cynra and I played a game of PowerGrid with Vik and some of his mates. We lost, but only barely. It was very not competitive.

There was a follow up game of Cosmic Encounter, which has changed significantly from when I was in the start club.

Today we took in the Titanic exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre, as well as seeing the Titanica flick in OmniMax. Man, I love seeing movies that way. It was a strange artifact of a previous time, since it was filmed onboard a Soviet science vessel. Very few indications remained of the period; just an errant hammer & sickle and a USSR tag here and there (or CCCP). And the ship's painter.

And one of the American guys looked a bit too much like George R. R. Martin. It was scary.

The exhibit was well done. Each person was given a boarding pass for a passenger, and then at the end you could check to see if they'd survived the sinking. The exhibit was composed of various artifacts from the wreck, reproductions of the boilers and rooms (first and third class) and a big piece of ice. And a gift shop. Cynra was enamoured of the idea of putting together a display for her library next year, so she got a few items (a program book, a copy of a first class menu, and some reproductions of second and third class plates). I plan to get myself a copy of Last Dinner on the Titanic, because I like stuff like that.

Dinner was at the Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ, where someone recognized my Blue Sun t-shirt. Small world.

We had our full, since we hadn't really eaten much in about 24 hours; we'd each had a couple Eggos for breakfast, and then split a slice of Pizza Pizza for lunch. I am proud to report that I did not eat until I felt sick, although the flan was tempting.

Comments

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

I'm groaning about missing VikCon 2, but realistically even if I had of known this was the weekend, the stars were not right for going.

It sounds like a good time all around.

::B::

P.S. I'm curious to learn what version of Cosmic Encounter did you play? I have a couple of copies of the new Hasbro version (only one opened; the extra copy if I ever kit-bash them into a 6 player version), but I've yet to learn how to play this classic board game that is apparently one of the inspirations for the CCG Magic the Gathering.

[thebitterguy]

It was the newest Hasbro one. I vaguely recall playing the original back in the strat club (which was, of course, half my life ago).

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

As Justin said, it was the recent AH/Hasbro edition. I foolishly got rid of my Mayfair edition years ago. Luckily I didn't pay full price for my Hasbro edition, as it's not worth it; ridiculous amounts of money were spent on useless production values in lieu of actual things in the box you can play with. In its current form it's pretty much a four-player-only game with only a few good options: you might seriously be better off with Mayfair's "Simply Cosmic" (which I think you can still get from them). Or bidding on Ebay patiently for a copy of the Mayfair (or even EOS) editions.

I shouldn't even have the Hasbro edition taking up shelf space in my main game room, and will rectify that situation soon... 8)

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you had a good time, Justin -- throwing you and your wife into Power Grid with Bill, Devin, and me is a bit like getting tossed into the meat grinder. I suspect that you and your wife would have been happier with a chaotic, fast, and fun game -- sadly, I don't own many of those, but next time I will make a better effort to match you up with a game.

Speaking of that, here's some promised links for you guys:

The German SdJ (game of the year) awards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiel_des_Jahres) are a great indicator for games that are good for grade schoolers. Also, typically, the ages listed on the side of a german-game box are pretty accurate, but represent an average: some games are much easier to learn, but are still listed as 10+ games, because the emergent strategy is not simple.

The Boardgame Geek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/) website is probably the world's best resource for boardgames. If you don't have it bookmarked and you play boardgames of any sort, you should now bookmark it. Accounts are free if you're willing to put up with advertising, or you can contribute a yearly flat fee to get rid of the ads. For example, here is the entry (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1579) for the game you brought with you on Sunday, Justin!