tabletop games – the Addison Recorder

Games on Addison: ‘Tis the Season

December 12, 2014 by -J. Leave a Comment

It’s the holidays, which means it’s time for board games!

Naturally, board games are perfect for every season. And, naturally, the holidays are about more than board games (ostensibly). But it’s also a season when you have an overabundance of family time, down time, and “what should we do now” time. If there’s a more perfect time to play more games, I haven’t experienced it.

‘Tis the season to play more game.

Below is a list. A series of suggestions, hopefully some of which are new or different. It’s not exhaustive, which tells you how much board games have exploded in popularity of late. I’ve stuck with titles that can be found at your Friendly Local Gaming Store, and tried to hew towards games released in the last year or so (or had expansions released recently). Many of them also have digital versions you can try before going analog, and some have been featured on Tabletop.

It’s also a highly subjective list, in that I enjoy playing them all. [Read more…]

Our Month in Pop Culture – September 2014

September 2, 2014 by Travis J. Cook Leave a Comment

We here at The Addison Recorder read stuff. We also watch stuff. And play stuff, even. Sometimes, that stuff is interesting. Sometimes we just need to talk about whatever pop culture ephemera occupies our time. Which brings us to this column. Party on.

[Read more…]

361 & a Wake Up: a Recap of Gen Con 2014

August 25, 2014 by -J. Leave a Comment

“The Best Four Days in Gaming” only ended last week, and I already want to go back.

Addison Recorder editor Karen Martin and I (along with many others) attended this year’s Gen Con, the biggest tabletop gaming convention on this side of the Atlantic. The difficulty in doing a recap of such a huge con is that each attendee will have a unique experience; with over 56,000 people attending four days that pack almost 400 vendors and over 14,000 events into a few city blocks, you almost need to read an aggregate of recaps (including this one from Shut Up & Sit Down) to get the full picture.

Sailor Moon on bassoon, a wizard on mandolin, and Chewbacca on cello. Self-explanatory.

No context needed.

Here is one such recap: My recounting of Gen Con 2014. [Read more…]

Games on Addison: 7 Wonders

July 26, 2012 by -J. Leave a Comment

I’ve been wracking my brains for a few weeks on how to present this.

‘This’ being a discussion or analysis of tabletop games, a topic that, once upon a time, didn’t require the adjective in front of ‘games.’ But with the advent of video games, and the blurring of lines between sports and gaming (whether referring to betting, fantasy sports, or poker & darts on ESPN), I’ve felt that the grand tradition of tabletop games has become the long-lost brother of Western pop culture and entertainment.

And this led me to an idea: if we can break down & analyze movies, books, and music, why not do the same with games? Sure, I can go to Boardgamegeek.com and find such writing, but why can’t we also bring it to a more general audience? Hence the experiment that is my new series for the Recorder, “Games on Addison.”

The goal of this series is to explore and analyze tabletop games in the same manner as other forms of popular entertainment — film, music, video games, books, and the like. It is not meant to be a ‘review’ of these games, but a means of bringing attention to and discussion of games in a popular culture forum (that is, the Recorder).

This idea has been percolating in my brain for years, though the advent of the Geek & Sundry web channel (and its gaming series, Tabletop) brought it back to the forefront. Thus, for the first entry in this series, I’ll hearken back to a game I briefly mentioned when I wrote about Tabletop and digital media: 7 Wonders.

Check out all that Wonder.

7 Wonders is a recent and award-winning game from Repos Productions, wherein each player is takes the role of one the civilizations that built the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (hence the name). It’s a game that rewards resource management and adaptability, and once the players get the hang of the mechanics, it plays exceedingly quick.

Let’s get to know 7 Wonders. [Read more…]