A social examination of a gaming day

Alternatively titled “I think I could have handled that better”.

Announcement:

I announced my address and cell phone, but failed to let people know which unit within my building I live in (there are only two, but still…). I did not ask for any sort of a RSVP, headcount, or commitment.

Preparation:

Getting back home before noon, I took the time to vacuum the living room carpet and our recently acquired futon, do most of the dishes, start my laundry, wipe down the bathroom and kitchen, buy some snacks (including making some guacamole), drag the dining room table into the living room, pull out my games, clear most of the detritus off the furniture and floor, and start some lunch for me before people arrived. Noteworthy failures from this stage of things include failure to prioritize cleaning beverage containers (in fact, the only dishes I hadn’t done) failure to choose salted corn chips (I didn’t notice until I tried eating my guac and wondered what I’d done wrong) failure to purchase beverages likely to appeal to a broader audience, (I had reduced fat soymilk and filtered water to offer) failure to change, shower, or shave (not like I necessarily would have done the final item anyway) and failure to remember to serve/offer/bring out the grapes I bought, of which at least half will probably now rot. Ultimately a failure to allocate sufficient time to the cleaning meant that there was still a huge cluttered mess in the living room, kitchen, and my bedroom when people arrived. More/better preparation before bringing people over would be good.

Arrivals:

I’d started showing Tichu to when and a classmate arrived. I restarted demonstrating Tichu, offered and brought water (cleaning the glasses for such), completely failed to introduce anyone to anyone else (the classmate only knew me by email address and the others not at all). After I’d mostly explained the basics of Tichu, arrived with . I tried to get them settled, continue teaching tichu, and set up additional chairs (which still needed to be unwrapped from their plastic baggies) simultaneously. I think I did the final item alright, the rest suffered. Again with the no introductions. As I was loath to waste the entire explanation of tichu, I played a hand with , classmate, and . Given that there were two excluded players, two completely new players, and a relatively complex card game, it went quite well, which is to say, no death threats were made.

Transamerica:

This may be the sole thing I did right the entire afternoon. I next proposed we play Transamerica. I should note that I really liked this game when I first got started with it, but after several (less than 5) games of it, got bored with its simplicity. Over the past three or four weeks, the only strategy game I’ve had any success getting everyone playing enthusiastic about has been Transamerica. It’s a good game in that it is fast, easy to learn, not excessively complicated and accomodates a flexible number of players. It’s also pretty fun the first several times one plays it. Did I mention I’ve been playing it alot for the past 3 or 4 weeks? Still, everyone seemed to be having a pretty good time with it. At this point, needed to ship off to his St Paul gaming compatriots. This is where I made the most disastrous active decision of the evening. (It’s difficult to gauge whether this was more or less disastrous than the neglect noted under preparation.)

Amun-Re:

I like Amun-Re, and I haven’t played it in a long time. It is a good game for five players interested in a very complex game. Key item here: “interested in a very complex game”. This one dragged. I decided to euthanize it at the first half of the game. (Like football, heh, there’s an analogy you won’t hear me use often, Amun Re has two halves.) I think there would have been a mutiny with me strung up from a light fixture had a I pushed for the second half, but seriously, it’s no fun gaming if the people you’re gaming with aren’t into the game.

Final stage:

Game over, thank people for coming over, clean up, close up, couch nap of despair for 30-45 min.

Sorry guys, wish I pulled something better together for y’all.

General thoughts from the day:
1. Know thy guests.
2. Remember that they are guests and make sure to have standard guestly amenities available.
2. Consider thy guests’ wants before they arrive.
3. Consider thy guests’ wants while they are there.

Specific thoughts:
1. Tichu is a pretty complicated game, with a fixed number of players. Enjoy it though I do, these are factors which require careful consideration. It is a good time killer if people already know it. It has a definite learning curve.
2. Amun-Re is a very complicated game, almost as complicated as Puerto Rico, which is probably the most complex game I own (disregarding my ambiguous ownership of Starfarers of Catan).
3. More simple games would be good. Carcassonne, Tongiaki, and St Petersburg, all have more limited choice sets, and fewer unique pieces to learn. I should have listened to
4. No insult whatsoever intended to my guests of today, but at times like these, I rather miss Simon, , , , , , , , , Lili, etc. In short, friends whose wavelengths are already well known to me, with far less need to fiddle with the dial.