Valerie Putman:  World (mid-Atlantic region, USA) Boardgaming Championships

This week I was in Lancaster, PA demoing games for Rio Grande Games at the WBC.  I didn’t play in any of the tournaments, but I still had a great time.  I got to hang out with great people and teach (and play a few) really great games.  Last week I wrote about the new games I’d be teaching, so this week I just wanted to update my impressions (and the general impressions of the people I taught the game to).

Ra the Dice Game This was probably the most popular game that I taught all week.  I was surprised by the number of people that I taught this to who had never played the original game.  Some people said that they still preferred the original, but many of them noted that the dice game still had its place since it can be played with 2 people.  I have to give credit to Mr. Cranky who gave this game the best nickname that I heard…Ratzee!

Finca This was probably the game I taught the 2nd most often.  What was interesting is that some players swore it was best with 2 and others only wanted to play it with the full table of 4 players.  Since the fruit doesn’t scale based on the number of players and some people liked the rule to discourage hoarding less than others, I’m going to guess that the preference for more players and the preference for a “mean” game where you can make other people give back all of their fruit were related.

Maori The consensus by the end of the week was this was a great little game—but definitely played with some of the advanced variants.  With the basic rules, it was too easy to get all of the best tiles and place them exactly where they needed to go without any tough or interesting decisions.

Castle for All Seasons Many players were surprised to learn that this has been out since November—it seems to have been under the radar for many players.  Almost everyone liked it—except for a few that didn’t seem to care for the “secret and simultaneous” bit which sometimes leads to a few moments that I call “Princess Bride” moments.  I can’t choose the Worker because you will choose your Stonemason, but since you know that I know you will choose your Stonemason, you will think that I won’t play my Worker, so I can play my Worker because you won’t play your Stonemason, unless….

Bonnie & Clyde This was the easiest game to teach!  Also, since the designer was often around, there was at least one occasion when he taught it for me!

Sherwood Forest I am happy to report that everyone who played this liked it better than I did.  As I suspected, many other people enjoy semi-cooperative/negotiation games far more than I do.

Dominion: Intrigue I rarely had to teach this and it was in constant play.  (Though I did get a few chances to teach the basic game.) I peeked in on the Dominion tournament and it was thrilling to see over 30 tables playing the game at once.  Yay, Dominion!

See y’all at Gen Con!
Valerie Putman

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