Steve, Anne, Jennifer, Geof, Nacho, Adriana and Luno joined us in costume for a bit of gaming on Halloween, culminating in another twisted game of deception of Blood on the Clocktower moderated by Luno. I was fingered immediately as the demon after the first night by my first victim, Nacho, and hardly had a chance to try to talk my way out of being revealed and executed by the slayer (Anne) – but by pure luck I was saved by my minion, the poisoner (Jennifer), who just happened to choose Anne to poison the previous night. Anne’s slay ability thus failed, helping me appear innocent. For the rest of the game Jennifer and I managed to avoid detection, just barely, and ultimately win the game for evil. Darlene is still upset. 😋
Tag: board gaming
Many More Months of Gaming
Here’s another gallery of pictures after many more months of board gaming – from September 2023 through April 2024.
So of those I can still remember the names of, there was: Covert, Raiders of the North Sea, Breaking Bad: The Board Game, Brass: Birmingham, Pipeline, Turing Machine, The Expanse, Great Western Trail: New Zealand, Blood on the Clock Tower, Dune: Imperium, Horseless Carriage, Survive: Escape from Atlantis!, Portal: The Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game, Heat: Pedal to the Metal, Power Grid, Fliptown, Cosmic Encounter, Suburbia, Trap Words, Flamme Rouge, Twilight Imperium, Fury of Dracula, Pax Pamir, First in Flight, CuBirds
Summer Board Gaming
This is a gallery of pictures from another summer season of board gaming, including: 49, Flamecraft, Plague Inc., Thunder Road: Vendetta, Yedo, Merv, Atlantic Star, Eclipse, Middle Earth Quest, Chinatown, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Dominant Species, Dead by Daylight, Camel Up!, Hegemony, Clank! Catacombs, Evolution: Climate, Cosmic Encounter, Brian Boru: High King of Ireland, Horrified, Heroes of Land, Air & Sea, Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers, Game of Thrones, Bus, The Networks, Thunderstone Quest, Campaign Trail and Heat.
Click through for the full gallery:
Winter Board Gaming
Pictures from another winter season of board gaming, including Paris, Lost Ruins of Arnak, CloudAge, The Great Wall, Dead Reckoning, Flamme Rouge, Just One, Spirit Island, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Crazy Karts, Star Wars Risk, Bohnanza, Finger Guns at High Noon, The Hunger, Master Labyrinth, Aquatica, Spy Alley, Sushi Go Party, Ready Set Bet, Captain Sonar, Rocketmen, Heat: Pedal to the Metal, Roll Camera, Ark Nova, Quadropolis, Dinosaur Island, Great Western Trail: Argentina, Mountain Goats and CuBirds.
Even Greater Gobs of Snow
Darlene and I headed back up to Tahoe at the end of February to meet up with Jon, Stan and Bill for our annual weeklong group ski trip. Storm after storm is continuing to dump massive amounts of snow in the Sierra Nevada – 53 feet over the season at Palisades so far. We were able to come up in a slight break in the back-to-back storms hitting Tahoe (and all of California), but we had to take the long way out because highway 17 (through the low elevation, coastal Santa Cruz mountains) was actually closed due to snow – a very rare occurrence.
There were travel troubles all around with Jon’s flight cancelled and Stan coming up early to try to beat the storm. We were joined by Resi and Aiden on Saturday before they had to rush back ahead of the next incoming storm. We spend the day trying to clear some of the snow and ice from the deck, roof and stairs. So much ice keeps building up on the deck and the stairs below from the ice-melting heat trace on the roof above – it actually was overflowing the threshold of the sliding doors below, freezing them in place and leaking water into the house.
Geof and Jennifer were also able to come up and stay for the week through the storms. Unfortunately, Geof got seriously ill and ended up quarantined in a room for much of the week. But then even the resorts had difficulties: closing early Monday, remaining closed Tuesday and only partially open the following day due to the massive amounts of new snow in such a short period. We did still manage to get multiple days of skiing in over our stay.
I joined Troy at Homewood on Sunday and then Jon, Stan and Bill at Northstar on Monday (until they closed early). The resorts remained closed Tuesday and were still trying to dig out on Wednesday when I joined Troy again for the one lift that Homewood was able to get running. Darlene joined me, Jon, Stan and Bill at Alpine and Palisades for much of Thursday and Friday, while Geof and Jennifer hit up the same resorts separately and Kat joined us for board gaming Friday night. Darlene and I returned to Palisades and Northstar the following Monday and Tuesday before we had to make our way home again ahead of the next wave of storms – this time bringing warm temps and rain.
There’s something like over 10 feet of ice and compacted snow on the roof right now. Hopefully it will sustain the load and the incoming heavy snow and rain until our roof is scheduled to get at least partially cleared of snow late next week!
Snow in Tahoe Again
We’re off to a strong snow season in the Sierra this year with over 200% of average already and some big 24-hour dumps like 35 inches just over New Year’s Eve! (That storm we actually missed as we went home to Santa Cruz for the weekend.) Darlene and I spent a few weeks in Tahoe starting in mid-December and then I came back for more through early January as she went to visit her family. We hit up Palisades, Northstar, Heavenly and Homewood and were joined at times by Resi, Troy and Aiden over the past month.
More Gaming, Costumes + SHUX’22
Lots more board gaming with friends from May through October of this year, including at SHUX 2022 in Vancouver, Canada – the annual gaming convention organized by the gang at Shut Up and Sit Down. This was our third SHUX attendance and this time Darlene and I were joined by Richard, Adriana and Nacho.
Oath, Rocketmen, Streets, Chrono Corsairs, Wyatt Earp, Ark Nova, In Front of the Elevators, Modern Art, Canvas, Sleeping Gods, Camel Up, Gloom, Obsession, Switch & Signal, Anno 1800, SHASN, Brass: Lancashire, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Trickerion: Legends of Illusion, Twilight Imperium (4th edition), Tiny Epic Zombies, Atelier, Aquatica, Who Goes There?, Dive, PitchCar, Brian Boru: High King of Ireland, Dungeon Lords, Last Will, Mind Mgmt, Polynesia, Super Motherload, Root, Tumblin’ Dice, CuBirds, Chinatown, 3000 Scoundrels, Villagers, Pipeline, Sorcerer’s Stone, Picture Perfect, So Clover!, Don’t Get Got!, ScandalOh!, Diamant, Conspiracy: The Solomon Gambit, Nemesis, Forgotten Waters, The Night Cage
Plus a Halloween costume gaming day at the end of October w/Nacho, Luno, Adriana, Troy, Darlene, Laurie and Richard:
Rachel in Virtual Reality
Rachel and Vishal get a taste of virtual reality (VR):
And a bit of Quacks of Quedlinburg: