The Game that Fueled my Addiction

Why do I do it to myself? Why is it so satisfying to walk into that little store on the corner? I walk in and my eyes are drawn to the shelves lined with board games like a beautiful feast. And I'm hungry...OH yes, I am very very hungry. But it's a hunger that never seems to stop. My bank account wishes it would, or at least that is what I keep trying to tell myself.

I walked into the local board game store about a month ago, hoping to find a small gift for my boss. I told myself, "You're not buying a game for you. No. No. No. You already bought some just the other day." It was pretty easy to find the perfect game for my boss. Before I went to the register, one of the store associates came up to me and showed me a game I had never heard of. That game was Gravwell, and yes, I did end up walking out with it.

Gravwell is a pretty interesting racing-style space board game. Players use cards to progress along the track. The catch is that this game is all about gravity, and the card that you play is in reference to the nearest object. So let's say you play a card that says to move forward five spaces. Well, if there is a player behind you that is closer than the player in front of you, you would move backwards five spaces.

There are also cards that move you away from the nearest object, so in this case you would move forward because it is in the direction away from the nearest player.

This game is quite fun, 1-4 players, and very easy to learn. Players select from their hand the card they would like to play, and then reveal them simultaneously. The cards show a number with a symbol which identifies the number of spaces and what type of movement (towards, away, and tractor beam), and also a letter which identifies an element. The ships in this game are fueled by the elements that you have mined from nearby astroids. Once the cards are revealed, the player whose card is closest to A resolves their movement first, then the player with the next closest, so on and so forth. Right away plans can be mixed up. Maybe you were planning to move away from the nearest person because they were behind you, but they played a card that goes first and passes you. Now the nearest person is in front of you and because you played a card that moves you away from that person, you are going to move backwards.

I was happy when I walked out of that game store with Gravwell in hand. My wife and I have had a lot of fun with it. No, we don't regret this purchase.

And yes, I have made many more trips to the game store since.

The 10 Times that T.I.M.E Stories Blew My Mind!

From my very first run of T.I.M.E Stories it became my favorite board game. We didn't finish it, no. We weren't even close. But we had a lot of fun, and I mean A LOT! Here are 10 times that T.I.M.E Stories blew my mind (oh and don't worry! There won't be any spoilers!).

1 - Laying out the first picture

Laying the first panorama picture cards side-by-side was an instant "Oh my gosh! I'm in love! Oohhh this is so cool!" kind of moment. The artwork is exceptional. It really does well - everything - from the board to the art - it's just stunning. Even picking up the box was like the game telling me "Hello." When we laid out the first few cards, taking in the wonderful panorama, it was like "Come and play" and I was like "You had me at hello." 

2 - Reading the very first card

The game does very well at pulling you into the story. It felt like we were in the place and time, and the stage was set for us to go on our adventure. The narrative is very good. We really got into the characters and setting the mood for the game. Right away we were in the experience.

3 - Navigating the different locations

T.I.M.E Stories does a very good job at providing a sense of mystery. What's in that room? What's in there? Where do we need to go? It was fun and engaging going into the different areas, finding clues, remembering where we'd been and what we'd found. This provided for a lot of discussion during the game, ideas bouncing off of each other in an endless kind of cycle. With each place came new secrets, drawing us into the game even more.

4 - Player interaction

This game is all about interaction. Because it is cooperative, you are all working together as a team. The genius behind T.I.M.E Stories is in how that interaction takes place. People move to a certain place in a location and once there they can look at the card. It might explain something important, or even give some crucial clues as to what's going on, but the player cannot read it word-for-word to the other players if they are not in the same space. Instead, they can explain in their own words what is happening, what they are seeing, and what new secrets might be unlocked because of it. It sounds like a simple concept, and in all honestly it is, but it really helps give this game something that a lot of other cooperative games lack. It was so much fun to see a player lift up a card and watch as their eyes lit up. Knowing they figured out something they'd try to explain it to me. It really made the experience all the more richer because of it, and I wouldn't change it at all.

5 - Puzzles. Oh the puzzles!

We absolutely loved the puzzles in the base game. It was fun figuring them out. Some of them were really tricky. We had a real problem with the last puzzle, but when we finally figured it out it was so rewarding! This worked because of the bouncing off of ideas from each other and going over the various clues we had collected. It was so great and exciting!

6 - The overall mystery

There's something so special and telling about not knowing. The whole game is centered around not knowing and taking the actions to figure out what it is that you don't know. Having that mystery keeps the fun going. You want to know more! You want to figure it out! You want to know what is in certain locations..!

7 - Losing

Surprisingly, this was one of the most rewarding and frustrating things that we faced. For one, it gave us time to go over what we had learned, what things we might have missed, what locations we need to visit (or revisit), and what we thought about the whole thing. There was also a great bit of revelation, if you will. Between plays I could not get the game out of my head. I kept piecing together different ideas that by the time we started the game up again I was fired up and ready to move forward. Rarely has a game excited me this much.

8 - Surprises

I won't say anything about this, but I was shocked. It's not really anything to do with the game play or scenario. There is a surprise that you will find if you've played the game and it is exciting.

9 - More scenarios

We absolutely cannot wait to play the second scenario in this series of games. Once I learned there is a connection between the scenarios, it made me all the more excited to play the first one.

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10 - The website

Just go to the Space Cowboys website and look at the video on the T.I.M.E Stories page. It's short and promotional for the game, but it was excellently made (I love me some good videos! It caught my eye and made me want to play even more!)

Well, there you have it...10 times that this game blew my mind. I absolutely enjoyed T.I.M.E Stories, and I will recommend it to everyone that I know because it is so well done. I think this special experience is definitely worth the money and time. I know that it was for me. 

3 Ways Board Games Benefit the Body

Board games offer a variety of benefits. From a relaxing evening to an hour of socializing, I've seen many outstanding benefits that have really improved my life. Here are just a few of them!

1 - Reduces Stress

Pulling out a board game after a long day (or week) of work can be just what you need to reduce stress in your life. Playing a board game with others invites a kickback and relax atmosphere, but in a different way than watching television or movies. While laughing has been proven to be good medicine for the heart, engaging oneself in an hour of board games will not only invite the opportunity for laughter, but will also encourage players to exercise their problem-solving skills. Not only is this healthy, but it has been proven to affect problem-solving in other daily activities. So in addition to relaxing and reducing stress, your body is still engaging in a healthy activity.

2 -  Improves Memory

In the 2016 Frontiers in Psychology a study concluded that board games help improve memory, with a focus on spatial ability. Spatial ability is "the capacity to understand, reason and remember the spatial relations among objects or space" (thanks Wikipedia!). An easy way to understand this is with the Rubik's cube. The Rubik's cube involves 3D mental rotation, so the rotation of a 3D object quickly and accurately. Regularly playing board games can have lasting positive effects on memory, including quicker thinking and reactions.

3 - It Feels Good!

Taking us back to the first point, laughter releases endorphins (you know that feeling when you're happy? Yeah, that!). Endorphins bring a positive feeling into the body, and playing board games are a known way to do this. Endorphins reduce pain, improve sleep, and can even help with blood pressure!

So with this said - and a whole bunch of other great benefits that weren't listed here - grab a board game and some friends, sit down, and enjoy the benefits that are sure to come!

What benefits have you seen from playing board games?

Tragedy Looper

My Curious Find and Initial Reaction

It's officially been a year since I stumbled upon Tragedy Looper, a game that caught my eye as I was searching for a birthday gift for myself. I was really drawn to the theme of time travel at the time, so the game caught my attention right away. Oooh! It looks like Quantum Leap meets Groundhogs Day, with Clue on the side and a platter of Doctor Who! Also, I had never even heard of it until I saw it on the shelf. The store clerk had also never even heard of the game, so I was forced to look online for reviews (which why would I never do that anyways, right?) and was pleased to see a handful of very favorable reviews. Aside from those, the only thing that really caught my attention was a continuous mention of how difficult the game is to learn, that it has quite a steep learning curve...

Difficult? Ha! How difficult can it really be??

Well...I didn't laugh for long. The grand reviews pulled me more into the thicket of game mystery as I became obsessed with seeing what this game was truly like. As I looked on youtube and other sites, I failed to find a favorable review. They could never show "too much" as it could spoil the game experience, and those that gave "good" examples were very hard to understand. So I finally decided to take a leap of faith. After all, how hard could it really be?

What followed was weeks and months of difficulty. Apart from the 80 pages of rules (over half of which I had no idea what it had explained), my wife and I struggled through each and every game. After our first play through, we had exhausted nearly four hours, and we didn't understand what was going on in the slightest. But I told her, "We have to keep trying. It has to be fun! So many people have liked it...We have to be...uh...playing it wrong." And we were. We knew we were. Each play became a little better. By the time I had played it my sixth time I KNEW it was correct and boy was it fun! It instantly changed from being a game that I soo didn't want to regret, to becoming one of my all time favorite board games, one that really is as close to Clue on steroids a game as I can find.

A plus-side to this story is that now I can teach people with little to no problem. I have a lot of fun teaching this to coworkers, friends... It's fun, exciting, and the gameplay is brilliant. I would say that the rule book is more complicated than the game really is, and this might turn people away. Perhaps I am just very slow (which would not surprise me) at learning a game like this. It was, however, one of the first board games like this that I've had to teach myself, and I wasn't used to that. Now I read rulebooks for games all the time and I understand them loads better.

The Game

Tragedy Looper is a unique experience. One to three players ("protagonists") travel back in time in the hopes of stopping some very bad things from happening, while one person (the "mastermind") is trying to make those bad things happen. The game starts with certain character cards spread out in different locations on the board; this is set up by the person who is playing the mastermind. The protagonists receive a card for the scenario. It will show what bad events are planned to happen on what days (a "round" or "loop" could consist of 3 to 5 or more days). So, for example, it might say that a murder is going to take place on Day 2, and something bad will happen at the hospital on Day 5. The catch is that some of the characters on the board (maybe a student, doctor, reporter, etc...) are behind these events. One might be the cause behind the murder, while another is just a bystander. The protagonists do not know! But the mastermind does.

During each round, the mastermind - followed by the protagonists - will place cards face down on the board. They are then revealed. Cards can do anything from moving a character from one location to the next, spooking a character by giving them paranoia, befriending a character so they gain tokens that unlock certain abilities (some of which might reveal to the protagonists what their role is, be it a murderer, bystander, or anything really). It is important for the protagonists to watch and learn what it is that the mastermind does, because if at the end of the day (once the cards have been revealed and resolved) if any character has reached their limit of paranoia, those are the ones that can cause bad events to happen.

So the protagonists are waiting, waiting for something bad to happen. They know what will go down (or what is planned to go down) on the certain days. They watch for which characters are getting paranoid, and where they are going. If a hospital incident is about to occur and the mastermind moves a character there while they have loaded paranoia, the protagonists could catch on and stop that character. If at the end of the day the event does go down, and certain bad things happen - maybe a key character is killed, or the protagonists themselves die - the mastermind can say that something truly terrible has happened, and the protagonists can lose the loop, or round.

That is not the end of the game, however! The protagonists are able to "loop" back to the beginning. The game is reset, characters moved back, tokens removed. Now the protagonists learned something, and they continue. Each scenario shows the number of loops that they are allowed before they lose permanently, so they must win before those are gone.

If the protagonists can stop certain events from happening through one "loop" (making it to the end of the last day), then they win.

Final Thoughts

I really love this game. I now find it very easy to teach people. For those I have taught, I've never seen anyone disappointed. Lots of fun right here!

Santorini - 30 seconds and GO!

One of the greatest games (and surprises for me) of 2016 that I had the opportunity to play was Santorini. This is a very great strategy game for 2-4 players, although I fully recommend sticking with two.

The rules are simple: move and then build. When moving, you can place one of your builders into an adjacent space. This can include moving up one level onto a building that has been placed there previously, off of a building that your builder may be standing on, or just into an empty space where nothing has been placed previously. When building, you can place a building level next to the builder that was moved. The game ends once someone has reached the third level with one of their builders.

I really enjoyed the powers that were included for the different players. Each player assumes the role of a god or goddess, along with comes powers which aid in the game play. With over 30 characters to choose from, Santorini offers a lot of replay-ability.

One thing that really drew my attention when I first saw this game was the board itself. The 3-D cliff component is so stable and appealing that it really deepens the theme for this game. Apart from the game being solid and the components being excellent, the wonderfully designed board is quite a treat!

Overall, this game has easily become one of my favorite two-player games. It's easy to learn (30 seconds max) and can be tricky to play. Definitely a keeper on our game shelf.