Day 10: Saturday

I am very busy baking, delivering presents, and even shopping today. So, the blog is running late. I have about an hour to write it.

Yesterday, we had an unusually large set of gamers at Richard’s in Portland, including Cody, who I only see occasionally. Shawn and his wife Val were there too, so five. Richard picked the board game Battlestar Galactica, a famous game out of print. It is a challenging game that simulates taking the Battlestar to the final location with the Cylons attacking. But it is also a traitor game. In the game, you play characters from the newer show and learn if you are a traitor at the start and 1/2 way. As a traitor, you try to convince the other players to leave you alone and maybe take down another player. You can, as I did, sabotage the play.

I discovered I was a Cylon (a traitor) 1/2 and then saw a chance to do real damage and took it. The other players guessed it was me, but as a revealed Cylon, I was able to do the final damage that ended the game with a failure for the humans. It is difficult to win without the Cylons. I have won once as a human.

I recommend this game in its new, still available reformatting: Unfathomable. It is based on a ship in the Atlantic, on which H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos are the story’s focus. There are cultists and deep ones mixed in with the players. It is a good reworking, and I think it plays better. But playing the original game is fun, and the theme is excellently represented. Recommended if you play someone’s copy (used copies for the base game fun for $150, while the add-ons are usually sold with the game and go for $300+)–I play Richard’s.

If you want this kind of play, a traitor game, Unfathomable is my recommendation. Secret Hitler is a lighter (“light Hitler”–did I actually write that-F**K) traitor game that plays fast, but I miss all the fun of the slow build of other games. House on Haunted Hill, I simply don’t care for as it removes a random player to be the bad guy–not as good a system, I think. The slow build is more fun.

I brought pretzels and some vegan-supportive treats. We have a game I started that Cylons never eat pretzels. So, everyone eats them with gusto to prove they are not a toaster. Richard sent me home with a bottle of wine for the holidays. Thanks, Richard and Shawna.

Before this, I met Evan at The 649 for some games. Our usual Saturday plan worked as I now have the next week free. Evan beat me by ten points or so in Vindication. I made the mistake of letting him capture a few too many masteries. I should have got some to protect my points. That was my mistake, but only one mastery would have made the difference, and I will remember to get two every game. I have done this to Evan, too.

We played Istanbul, and I have the base game down cold for two players. I enjoy the game as the best way to play it is to visit almost every location. I circle around the board through the same area and collect what it offers, steadily building my rubies (you collect rubies to win). I find that you need to visit different areas to improve your play. I like the coffee expansion and have The Big Box, but I never played the third expansion (all the expansions are included in The Big Box, except the promo for the Kebab/Donner Area). I was two rubies ahead at the end; Evan was out of practice on this game.

I find now that when I finish a board game, I become depressed. While playing, enjoying, and concentrating, the grief and troubles are in abeyance, but the guilt of forgetting and having fun seems to crash down on me after the game finishes. This is a new thing that I have noticed.

Before meeting Evan and drinking and eating at The 649 while playing games, I was out in Air Volvo delivering gifts to my long-term Dungeons and Dragons players. I try to get something every year. Some years, it was painted figures, but of late, small gifts from Etsy.com and the Portland Saturday Market. I drove those items all over Beaverton.

Before that, I rose slowly, read emails, did some bill paying and accounting (I do it every day so it does not accumulate–there is still a lot to do), and made poached eggs on toast for breakfast–a favorite and easy. I did watch some YouTube history shows and the always interesting Battleship New Jersey shows.

I put some fruit cake and pecans in rum for another experiment with puffy rolls. I made them on Christmas Eve.

I stopped at Corwin’s house and dropped off his gifts after the games. We wished each other a Merry Christmas.

It was a good day. Thanks for reading.