August Update

Nada, zip, zilch, nothing. That's what happened in August.

Six by Six Challenge
Last month I predicted my pace would slacken and I was right about that. I had hoped to get one game in, but I never managed it.

Nevertheless, I have completed 27 games, an average of 3.375 a month. Still on pace.

What Happened?
There are a few reasons why I believe my productivity crashed.

1. The August Swoon - I'm not sure why, but August tends to be a slow month for my gaming. Over the years, I average 5 posts a month in August compared to 8 posts a month overall. Still not sure why August tends to be slow.
2. Burnout - I have been on a (for me) torrid gaming pace this year. I probably average 1-2 games  a month in a typical year compared to over 3 this year. That pace was a result of the 6 x 6 challenge, which was the point of the challenge. The drawback is that I began to feel burned out, that I had to perform. I just tired of it.
3. Real Life - lots of things going on this month, from a sick cat (the Buster saga is continuing) to work, church, etc. I just have not felt up to much gaming on the weekend.
4. LARP Life - I also mentioned last month that I started a project to launch a new LARP kingdom. This project has been diverting a lot of my energy.

Prospects for Next Month

• Once again, I hope to complete at least one miniature game during the month.
• I am excited about a couple of games that I recently ordered. My wife and I have been feeling tired with many of our games. Too often they require a bit of set-up, which discourages us from playing. We've been moving towards games that can be set up and played quickly. We recently found a couple that seem to fit the bill.
• Welcome to the Dungeon - We saw this game on Tabletop and my wife was interested. It is a bluffing / push-your-luck card game of dungeon crawling. Players take turns adding monsters to the dungeon or taking items away from the hero. A player may drop out of the round. The last player left in the round then takes on the role of hero and tries to make it through the dungeon. If the player succeeds then he/she gets a treasure. Get 2 treasures and win! When we watched the Tabletop episode, we expected it would be a 3+ player game. When I saw that it can accommodate 2 players I immediately ordered it.
• One Deck Dungeon - Another dungeon crawl game. This can be played by 1 player or 2 players co-op style. It is essentially a dice-rolling game.

Brother Claudio Stinks!

In a much earlier post, I related the mis-adventure of Brother Claudio while playing the Space Hulk: Death Angel card game.

Well, it happened again. And on the very first turn! Brother Claudio, you stink!

And his squad mate Brother Goriel was no better. While being attacked by Genestealers, he needed to roll anything but a 0 to survive the attack. Sure enough, I rolled a 0.

Or maybe I shouldn't blame the Space Marines for my bad dice rolling.

FYI - the Space Marines got slaughtered again.

And Camelot Saved

Our second game was the Shadows Over Camelot card game.

Loyal and Traitor cards from SoC

We started off well, and got to 6 white swords (7 wins) with only a couple of black swords. Then I mucked up a quest (by accident! I wasn't the traitor) and we got 3 more black swords. But Jimmy came through once again and completed the quest that saved Camelot.

Gaming Update

I finally got in some gaming last night.

Shadows over Camelot

I picked up Shadows over Camelot: The Card Game recently and gave it a whirl last night. It is a cooperative card game where players try to save Camelot. There is a twist, however, as one of the players could be a traitor working to undermine Arthur's realm. I will have to do a review later.

In the first game, I was the traitor. I was an absolute failure as a traitor because I have no poker face. When I purposely made a bad play, my wife was on to me immediately. I lucked out however, when the other players lost a crucial quest. The second game was also a failure for the the knights of Camelot. SoC is a simple, yet enjoyable game that I can see playing again.

My Templar RPG Campaign

I wanted to finish a quest in my solo fantasy RPG campaign. My wife agreed to play an NPC. I was able to create her character quickly because I am using QUERP, which uses character templates. I gave her a druid to run and off we went! My game report is at my Tales of the Templars blog.

A Bad Day for the Space Marines

Played Space Hulk: Death Angel tonight.

On the very first turn, I attacked with Brother Claudio, using his special ability (shown on this card).

I just needed to roll anything but a 0 (the Space Hulk Death Angel die is a 6-sider with numbers from 0 to 5). Needless to say, I rolled a 0. Brother Claudio was the first of many casualties as the Space Marines had a bad day.