Charity Game Auction, so to speak

I apologize in advance for this off topic and sort of whiny post.


If you follow my FB or Twitter stuff then you already know that yesterday my house was broken into and I was robbed of a great deal of cash as well as my iPad and a few other little things. I am no stranger to theft and loss - over the years I have had wallets stolen (out of my jacket, out of my car, out of my backpack) as well as bicycles (3 in a 6 month period)... but the value of this particular loss was about an order of magnitude larger than all the rest combined, and because much of it was cash, it won't be covered by insurance.

It's been a bummer to say the least, and to make matters worse, it happened while I was out negotiating a deal on a car...


In an effort to recoup some of that money (which was to be my down payment), I have decided to host a game auction on BGG. I have an awful lot of games, many of which I never play. With the exception of a few favorites, I think I'll put them all up and see if I can get any interest in any of them. I could really use the money!


So if you are interested in buying a game and helping me out, stay tuned - I'll probably put up that geeklist in the next couple of days.


And to be at least a little bit on-topic...

RECENT GAMING
I have played an awful lot of Lords of Waterdeep lately. With two caveats, I find it's a very solid game and I like t very much.
Caveat #1: Remove Mandatory Quests - The Mandatory Quests are a bummer pretty much all the time - often you don't want to draw it, because it does not net you anything, and it sucks to have a Mandatory Quest played on you, because (especially if it's in the last round or two) it can keep you from scoring a large VP Quest that you've spent multiple turns building up to. Nobody I know likes those cards, so I simply leave them in the box when I play.

Caveat #2: Remove the Lord which rewards buildings - In some games I think it's fair and balanced, but with a Quest, a Building, and several Intrigue cards which allow a player to build even if the building space is occupied, in some games I think that Buildings are too available, making that Lord too easy to dominate with. So I simply leave it in the box to ensure a more fair game.


I just got Castles of Burgundy and I've played it a number of times already. I enjoy it more as I play more and discover strategies and tactical tricks. However, I do think it takes too long, and much like Martin Wallace's London, I'm surprised at the degree to which you cannot plan your turn ahead of time in this day and age.

Brain Freeze iPad app is live!

It's been in the works since December, and finally it's done... the Brain Freeze iPad app is in the App Store! It's a free download, so give it a shot and let me know what you think!

Kickstarter is pretty cool

I may have mentioned that I successfully raised $48,000 to publish my new game on a website called Kickstarter. Since being turned onto that website sometimes I've noticed some really cool things popping up on there. As yet I haven't backed any projects that have completed, but I'm currently backing 2 projects:

Rolling Freight
Eminent Domain was not the first board game to get funding through Kickstarter, but it may have been the first big success story (actually, I think Alien Frontiers was). Ever since the success of Alien Frontiers and Eminent Domain, a number of board game publishers have turned to this new found source of funding. Right now I'm backing Rolling Freight, partly because I suspect I'd enjoy the game, and partly because I support the Kickstarter format, so while I won't commit to backing just any old game project, since I thought I might want this game I decided to back it despite the fact that it's fairly pricey.

The project has funded already, and I have a couple of days to change my mind if I want to - which I may do because I don't like their pricing tiers. I don't normally buy games at all, and certainly not at full price. Tasty Minstrel Games has offered really good deals for pre-orders and Kickstarter supporters, so I might ought not to support a game that's going for full retail on Kickstarter.

Cosmonaut iPad stylus
Another (non-game) project I'm currently backing is the Cosmonaut - a stylus for the iPad. You can already get a stylus, but they are all shaped like pens. Pens are for writing on paper, but a tablet is more like writing on a dry erase board - it's low fidelity, you can't rest our hand on the tablet, etc. So the theory is that a more appropriate and comfortable form factor for an iPad stylus is a dry erase marker. These guys are raising money to produce a stylus that feels more like a dry erase marker. The same guys raised over $100,000 to make an accessory for the iPhone, and they've already funded this project as well. Seems like useful accessories for popular iDevices is a really smart thing to do, and Kickstarter will get you over the barrier to entry (large startup capital)!