Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Cold.

(1) Morning temperatures Saturday morning low enough for a smattering of snow, though we didn't see any. (2) For the lack of a better term, we've both had some kind of respiratory thing.

By Saturday afternoon the coughing and nose running abated enough that, seeing as it was a lovely late afternoon and October Game Night had an early 4pm start time, we figured just to go. Barbara was hosting in a condo in Kentwood SE. Mary and Ed brought a folding plastic table, I brought a sturdy folding chair and a seat cushion. Mrs. Dr. Phil made a batch of our lovely bourbon franks.


Composite of two photos using Wendy's little Canon SureShot A550. Matt, Ed, Leah, Mary, Mrs. Dr. Phil, me. We're playing a time travel card game. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

We came in just as they were starting this time travel card game. You play cards to change or patch things, collect stuff, steal it, make it go away. There are multiple ways to win... or lose. It's rather fun and challenging, because flipping the state of one card has cascading effects through the time line. WW III in the early 60s locks out all the later cards until that issue is resolved. Killing Hitler in the 30s also has a lot of cascading events. Which meant I had a lot of fun repeatedly reviving him and restoring the timeline. And who knew that if the Hindenburg doesn't burn that North Korea will develop Zeppelins? Or that if Titanic doesn't sink there's no Great Depression? (grin)

The main deck goes from Lincoln to 1999. Turns out Matt had a small expansion pack which added five dates in the 2000s -- we threw those into the last of four or five games. I managed to draw a task which required two patched and one straight post-2000 events. And no one is drawing the cards from the expansion pack. FINALLY, someone flips Bush v Gore in 2000 and then someone adds a woman president in 2008. And I draw a card which lets me look through the whole draw deck for any card I want. I find the card to patch 2003 and I win! Alas, the card isn't there. Mrs. Dr. Phil wins -- she had my card. Ah well... Mary had won the first game -- if she hadn't I had the cards to win after her turn. So... (Ah well.)²

What made the evening exceptionally pleasant was this game wasn't so intense that you couldn't hold conversations. And though there was another table, we ended up with five playing the game and five sitting out. Some swapped in and out of the game, others were content to just be. One guy had a smart phone and was updating us with the MSU-UMich game, as well as Cubs-Mets. Besides our bourbon franks, there was a stuffing, an artichoke dip, a hummus platter, some yummy cookies and some sort of pumpkin cake which came from the new Trader Joe's in Grand Rapids. Barbara's kitty Holly Golightly actually stayed around and sat on some people.

We all had a lovely time. No doubt we'll play something more cutthroat next time, but this was way beyond okay, too.

Sunday night, it was already 38°F by 8pm. And now at 10:40 it's 33°F. Everybody is making the "Winter is Coming" jokes. So, I suppose you can consider it made. Feeling better today, I should be able to survive this week. Flu shots scheduled for two weeks. Exam 2 week after next. The semester rolls on.

Dr. Phil

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Crossposted on LiveJournal

Friends Mary and Ed Morgan periodically host Game Nights at their house. And we love to come and play.

Saturday, as we came in, their daughter Amanda (green shirt below) had spread Firefly The Game across the dining room table, announcing she'd only let five people sit and it would be an all night commitment. I was all in, after requesting a sturdy chair at the south end of the table and borrowing a seat cushion off an office chair. Mrs. Dr. Phil headed off to another room to play Kill Dr. Lucky and a fire/rescue board game we played another time, but with an expansion pack. Other games were going on at the kitchen table.

The game goals we were playing for Firefly said it was a two hour game -- it took us four. But fun!


I didn't bring one of my cameras, so we had Wendy's Canon A550. Alas, though the shot is nice, at 1/3 of a second, it's too blurred to see detail.
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Threw the flash back on to show some detail. The game is HUGE, taking up the whole table. I kept knocking off some of my cards and my money with my sleeve, though it could just be I'm a klutz. You may not be able to see the auxiliary table in the back on the left just to hold the cards for shopping and moving -- and their discard piles, which are quite important. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


INSET: There's my lonely little yellow Firefly way on the other side of the board from everyone -- the Blue Sun is so far, it's on a part of the board from The Blue Sun expansion pack.
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Alas, I lost. I had adopted a strategy which Amanda said could work, but it took too long to develop. But, I didn't lose a single crewman and I don't recall ever having to deal with Reavers. Yay, me. I got in solid with three of the five big people who were our First Goal, but as a noob, I took an easy Job cad for Badger that involved going to Miranda for the pickup. You know, the planet in the movie Serenity which was surrounded by Reavers. Yeah, I hadn't gotten built up to tackle that. (evil-grin)

But it was fun! We wuz all winners. And if I get a chance to tackle Firefly again, I'm going to try the same strategy again, but better informed. (all-knowing-grin)

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal