Monday, May 4, 2015

Game Day #2 at Meeples (Seattle)

Hi everyone,

This past weekend we flew up to Seattle to have a Game Day at Meeples -- the great game store in West Seattle.  Here's a quick write-up on our visit :)

Background:
  • Meeples (http://meeplesgames.com/) is in West Seattle.  At the corner of Charlestown and California Ave's.
  • It's on the 2nd floor -- so there is a LOT more space than we are used to having for a game store here in California :)
  • It's a "Gaming Cafe".  This means that you can play games, order (lunch/dinner/etc) and eat food.  Perfect!
  • We had visited back at Thanksgiving time - and had a blast playing games, hanging out, having lunch.  Here's our write-up from that visit.  http://battlegaming1.blogspot.com/2014/11/battle-gaming-one-seattle-visit-meeples.html

Our day in Seattle (this past Saturday):
  • We had coordinated with friends and family to meet-up there
  • Were not sure what people would want to play -- so we packed up two modest 40K armies (some Orks and some Space Marines); packed up X-wing; packed up D&D; and packed up ourselves.  Then, made the quick trip north
We ended up playing a D&D card/miniature game (was new for us -- cool way to quickly play somethink like D&D 5e); X-wing; and a fun game called Telephone Pictionary.

Ravenloft D&D Card/Miniature Game

The Ravenloft board game we played :)

We borrowed Meeples' Store copy to play....

This turned out to be quite a bit of fun.  Hadn't known that the miniatures in the game were so detailed.

What we liked about it was that out of the 6-7 people in our group, a good half of the group had not ever played D&D (of any edition).  So the "board game version" let everyone start playing really quickly.





A few turns into the D&D session.  We had killed a Kobold and were taking on a Skeleton.  Still learning how to help each other out.

It helped that we had one person in the group who had played some of the board games before.  We were a little bit slow to catch on to the game mechanics.  Then he helped us understand how to "activate" bad guys -- and also how to understand who would "operate them"....

The one thing we missed was that when we folded up the game, that-was-that for those characters.  No real way for them to continue on.  Heard that in the Pathfinder board game this isn't the case -- and that you can keep treasure you find -- and progress your character from session to session.  Will have to check that out :)

Also missing was the fun social part of the game.  Those of us who had played enjoyed that part of the game -- "getting into character" is always fun.

Lastly, another really positive part of the game.  The miniatures are great -- and lots of them.  Would be lots of fun to work on painting those!!

Also -- great way to learn some gaming basics, "Don't Split up the Party!!!"


Star Wars X-Wing

Two of us took a quick break during the D&D session and played a game of X-Wing.

Here's where the size of the Meeples store is great.  There was a Magic tournament going on while we were there.  Did they still have a free table we could use for X-wing ??  No problem!

We played a quick game -- sort of 5 on 5 -- with the Rebels outgunning the Empire ships by a little bit.  (It was Luke and 4 of his pals against 5 Academy Pilots).  [We weren't trying to create a fair battle -- instead trying to show the people in our group how to play.]

"Hey, Luke -- I think we can take them!"

That ended up working out pretty well.  Got to explain the game dynamics in a situation which wasn't too stressful.  (Is it easier to learn a game when you're winning??)

Learning about the movement dials in X-Wing (while clobbering Academy Pilots)

Everyone had fun learning how to plan out the moves for the Rebel Fleet.  (And, the one of us who was playing the Empire went into the other room to check-out the progress with Ravenloft while the Rebel planning session was going on.)

Last, we played a session of Telephone Pictionary   

How to play....

Need a set of sheets of paper (something like 10) which are bound or stapled together.

The game starts with each player WRITING a phrase or sentence on their pad of paper....

Then each pad is passed left or right (keep it the same once selecting).  And, the receiving person reads the phrase or sentence -- and then DRAWS their impression of what is written.  AND, the sheet with the writing is folded over....

So, when the pads are passed again, the 3rd person to see that pad can only see the drawing (not the writing).  AND, then they WRITE their version of a phrase or sentence of what they see in the drawing.

And, so on....

Eventually, what happens?  You see your phrase come back again (only now it is changed)!!!

Everyone hard at work during the DRAWING phase....

It was lots of fun -- everything changed.  

After several passes, a storm trooper turned into fire fighters putting out a fire.  Ducks with a postman turned into a mechanic attacking a bird with a wrench.  A tractor hitting a dog turned into a dog chasing a tractor and back to a tractor running over a dog.  And, porcupines turned into kittens :)

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