Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Holiday Shopping Guide

A tad tardy, but here's this year's holiday shopping guide of games I liked over the past year...

Unplugged: 2007 Holiday Shopping Guide
Fun doesn't have to be plugged in. Check out a few of these suggestions and enjoy some face to face gaming this year.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

#77 - Buying Creativity


The conclusion to my D&D and RPG gaming kick... a few books and modules to help an overworked DM get his/her players more involved in the game...

Unplugged #77: Buying Creativity


For a modest fee, a role-playing DM can get a creative prod or a fleshed-out new challenge saving time and effort.

Monday, November 12, 2007

#76 - Accessorize your D&D

Unplugged #76: Accessorize your D&D

While Gucci and Loren steer clear of role playing games, you can still spruce up your game.



A short little review of several accessories to make roleplaying better, faster, stronger... well at least faster and better.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Unplugged #75 - Of Dice and Men

Unplugged #75: Of Dice and Men
Play the stock market or suck up to a monarch in two dice based games.



Links directly to the two games reviewed:


To Court the King and Owner's Choice

Monday, October 08, 2007

Ca$h n Gun$ and Mr. Jack

A look at a couple titles Asmodee has made available in English:
Ca$h n Gun$, and Mr. Jack...

Unplugged #74: Cash, Guns, and Jack the Ripper
Bring the fun of gangsters and murderers into your family game night

Sunday, September 16, 2007

The HeroCard system... Orc Wars

A look at the cardgame-boardgame hybrid that is the (non-collectible) HeroCard system. Details of Orc Wars are given along with a few mentions of their other (interchangable) boardgame titles.

Unplugged #73: A non-collectible, board-based card game
How well can you mix a collectible styled card-game with a boardgame theme?

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

GenCon 2007

Here are all the articles covering various topics from this year's GenCon convention in Indianapolis, IN...

Unplugged: GenCon 2007 Indianapolis, invaded!
Unplugged: GenCon 2007 - The Video Games All your board are belong to us!
Unplugged: GenCon 2007 - The Role Playing Fear the brain in a jar!
Unplugged: GenCon 2007 - There's always a first time Boardgamer and family man, Larry Baxter, describes his first visit to a game convention.
Unplugged: GenCon 2007 - Boardgames, Boardgames, Boardgames An alphabetical tour of publishers from Asmodee to Z-Man Games
Unplugged: GenCon 2007 - And more Boardgames The second half of our alphabetical tour

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Colosseum, the boardgame

Days of Wonder's newest boardgame, Colosseum.

Unplugged #72: The Expanding Colosseum
Currently, I sweep out the lion cages, but what I really want to do is direct!

A pretty good game. Not great, but definately above-average. It is targeted at lighterweight gaming but the complex forward planning necessary for good end-game play limits its beginner accessbility. The "intense auctions" variant makes the game a more intense game, at a slight reduction in player interaction. (less trading.)

Monday, July 30, 2007

Stonehenge

A review of Titantic Game's Stonehenge "Anthology" of games....

Unplugged #71: Stonehenge - The Swiss Army Knife of Boardgames
Play one of the five games in this pentalogy, or design your own.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Age of Empires III: Age of Discovery

As you can see, I liked the game quite a bit. My favorite sort of "snowball" or "garden-tending" style of game, but just a tad shorter than some of the same ilk.

Unplugged #70: Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery

The bittersweet tang of limited actions and too many good choices are mixed to create an excellent family strategy game.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Unplugged #69: Mission: Red Planet

A medium-length review of Asmodee's Mission Red Planet.

Unplugged #69: Martian Steampunk, who could ask for more?

Take a Martian theme, add in some Jules Verne, and mix liberally to create a fun, family boardgame.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Twilight Struggle and Here I Stand

Unplugged #68: Cold War, Hot Game
“Now the trumpet summons us again… to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle…” - JFK.

A review of Twilight Struggle and a brief review of Here I Stand... both by GMT Games

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Chopsticks, Robots, and Witches - Oh my!

Unplugged #67: Three Flavors of Family Fun
If you like dexterity games, puzzle games, or pattern matching; I have a game for you.

A review of:
Wicked Witches Way - Asmodee
Ricochet Robots - Rio Grande
Chopstick Dexterity MegaChallenge 3000 - Pair-of-Dice Games

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Unplugged #66: Role Playing Accessories

Unplugged #66: Role Playing Accessories

Some inexpensive accessories to spice up your role playing game, for when you have more money than time

(Mostly some maps and other props that can add a little spice to an RPG...)

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Unplugged #65 - The Command and Colors wargames

A whole bunch of stuff all based around the Command & Colors wargame system by Richard Borg...

Unplugged #65: Command and Colors
The best light wargame system on the market, you are commanded to check it out.

(This is a review of C&C: Ancients and BattleLore, as well as an overview of the whole C&C system.)

I also broke out the three available versions of the game (Memoir '44, BattleLore, and C&C Ancients) into their own review link. A fair bit of background is the same for them all (explaining the game system) and then I go into details for each game...


BattleLore (Boardgame)
Fun, fast, and easy to teach, it is the best darn fantasy miniatures game around...

Command and Colors: Ancients (Boardgame)
A great, accessible wargame that recreates battles of the Roman empire.

Memoir '44 (Boardgame)

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

#65 - A diatribe on D&D and new developments

Unplugged #64: D&D Update
The Dungeons and Dragons role playing game, now 33% more user-friendly!

(Wherein I look at the D&D Basic Game, D&D Player's Kit, some new developments in modules, the Fantastic Location line of supplements, and the Complete ----- line of books.)

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Boardgame Review of D&D on Gone Gaming

I thought some of you might get a kick out of this. In my entry (today's) to the group blog, Gone Gaming, I give a review of Dungeons and Dragons as if it were a traditional Euro or American style boardgame...

The attempt was to do something humorous, while still pointing out reasons there is plenty of cross-over between boardgame and RPG players. (If you're unfamiliar with the site, it is a group blog primarily focused on boardgames, with different folks contributing, mostly on a biweekly format. I write biweekly on Wednesdays. It is one of the more well read boardgame-focused blogs around...)

Here's the URL of the article if you're interested: http://boredgamegeeks.blogspot.com/2007/04/eurogame-review.html

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Unplugged #63 - Die Macher

Newest update, a review of:

Unplugged #63: Die Macher
April 15, 2007
Why you need to play a five hour boardgame about German elections...

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Uplugged #62 - Mayfair games...

Unplugged #62: Shear Fun

Mayfair Games’ cute little sheep shearing game, Shear Panic, along with two bonus card game reviews. (Figaro and Weinhandler)

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Igloo Pop Review

I've got a review of Die Macher on the back burner, and an upcoming D&D/RPG tool overview in process, but for now, enjoy the lighthearted:

Unplugged #61: Igloo Pop

Shake, rattle, and roll you way to victory in this fun party game that’s not just for kids.

I like the game enough to pull it out at the start of some of our biweekly gaming gatherings. It is great for loosening things up if some people are new...

Monday, February 12, 2007

Viktory II - a nice, quick wargame

Unplugged #60: Viktory II

February 12, 2007

A short, sweet wargame fix for two to six players.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Gone Gaming blog

Not sure, but assume most of you know I am also posting biweekly on the boardgame blog: Gone Gaming... http://boredgamegeeks.blogspot.com/

Recent posts include:

Gaming by the Numbers - trying to set up a multiaxis measurement of games to provide gamers with a way to describe their preferred "n-dimensional game space"

Spread the Joy - thoughts on spreading the fun of playing games, and some insights about the local game club

Beyond Nickels and Dimes - my 5 & dime list of the year, also looked at in light of time spent on games rather than # of plays

Guilty Pleasures – Why I hate Tigris and Euphrates

Second Place for the Win - should one always go for the win, always try to place as high as possible, or just optimize for the best showing each time?

Strategy and Tactics, a couple of definitions - short term vs long term planning.

Monday, January 29, 2007

GenCon SoCal revisited, and a few Game Expansions

Unplugged #59: Spice up your old favorites
by Dr. Matt Carlson
January 30, 2007
The most popular PC games often spawn expansion packs. The same is true for popular board games; here are a few to spruce up some of your favorite games.

Unplugged: GenCon SoCal from a Height of Four Feet
by Aiden
January 06, 2007
Another year older and a few inches taller, GamerDad's youngest reporter returns to GenCon in Southern California.