The games I used to play......
Mar. 5th, 2005 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poltr1I'm amazed that Texas Hold 'em Poker has caught on like wildfire in the past couple of years. But then, card games have always been popular for years at a time -- poker, bridge, pinochle, euchre, gin rummy, Michigan rummy. It's a great way for folks to get together and socialize on a regular basis.
As for me, I'm more of a board game person than a card game person. Cards just didn't interest me. But board games did. Even as a boy, I loved board games. When we went to visit our cousins, they had plenty of board games, and I'd play them with my cousins.
In later elementary and junior high school, my neighbor friend Karl and I nearly turned Monopoly into a blood sport. We strung a bedsheet along a fence and made a tent of sorts. Then we'd play. We made up $1000 bills to add to the bank. When one of us landed on the other person's property, we'd say, "C'mon. Pay, pay, pay. Cough it up. Cough it up. Cough it up." to each other.
In high school, I started playing D & D and wargames (Kriegspiel, Panzer Blitz, Ogre, Squad Leader, Third Reich, Sniper, et al). Plus another fun space game called Cosmic Encounter. We'd play after school, during lunch hour, whever we could. The wargamers didn't care for us, since what we were doing wasn't real gaming (at least to them).
Cosmic Encounter was a different type of game. Each player had a special "alien power" that they could use to bend the rules of the game to their advantage. We'd flip the destiny pile to see whose system we'd go after, point the cone at one of the planets, ask for allies, draw cards, and see who won the challenge. I still have the old Eon Products set, originally released in '77 -- and all 9 expansion sets -- but it's gone unplayed for years. But the game is still popular. Lo and behold, there's an online CE gaming site, all done with Flash animation.
In college, I played Trivial Pursuit, Nuclear War, Diplomacy, Mille Bornes, Risk, and Malpractice. Malpractice? During a weekend snowstorm, we turned Milton Bradley's Operation into a drinking game. Instead of getting paid for successful operations, we had to pay up for botched operations. And if we were out of money, we did shots, commensurate with the amount of the surgery. Bread Basket (Specialist level) was called "The Daily Double" because that was $2000, or 5 shots. My fraternity brothers and I killed a bottle of Jameson Irish whiskey that night. And we didn't care about the snowstorm.
I also was introduced to the card game Grass by the concom of Contradtiction. Grass is kind of like a counterculture version of Mille Bornes. Instead of kilometers traveled, it's amount of dope sold. Of course, it had its share of hazards and remedies (e.g. "the heat's on!").
After college, I played some games with the SF club I joined after moving to Dayton. We played Scattergories, Outburst, Pictionary, Empire Builder (and other rail games), Uno, and Pit. One memorable Pit game had one of the players say incredulously, "She was going for Wheat! Stupid people shouldn't breed!" at the end of a hand. RAA introduced me to Mah-Jongg and Encore, at either one of her "Filkaholics Anonymous" housefilks or at an imprompty get-together.
The Wife and I haven't played many board games together, mostly because she has bad memories of her family getting together, playing board games, and not talking to each other. But we did get one game on our weekend outing at Ravenwood Castle: An Enchanting Evening. We played it that night, and it was quite enjoyable.
I think if I had more people around to play board games with, I'd play more often. But since we have The Girl, and not a lot of local friends, the games collect dust while they sit on top of my bookshelf, unplayed.
As for me, I'm more of a board game person than a card game person. Cards just didn't interest me. But board games did. Even as a boy, I loved board games. When we went to visit our cousins, they had plenty of board games, and I'd play them with my cousins.
In later elementary and junior high school, my neighbor friend Karl and I nearly turned Monopoly into a blood sport. We strung a bedsheet along a fence and made a tent of sorts. Then we'd play. We made up $1000 bills to add to the bank. When one of us landed on the other person's property, we'd say, "C'mon. Pay, pay, pay. Cough it up. Cough it up. Cough it up." to each other.
In high school, I started playing D & D and wargames (Kriegspiel, Panzer Blitz, Ogre, Squad Leader, Third Reich, Sniper, et al). Plus another fun space game called Cosmic Encounter. We'd play after school, during lunch hour, whever we could. The wargamers didn't care for us, since what we were doing wasn't real gaming (at least to them).
Cosmic Encounter was a different type of game. Each player had a special "alien power" that they could use to bend the rules of the game to their advantage. We'd flip the destiny pile to see whose system we'd go after, point the cone at one of the planets, ask for allies, draw cards, and see who won the challenge. I still have the old Eon Products set, originally released in '77 -- and all 9 expansion sets -- but it's gone unplayed for years. But the game is still popular. Lo and behold, there's an online CE gaming site, all done with Flash animation.
In college, I played Trivial Pursuit, Nuclear War, Diplomacy, Mille Bornes, Risk, and Malpractice. Malpractice? During a weekend snowstorm, we turned Milton Bradley's Operation into a drinking game. Instead of getting paid for successful operations, we had to pay up for botched operations. And if we were out of money, we did shots, commensurate with the amount of the surgery. Bread Basket (Specialist level) was called "The Daily Double" because that was $2000, or 5 shots. My fraternity brothers and I killed a bottle of Jameson Irish whiskey that night. And we didn't care about the snowstorm.
I also was introduced to the card game Grass by the concom of Contradtiction. Grass is kind of like a counterculture version of Mille Bornes. Instead of kilometers traveled, it's amount of dope sold. Of course, it had its share of hazards and remedies (e.g. "the heat's on!").
After college, I played some games with the SF club I joined after moving to Dayton. We played Scattergories, Outburst, Pictionary, Empire Builder (and other rail games), Uno, and Pit. One memorable Pit game had one of the players say incredulously, "She was going for Wheat! Stupid people shouldn't breed!" at the end of a hand. RAA introduced me to Mah-Jongg and Encore, at either one of her "Filkaholics Anonymous" housefilks or at an imprompty get-together.
The Wife and I haven't played many board games together, mostly because she has bad memories of her family getting together, playing board games, and not talking to each other. But we did get one game on our weekend outing at Ravenwood Castle: An Enchanting Evening. We played it that night, and it was quite enjoyable.
I think if I had more people around to play board games with, I'd play more often. But since we have The Girl, and not a lot of local friends, the games collect dust while they sit on top of my bookshelf, unplayed.
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Date: 2005-03-05 08:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-06 02:43 am (UTC)