Saturday ended around 11 with me crawling into bed. I had taken Air VW the Gray from Portland. I crossed the ramp that is higher than the Fremont Bridge roadway, about 175 feet above the river. I was flying on Highway 26 at 68 mph, but other vehicles were racing and flew by me on both sides, going much faster — at least 80, as the EV neared the top of the pass out of Portland. On many of my late evening trips on Portland’s highways, I find groups of cars racing.
We played a new board game, Richard’s second play of his latest Kickstarter acquisition, Stationfall. This is a new and surprisingly high-rated game; it is just being released and is a secret player game. The theme is a space station with a dark project, and it has 13 minutes left before it is destroyed by re-entry, literally stationfall. There is a random group of characters on the station; you play one main character and one supporting character. Some characters get victory points for escaping, others sacrifice themselves to stop the dark secrets from getting released, there is a subplot of murder, and outright murder will get you suspected. There is an option to reveal who you are actually playing.
The game has many rules, various rule books, complex victory conditions, and a pile of markers and add-ons. In other words, a Kickstarter SciFi dark game. Yes, there are soooo mannnny bits; Richard has a plastic container to separate them. Richard’s favorite type of game!
I tied for the win with Kathleen, with her Engineering trying to destroy the station before it crashes, and my Space Monkey surviving in an escape pod. Shawn, who had changed his character and stopped Kathleen from blowing up the station (much to her displeasure and forcing a tie), escaped in a pod. However, the Deathray was revealed as the dark project, and he was the first test subject; It worked.
We finished that about 9ish, not bad for a new game. Next, we played the card game Flip7. This is a card-counting game (Shawn and Kathleen can actually count them in their heads) with a push-your-luck process. I won once, but missed my last draw in the last hand to overwhelm Kathleens’ score. Instead, Kathleen won three and I one. She had, despite the crazy play in Stationfall, a good night.
Before taking Air VW the Gray to Richard’s house, I was at Lucky Labrador Brew Pub writing and playing a solo game. I had taken the EV to Portland and arrived there with plenty of parking at noon. The place was empty with only me as their customer. Portland was filled with events and parties; I knew of three I was missing.
Instead, I had games and writing to do. I got a beer (and a bowl of salted peanuts) once I realized that they were open. The bartender told me he was hungover, and with the small crowd, he went home. The manager and cook ran the bar and food. I returned to my Fantasy novel, revised it, and wrote about another 500 words. This takes longer than writing the blog, as there was a lot of editing and some looking out into space to think about the story and how to describe it. I spent until 3ish writing, and the third chapter has grown to 2,000 words; the story is starting to move toward the end of the chapter. I got a salad and another beer. I should have stuck to one, and that might explain why I couldn’t add up my scores later in our game (Kathleen was concerned that I could no longer do basic math in my head. I kept missing the carry, and she suggested more practice).
I played Nemo’s War, a large solo board game (and a Kickstarter, meaning there are extra pieces, rules, and cloth bags, and an optional cloth board), and this, along with the beer, left me a bit fuzzy (see previous problem with math). As I played, more and more folks found their way to Lucky Labrador Brew Pub. I explained the game to a few folks and managed to complete the game without the automatic loss. I scored low, earning 162 points, which put me at a Failure level. I was a hundred points away from a good score, but I had avoided the automatic loss (my last play included an automatic loss). Next time, and less beer!
Before this, I was at the house, rising late — closer to 8 than 7 — with me rolling over at 4, 5, 6, 6:30, and 7, as the sun woke me over and over. I should have just gotten up, but the soft bed, silky sheets, and warm covers seemed to hold me in. I could not resist; like a turtle on its back. The coffee, much needed, was waiting for me, Equal Exchange brand.
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