On The Beach!

Sorry about the radio silence. You probably thought I did another holiday hit-and-run, where I have a flurry of postings and then I disappear for a couple of years. Well, I don't *plan* on that being the case; but with me and writing, I can never be sure.

Anyway, I just got a little busy - some stuff at work, some stuff at home, none of it particularly interesting - and then I went off for a two-week holiday. Most of that time was spent at On The Beach. (That accounts for most of January. As for between now and then, well, that's just the usual deal of me having a hard time actually getting/making the time to write...)

On The Beach is a small, nine-day gaming invitational that has been held in rural New South Wales for the past three Januarys. We are a group of friends (and friends of friends) who rent a house/chalet (or two) and then gather to play the games we all enjoy all day, every day. It's a lot of fun!

Ironically, we've never held the event on a beach. The first year was at a horse ranch in the Blue Mountains; last year was at sheep/cattle station; and this year we were near Jindabyne (see the movie!) in the Snowy Mountains. Being in the mountains and not on a ranch/station/farm meant that there were far fewer of the persistent Australian flies! We had two delightful chalets that were side-by-side. We moved all the tables into one and that was Gaming Central.

The event/group's name was given to us by Ann, perhaps influenced by my fondness for Nevil Shute's novel of the same name where nuclear war has destroyed human life on Earth except for those in Australia, who are just waiting for the inevitable clouds of radiation to arrive and finish the job. In such a situation what else would one do but play games with friends?! The connection to Australia, the surrealism (since we were never on a beach), and the potentially humorous morbidity made the suggestion a hit. (By the way, Nevil Shute was born in London, but emigrated to Melbourne late in his life and wrote several successful novels set in Australia, including 'On The Beach' and 'A Town Like Alice'.)

There were 14 of us attending this year, plus a visitor for one day. I'd like to give a big "THANK YOU!" to everyone for helping to make the event the special time that it was:

From Brisbane:
(Myself, of course)
Ann Dapore (my lovely wife, who was only able to attend for the last three days)
Gary Hampson
Peter Hawes

From Melbourne:
Julian Clarke (the effective "leader" of our group)
Vincent Batori
Jenny _____ (my apologies, but I have forgotten, or wasn't told, your surname!)
Gerald Squelart (visited us for the last day)

From Adelaide:
The Mahony Family: Brendan, Clare, Amanda, Julia, Tara
Alvin Chan
Ben Nelson

Hmmm, we need to find some New South Wales gamers who want to game with us for nine days!

Some stats:
9 days of gaming.
67 playings.
43 different games, 14 of which were new to me.
I won 19 of my playings, and came second in 9 more.
I was last in 13 of the playings.
For the rest, I was either somewhere in the middle of the pack or the game had one winner and everyone else simply didn't win (like in Start Player).

Gaming highlights:

Time's Up!, Time's Up!: Title Recall, and Surf's Up!

Time's Up! is kind of a staple for our group. It's not unusual for it to come out for a few evenings - party game time! - during the event. The new Time's Up!: Title Recall, which features names of movies, books, magazines, plays, albums, songs, pieces of art, etc., rather than the personalities of the original game, was a bit of a hit and was not as likely to get disparaging claims of "American bias".

It was this last issue, as well as a way of putting our group's personal stamp on the game, that led to the creation of Surf's Up!, the On The Beach version of Time's Up! Brendan asked for lists of personalities (fact or fiction, contemporary or historical) from each of us and then beautifully printed them on cards for us to play the game with.

And what a glorious train wreck it was! The first round went somewhat painfully slowly (teams often scoring 0 or 1 cards per attempt), as many of us were unfamiliar with the names we were trying to guess or give clues to. Some examples from my memory: Layne Beachley, George Stephenson, some woman who was formerly the Premier of South Australia and is now some sort of judge, Quinn Mallory, Sailor Mercury. There was much gnashing of teeth as the players were stymied by the game.

After a raucous review of all the answers, the second round actually went quite quickly, though all the clues were words gleaned from the review. It was the mass consensus that there would be no third round (when clue-givers are not allowed to use words at all). Spirited discussion ensued, however.

Though I probably sound critical of the experience, I should point out that my perspective is quite mixed. On the one hand, it was a slow and painful experience of something that should be a quick and fun party game. On the other hand, I haven't laughed so long and so loud for quite some time. We're talking about laughing until it hurts!

By the way, the team of Julia and Amanda won the game, scoring 16 points with their hive-mind communication patterns. Clare and Julian got second with 15 points, and all the other teams got 12 or 13.

Solid Gold Music Trivia

This game has just the right level of difficulty for myself and Julian. As the love of early rock is one of Julian's defining characteristics, we make it an annual event to compare knowledge. Our bouts are best two out three. Julian won the first two games, so the set went to him. I then won two out of the next three. So it was somewhat close, but Julian took the trophy for the year.

These questions work well for me and Ann, also; though I usually (but certainly not always) am able to give a few more correct answers.

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game

Game Turn 1: I start as Admiral Adama and I am a Cylon. "Well, this will be interesting," I think. But being the Admiral is a good position for a Cylon.

Game Turn 2: A Crisis event causes the Presidency to be taken from Gaius Baltar (played by Ann) and given to...ME! So the game has barely begun and I'm the Admiral and the President ... and a Cylon. Nice!

Game Turn 3: The next Crisis event allows Vince to look at my Loyalty cards. He tells everyone I'm a Cylon! I deny it, of course.

But the group can't get the necessary cards to throw me in the brig! I spend another round and a half wreaking havoc where possible. "I think we should move the civilian ships closer to the attacking Cylon fleet, to help with our defence." I continue to deny that I'm a Cylon.

Eventually, they're able to throw me in the brig. The Presidency returns to Gaius Baltar (Ann). I off myself, resurrect in the Cylon fleet, and continue to work against the Humans, for whom things are going badly. At a crucial point, Ann reveals that she's a Cylon, too! The lack of food leads to riots which cause the fleet's morale to plummet and, well, the Humans never really had a chance. High fives for the Glorious New Cylon Age!

The Australian Games Expo / Cancon

The Australian Games Expo was held for three years over the Queen's Birthday Weekend (June). This year, they made a last-minute announcement that they were going to cancel those plans and instead join with the Cancon convention in Canberra. This event coincided with our last weekend at On The Beach. Since we were avid attendees of The Australian Games Expo in previous years, we thought we'd take a day trip (2-1/2 hours each way) and check out what was going on.

It was an opportunity to say hello to some people we knew and to check out a couple of new games. After a perusal of the dealers' area and then some lunch, Julian, Vince, Ann and I made our way to the Rio Grande Games booth, where we played Fast Flowing Forest Fellers ("ok", but nothing special) and Sylla ("enjoyable enough").

The Australian Games Expo part of Cancon seemed kind of small and cramped. But the attending gamers were enthusiastic and friendly, as always. My understanding is that there's supposed to be a whole lot more space available next year, and I imagine there will be a bit more fore-planning. That, combined with the fact that more gamers will attend, means that the event should just get better and better!

All in all, it was a fun nine days of gaming in the mountains. I look forward to next year!