Board Games and Personalities

I know, bad monkey for not posting every day. things have been hectic here, gonna be doing some double posts till I catch back up.

So, I like to game. I do table top gaming such as Dungeons and Dragons, I play video games like Mario or Skyrim and often times I play card and board games. Poker and Monopoly are played, this is true, but I find my taste in games to be a bit more geeky and eccentric. I love games like Cosmic Encounters, Gloom, Settlers of Catan, 7 Wonders and a whole host more. These are part of a wave of "geek" games, systems based on geeky/nerdy concepts or unique rule system that I find absolutely adorable and cool.

Over the last few years, I have played many games. Now that I have a decent paying job, I can actually afford many of these games myself, and get to enjoy them on a far more regular basis. I have found with my friend and I, our personalities and even our attitudes tend to shift and change depending on the game we're in. I find it amusing and also fascinating to watch a normally quiet and simple person go to a frothing rage monster once they get a set of Cosmic cards in their hands, or see the inner goth bloom with a good game of Gloom.

I'm gonna do a simple review of two of my favorite games here, and some amusing notions on how we tend to suddenly act and change while playing them.

Cosmic Encounters - This is the original geeky game for me, the one that drew me into the world of board gaming and fun. The premise of the game is that you are one of over a hundred alien species (or 2 aliens together, if you use the variant rules) trying to conquer the galaxy. You have your own home system of planets, and you must use your alien powers and various cards drawn from a deck to conquer your enemies home systems. The first person to 5 foreign victories wins.

This game is difficult, I admit, but so much fun to play. Picking an alien can be daunting, and it takes several games to really get a firm grasp and understanding of the rules. It took me 4 or 5, and there are STILL some aliens I have never played and thus don't truly understand the rules for. If you get a game of experienced players however, watch out for some awesome fun times. The game can get very aggressive and heated at times, make sure to take breaks after the game is over to avoid issues.

We tend to get very aggressive and violent during this game, for some reason the concept of galactic conquest just makes people violent. We tend to get loud, lots of arm flailing and cursing happens. Even those of us not normally aggressive will become very dominant and headstrong, and its almost comical the bloodthirstiness that will radiate from Sarah's eyes. We can't play this game too much though, we've given it the nickname "the game that ruins friendships" for a good reason.

Skytraders - This was actually a random purchase, recommended to Jake by a game store owner, and I have found it incredibly awesome and fun. Its a long game though, so be prepared to play this for the long haul. The premise of this game is that you are one of 5 airship captains in a steampunk world, and you are attempting to gain control of the Skytraders guild. You do this by buying and selling goods, earning gold, influencing the market value of said goods and buying guild influence. The first person to the center of the guild influence tracker wins!

This is a game that once you sort all the pieces is actually really simple. You have limited movement, you must buy goods and sell them in other cities, and later you must roll dice to see which market goods you control. The buying and selling is straight forward, and I find the market phase rather exciting. So, you take your 3 dice and roll them. The numbers they land on correspond with a specific good. You now have the ability to make the price go up (thus more expensive to buy or sell) or make the price go down (thus cheaper to buy and sell). You have two minute to negotiate with your fellow captain on who will back what, and its always intense and a lot of fun. So much fun, in fact, we regularly forget to buy guild influence while playing!

Now you'd think with an aggressive game like stock market control we'd be just as ruthless as Cosmic, but you would be surprisingly wrong. When we sit down to play I always insist of drinking tea (because were civilized captains) and we all take on an air of sophistication. We have to work together at times to push the goods up or down as we need, and that need to find common ground and agreements makes us much more careful about being ruthless to another. There is a combat mechanic for fighting each other, but we so rarely do it I often don't even bother getting the ship combat upgrades in favor of ship crew that helps me buy/sell better. We act like proper steampunk airship captains the entire time, which causes no end of eyerolling from Lana or Sarah.

Things you didn't know until you needed to...

I have found there is a HUGE list of things that have been neglect in my education, and things I am just starting to learn I needed to know like...now. These are things I find very frustrating, not a bad frustrating mind you but still frustrating nonetheless, but I will struggle though them.

First off, no one accurately prepares you for success. Like, honest to gods I have never been prepared or ready for the kind of success I have found with my job right now. They always say hard work, loyalty and dedication will pay off...but when was the last time it truly did? I haven't been taught what to do with rapid and frequent success, never prepared for it. I still don't know what to do with it, but I'm just rolling with the punches right now and taking it one day at a time.

Also, it gets talked about all the time but no one can really prepare you with moving in with your future spouse. So much needs to be covered and figured out, so much needs to be accounted for but it all needs to be done with zero education and training. We're sorting through all of that as a couple, but its a step-by-step process. For us its been a mixing of the geek cultures, combining our media and gaming habits has been odd.   We both have separate lives worth of things, so who's things get put where and displayed out next to what? Figuring out how to start the process of combining bank accounts, consolidating our various personal lives and how to sort out each others families...we're learning as we go but I sure coulda used a course on this in college!

Also...weddings. Like, holy shazbot there is no education on planning anything wedding related. There are a million "ultimate guides" out there, and I keep seeing a lot of dollar signs adding up. It is frustrating that a modern wedding costs so much, neither of us come from rich families and are looking at paying for it ourselves (which leaves only 6000 for everything). And so many options, so many variables to account for that you had no idea until you started the process. It feels like my wallet is being held hostage for the sake of love, and makes me fussy. There's still more to delve into it, and maybe this wedding planner will be a boon, but I hate feeling like I'm being fleeced and am supposed to grin and bare it. I wish I knew what right options to take, what right way to go about things so I felt like I wan't just about to be screwed.

Life is going great, please don't take this the wrong way. I just wish I felt more prepared for these experiences that I'm going through, more ready to handle them. I think I'm doing pretty well all things considered, and handling it all well. But the Boy Scout in me always wants to be prepared!

Moving, ugh

I am exhausted form moving, and will be posting more tomorrow.

The last 24 hours have been a lot of pain and struggle, but we made it in and got everything into the apartment. The big unpacking is next, which sounds easier than it is. The place is nice, and I plan on doing some before/after shots once the rooms are in reasonable enough shape and not filled with boxes. I have been building furniture all day, which means fewer boxes have been unpacked but more places to put the unpacked items as soon as I'm ready.