Table Top Game Club Week Eleven: Camels and Code Names

Sorry for the late update folks.  Last week's (Week 11) game sessions included a few games of Camel Up! and our Friday play test (what I call playing while we read the rules) was all about the new party game Codenames.

Tuesday's session was a very low turn out, but it still made for a fun time once we busted out Camel Up!  Camel Up! is a unique racing game that plays up to eight people.  When people first see the game, the instinct is to "pick your colour" (colour with a "u"... welcome to Canada), because most players believe they will be a particular camel. 

The game actually has you playing as the spectators, playing bets on first camel, last camel, placing obstacles on the track, and advancing the race through rolling dice.  The dice are rolled via a pyramid you construct before you play.  Dice are dropped into the pyramid, and a neat locking mechanic allows one die to be released at random, changing the position of the camels.  When two or more camels occupy the same space, they stack up, with the "lead" camel being the camel on top of the stack. 

One criticism of the game is that it lacks any strategy, and the game is too random.  I found it to have plenty of strategy, especially when you're deciding whether or not to roll the dice.  Advancing the race grants you money, but also lets your opponents get a clearer picture of who is in the lead, and having the jump on your fellow players matters when it comes to betting.  Only three of us played, but all three of us enjoyed the session.

Friday had a much better turn out, so we decided to try a recent acquisition: Codenames.  The game is incredibly simple to play, but it's also a game that rewards creative thinking and risk taking.  Players are divided into teams, and each team has a "codemaster".  Looking at a five by five grid of cards, (each card featuring a word) each codemaster tries to encourage their team into guessing certain cards representing operatives, all the while avoiding innocent bystanders and an assassin.

We had fun, but there were some frustrating moments.  I accidentally nailed a perfect clue to scoop up two cards, but I mixed up the colours and scored two for my opponents.  "Table talk" on behalf of the Codemasters is forbidden, but the cross talk of the teams can steer the game into a particular direction that some might find manipulative and cheating.  Should players use the sand-timer that's included, and if so, how? 

The game was also a great challenge for our EAL student (English as Additional Language).  If you read my previous post I mentioned the challenge of the player I called "C" had with The Resistance when English is not her first language.  Codenames was educational, helped expand her vocabulary, but also put up some roadblocks in terms of her enjoyment.  It's a game that helps if you understand synonyms really well, which also happens to be a challenge for EAL speakers.

In the end, we all had fun.  We will hash out some "house" rules before we crack open Codenames again.  In the mean time, I believe it's time for some Pandemic.

Thanks for reading! 

Table Top Game Club Week Ten: Lies, Lies, and more Lies!

Due to a Teachers' Conference, the club will not meet for its usual open gaming session on Friday, so I can file my report early.  As you can tell from the title, our friendly little game club was turned into a house of lies; we played The Resistance.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, The Resistance is known as a "hidden role" game, where groups of five or more players represent factions in a futuristic dystopia.  The Resistance (usually considered the heroes) is trying to "stick it to the man" so to speak, while two of the players are really government spies (usually considered the villains).  The job of the spies is to pretend to be loyal members of the Resistance and hopefully blame other players for their dirty work, thwarting the plans of the Resistance by intentionally failing missions.

If you have the time, check out this link.  Wil Wheaton's Youtube show Table Top demonstrated the game, and captured some of the great moments you get to experience with the right group of people.  It's a great game that has few components, is easy to learn, and has tremendous re-playability.  There are several different strategies one can use, and the game-play is entirely verbal.  If you're going to win, you will need some serious acting chops of the best kind; you have to be able to lie and manipulate an entire table of players.

In order to describe the game session, and preserve the anonymity of my students, I'm going to refer to particular students with just a letter.  The players included:

Yours Truly

Ms. L:  The other teacher who guides and co-chairs the game club.

B: Grade 12 male, and the only club veteran in today's session.   

S: Grade 9 female.

C: Grade 9 female, originally from Chile.  The fact English is not her first language comes up in the game.

Ms. W: Another teacher who stopped by to watch, but was pulled in to the game.

M: I'm not sure what grade she's in.  She was a brand new member who was recruited in the most interesting fashion.

We had four solid game sessions.  In the first game, S completely fooled me into thinking she was loyal.  On a two player mission she kept herself off the team, which to me looked like a virtuous choice.  I was perfectly played and she thoroughly enjoyed the big reveal at the end.  At the start of the second game, Ms. W stopped buy to watch, but we quickly recruited her and brought her into a six player game.  The Resistance easily won this game when the two spies were on the first mission (a two player mission), and one of them tanked the operation.  This brought instant suspicion to the pair who were essentially pariahs for the rest of that round.

After game two, B left, admitting he just wanted to win one session.  He was pulled home by the apparently undeniable allure of Fallout 4.  This was where I was a little heartbroken.  Although I'm a fan of video games, the social aspect of table top gaming is what I consider the major draw and advantage over digital gaming.  A video game could never replace the mechanics of lying and bluffing a table full of players into believing you're on their side.

Down to five players, I decided to throw a wrinkle into the game; I added a pair of cards and a small deck from the expansion Hidden Agenda.  Hidden Agenda adds some interesting variations to the original game.  The new rule set we played used two additional cards: Defectors, one Resistance and one Spy.  These two cards replace standard versions from the base game.  After the second round, a small deck of cards is added.  At the start of each round, loyalty cards are flipped to see if the two Defectors switch allegiances, the Defector loyalist becomes a pro-government spy, the Defector spy jumping to The Resistance.  The game came down to the last round as both the loyalist Defector and spy Defector were on the same team.  It tanked, and was a win for the spies.

At this point, Ms. W had to leave.  With only four players remaining, it looked like we were going to have to switch games, as The Resistance must have five players minimum.  I went to the washroom,  quickly trying to figure out how long it would take to teach the group Blokus.  Upon my return, I was pleasantly surprised that Ms.L had gone to the commons and done some recruiting.  Our new player, M, is a student I've never seen before.  She seemed a little nervous, quickly thrown into a game out of aggressive (but friendly) recruiting.  I think she just took pity on us by helping us round out the group of five.  After quickly explaining the rules, she picked up on the ideas right away, and proved to be a solid player.  Afterwards she mentioned that she might return for future game sessions, which was encouraging.

It was also during this game that language barrier became a small issue, but also reinforced the value of games as a teaching tool.  The Resistance requires players to bluff, lie, and be quite persuasive.  C, who is a very intelligent and shrewd player (she was the one who cleaned house in Small World), was feeling a touch frustrated.  C's ability to speak English became a small hurdle for her as she wanted to eloquently get her argument across to the table.  Luckily, Ms.L speaks Spanish, so she was able to translate C's persuasive points to the rest of the group.

At that point I realized that for EAL (English as an Additional Language) students, a game club is a smart destination.  Like I said earlier, C is a clever and very strategic player, no matter if we're playing Elder Sign, Smash Up, or The Resistance.  Her only (temporary) weakness is her struggles with English, and the game club gives her a fun destination for her to develop her English skills in a non threatening setting.  It's an interesting bi-product of this strange journey I started just over a year ago.

Game 4 ended with a win for the spies, and featured some of my best work as a manipulative liar.  M was shocked and impressed. 

Next week will be a full week of class and my usual gaming sessions.  I think it might be time to bust out some Camel Up! 

Table Top Game Club Week Nine: Skeletons, Lovecraft, and Poe...Oh my!

This was a great week for the Table Top Game Club. 

On Tuesday we introduced the students to Small World.  This year, with so many new students joining the club, it's been a joy to introduce the some of the "old standards" of gaming to fresh audiences.  Small World delivered, and it was neat to see how new players adjusted to the strategies.  One player's Trolls dominated the northern part of the map.  Two other players traded territory between Halflings and Ratmen.  I thought I had made a good decision to sweep across the board with my Amazons, completely wiping out another player's Triton army.  That was a huge mistake as that player swore vengeance upon me.  She proceeded to launch an attack of Skeletons that not only destroyed me, but scored her the win.  Her new nickname is "The Beast", and we're all thoroughly intimidated.


After finally posting my thoughts on Lovecraft and gaming (it's the post below this one), I decided to introduce the crew to Elder Sign, a cooperative, supernatural game of teamwork as each player uses an interesting set of dice to fight monsters, look for special items, and investigate rooms of a museum.  It might be a little lighter on theme than its more complicated brethren (Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror), but gameplay is fun.  It was encouraging to see students high-five over the successes of others, and after an hour, we succeeded in vanquishing the snake cult of Yig.  I think next semester we will try the Gates of Arkham expansion, which I have heard is quite good.

With about half an hour left, the players decided to play a little Nevermore, a card drafting game that has some neat mechanics, but suffers from a lack of clarification when it comes to rules, especially when resolving conflicts during ties.  I happen to think it's a fun game, but certain moments can slow the game down because the rules aren't clear enough at times.

It was a good, solid week of gaming.  Next week, we're down to one day (Friday is a Teacher PD Day).  I think it's time to see how devious and sneaky our Grade 9s can be... it's time to play The Resistance!

Thanks for reading!

H.P. Lovecraft's Gift to Gaming

Hands down, my favourite t shirt I've ever worn is this one here.

This shirt comes courtesy of TeeFury, a website that sells t-shirts that are obviously geek related.  The trick with TeeFury is that an artist makes a design, and Tee Fury sells it for 24 hours. Then the design is gone, so you have to check the site often, otherwise you might miss out on that perfect shirt.  Once in a while, TeeFury will revisit some previous designs and run reprints.  Shirts like this mash-up of Lovecraft's most famous creation and the world's most popular pop (soda to you Americans) represent a secret handshake, a signal to fellow enthusiasts of his work.  I've had people look at the shirt, disgusted that I would shill a popular soft-drink, and miss the point entirely.

On the other hand, not too long ago I walked into a mall with the shirt and a woman threw up the devil horns and proclaimed, “Cthulhu!!  Right on man, right on!!!”  I found her enthusiasm and approval both satisfying and startling.  I remember I actually peed a little.

My wife is easily the most literate person I've ever met.  Not only a retired English teacher, she’s a voracious consumer of books (mysteries and thrillers especially), and a published author.  She’s in love with the written word, and as a scholar, she’s fascinated by trends in literature.  

So it comes as no surprise that she would be the one to ask the question (I’m paraphrasing here): 

“Okay, what’s up with H.P. Lovecraft?”

“What do you mean?” I replied.

“How do people know him?  His prose is dense, thoughtful, and packed with imagery, but is so verbose modern readers might shy away from his work.  It's a throwback to a writing style that requires such dedication from a reader, and yet his body of work isn't overwhelmingly extensive.  People know about his creations, but I imagine many of those same people haven't read his work.  How is he this pop-culture icon? ”

It’s a fair question.  H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) is credited with being a pioneer of weird fiction, cosmic horror stories, and had a profound influence on Stephen King, who claimed that no one author had a greater influence on his work.  That said, Lovecraft was not the most well-known author in his own right.  His work was primarily featured only in Pulp Magazines of his era, and like many authors and artists, did not gain real notoriety until after his death.  Lovecraft’s work was liberally modified with great artistic licence, serving as partial inspirations for a few films, but the versions were often so twisted from the original work (and were just not good films to begin with), that no one bothered to learn of their original source.  Stephen King mentioned his name in a few interviews, along with Poe and Algernon Blackwood as forerunners to King, but these small mentions here and there aren't enough to launch Lovecraft into the spotlight he’s been given courtesy of the geek community.   Something had to take Lovecraft from relative obscurity into the world of South Park , music, and comic books.

In my opinion... it's all thanks to games.

After his death, Arkham House publishing began to collect and re-release Lovecraft's work to a growing audience, many of whom are partial to the escapism of table top RPGs. One of Dungeons and Dragons' original supplements, Deities and Demigods, used to include material on the Cthulhu Mythos prior to Chaosium locking down the rights for their own game.  As the popularity of the material increased, other companies began developing table top board game versions of the RPG (with video games following suit).  It's my belief, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, that the increase in popularity of RPGs and table top games are what kept Lovecraft alive in the realm of Geek-culture, and right now Geek-culture is Pop Culture.  It's a good time to be a nerd.

Lovecraft's work has had a notable influence on our game club.  Games inspired by his mythos permeate the world of table top gaming, so here are four notable games from our collection that bring Lovecraft's work to life. If reading his anthologies aren't giving you enough of a taste of cosmic horror mixed with ancient rituals designed to drive an archaeologist insane, check out these fine games:

Unspeakable Words:  This game received a great deal of attention courtesy of Table Top, and is now part of a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new printing.  Unspeakable Words is a word game where players use cards to create words, and then roll a die in order to challenge the value of the word.  If you lose the roll, you lose one sanity, and if you run out of sanity, you're out of the game.  There are some brilliant variant rules, one of which occurs when you have only one sanity left.  If that's the case, the rules of spelling no longer apply to you.  "Hlnkqww" is a word, or at least it is to those who are nearly insane.  It's a "hail mary" play as you teeter on the edge of spelling madness.  The sanity markers are also adorable.

King of Tokyo: King of Tokyo is a wonderful game that combines the dice rolling of Yhatzee with the mayhem of a giant monster battle royal.  As fun as KoT is, the individual characters you could pick were essentially identical.  Each monster had a unique look and name, but they were merely cardboard pawns without distinct gameplay...that is until the Power Up! expansion arrived. 

Besides introducing the ever-so-awesome character Panda Kai, the Power Up! expansion included Evolution cards, distinct powers for each specific monster, adding a much needed level of character depth to the game.  Iello games decided that the character known as the Kraken, a seemingly generic sea creature, was in fact another version of Lovecraft's most famous Elder God.

 The Kraken's evolution cards Cult Following, Sunken Temple, and Eater of Souls are clearly an homage to Lovecraft, and catapulted the Kraken to become my second favourite character (Panda Kai is still #1 in this geek's heart).

Smash Up: The Obligatory Cthulhu Set: Another expansion to an already fun game, The Obligatory Cthulhu Set adds four factions to the huge pantheon of characters already available.  Fans of Lovecraft's work will recognize references to characters and places such as Miskatonic University, the town of Innsmouth, and the Dunwich Horror.  The game also introduced a sanity mechanic called Madness cards.  Playing certain cards force Madness cards into your deck, and count against you at the end of the game.  In fact, a player who thinks they have won the game on points may end up losing because of an onslaught of Madness.  You can't get more Lovecraftian (an actual word) than that!

Elder Sign:  Fantasy Flight games has a couple of wildly popular Cthulhu based games, notably Arkham Horror and Eldritch Horror.  Both of these are fine games, but a little long for an after school gaming group (each game is between two to four hours long).  The shorter version of these epic games is Elder Sign, a great little cooperative game where each player takes on the role of a unique investigator with their own special abilities.  The investigators team up to explore a museum which is currently being invaded by the minions of an Elder God who are attempting to release an ancient evil upon the world.  The investigators fight monsters, search for relics, and open dimensional doorways by rolling special dice.  Like the other games mentioned, maintaining one's sanity is as important as keeping all of your organs in tact.  It's a fun game that still maintains the atmosphere of its larger cousins, but only taking an hour to play.  It also has an IOS version that plays nicely on the iPad (but not nearly as fun as playing with a group of people).

Thank you all reading another verbose discussion.  Come back in a few days to read about Week 9 of this year's Table Top Game Club!  We already had a rocking game of Small World, and we'll see where Open Gaming Friday takes us.

Thanks for reading.