Quantum of Solis 2010: You kinda had to be there.


I was in Durham, NC on business but stayed an extra night so I could meet up with some friends in the area. Seems like the nexus of southern US nerdery is right in the middle of NC, or that's my perception from Oklahoma City.

My NC office is in the American Tobacco district, which you can see here is a lovely area. Very similar to OKC's own Bricktown district. So much so that I felt at home even when wandering around before dawn. Rainy mornings, crisp afternoons and so much delicious local food. Mushroom empanada and guava shake? Yes, please.

But the highlight of the trip was definitely spending time with Mur, Remi, Matt, Julie, Ruth and Scott at Tyler's Taproom. We spent many hours discussing all topics geekly.

"The Swedes have it all figured out."
  • Whether it's worthwhile to get through sub-par episodes of a TV series if it ends well.
  • The Swedish social construct that lies somewhere between "girlfriend/boyfriend" and spouse. We called it Bulbasaur. Long story.
  • The quality of local beers, barbecues and this "barbecue tofu" I have only heard about in stories told around a campfire.
  • Matt's defense of the fourth Indiana Jones movie, atomic fridge and all.
  • Mur's love of the Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men by Annie Rush.
And too much other stuff to list here. I don't know where or when the next Quantum is going to be, but I look forward to seeing you there and then.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Graphic Design and Typography Tips for your Card Game

Image
Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has...
Read more

Low-High Dice Game

Image
A dice game inspired by the stock market (and playing lots of Martian Dice). Roll a bunch of dice and choose which sets to keep. Choose your strategy wisely! Stuff You Need Two-to-Six PLAYERS A PENCIL and PAPER to keep score Thirteen standard six-sided DICE How to Play The shortest player takes the first turn. On your turn, first roll all thirteen dice. Several dice will have matching results. These are called SETS. (A single die result is a set, too.) You must choose a set to keep. For example, your first roll results are 111124445555 . The sets are four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, and four 5 s. After keeping a set of dice, lock them up in a row. This is called the GOOD TRACK. For example,  you could keep the set of four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, or four 5 s . You decide to keep the four 1 s and line them up in your good track. After keeping a set, you may end your turn or re-roll the remaining unlocked dice. When you re-roll, immediately set aside any results tha...
Read more

One Thing to Avoid in Game Design

Image
When game designer Paul Peterson was interviewed for the upcoming Titans Series of games from Calliope Games, there was one segment at 1:55 that really caught my attention (emphasis mine): "A couple years ago I was teaching people how to play Guillotine and I hadn't played in a while. The first thing I did was say, 'The first thing you gonna do when you open your game is you look through this deck and you take this card.' I pulled out the Callous Guards card and threw it over my shoulder. Everybody laughed. I said, ' That's the biggest mistake I ever made as a game designer in my life.'" Oof. Those are strong words. What's the big deal? For context, the game Guillotine is all about collecting the heads of French nobles during the revolution. There is only one guillotine, with a line of nobles waiting for their grim fate. On your turn, you play action cards to change the order of the line, then take the Noble card from the front of the ...
Read more