Thursday, April 1, 2010

Amuse-bouche: The Great Flood

Inspiration. Sometimes it's there. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it doesn't need to be there.

It's the middle one for me. But here I am back blogging again.

OK, enough of the flimsy excuses. Time to write about something gamey.

Like my "quest" to make my own game this year. Erm...

Moving on then, surely it's time for a new review. I did score Dominion: Seaside, Agricola: Farmers of the Moor, and World Without End for my birthday earlier this year. While I've played the former once, and the second game not at all, it's the third game I'm keen to write my next review about. Except I've only half played it, and I'm not going to put up a post until I've played it at least once all the way through.

Why only half a game of World Without End? Well, I could make a really lame joke and say we couldn't finish it cos it's without end, but the truth is slightly more interesting: The Great Kingsbridge Flood.

A very quick overview: World Without End is based on the novel of the same name by Ken Follett, which is itself a sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, which was also made into a board game by the same designers who made this new one. While both games are set in the town of Kingsbridge, World Without End plays completely differently to Pillars.

The plague plays a significant role in the novel, and is introduced to the game half way through. After playing two of the four chapters in the game, the houses on the board become infected with the plague, which the players can combat using medical knowledge they have accumulated. Except the plague never came to Kingsbridge in the game we played. It would have come, except the town was wiped out by a flood first.

One of the players, who I do not wish to shame in any way, accidentally knocked over a glass of water, spilling its contents upon the board. A large portion of the board was covered as well as pieces both on and off the board. To the credit of the mortified flooder, the next hour was spent drying out the pieces between pieces of paper towel weighed down by books, and ironing the board (beneath tea towels) in an attempt to minimise the water damage.

To this person's further credit, upon realising that the game board and some components were not what they were to begin with, another game was promptly ordered online and shipped directly to me. So now I have a brand new copy of World Without End, while the water damaged, but still very much playable, version now belongs to the generous water spiller.

I haven't had a chance to get the game out again at another HoGS night, but I make the commitment now to bring a review up the vacuum thingy as soon as a full game is under my belt.

Speaking of HoGS (he segues, having deliberately mentioned HoGS in the preceding paragraph), the Hobart Games Society is well on its way to become a fully fledged, registered organisation. While we're not formally registered yet, we do have a committee and officers and members, and have had a couple of committee meetings. I am pleased to say that yours truly was elected as Secretary.

Which means I get to write minutes and agendas and other exciting stuff to make me feel important.

Happy Easter to everyone out there, especially those in the gaming blogosphere whose writings I do enjoy. Here's hoping you get a chance for some good gaming over the long weekend. I know I will.