Playing games, and turning to the "dark side"

Since May, I have been going regularly to a "social games evening" organised by a local enthusiast and held at my local pub. (NB: it is a [social] [games evening] and not a [social games] [evening] - distinction is important to avoid confusion with therapy/psychology theories and such!)

The evening involves playing games involving cards, boards, counters and the like, and being social with people. It's kind of a big deal for me because of my introversion, but the groups are on a level I can cope with, and the structure provided by playing the games makes the social element easier to handle. I find myself able to enjoy company (which I generally do) without it being too taxing on my reserves. (Similar observations appeared in my pick-up updates, about the first time I went to one. I have become more talkative as I have got to know the regulars there.)

Anyway, I wanted to write a bit about some of the games that I have enjoyed playing over the past few months!

I won't link to the blog of the guy who organises the events, because it gives away far too much about where I am and he uses my real-life name, with pictures, which would probably make it a little bit too easy for people to find out who I am in the offline world (I am sure anyone who was willing to put in the effort could figure it out from the info I have blogged about myself, but I won't make it that easy for them!) However, I think I can speak in general terms about the games I found most enjoyable.

First up, the organiser has noticed that I like games where you can "nobble" the other players. If I have understood conversations correctly, sometimes this is known as "opportunities for screwage" by people in the gaming community (as in, "screw up their plans"). This is an extension of my general preference for sports that involve some form of direct competition, and not just "tackle the same obstacles at the same time". Golf, for example, involves no direct competition against your opponent, because neither of you can affect the other's ability to win, you simply tackle the same course at the same time, and I don't really "get" that sort of game, in general (cf. my competitive spirit at footie practice!). So this liking of games with a little bit of a nasty edge in that you can nobble your opponents, is the first part of why I talk about "turning to the Dark Side" in the post title!

I like a bit of tactical thinking and strategy in the games I play as well. Coming up with a plan, even if it's a completely useless plan or I change it every other turn, makes my brain circuits happy.

So, the games I have enjoyed most are:

Dominion. A fantasy/mediaeval type theme in which you build your personal deck as the game proceeds (I understand it has a small similarity to Magic:The Gathering). There are dozens of different card types, and typically you play with I think it's 10 types of action cards, and you also have money and territory (victory point) cards. That adds up to a really enormous number of possible different games you could play, depending on which combination of action cards you choose. And it's even more when you take into account the expansion packs that are available! Some of the action cards help you nobble your opponents, some of them boost your own abilities. It takes about half an hour to play to a finish and a lot of the interest is in the combinations of cards that you can create from your own deck. It has a lot of strategy to it, but it's often not possible to work out whether your strategy is actually working or not, until you count up the points at the end. It's semi-serious, but with enough silliness if you play with a good bunch of people, to make it properly entertaining. Of course, I find it more amusing than most, because of Bill Bailey's "Chaucerian Pubbe Gagge" routine, which has the line, "'Til Drunkenness held full Dominion/ For 'twas 2 for the price of 1." It sometimes seems as though most things these days remind me either of sex or of a comedy sketch or stand-up routine that made me laugh. I recently found a website based in Germany that offers an online engine for human vs human Dominion games (amongst others), called BrettspielWelt (it has an English-language interface as well as German and other languages, thankfully - my decade-since-I-used-it GCSE German might not have been up to the job!). If anyone fancied giving me a game over there, I am (as ever) SnowdropExplodes on the system! (You might need to give me a heads-up that you want to, as my out-of-date Mac doesn't run their software very well so I'd need to switch to a slightly less out of date PC, which has better stability with their software)

Trans Europa. The theme is building transport routes across Europe (I think there's also a US-themed version called TransAmerica). Officially, they're train lines but they could equally be motorways or something of that ilk. Your goal is to link five far-flung cities (assigned at random at the start of each round) with your tracks. The nobbling bit is where you place your proprietary tracks (or, if you think of it as motorways, your toll-charging sections), because all other tracks can be used by anyone, regardless of who built them. It's a much simpler game in terms of the mechanics than the similarly-themed Ticket To Ride (which also has European and a North American versions available), but in a way actually has more scope for tactical play. There is also much less reliance on chance and good (or bad) fortune in determining the winner (the only random element is which cities you have to link, whereas Ticket To Ride has multiple random points). It appeals to my mathematical mind because of the geometrical emphasis (the board is marked with an isometric grid).

Castle Panic. This one stands out as different from the others, because it has none of the characteristics I said that like in a game! It's an "us against the world" sort of game, in that all the players collaborate in an attempt to defeat the game mechanism. There is the title of "Master Slayer" to be won, but it only counts for anything if your team all survive. The theme, as you might guess from the title, is based around a castle (it's fantasy rather than mediaeval) and the team has to defend it against a horde of monsters, of whom there are rather a lot (thus, "panic"!)

For Sale. Loosely (very loosely!) based on property speculation, this game involves first a betting/bidding process, followed by a series of blind auctions. The aim being to buy in the bidding process sufficiently good properties as to be able to maximise the return from the blind auction phase. Properties for sale range from "Cardboard Box" to "Space Station" (which shows how closely this is modelled on real life property speculation). The excitement and enjoyment in this come not just fro the direct competition, but mainly from the pretty pictures of the properties (and the rather silly themes of some of them - other highlights include the Igloo and the Dunny...).

I've saved two of my favourites for last, because this is where the Dark Side really shows itself... (cue evil maniacal laughter - BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!)

These games both have a "secret villain" theme to them, in that most of the player are working to the same goal (as in Castle Panic mentioned above) but a minority have been assigned a secret identity as villains, who are out to sabotage the efforts of the group! And it turns out that I very much enjoy being the villain (see, I told you I was turning to the Dark Side! ;-) )

My favourite is called, simply, Saboteur.

In Saboteur, the theme is (fantasy-world) Dwarfish miners striving to find a vein of gold. Cards are played showing tunnels, that connect up and there are three possible locations where the gold could be hidden: the good guys win if they manage to dig a tunnel to the correct location. The bad guys win if there are no more cards to play and the tunnel has not yet reached the gold. There's a further "nobble" factor in that some cards can be used to prevent other players from digging (good guys use them to try to stop the people they think are villains from sending the tunnels in the wrong directions or up dead ends; villains use them to stop the good guys making progress). Typically, the game involves absolutely outrageous and wild accusations by all and sundry as to who might be evil and who might be good, making it a very good game to get people talking (even if it's only of the, "I think you're the Saboteur!" - "Huh! Me? No, you're wrong!" variety!).

The other is called The Resistance, and I've only played it once so far. I was, as it happens, a villain on that go (bwahahahaha!) My villains team managed to scupper the good guys, too. (I iz ev0l jeenyus!) The theme is a futuristic world, if you're familiar with Blake's 7 then you'll get the idea. Agents of the Evil Empire/Federation/Brain Police have infiltrated a cell of The Resistance, and are trying to bring down the plot to overthrow the tyrannical regime. The Resistance are the good guys, and the Agents are the baddies. This game is a "best of five" deal: if the Resistance (terrorist scum - oops, slipped back into my role from the game there!) succeed in three or more of their five missions, they win. If they fail in three or more, then the forces of Law and Order (and Tyranny) remain supreme in the galaxy. In Saboteur, no one knows who the baddies are; in Resistance, the baddies all know who the other baddies are, but none of the goodies do. Just to prove how Dark Side I really am when I play games, in the game I played I at various times accused both of my fellow Agents of betraying the Rebel Cause, to throw suspicion away from myself!

Saboteur is definitely one of my favourite games to play. I also really like Dominion, and Trans Europa (even though I haven't won yet on either of those...) I think For Sale is also a lot of fun.

[Edit To Add: I just saw the link back to this post on someone else's blogroll - their blog is primarily about dating and the title struck me as having a completely different tone to it in that context!]