I received a package. Sent from Brasil, it traveled some about 10 000 kilometers before it reached Poland. Quite a journey, huh? It was sent by a gamer who likes my games, who spent a couple of good evenings playing 51st State, Robinson or other my titles and decided that he will do me a surprise and send me a gift. Pure act of kindness.

Every time I experience such acts of kindness  I am left speechless. The time postman gave me package from Brasil. The time I received horseshoe for luck when I was in Lviv. The time I received cookies when I reached Indiana, day before Gen Con… I received t-shirts with cows, with Through the Ages card (me as a leader), I received beautiful traditional serviette…

And every single day, literally every single day I receive an email or geekmail from a gamer who just played one of my games, had fun and decided to tell me that and say thanks for a good time spent. Every single day I experience acts of kindness. Pure selfless kindness.

You gamer are hell of a people. I am happy I can work for you.

Here is a link to the short interview I give in Geneva, both in French and English version. I already miss Switzerland. What a great time it was!

This is guest post by Merry.

I bet you all have albums with photos. OK, at least folders with photos. Albums are no longer popular when we all use Instagram or Picassa, right? But you get my point. Photos. We have them, right?

We have depending on our life situation – photos of kids (first tooth, first step, first soup…) or photos of cats (first time in the box, first time next to the box, first time behind the box…) or photos of dogs (first tooth, first bitten item because of the first tooth…).

Yeah, that kind of stuff.

Our family has photos of games. I mean we have photos of kids, dogs, cats and even Ignacy. We do have some! But most of our photos is about games in our life. First drafts of prototype, first printed copy of the game, first game session, first bite… No, sorry, no bites. Games don’t bite. They don’t devour anything.

Anything, except time.

And always I was very happy about that loss of time!

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We also have friends who have crazy photos in their albums too. Meet Arti i Zachi and their wedding photo…

photo credit: Länsmuseet Gävleborg via photopin cc

Board games provide social experience. We play to meet people. To have fun, to tell jokes, to laugh. Sometimes we also play to win. But let’s face it. If the reason I am in this hobby is winning, I should quit. I don’t win that much. But I do have much fun, I do tell jokes, and I do laugh all the time.

Yesterday’s #boardgamehour was dedicated to banter. As Walt explained to me (since I didn’t know that English word before) banter is: „Table talk. Conversations with jokes.”

Man, playing games for me is all about banter. I am not playing games. I am bantering games!

One of the games that let’s you banter a lot is Michiel Hendricks ’Legacy: testament of duke de Crecy’ published by my Portal Games. At the beginning it looks like boring and dry euro about marriges in XVIII century. Not fun at all. But if you start play, you will discover that author designed cards in an extremely smart way and with a help of publisher (that would be me!) who added cute artwork we have one of the most funny euro games out there!

In the game you choose Friends cards and put them into play as a husbands and wives of your children (and grand children and so on). You choose who deserves to join your family. In a second you are grabbed with a theme. And your fellow players begin to banter…

You’ve just put into play David, the shoe maker. Your family looses Prestige and all players will make laugh of your daughter who had to marry such a dude. Is she pregnant already? they ask. Are you happy with your son-n-law? How’s his family? Do they fancy art? Yeah…

You put into play Constant, the king’s relative… Your family earns a lot of money and Prestige, but… Yeah, bantering again. This man is infertile! You gave up grandchildren just to earn Constant money?! Do you love your daughter? You made her marry such a pig?!

We can go on. Just imagine the moment when you put into play Friedrich, the blackmailer. You can see what’s going to happen, right? You can hear all those nasty jokes about your poor daughter thrown into arms of Prussian beast! But on the other hand, if your son will marry Margareth, hot Prussian physician, that’s other story. You gain Prestige, you have hot lady in your family and now you can look at fellow players with pride in your eyes…

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The trick Michiel introduced in Legacy is so damn simple. No fluff on the cards. Just name, name of the card which at the same time acts as a fluff. Look at those cards:

Sarah, the revolutionary. And that’s it. We see here hot Merida-look-like girl who looses 1 VPoint if you have another US character in the game, because she is a revolutionist! What a lady! I want her!

Elena, the art collector. She get’s 3 cards when you put her into play since she knows many people. Again, I have to say! What a lady!

What about Michael, the ambitious officer? We all want to have such a person in our family! Young and ambitious! This is a good husband for your daughter!

And so on, and so on.

Each card has funny title. Each card makes you comment. Each single card makes people banter. Say jokes and laugh. This is conscious choice that Michiel did. He removed fluff from cards. He changed names of the cards into funny fluff itself. And he succeed. We added funny pictures and here it comes – amazing social experience. Pure fun. Jokes and laugh.

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I do like to read reviews of Legacy, because each reviewer points out this aspect of the game – jokes and bantering, all the time.

Little Metal Dog wrote: As the game progresses and this immense tableau starts to spread out before you, passers by are drawn in almost magnetically, wondering what on earth is going on and why you appear to be building some sort of pyramid while you rant about needing more money to give your great-grandchild the mansion they so desperately require. All the while your opponents are mocking your decision to marry off the youngest heir to the Gardener’s daughter but you did it anyway because love must prevail and it’s the only card you had at your disposal that worked…

Space Biff wrote: Like when you marry your highborn grandson to Arianne the Courtesan because it doesn’t require an action (scandal!) and you really need her plush dowry so you can afford a banquet for your daughter. Then Arianne gives birth and dies thanks to a complication. Thank goodness! What a stroke of luck! Now you can marry your grandson to Isabella the Castilian Princess, a much worthier pairing, and one that will bring a whole set of new friends into the fold.

Drive Through…just listen to Joel Eddy in his „Your Horrifying Comical Testament” video at 18:04 min:

photo credit: zenobia_joy via photopin cc

So we are in Indiana, at Gen Con. We are one day before convention actually starts, so we have few hours to walk around, visit city, do some 'non convention’ stuff. Since me and Merry are wife and husband for couple of years so… so we do decide that we will visit the city separately. She goes her way, I go my way. We’ve been together long enough. I try to find game shops, she tries to find… I have no damn idea. And I don’t even care.

Few hours pass. We finally meet at the dinner. She is happy like a kid and she starts with a huge news:

'I bought a desk!’ she announces.

'What?!’ I can’t believe I hear what I hear.

'A desk. Old, wooden desk. It is beautiful. It is from XIX century! American desk. You will love it.’

'Are you nuts?! You bought in Indiana a desk?!’ There are very bad words that are going to be said in a moment. I am furious. A desk? Is she fucking crazy?!

'It was a bargain! It was beautiful. They said they will help us with shipping.’ she is excited like a kid.

'You want them to ship your fucking desk across ocean?! Merry, are you crazy?!’

I will explode or I will strangle her. There is no other way.

Oh, no, wait, in a fact, there is third way… I wake up.

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Since couple of days I have nightmares. There are three standard motives involved each night: travels, Gen Con, Merry. I need help. Please.

photo credit: mugfaker via photopin cc