Cycling Party

I've backed a LOT of games on Kickstarter, and this is intriguing.  Cycling Party!  But I can't bring myself to back another game.  It could have to do with the fact I have at least three I haven't played yet, two of them sitting on the table, one still in the wrapping.  I believe there's an expansion currently in the mail as well.  And if I start to mentally walk through the four places I keep games, I'd guess there's more like five, not including a few I've only played once and a bunch I wish I was playing more often but haven't because there are too many new ones to try.

I so want a bicycling game.  It would go well with my dystopia game and I could figure out how to do a mash up.  But I'm on hiatus until I get through at least a few of the boxes starting to fill up the house.  Maybe my Secret Santa will get it for me.

Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography

If Neil Patrick Harris' book (Topless Robot link) was a Kickstarter project I'd back it, even though usually I'm backing board games (most recently I backed Release, the Game!, which is a truly nerdy card game for developers, and Codemancer, which purports to teach programming to girls).  So instead I've preordered a copy.  It'll be five months - mid October - before it makes it to my door, but I'm sure the surprise will be exciting when it suddenly shows up.  Like a gift to my future self.  I like the website which states that by using a choose your own adventure format, he puts the U back in aUtobiography.

"You will decide whether to try out for Doogie Howser, M.D. You will decide whether to spend years struggling with your sexuality. You will decide what kind of caviar you want to eat on board Elton John's yacht."

Busta Nutcracker

On Saturday Ming, Kyle, Matthew, and I went to see Busta Nutcracker, A Burlesque Parody at the Southern Theater, put on by the Wicked Wenches Cabaret, which does productions and burlesque classes.  Kyle and I had backed the production on Kickstarter and each received two tickets to the show as part of our sponsorship.

We had dinner at Vic's first, at Riverside.  I've never been there before when it wasn't full of frat boys and really annoying MBA types.  But apparently that's just in the spring and summer when the deck is open for drinking.  In the winter it's full of those of Malaysian heritage who don't realize their Groupon is no good on a Saturday, and Baked Alaska taste testers.

I enjoyed Busta Nutcracker much more than the Suicide Girls event we went to recently.  The theater is much more conducive to viewing than the standing room only at the Varsity, and the connected plot is just more fun, even if the dancing isn't quite the same quality.

Here's the stage.  It changed once or twice to host the various fairy dances - Clara and the Nutcracker's thrones replacing the bed.  Unlike in the productions I've seen in the past, Clara crawls all over that couch a bit more provocatively.  My father posted a message that my sister and niece were at the Nutcracker too!  When my sister asked I told her we were near the dancing pole on the right (just outside the frame on both sides of this photo), at which point she realized we were perhaps at a different Nutcracker.

There were some great parts.  I thoroughly enjoyed the part of the Nutcracker where the Nutcracker leads everyone in a tassel dance. Hilarious and energizing.  Hussy Hautepants was an excellent dancer with a 50's Vargas girl vibe.  And Dazzling Di'Vine, who's apparently from here in my hometown, made for an excellent German beer woman in a bit that featured dancing glasses of beer coming out from under the skirts of Mother Gin (it wasn't like that when my daughter did the same part as the beer for ballet).  I also liked Mz. Vixxxen's ballet (on pointe?) dance where she was a bit S&M and possessed Clara such that whatever she did with her hands Clara did with her legs.  A clever bit of burlesque.  The dance of the marijuana fairies by Oopsy Daisie was a bit strange, but they were obviously trying to keep the show light and fun.



The program...


Kyle and I both show up as Kickstarter contributors.  There was a good turnout.  They sold a lot more tickets than there were Kickstarter backers.  The Southern was packed.


The cast of Wicked Wenches.  They do an Oz and Disney themed production as well.  They may be our new alternative to Best of the Midwest Burlesque now that it's folded.


And a bit of the program explaining the first part of the plot.  You can see that Clara is forced to dance...repression is just inherent in the system.

Compounded - First Real Match

Saturday afternoon, we finally played Compounded [Board Game Geek, Gamer Chris], a game I sponsored on Kickstarter.  Eryn and I tried to play once before, but the two person game was initially confusing, we were short on time, and we decided that it made more sense to start with the three person game that doesn't have extra rules.  So my wife, daughter, and I went over to Dunn Brothers and caffeined up - which isn't one of the compounds you can build in Compounded, although all the appropriate elements are available.  It could be available on the extended, double-wide, cards.  I didn't check carefully.

The goal of Compounded is to score 50 points (alternately, complete 3 out of 4 experiments or using up all the compound cards) on the periodic table.  You get points for completing compounds, keeping your "wild" element, keeping your fire extinguisher, and for elements left on uncompleted compounds and in your lab.  As the game progresses, the cards you complete give you more abilities to draw more elements, place more elements, and reserve more compounds (so players can't steal them or score off them).  Additionally, you can pick up Bunsen burners, goggles, test tubes, etc, that allow you to take an extra element draw, start someone's compound on fire (and hopefully blow it up), trade 2-1, and more.  I had an opportunity to use the Bunsen burner to blow up one of my wife's compounds, stopping her from scoring 7 additional points, but Eryn felt bad for her fire-extinguisher lacking mother and put a stop to my plan.

Every now and then a lab fire appears causing compounds to explode.  If there are elements on the compound, they scatter to nearby compounds.  While I can see how that's useful if you're a careful planner, in our game it didn't happen enough to influence the outcome.

My strategy involved trying to draw and place as many elements as possible.  If you can place four elements quickly enough, it gives you the ability to catch a lot of the small compounds in a round.  What I missed was that if you increase your claim-a-compound ability quickly enough you get a journal which allows you to recoup an element after you score a compound.  Eryn and my wife used that to great effect and, if it had gone on longer, I suspect they would have started to outscore me.  I finished up with Europium, or 63 points.

We had a great time, and next time we will probably try it with the double-wide cards that let two scientists claim a single compound.  More points, more complex compounds.  There are some additional compounds with additional properties to include as well (some explode upon completion, some make you give a bonus/grant to a competitor, and more).  Overall it took about two and a half hours, but it would probably be closer to an hour and half if you cut out reading the rules carefully at least twice, slowly stepping through the initial phases, and all the bathroom and refill breaks that come with playing at the Eagan Dunn Brothers.

Manos Hands of Felt

I sponsored the Kickstarter project "Manos: Hands of Felt" a puppet movie based on one of the worst movies of all time that was spoofed by the MST3K gang.  This is the new poster.  I'm very excited to see progress toward being able to sit down and watch the finished product with Kyle.  I might have to have a party when the DVD shows up.

Castle Dice

My copy of Castle Dice came in the mail via my funding of Fun to 11 on Kickstarter.  There have been a number of reviews at Boardgamegeek.com, Wired, and Father Geek.  I recommend Father Geek if you want to see all the mechanics of play.  The basic idea: you have a pool of dice and seven turns.  Each turn you get a certain combination of fix dice targeting different resources and animals, and a few dice you can personally choose to add to your hand.  Everyone rolls their dice, removes the nasty barbarians who later steal your assets, and puts the remainder in a general pool. From there each person takes turns drawing dice - the rarest like iron and those with the resource multipliers like three (3) wood tend to go first - until all the dice are used up, marking the resources and animals collected on their card.  Resources can be used to build villagers: merchants, farmers, guards (against the pillaging barbarians), and workers, all of whom allow extra or better resources and additional animals, or to build parts of your castle: walls, chambers, etc.  The castle parts are where  you make your primary points for scoring.

(Side of the box.  Fun to 11 decorated all four sides with the names of backers).


Animals each give you a bonus if you have the most.  Horse, you go first (otherwise it rotates).  Pig you can take a die, change it to something you want, but then you have to stop taking dice.  A Pork Chop. So it's primarily for the end of the drawing.  A chicken lets you add an extra card to your hand so you have additional opportunities to build.  And a cow lets you change the occupation of villagers to help you out.  If you have a full set of animals, you can trade them (and must on certain turns) for a card from a third set which gives action cards and a few victory points for Jesters.

(My castle bits).


It's fast.  Under an hour, even when you're learning the game like we were.  And incredibly fun.  Eryn (age 10) picked it up quickly, and even devised some strategies, although my "collect a lot of animals after my wife screws up her pork chop play" strategy was better than most.  We've only played with three players. I suspect with four, it's even more interesting because the resource pool would have more variety and the animal bonuses stay more spread out.  Definitely worth backing.

(Eryn and my wife shaking resource dice.  Mine are on the edge unshaken.  And you can see over there on the side all the dice that come with the game.  The two green dice are player's choice and on my card you can see my farmers, merchant, worker, and stale full of animals).

Katie Mullins

We sponsor something on Kickstarter here now and then.  Perhaps more often "now", as there are a few games in the works we've sponsored that are still on their way.  Like five.  One related to the Salem witch trials, one related to the Great Fire of London, one related to chemistry, a Bootleggers reboot, and a game with lots of dice.  We also sponsored a movie, two if you include a bicycling documentary, a local art calendar, a local artist or two, a writer, and we sponsor something musical now and then.  The Sudden Lovelys were the very first Kickstarter project we backed when Paige and Danny wanted to produce three albums in a year.  Not so long ago we sponsored Katie Mullins' second album.  She sent me a very nice signed lyrics sheet.

Linktopia and Various Other Bits

• Two links I'll need to share with Dan'l.  Axis and Allies is now open source as a project called Triple A.  As is Master of Orion as a project called Free Orion.  A bit different than the original, but once you start to play a round, you get where the differences are.  For A&A I made the mistake of starting with the big map: that's a bit overwhelming.  I'd start smaller and work my way up if I were doing it again.  You can find FreeCol and FreeCiv out there as well.  Lots of cheap gaming fun.
• Yesterday I saw Wired promoted Compounded, a Kickstarter funded game about chemistry.  Currently at about $139,000 out of their $15,000 goal.  Seriously.  I gave them some money a while ago because it seemed like such a great idea, particularly if you have a kid who's into both science and board gaming.
• I always wondered what those long Indian robes for men were called, the traditional looking vestments.  It's a Sherwani.  It's the national dress of Pakistan and associated with aristocracy.  Not surprising - it always gives off the same vibe as a tuxedo to me.
• The official name for what the cable and dish/direct tv companies are doing to you is called "drip pricing".  It's why your cable (or satellite) went up 3.3% last year and you didn't notice.  I noticed my change in billing.  It went down 100%.
• I've entered 15,392 Coke Rewards points for charity so far this year, after I do today's entry.  That's 5,130 caps.  I'll admit, there were a few box tops in there, but not many.  I try to focus on caps and leave the boxes to other folks entering.
• I heard Wye Oak's Civilian yesterday and really liked it: I'll be adding it to my Spotify list.  Apparently, I should have heard it on The Walking Dead, but that's not the case.  See bullet Number 4 about dropping cable and satellite: I don't catch Walking Dead until full seasons are out.  Of course I didn't catch it before either, because my satellite company didn't give me AMC.  Rather, I was streaming Safety Not Guaranteed on Netflix.  I really liked the movie: much more than my wife I suspect as she gave it three stars and I'd have given it a solid four.  Rottentomatoes backs me up, giving it a 91%.
• Kotaku's amusing stories about game shop incidents.  Obviously, the comments are 90% of the article.
• io9's list of creepy ghost towns of the world.  My first thought was, "I wonder if there are geocaches hidden in those towns?"  Followed by, "I wonder if Chernobyl doesn't count as a town?"  Certainly looks like one, and equally creepy.
• How Etsy Increased It's Number of Engineers by a Multiple of Four in One Year over at TheMarySue.com, one of my favorite places to go for day-to-day geek lately.  Given one of my externally imposed goals this year is to hire more diversely (I should be up front, it's never been an issue for me, I think diversity of developers creates diversity of ideas, creates better code), these are good ideas to share, although I worry my company will have an issue with initial layout expenses like scholarships.
• I missed the pancake breakfast for the Women's Prison Book Project.  I've decided I like the idea and I (we) should donate there.  We tend to find one place to donate to monthly, beyond the corporate annual donations that are deducted from my check each month for the Family Tree Clinic and Eagan/Dakota County food shelf.  They're having a movie night for the documentary Cruel and Unusual about transgender prisoners in men's prisons.  I don't plan on going, but I've often thought "movie day" might be a really good idea for the Community Volunteer Committee at work.  We could show that and Dudey Free and some other movies for folks to watch every other month over lunch.  Did I ever mention I'm now the cochair (subchair?) for the corporate CVC?  More through inertia of other folks I suspect, but sometimes that defines whole aspects/opportunities of one's life.
• Erik sent me this XKCD comic generator.  It's done with d3.js which I was looking at for a work project not so long ago.  It'd make even more sense for making comics for sites like snrky.com.  We didn't use it for my project, although we all got a good laugh out of the thought of dropping a spermatozoa demo out there for the business.  

Kickstarter - Mercury's Curse

If you like Kickstarter - I'm a big fan of funding board games and non-mainstream movies and music through Kickstarter - Erik Hykas is looking for funding for his book, Mercury's Curse.  It's the sequel to Tritium Gambit that I read back in November.  For only a dollar ($1) you can fund his writing and get a digital copy.  If you're worried about authors who get Kickstarter money and don't finish their work, you have my honest assessment that the chances of this happening with Erik are about 1 in 5,000,000.  Or whatever the odds are for dropping dead in the next several weeks.  He's incredibly driven, so the only thing in his way is his bus factor.

Mercury's Curse is the sequel to Tritium Gambit. Max and Miranda continue their work as agents for the Intergalactic Secret Service, a job that frequently ends in death, dismemberment, and smells you can't wash off.
On this mission, Max and Miranda are sent to a Chicago mansion to attend the unveiling of a new technology. What begins as a whodunit, turns into Miranda's quest to save her partner, and best friend, Max. 

You can get to Mercury's Curse on Kickstarter here.  Funding ends on October 31st, so give him a treat in his bag and fund him a dollar.  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/966068625/mercurys-curse-book-two-of-the-max-and-miranda-ser

And watch his video, but quit about 50% of the way into it.  He hates that.