Game Kids: San Juan

JediBoy is always begging me to teach him one more grown-up game. He has a great collection of kids’ games, but he loves to play my games. Today, while BabyGirl napped, we tried San Juan.

Let me start by saying that San Juan is a faster, sleeker, card-based version of Puerto Rico. If that means nothing to you (or fills your head with confusing geographical images) don’t fret, forget I said anything. But eventually I’ll get you playing Puerto Rico too.

Here are the parts to San Juan: a deck of 110 cards, 5 “trading house” cards, 5 “role” cards, a “governor” card and a scorepad.

The idea behind the game is that you are landowners in San Juan, trying to produce goods and sell them back to Spain. Along the way you can build production buildings (for indigo, sugar, tobacco, coffee and silver); you can also build the violet-colored buildings which give you special abilities or advantages.

The game ends when one person has built 12 buildings. At that point, you add up all the victory points printed at the bottom of each of your buildings, and the player with the most victory points wins.

The way this game plays out is an interesting one. On each turn, you are able to choose a role - Builder, Producer, Trader, Councillor, or Prospector. Let’s say you choose to be the Builder. This means you get to build - lay down a building and “pay” for it by discarding a certain number of cards (the number printed at the top of the building). The advantage to being the Builder is that you pay one less card to build your building. After you have built, each player in turn around the table also gets a chance to build - but at full price.

Now the next player gets to choose a role, but they can’t be the Builder since you have already taken that role. The next player could be the Producer (put face-down cards as “goods” on your production buildings), Trader (turn in the cards from your production buildings in exchange for more cards from the draw pile as “payment”), Councillor (draw several cards from the deck but keep only one) or Prospector (draw one card from the deck - and no one else can do that in this phase). Play moves in this way around the table until each player has had a turn to choose a role and start a phase. Then, the Governor card (which indicates who starts the round) moves to the next player and a new round begins.

What’s interesting to me about this game is the way in which the one deck of cards works as buildings, money, and goods. I love that. The original game, Puerto Rico, plays in a similar way but uses a board, tiles for buildings, wooden markers for goods, cardboard coins, boats for trading houses, and so on. There are so many pieces that set-up and tear-down takes a long time. In San Juan, it’s fast and easy.

JediBoy enjoyed the game too - he’s never played Puerto Rico, so I had to explain the whole game from scratch. As with most grown-up games, he had a hard time figuring out a strategy at first, and asked my advice for several rounds. He wound up deciding to build as many high victory point cards as he could - and it worked, as he beat me by one point in the end!

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Thanks to the sharing folks at BoardGameGeek for the images.

“Aunt Dian Solitaire”

JediBoy has been asking to learn how to play solitaire the past few weeks, and we’ve had lots of fun teaching him. First, he learned 10-20-30 (thank you, Paskowitzes - this is still our favorite and most common solitaire).

For 10-20-30, you start by dealing out seven cards face up to form seven rows. You continue the game by adding a new card to each row in turn, and then again, and again. In this game you are constantly dealing the cards, and hoping to pick some back up along the way. You are looking for patterns of 3 cards together (the bottom 3, the bottom 2 and the top 1, or the bottom 1 and the top 2 cards) which add up to 10, 20 or 30. Aces are 1, and all face cards are 10. When you see a combination of 3 cards that adds up to 10, 20 or 30, you pick it up and put it, face down, at the bottom of the deck in your hand.

For example, here’s a game I started dealing out. When I got to the 5th pile dealing out the 3rd row, I saw I had 30 (three face cards). So I can pick those three cards up and put them at the bottom of my deck.

Continue dealing with the next pile. If taking one combination reveals another in the same pile, take that one too. If taking a combination eliminates a pile, you don’t deal to that pile again. To win, you need to eliminate all seven piles and have the whole deck in your hand.

I continued dealing, finishing the 3rd row and moving on to the 4th. I skipped the 5th pile as I’d already eliminated it. Here on the 6th original pile, you can see a 4 and 5 at the bottom and an Ace at the top - I can pick up those three cards and put them on the bottom of my deck.

JediBoy liked this active game, but found it hard to watch the bottoms and the tops of the piles at the same time, so he learned Clock Solitaire next.

Clock Solitaire is pretty common, I think. You deal 51 cards out - 12 piles of 4 cards each arranged in a circle, corresponding to the 12 numbers on a clock, and 3 cards in a pile in the center of the circle. The remaining card is your start card. Flip over the start card and put it on the matching pile, in the spot where that number would be on a clock. Kings go on the center pile. Then take the bottom card off the pile you just played on, and flip that card over next. The goal of the game is to flip over all the cards, and put home all the 48 cards around the outside of the clock before you find the 4th king (which stops the game since there won’t be a 4th card to take away from that pile).

It looks something like this:

JediBoy loved Clock Solitaire, but he seemed to realize that it isn’t one of our favorite versions, so he asked to learn the other type we play frequently.

We call this “Aunt Dian Solitaire” because Aunt Dian taught it to us, but we’re hoping that someone out there somewhere knows the official, Hoyle name for this version.

In “Aunt Dian Solitaire,” you deal out all 52 cards into 7 piles: 1 card face up, then 6 face down for the first row, then 2 face up and 5 face down for the second row, etc. Keep dealing - the extra three cards go on the first three piles, face up. Here’s what the original deal looks like:

Now you look for moves. You can put cards together by suit, smaller on larger in consecutive order. If the smaller number has cards on top of it, you move that whole section of the pile all at once. When an ace is revealed (no cards on top of it), you put it above the tableau, and then you are able to build up on it, in suit, in the same way you build on aces in Klondike Solitaire.

Here’s the game a little farther through. I’m about to move the 9club, Aheart, 2heart and Jdiamond from the bottom of the 1st pile onto the 3rd pile where the 10club is face up. I’m moving the 9 onto the 10, and all the cards that are on top of the 9 come along with it. You can only place cards or piles of cards onto cards which are at the bottoms of the columns.

When you move all the face-up cards off a pile that still has face-down cards, flip over the top face-down card, which gives you a new number to work with. When you move all the face-up cards off a pile with no remaining face-down cards, you can move a king (and any cards on top of it) to that spot to restart the pile. Your goal is to get all the cards built up in suit on the 4 aces. This game is quite hard to win, and takes a lot of time to deal out. But we enjoy it!

PisecoDad mentioned last night (as I was playing solitaire in bed, which explains the quality of the pictures) that we would all enjoy Aunt Dian Solitaire more if we could find a version of it on the computer, or for the DS, because that would eliminate the 50% of your time spent in shuffling and dealing. Sometimes you shuffle and deal this whole tableau just to find you have one move and then you’re stumped, and you have to pick them all up, shuffle and deal all over again.

So please, if you have any clue what this solitaire version is officially named, or where we can find it online, we would be so grateful! (I’ve already checked the more common lists of top 25 solitaire versions, and it’s not there.)

Game Kids: Caves and Claws

A wonderful garage sale trip, today! We weren’t even planning to go, but a little after 10 am PisecoDad asked off-handedly whether there were any garage sales today. Only 38 listings on the paper’s website (usually more than 120 on a summer weekend - obviously most families are still celebrating the holiday). Of these, only three seemed vaguely good and in our neck of the woods. The first and last turned out to be disappointing, and not as good as they sounded in the ads.

The middle sale, however, only listed “35 years accumulation.” When we got there, they had one big sign up saying “$5 per box.” Lots and lots of older books, especially college level, old binders and half-boxes of old paper. All the things were jumbled up in cardboard boxes up and down the driveway, and things didn’t look promising. But when we got to the boxes near the garage we found six board games we didn’t own, plus about five books that we wanted. We approached the owner, who looked at the towering pile and said, “How ’bout two bucks?”

A very happy $2 later, we came home with:

Caves & Claws: A Co-operative Game
Telling Lies: A Game of Honesty & Deception
Streetcar: The New Orleans Trolley Game - Mayfair
Manhattan: The Skyscraper Building Game - Mayfair
Blind Justice: The Game of Lawsuits - Avalon Hill
Rushin’ Russian: Race to Guess the 10 Russian Words
As well as five books - Spanish by Association, a Star Wars junior novel, a picture book about Henri Matisse, a book of silly math puzzles and a hardback copy of Jumanji.

As soon as we got home, JediBoy wanted to play Caves & Claws, because I told him it was a cooperative game by the people who made Secret Door.

In Caves & Claws, the players are acting as treasure hunters for a museum, trying to find 8 ancient treasures in the jungle. The players take turns placing the pathway cards to build the game board and then take turns traveling from one special location to another in search of treasure - but every card that is flipped over might also be a trap!

Cards like the Creeping Claw or the Inky Scary Darkness have to be placed on an open path. To get past a trap, you’ll need a remedy card - use your Stinky Socks to scare away the Creeping Claw or the Laser Lantern to dispel the Inky Scary Darkness. Each of the five remedy cards can be used only once during the game, and although they are dealt out to individuals, players are encouraged to share remedies should another player wind up stuck.

The goal is to find all 8 treasures for the museum without getting any player stuck with no way out of the jungle.

I like this game and wish we had it a year or two ago! The path-laying is a good cooperative precursor to a game like Labyrinth, which JediBoy loves but sometimes struggles with, trying to see how a path will work before he actually adds the tile. The theme is perfect for the introduction to archaeology which we read this week in Story of the World. It’s a little simple compared to the games JediBoy typically chooses, but it will be a good one to take to game night (cooperative games keep tensions lower!) and for BabyGirl to play as she gets older.

Game Night: Star Wars Birthday Party!

Our most-weeks-ly game night evolved into something extra special this week. When we started talking about it a few days ago, we thought it would be small and very low-key, as Aunt R was supposed to be out of town and Aunt T & Uncle M have company. But when Aunt R emailed me on Friday night to say she was in town after all, I tried to think up a theme. It didn’t take me long to realize that since JediBoy is having a birthday this week, we could do all Star Wars games.

Over a series of emails, that snowballed into Star Wars games, special food, a birthday cake and presents! We decided to make Star Wars food - which includes, of course,

Here are the kids (before J & S arrived with kids B & T), dressed for the occasion:

Several Star Wars games were played, including Epic Duels, Star Wars Death Star Assault, Star Wars Life and a little Star Munchkin. We also started a game of Settlers in the screen room. Here are N and JediBoy playing Death Star Assault:

There was lots of time to play and talk and enjoy the company of friends - we had 10 adults and 7 kids there. BabyGirl, as usual spent the whole night eating until she squeezed the life out of a cannoli into her hair, her ears, the carpet… and earned a bubble bath.

Finally, JediBoy read the cake (May the Force be with you!) and realized this was more than just a cool Star Wars night. He opened two presents - a new Cranium game from E, N and A and a bag from Aunt R and Uncle J (hmm, what are we going to do about having 3 Uncle J’s?). Inside the bag he found Pokemon Pearl - which he’d been asking for since at least April. But strangely enough, he never once asked for his own Nintendo DS - maybe because I stress the value of mine and make sure anyone who uses it takes special care with it. Maybe he thought it was out of his league? In any case, Aunt R had to point out to him - But wouldn’t you have to play this on a DS? and then pulled out his brand-new shiny red DS.

The three-octave screams could be heard throughout the county, I’m sure!

We enjoyed some more time playing together and then sang “Happy Birthday” (both the traditional and SCA versions) to JediBoy before he blew out the sparkler candles on his cake.

My heart was so full after an evening of lovingly prepared food, goofy games, conversation and companionship. Thanks to everyone who was there for making it a great night for all of us.

Game Night: Egypt & More

Why can’t I get “Walk Like An Egyptian” out of my head? We had an Egyptian/Mid-Eastern themed game night last night!

Leigh asked to play Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, so we built a theme around that. Leigh cooked up some seriously yummy dolmas, hummus and spanikopita (and why didn’t I remember to take a picture of the food?) and PisecoDad insisted on stopping by his favorite diner for a tray of baklava.

I rummaged through our game collection and was amazed to find so many titles that fit the theme!

We had: Alhambra, Tutankhamen, Babel, Old Mummy, Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, Settlers of Catan Historical Scenarios I (Cheops and Alexander the Great), Source of the Nile, The Arab-Israeli Wars, The Last Straw, Aladdin’s Dragons, Egyptians and A Line in the Sand. Jer brought Civilization to add to the mix.

The group of seven adults split easily to play games. First, the guys played a shortened game of Civilization while the gals played Alhambra for the first time. Then we shuffled the groups and one side of the table played Cleopatra while the other end played the Cheops historical scenario of Settlers of Catan. We felt pretty accomplished at getting in four great games!

Alhambra had been on my wish list around Christmas and my birthday, and though I got it for my birthday, we just hadn’t fit it in before last night. I had heard great things about the game, and there are many expansions published for it, so it’s obviously pretty popular.

Alhambra is a tile-laying game. Each player is trying to build the most impressive Alhambra by placing new building tiles around the starting tile. The twist is that tiles in the market are placed at random on four squares, corresponding to four different currencies (four colors of money cards). In order to buy a tile, you have to have the right amount of money in the right color.

Once you’ve bought a tile, you place it with your others, following a set of rules. All buildings have to be right-side up and reachable from the starting fountain tile “on foot” - without going off the board or over a wall. (Some tiles have walls on 1, 2 or 3 sides.)

There are six types of building. The game has three scoring rounds in which players are awarded points for having the most of one type of building, so it’s important to try and collect more of the type you already have. Points are also awarded for having the longest continuous wall - which is how Leigh eventually won this game!

It’s an interesting balance between saving, spending, collecting and wall-building. Alhambra falls in the lighter end of our collection of eurogames - the mechanics are fairly simple to learn, but the strategy may take a while to develop. Robin, Leigh & I really enjoyed it, and we’re now curious about the many expansions.

What were the kids up to? Oh, they tried on JediBoy’s old Thoth costume,

played with some of JediBoy’s Egyptian figures and toys,

and maybe someone, an unnamed and innocent person of course, handed them a 16-roll package of toilet paper, with which to become mummies and otherwise frolic through the house.

It doesn’t get more fun than that!

What Can’t Obama Say?

Add this to my enormous list of reasons to vote for Obama…

Aboard his 757 airplane en route for five hours from Washington, D.C. to Oregon, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama opted for a new game: Taboo.  Obama was challenged to a press corps versus Obama staff game to pass some in flight time.

Taboo is one of our all-time favorite games!

Another reporter, leading the press team to guess the word “white house” said, “This is where Senator Obama wants to live.” The correct guesses enlisted a more favorable response from the Senator.

You can read the rest of the article on the ABC News blog.

And in other fun board game news, Looney Labs has announced that their next version of Fluxx will be based on Monty Python!

Game Kids: Rock Jocks

In the mid-1990s, Milton Bradley published a huge number of board games for kids that were very physical - 3-d boards with moving pieces, usually involving a lot of action or dexterity.  Some of our favorites from that period are Spider Wars, Knockout and Fraidy Cats.  Today we found another one (at a garage sale, for $1): Rock Jocks.

The game has a two-foot tall cardboard cliff - at the top of which hang two not-so-good rock climbers.  (Why else are they dangling over the edge?)  Two players take turns playing tokens which force the other player to hang another animal (goat, snake, vulture or the lone, heavy Yeti) from his pack.  Eventually one climber can’t stand the load and flies off the board (they’re hanging from plastic planks that flip out).  The game is made to be played in rounds, and the player who loses three rounds loses the game.

JediBoy thinks this game is “very cool.”  The few times we played it today, I did see that it was getting him to think more about placement, balance and weight, but mostly he was thinking about how to force his dear old Mom to take on the Yeti!

I was impressed that the copy we found was complete except for a few of the eye labels for the animals (so we have a few half-blind goats).  Mostly, though, I was amazed that the gooey plastic stretchy arms were still stretchy enough to take on the load and not crack or snap in two.  The game played just the way it would have straight out of the box in 1994.

We just adore board games (I’m sure you hadn’t guessed) but even more I love to find games that will make my “cool” 5 year old son squeal with glee and laugh hysterically.  Keep an eye out for this one as you head into garage sale season in your neck of the woods.

Game Night: Munchkin Extravaganza

We love our crazy Saturday night gaming sessions and love them even more when we weave a theme or other special idea into the night. Last night was our MUNCHKIN EXTRAVAGANZA. Our friends Jared and Robin own a copy of every single set and expansion for Steve Jackson’s Munchkin card game, and Jared had devised a way to play with all of them at once.

Munchkin itself is a very silly card game, poking fun at traditional role-playing games (Dungeons and Dragons) as well as other RPG and movie genres in its other sets (superheroes, vampires, space, spy movies, kung fu, the wild west, Cthulhu).

You all start as level 1 humans, and the goal of the game is to be the first player to reach level 10. You do this by opening doors (flipping over the top card of the stack of door cards) to reveal what’s inside. Sometimes it’s a race or class card, turning you into an Elf, a Monk, or a British spy. Other times it’s a valuable item - headgear, footgear or armor, or a handy weapon or other helpful trinket. Sometimes it’s a trap. And of course, it could also be a monster.

You fight a monster by adding up your level and all your bonus points from armor, weapons, etc. If you don’t have enough points to beat the monster’s level, you can enlist help from another player. You earn a level for each monster you beat and also are rewarded with a few treasure cards as well.

The basic gameplay is pretty simple. What makes the game fun is announcing the goofy title of the card as you play it (“I am now wearing the Pointy Hat of Power.”) and reading the even sillier text from some of the cards. There are cards that make new rules and that turn the game on its head, so you never know what to expect, and it keeps you guessing. The last time we played Munchkin Fu, both JediBoy (5) and Emily (8) were able to play along with us, though of course some of the jokes and silliness went over their heads.

Jared’s version gives each person around the table (we were lucky enough to have a perfect group of 8 for the evening) one base set to start with. I had Munchkin Impossible and PisecoDad used Munchkin Cthulhu. Once you reach level 3, you start drawing from the deck of the person with the lowest level - which means you’re not in “your” world anymore and many of the bonuses don’t affect you.

It made for some crazy fun, but we did wind up getting stuck in Super Munchkin for two-thirds of the game because poor Robin was in last place and couldn’t get going. Maybe next time we try a Munchkin Extravaganza we can tweak those rules a bit, maybe giving the last place player(s) the choice of ANY deck on the table, the middle-ranked player(s) drawing from any deck EXCEPT their own, and the first place player(s) choosing from the bottom-ranked player’s deck? I’m all for tweaking game rules. (Yahtzee Phase 10, anyone?)

And what about our lovely children on game night? Well… it was a Munchkin night, so the kids ate Dunkin’ Donuts Munchkins, watched The Wizard of Oz, and even enjoyed their own Lollipop Guild.

Earth Hour

We had a fantastic time celebrating Earth Hour last night. We gathered at Leigh’s for game night, and pepped the kids up with what a cool thing we were going to do: turn the lights off from 8-9 to help SAVE THE WORLD!

We did get the kids each a flashlight so they could run around in the dark (except Anna, who slept through it all). It was an adventure, it was fun, and it was, I hope, an example of how we take action in our world. JediBoy and I talked about how one house turning off the lights wouldn’t save that much electricity, but when people all over the world turned off their lights (and computers, and even the Wii!) for one hour, it made a big difference.

The kids were so excited to turn on their flashlights and wait for the “darkout.” They helped show me where to put candles and they ran around the house turning the lights off. Then they played variations on flashlight tag for a good 40 minutes before starting to ask when the hour would be over. They hid under the table and played with light and made a “campfire” with a flashlight under a red playsilk.

The adults played Mutiny and Pirate’s Cove by candlelight. It added ambiance!

Thanks to everyone out there who participated - and to my dear friends for following my lead and jumping on my personal bandwagon.

Hit Points at -10

I just read the news that Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons, died this morning at age 69.  Read about it at Wired.