Satuday with a New Game and Math

I woke with bad dreams on Sunday morning, and breathing is hard. The pollen, travel, and allergies are making it a difficult start, and I was awake at 4 after having trouble sleeping. It is a hard start on Sunday while I write this.

(Here is Richard and Laura playing the game for scale. Huge, and not all of it is in the photo!)

Starting near the end of Saturday, we (Richard, Laura, and I) chatted for a while about games and playing after enjoying a game of Luthier. This is a new Kickstarter board game that just shipped. It has been called a masterpiece, and the materials are lovely-looking, especially the special maxed-out version. Richard’s copy looks wonderful, the top-of-the-line version. I found the game complex, and there are layers of action and scoring; some of the placements are multi-dimensional without being confusing (the first time I have seen this done so well), but the game flows easily, and every decision requires considering two or three levels of complexity and meaning.

This is a race game that reminds me of the board games Concordia and Lisboa, both of which are favorites. Richard agreed that it seemed like an early Lacerda, but better. It uses a huge box and board like Lisboa. Richard had the roll-out board, which took up most of the table, a large one.

It is a mix of resource management and worker placement, but the resources are unlimited and not challenging to obtain. Your patron gives you things that help, but you have only three turns to get them something, or they will leave you and reduce your score. Many scoring items award only the first — it is truly a race.

A Luthier builds string instruments, and this has been expanded to other types. You represent a family of instrument builders. Your goal is to fill the Orchestra with your instruments first. You also serve patrons who get these instruments too, and that means you score your patron and the Orchestra (if first). Other actions get you resources, you perform (the dice tower has metal bars to play notes when you drop the dice into it), you repair, and you watch. All have advantages, and the connections were interesting. I misplayed a few times as I did not get the sequencing right. Last, with a 69, and half of the others, I enjoyed the game. Laura was surprised to lose by one point to Richard (in their previous game that morning, I learned, she won by a tiebreaker).

It seemed, for my liking, one of the best games we had played in a while. I had invested an hour in the morning watching a how-to-play video, which helped, and we skipped the teaching. Richard asked if we could play it again next Saturday, and I agreed. Again, soon!

I drove home for Richard’s and saw, as I drove through Portland, that the dance clubs were back and packed, but one bar had gone bust. My drive on the highways was fast, with the EV often staying just below 70 with many lane changes around slower Portland drivers. There are frequently opportunities to fund Beaverton or Portland (police), meaning I resisted higher speeds and changing the mode Air VW the Gray to sport and having the interior colors turn red.

I had a piece of pizza to have some food in me when I took my pills. I was soon in bed. Sleep did not come as I rethought the gameplay; my knees hurt, and the coffee I had had impacted me. I took some painkillers for the leg pain and to sleep.

Nightmare haunted me with the first one being that I had to be treated to reduced oxygen treatment, locked in a box, to treat my recurrence of colon cancer. There was an article about a person with stage 4, mine was 3, who was at the beach and found a float — glass floats are seeded in the water for folks to discover on our beaches. An article made me think about how grateful I was. Apparently, I had an asthma attack while I was sleeping, and the article combined with that in my dreams.

Next, I dreamed I was surrounded by strangers, and we were assembled by the US Federal Government, being shipped out. We had to ask for everything, and I was reprimanded for not asking permission to eat the terrible dry food. Cornmeal for Mexican-style food.  There were mice and trash everywhere, and I had my papers, as I had refused to give them away to the officials. I could still prove who I was. I was looked down on because I was resisting. We were going far away, and we were now considered illegal aliens in our own country. We were trying to speak Spanish to fit our new status. I woke from the nightmare as we became increasingly crowded and ready to march out to our new camp.

Before playing games, I met Mariah, after putting my pizza, which I had baked, a frozen pizza I had dressed up with some freshly sliced green peppers, away. Mariah had un-canceled the canceled lunch. I took Air VW the Gray to BJs Brewhouse, and there we chatted about our recent travels, Mariah in the Arizona desert, and me all over. We had not met in months, and it was great to catch up.

After that, I took the EV to Portland and stopped at Guardian Games, where I found figures, Dungeons & Dragons scales, for some doors, and camping tents. They were not expensive. I also talked with a young employee of Guardian about different versions of D&D, and they (not assigned a gender pronoun without permission) were still DM-ing the 5E version. It was nice, though I have dice and figures older than they, to talk about DM-ing and play.

With my new figures, I headed to The Lucky Labadore and had a beer and soup. I thought I was getting potato and bacon, but that was not updated, and I got to try their corn chowder, which was spicy and chewy with corn. I was going to write, but Z contracted me, and soon we were sharing pictures of Z’s math homework. We worked out that the questions were unclear, and Z will answer, knowing why Z selected that answer.

I spoke to Deborah after that, and we were happy to spend some time together, with me talking between bites of soup. We talked on and off all day as I traveled and wrote. It has been less than a week, but we already miss each other’s company.

The day started with me rising after pleasant dreams, a dream party. I spent the morning writing the blog, updating my usual transactions in Quicken, and processing emails and news (which was depressing). I got a card out to Mom Wild. I try to write her a card Monday-Saturday and get them in the mailbox in time to be picked up. The rest of the morning is a blur of rushing.

I revised my plan for my Sunday School class, Grammarly made some changes I did not notice that were terrible. I sent out new copies. Yike! F**king stupid context missing AI!

And that takes us full circle, thanks for reading!