February 2016

  • John Parker

    Setup

    It has been over 8 months since I “completed” design work on Picky Packrats and discontinued regular playtesting. However, my friend Mike and I continued to play it fairly regularly during lunch at work for the entertainment value alone; that is, until late October when his FMLA for a newborn and then the holidays and then the early-year work pressures all got in the way. We finally played Picky Packrats again this week after a 3 month hiatus. Was the game as fun as we remembered? Did we discover anything new about the game or validate any previous conclusions? Let’s see.

  • John Parker

    If you want to read about my plans prior to attending Ghengis Con this year, check out Genghis Con 2016 – Preview. I had created a long list of games that I wanted to play; primarily to see if they were good 2-player games for Lori and I. The list was long since I didn’t know which games would be in the library. Many were, so we had very little downtime – except when our brains or stomachs needed the break. Below I list all the games we played with my current BGG rating for the game. Since I have only played many of these once or twice, these might be considered first impressions and not an extensive evaluation. A low rating (<7) probably indicates that I won’t play it again unless it is offered up by someone else who wants to play. A higher rating (7-9) probably indicates that I will try to play it again and the rating might change (up or down) with more plays. In some cases I have noted if I expect my rating to go up or down (+/-) with more plays. A note about my ratings: Since the BGG rating scale is based on whether you want to play a game or would suggest it over other games, I tend to rate low because there are so many games competing for my attention. I certainly wouldn’t rate a game a 10 after just one or two plays. The only “10” below is Puerto Rico, which we played because it is one of my favorites that I don’t get to play often.

  • John Parker

    It is important for me and for Opie Games to be a supporter of the table top gaming community and I am always looking for opportunities. In January 2015 I created a short list of goals for the year.

  • John Parker

    If you think legacy style and other disposable games are crap by their very nature and you are looking for a few more grenades to drop in the BGG forums, well you have come to the wrong place. I hope to present a few ideas that have come as a result of playing, and thoroughly enjoying a few legacy and disposable games recently, namely Pandemic Legacy: Season One and T.I.M.E Stories. As I have planned to play and actually played these games, I have noticed a few dynamics that seem to be unique (at least for me) to these sessions.