The Sunday Miscellanea - Sushi Roll and Felithian Factories

Just before the weekend, the Lake Geneva lunchtime crew played Sushi Roll with Brad, Tom Wham, and Larry Hamilton, of Follow Me and Die, at Culver's in Lake Geneva, WI.

Then we headed back to Lake Geneva Games to playtest Tom Wham's Felithian Factories with Tom, Larry, and myself.

The Sunday Miscellanea on MFWARS.com 

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Tom Wham's Greedy Billionaires

I've had the pleasure of playing Tom Wham's Greedy Billionaires a few times before and have written about it on this blog a couple of time here and here.  Tom has told me this game was originally conceived decades ago and then sat for some time before being rediscovered and rewritten several times since.  It was recently featured at Gary Con VII and a couple of new rules adjustments went into effect there as well.  It's a humorous send up of Monopoly-style games with some fun quirks all its own.

The description is as follows:

Each player takes turns collecting business properties and attempting to get them to pay out as often as possible to finish with the greatest wealth.

Each time I've played, there have been some improvements but, honestly, this game played very well the first time I tried it.  The well-known Tom Wham humor shines through in the artwork and naming conventions.  There is plenty to keep players busy between turns and the dice mechanics sidestep the old roll-and-move problem of similar games (you roll 3d6 but first call whether you wish to move the total or just the number on the single lowest or single highest die).  It's good fun and I recommend it if you get the chance to play.

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Essentially, a clearinghouse for topics on MFWARS.com

not covered elsewhere or wanting a particular focus.

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Mid-May to Mid-June Gaming 2014

There were some great gaming events happening in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois from the middle of May through the middle of June in 2014, and I snapped pictures to stand in testament to the fun.  There are more of them located on Facebook here and Google Plus here!

Ernie's Hobby Shop Dungeon Playtesting

It's no secret that Ernie Gygax and the mega-dungeon guru, Benoist Poire, are diligently working on bringing the Hobby Shop Dungeon and surrounding setting from days of yore into a publishable state for fans of gaming everywhere by 2015 under their G.P. Adventures banner.  One of the benefits of being a local gamer is getting to sit in on the playtesting of this fantastic project.  While Ernie does run this at gaming convention like Gamehole Con and Gary Con, two top notch events in Southern Wisconsin, getting to play campaign-style every two weeks has been a huge treat.  Earlier this week, out gang of mid-level PCs dove in again to thwart an evil cleric who had previously knocked us for a loop.  Revenge was sweet!

Ernie consults a tome as the Skypers, including Benoist Poire, look on

Norm grins as Ernie plans our demise

The grinning seems to be infectious

The evil cleric had a lot of undead at his disposal

Norm uses this cleaner with dry erase markers on his Chessex mat and it works very well

We were attacked from all sides

Fortunately, we lived so we can face certain peril yet again!

Steal DaBrony's Coffee! - The Reconstruction of a Classic

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the mythical Geneva Lake Press toiled in seeming obscurity in southern Wisconsin to produce various niche games. This small press operation had few products that are well-known, working mostly in the shadow of other game industry giants of the era. Though few of their games survive in box or print to this day, Creative Mountain Games is pleased to announce that the rights to their entire library of games have been secured for re-issue to today’s discerning games market.

One of the early examples of their board games line is Steal DaBrony's Coffee! This tongue-in-cheek game is a fine example of the way in which a board game could be both fun and challenging with simple rules that led to complex strategies and game play.

From the box (original edition 1979): Steal DaBrony's Coffee! is a fun game for three to seven players. In it, one player takes on the role of Leo DaBrony, a small convention organizer whose love of java is legendary. Unfortunately for this dedicated staffer, a number of attendees have decided to torment Leo and make it their mission to spend much of the convention attempting to steal his coffee, vying with one another to abscond more cups of Joe than any other and be acknowledged as Java Jester of the Year.

Creative Mountain Games is busy transcribing the rules for Steal DaBrony's Coffee!, cleaning up the original artwork, and making some adjustments to these traditional game mechanics, and hopes to bring a publishable version to the public soon. Please, stay tuned for more information and spread the word regarding this effort. Thank you!

Got in a little playtesting today for Steal DaBrony's Coffee! at Taco Bell with Tom Wham, Mark Meier, and Wendy Swanson Lord. 

The character artwork recovered from the original has a simple but nostalgic feel, and the dual game and coffee deployment tracks have an almost wargamey tone to them

So typical of that era to have but one female choice and to tie it to pink 

The one on the right just cracked me up 

The upper level of the game board, depicting the upper floor of the majestic Lakeland Lodge, is reminiscent of a time gone by

There is more to capture from the original art to bring this reconstructed version in line with the earlier version

I think the character cards can be simplified further 

I like how the advanced game adds additional abilities

More on this project as it continues . . .

Hobby Shop Dungeon Playtesting

Ernie Gygax and Benoist Poire have been working together for quite some time to bring a publishable form of the old Hobby Shop Dungeon to fruition.  This is the D&D setting that Ernie would run since the mid/late 70s at the Dungeon Hobby Shop in Lake Geneva, WI.  Ernie has been running freeform scenarios from this at various conventions and game stores and some of us have been lucky enough to participate in some playtesting of this storied setting locally.  Follow me on Facebook and check out the photos there from time to time as I pictorially chronicle this ongoing effort and "Like" the Hobby Shop Dungeon Facebook page.  See more here and here!