Catherine Fitzsimmons's Blog: Jinxed, page 10

Gen Con 2019 games wrap-up part 3

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And now, two weeks later, we come to the end. It was a memorable Gen Con as always, and I ended the weekend with some more new (to me) games. Read on for Saturday.

Saturday 7:00-8:00 p.m. – Red Dragon Inn

[image error]Red Dragon Inn has become something of a staple among the board gaming community and I’ve heard plenty of good things about it, but I’d never actually sat down and played it until then.

A game of what the fantasy heroes do after their adventuring, this game revolves around spending cards trying to get characters drunk and trying to be the last one standing. Also gambling, which mainly involves playing “I have the best hand” or cheating cards. Players must keep their drunkenness slider above their health slider and can’t run out of money.

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Balancing humour with solid, fairly simple game play with a lot of back and forth between players, it was indeed a fun game. My biggest regret was that I didn’t have time to finish my game because I had to get to my next.

Saturday 8:00-10:00 p.m. – Bad Medicine

[image error]While it was probably described as such in the program, I didn’t realize this was a party game until I was learning the rules for it. I’m not sure Gen Con is the best atmosphere for a party game, especially when one is playing entirely with people one doesn’t know, but the group I ended up with played enough to figure out the rules, even if it wasn’t necessarily a full round of the game.

Played in the Cards Against Humanity style, players combine cards from their hand to come up with the name, mechanism, and side effects of a new medicine to treat a chosen malady. Players then each pitch their cure as though to a board of directors for a pharmacology company and then all vote on which cure they thought was the best.

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The game was definitely worth a few laughs when I played it, though again, it wasn’t played with the easy comfort of a known group of friends, and we didn’t really have enough players in our group to maximize the fun. Overall, while I enjoyed it well enough while there, the market is saturated with CAH-style party games at the moment, and there wasn’t enough that really made this one stand out enough from the competition.

However, there was one mechanic that gave it an interesting twist, and might make the game a lot more fun if played properly. When played with more people, players break up into teams of two, with one player choosing the cards and the other chosen to pitch, without seeing the cards they’re supposed to pitch beforehand. Our group of four, including the GM, gave it a try just to see how it played (even though we would need several more people than that to play it properly), and one of the players broke everyone at the table when he handed the GM this gem to pitch:

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To be fair, my biggest complaint with this game was that we didn’t need nearly two hours to play it—I’m pretty sure my group had gotten the gist of it within thirty minutes—which left me lots of time to kill and wish I could’ve finished playing Red Dragon Inn.

Saturday 10:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. – Dungeon Raiders

[image error]The goal of Dungeon Raiders is pretty much what one would expect: the players, playing a group of adventurers, try to fight their way through a dungeon and end with the most gold without dying. Dungeon cards, which can be played face up or down, present heroes with monsters, traps, treasure, or vaults, and players simultaneously choose cards of priority 1-5 to attempt to defeat the monster or avoid the trap, claim the treasure or choose a reward from the vault. Various items can also give players an advantage.

This was another fairly simple but surprisingly strategic game, and while one has to work together with the other players to defeat monsters, it’s also very easy to force a trap to spring on a certain player or otherwise sabotage other players’ plans. You also have to keep track of your health, because whoever has the most damage at the end of the game dies and is out, and in both games I played, the player with the most amount of gold was also the one who died. It was a fun, quick game, and again, my biggest complaint is that there was way too much time allotted to it, as I’m pretty sure that after two games and a bit of chatting afterward, it wasn’t even one hour into our time slot. Still, being Saturday night and with a ten-hour drive ahead of us the following night, I didn’t mind getting off early.

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Special mention also goes to one of the other players, who invited me to a King of Tokyo tournament on the Sunday morning. Spoiler alert: I lost in the first round.

Thanks once again to all the game masters and volunteers who helped make it another fun weekend of gaming. Can’t wait to do it again next year.

Gen Con 2019 games wrap-up part 2

Who continues to be a lousy blogger? *holds hand up*

I did not, in fact, only play games on the Wednesday evening before the convention began, but throughout the convention as well! Thursday and Friday games below, Saturday to follow (hopefully not a week from now, though).

Thursday 8:00-10:00 p.m. – Get Me a Fresh Brain!

[image error]“Congratulations! You’ve just completed your Evil Doctorate and have returned to the small eastern European village where you grew up to exact your revenge.”

The premise of this game tickled me to no end, and kicked off a weekend of B-movie-themed board games. Players take a randomly drawn crew of evil doctor and two henchmen (well, one -man and one henchwoman) and try to gather body parts to create a monster, while preventing other players from doing the same. In the second part of the game, players build their monster and unleash it on the unwitting village. The player whose monster causes the most destruction, or is the last one standing, wins.

Thematically, the game was great, and the cards provided plenty of humour to support it. Turns being one action each, game play got a little sluggish at times, particularly when one’s carefully laid plans were abruptly kiboshed before one gets around to their turn again. It became a game of trying to build a monster quickest versus trying to obtain the best body parts and thus create the best monster, all while other players target anyone who seems to be close to doing well.

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It was an interesting game, and one I’d be willing to play again, but it’s not necessarily high on my list.

Thursday 10:00-11:30 p.m. – Chocobo Party Up!

[image error]This was a late addition to my schedule, found after an advertisement for new Square-Enix board games on the Gen Con Facebook page and which slotted perfectly into the one gap I had left in my schedule at that point. Plus, it’s chocobos, so I’m automatically in.

Players roll dice and move around the board to try to collect Chocobo pals and return them to their own nest. Cards help that and players can try to steal Chocobo pals from other players. Game play was simple, though a few rules made it slightly more complex than it first appeared. It was cute, but pretty much what I was expecting: more gimmicky than having truly engaging game play. I had fun enough while playing it, but am not particularly interested in picking up the game.

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Friday 7:00-8:00 p.m. – Animalchemists

[image error]This card game was another that caught my eye from title alone. Players each take the role of an animal alchemist, gathering ingredients and crafting potions to collect spells, trying to have the highest value collection before the game ends.

As promised, the game was cute, and the game play was simple but fun and moved quickly. Some of the animals to choose from (pangolin, sloth) were hard-pressed to compete against some of the others (fennec fox, red panda) but this production-ready game which should be Kickstarting next week had beautiful artwork and was a quick, enjoyable play.

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Friday 8:00-10:00 p.m. – Santa vs the Space Invaders

[image error]Continuing my B-movie theme, I went on to this variation of the board/card game Shuffling Horror, though, seeing as it was the first time I’ve played Shuffling Horror, I’m not certain how much of the game play was this particular variant and how much is part of the original game. Players take the role of characters, or survivors, in a B movie, and play against the Director through three acts, trying to defeat the monsters and challenges the Director presents, in an attempt to make it to the end credits.

I’m sorry to say that this was my least favourite game of the convention. Again, it was thematically very fitting and generally made a lot of sense for how it was laid out, as well as inserting some humour into the way it played and some of the cards used (as it would be for something called Santa vs the Space Invaders). However, game play was very slow, there was very little cooperation needed for what was supposed to be a co-op game, and honestly, much of the game seemed to be spent just sitting and dealing with the problems the Director dished out at us. I don’t think many of the players really enjoyed themselves and suffice to say, it wasn’t a ringing endorsement either of this expansion or of Shuffling Horror in general.

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Friday 10:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. – Venus Needs Men! [image error]

I did mention I was on a B-movie kick, didn’t I? In this Earth invasion game, players take the roles of different alien invaders (Venus is just one of the factions available) and try to take back as many humans as possible for their own purposes. Different factions have different abilities, Zap! cards can cause a multitude of effects, and players can also upgrade their ships or other equipment.

Immediately following up Santa vs the Space Invaders, I went into this game a little ambivalent, but this ended up being my favourite game of the weekend. Not an amazing game, but definitely fun. Game play moved fast and between the player abilities and particularly the Zap! cards, things could turn around quickly for any player at any time. Even when my initial burst of human gathering was swiftly smothered, I still had fun and still felt like I had a chance. Overall, this game was just plain fun to play, and I certainly wouldn’t mind ordering it sometime.

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Gen Con 2019 games wrap-up part 1

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Ah, Gen Con. Where friends are made, games are played, and lack of sleep is inevitable. And after five days, my cat is actually happy to see me.

After two successful years of scheduling my evenings full prior to the con, I’m starting to get the hang of it, and found more games I wanted to play than I had time for this year. What did I play? Click the tag and let’s go back to last Wednesday.

Wednesday 8:00-9:00 p.m. – TRAP

When I read in the event catalogue that in this game, players try to navigate a maze filled with traps blindfolded, I wondered how that was handled. Turns out, they meant it quite literally.

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Each player starts with six trap tokens. The active player puts on a blindfold while the others arrange their traps across the board, and then the active player, still blindfolded, takes the player piece and attempts to navigate from one corner of the board to the opposite without hitting any of the traps. It gets easier as you go, as the traps also double as player lives, so that each time a player fails, a trap goes away. The last one standing wins.

[image error]Anytime a game involves cute/funny animal sleep masks, I’m listening. It also turned out to be a pretty simple but quite fun game. And I’m not just saying that because I won. Though that helps. We played a prototype of the game that may or may not be fully developed later, but I hope it will be.

Wednesday 9:00-10:00 p.m. – Usurp the King

In this card game, players use their influence to try to sway members of the king’s court to their side. In the second phase of the game, players use various items/characters to attempt to thwart other players’ intentions. The winner can vary greatly, as a series of victory conditions based on circumstances can change the outcome (is the king dead, is his heir disgruntled and refuses the crown, etc.).

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I’ll admit, on immediate play, I wasn’t enthralled with this game, but on reflection after the fact, I think that was mostly due to my carefully laid plans all being dismantled in the second phase. Yet, in the end, due to victory conditions bringing us to the “kingmaker” phase, I nearly came back and won.

Thematically, the game was very appropriate, and while my attempts to describe the game play made it sound clunky, I’d be willing to give this game another shot.

Gen Con haul 2019

Books:[image error]

The Pirate’s Scourge by Chris A. Jackson
The Fool’s Path by H. T. Brady
The Lady of Seeking in the City of Waiting by Jennifer Brozek
A Counterfeit Princess by Doug Bedwell
Missing Pieces Volume X by Dragon Roots Publishing
Aquicorn Cove by Katie O’Neill
The Banished Craft by E. D. E. Bell

Games:

Wander: The Cult of Barnacle Bay by Panda Cult Games with promo cards and expansion character Bebo
A Fistful of Penguins by Wattsalpoag Games
Agent 299 by DPH Games
Dark Kitsune for Super Dungeon
Veteran Turret Gunner/Skilled Bombardier double-sided promo card for Star Wars: X-Wing
Dr. Hoo promo card for Cats

Pins and buttons:

Genevieve the dragon and “Game on!” from Gen Con
Sheep from Catan
Crowned fox from the Crowned Rabbit
Dragon from Lindsey Burcar
Boss Monster
Here, Kitty, Kitty!
Gold dragon from Geek Chic
Longpack Games
10th anniversary Foam Brain Games
Barbarian from Too Many Bones
Pathfinder button
The Fool from the Arcana series by H. T. Brady
Winner from Formal Ferret Games
Little Bestiary

Miscellaneous:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time water temple T-shirt
Catan “We built this city on rock and wheat” T-shirt
Doge sleep mask courtesy of Aspis Net game Trap
Two replica pirate coins

Not pictured: Tin of White Cherry tea from Tea & Absinthe

Mid-year pulse check

Obviously, my attempts to blog more early in the year didn’t last very long. As usual, the greatest hindrance to it is myself. I’m sure I will always have something to write about, after all. I’m still sitting on photos from the winter to share, not to mention those from a trip to Banff a few weeks ago.

So what have I been up to while not blogging? The big news is that I have two new books that pretty much only need cover art to release, including Sisters of Chaos book 2. There may still be some final tweaking to that one, so I can’t give a release date yet. I’m also currently working on a short story which is a bit different from my usual fare, though that one’s not going to see print until next year (if it goes well).[image error]

Also, because I clearly can’t stand the thought of having a manageable workload, I’ve begun narrating audiobooks for Brain Lag. I’ve recorded two so far; the first, J. R. Dwornik’s Green Light to Paradise, came out last fall, and the newest, Innocent Earth by Dale E. McClenning, has been submitted for distribution and is making its way into catalogues.

It’s a lot of work; Innocent Earth took 100 hours total. That doesn’t sound like a whole lot in the context of 40-hour work weeks, but with my rather reduced work days and other projects going on at the same time, it took me about six months to finish it. However, voice acting has turned out to be a lot of fun. (I particularly enjoyed voicing a flamboyant preacher from Kentucky in Innocent Earth.) I also get a chuckle while editing now and then, say, when my cat decided to chip in. While I’ve decided to take a little break from it for the moment, I look forward to recording my next audiobook.

As for my 2019 goals, according to Goodreads, I’m three books ahead of schedule for beating my best year of reading. So a few of them are graphic novels; I didn’t specify that for my goal! Regrettably, I haven’t been doing as well with playing guitar in the past couple months. I think I was doing better than the last time I ‘seriously’ tried to learn before my practice time dried up, so I would like to find time for it again. I enjoyed playing.

However, I am happy to report that I have continued an over 150-day streak on Duolingo learning Japanese. I’m far from holding a real conversation, of course, but I’ve learned a few hundred words so far, am beginning to understand the idiosyncrasies of the language, and continue practicing reading hiragana and katakana whenever I see it. It’s been fun and maintaining an unbroken streak for so long (okay, so I’ve had two cheat days) certainly motivates me to keep learning every day.

I also just finished refreshing the design of the Brain Lag website, which involved learning how to make a responsive web design, or one that will change depending on the size of the device viewing it. Aside from that, I’ve managed to uphold some other personal goals, so it has been a productive year for me so far.

Now let’s see if I’ll actually fit blogging in to the rest of that.

Judging by the cover

How much work do you put into defining, and describing, a character’s appearance?

When I was a teenager, I described my characters in detail. I had clear images in my mind of how they looked and I wanted readers to get that same image. I also loved (and still love) crazy anime hair colours. I’ll admit I was guilty of this:

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But the books I read increasingly gave me the impression that describing characters in such detail was juvenile. I also came to shy away from unnatural hair colours, at least in traditional fantasy, for the same reason. I also prefer these days to make my characters more average-looking. After all, the world is not made up of Doctor Dooms and Captain Americas; it is made up of Johns and Jenns, Abduls and Taniquas. And I prefer to write stories about those regular people.

Yet, as a reader, I enjoy reading full descriptions of characters, getting an image in my head as clear as the author’s, and as accurate. And increasingly, my rebuttal to those reasons not to describe them in detail—show, don’t tell; don’t info dump; it’s not that important—is why not? It’s all fiction, and in my case, it’s all fantasy and science fiction. What problem is it to go ahead and describe characters in detail? One can go on too long, of course, but that is true of anything.

Aside from that, a character’s physical appearance says a lot about them. It is an extension of their personalities. How a character dresses or looks or styles their hair tells you a bit about them.

For example, take Damian, the star of my Sisters of Chaos trilogy. Her most distinguishing feature is her vivid yellow eyes; of course, they show that she’s different, and she’s spent the vast majority of her life hiding them behind a veil, until she makes a conscious choice not to hide them anymore. She styles her hair nicely, because she is effeminate and because she’s trying to show that there’s more to her than her strange eyes and what they represent. Yet, she makes fashionable gowns for herself that accentuate her body (slender, not shapely), not try to emphasize features she doesn’t have. She doesn’t wear corsets or padding or anything; she’s trying to show her best self, yet she is honest to a fault and does not want to be accepted for something she’s not.

Then there’s Garrick. He’s Marvel Studios ripped and very attractive, with an infectious/roguish smile. He is constantly aware of how he is perceived by others, and adjusts his posture, speech, and expressions to maximum effect for whatever company he’s in. Partly he does so to get whatever he’s looking for out of the encounter, and partly it’s to get the respect he has desperately desired throughout his life, and it also serves to cover up his own insecurities.

Maybe you don’t get all of that with a strict description of how a character looks, but the fact is, there’s a reason behind every character’s appearance. A character might be wearing an expensive but ill-tailored suit because they’re new money and don’t know how to live the high life, but want to. Maybe a female character refuses to wear a bikini because she’s self-conscious. A male character might have a patchy, or overly thick, beard because he’s trying to compensate for a babyish face he gets teased about otherwise.

All these details are more than just giving a reader a clear picture of the character the author is depicting; they’re clues into the character. And as readers, we also form opinions of the characters based on how they look, because that tends to show pieces of the character. Whether those opinions are affirmed by the character or challenge our biases, it adds to our understanding of the character.

And really, what’s wrong with describing a character’s appearance in detail?

A little micro fiction

“Skin-tight leather? Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to move in this?”

“It’s protection!”

“Against what, mosquitoes? Do you have any idea how hot and sweaty and sticky that’s going to get in a fight?”

“What do you want to be, the Superhero in Sweats?”

“Now that’s not a bad idea.”

May the frosting be with you

This weekend was my husband’s birthday, and since he’s a big Star Wars fan (and I wanted to try out my new candy melting pot), I decided to make Star Wars cupcakes!

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I used the new X-Wing and Millennium Falcon silicone mold I got for Christmas to make the cupcake toppers.

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I melted bright white candy melts in my electric candy pot, together with a few leftover Halloween chocolates…

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… and poured it into the molds, then put them in the fridge for half an hour to harden. (With thanks to my daughter for photography credit.)

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Presto! Delicious candy starships. Now on to the cupcakes. (Chocolate, of course.)

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For the frosting, I started with a basic butter cream frosting. Homemade, I don’t do store bought in this house.

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I wanted to do a bit of a galaxy style for the frosting, so I split it in half, made half into chocolate and split the other half to colour blue and purple.

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Filled up a piping bag, gave it a quick swirl, and it was ready to go.

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Used a big star tip and started frosting.

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I also added some edible silver glitter dust to complete the galaxy look. It’s not super obvious, but it does add a little pop.

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Once that was done, it was time for the ships.

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And voila! The colours didn’t turn out quite as I was hoping they would, but I’m pretty pleased with the results. They’re also very tasty.

On pride

Pride. One of the Seven Deadly Sins.

It is not so much taught as it is ingrained into our society that pride is the worst form of narcissism.

But is it really so evil? Is it so wrong to feel proud of our accomplishments? Who does it harm for someone to take joy in being smart, or pretty, or strong, or creative? Why is it such a grave insult for one to respond to a compliment by agreeing with it?

No, I think the true evil is egotism. Putting oneself before everyone else. This, in my opinion, is far more rampant and far more insidious than pride.

After all, when one takes it as an affront if someone agrees with a compliment, whose ego is so paramount that it becomes challenged? A compliment should be given selflessly; to turn it around and say that the compliment is somehow lessened because the receiver did not bestow the proper praise upon the giver changes the intention entirely.

It’s why people are so quick to argue about the things they enjoy, or don’t. It always baffles me, even frustrates me, that so many people can’t seem to let others like what they like. Their opinions become so important that it becomes a personal threat when others don’t feel the same way. The perceived challenge to their worldview overrides any understanding that another’s enjoyment (or non-enjoyment) of something has no bearing on one’s own opinions.

This egotism seems the source of so many problems in today’s society. Racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, other forms of bigotry—it all derives from this need to be better than others. Denial of white privilege—belief that a systemic issue is instead a personal condemnation. Judging others over everything from how they look to how they live—reinforcing the idea that one’s own being is better than others’.

All of these problems hide the fact that none of these perceived issues have any bearing or judgment upon the viewer’s life. Does that person who looks funny diminish one’s own self-worth? Does accepting that being born white means one has an easier time in life affect one’s value? Does the fact that gay people exist really have any impact over one’s life at all?

No. It’s all a result of inflating one’s ego above others.

I don’t mean to say that all of this is done maliciously. In fact, I think a lot of such problems are related to the fact that we are taught not to feel pride. Because we’re not allowed to take joy in our accomplishments or positive traits, we seek that validation of self-worth in destructive ways. And for those who are more attuned to those destructive habits, it results in rampant imposter syndrome, feelings of worthlessness, and depression.

I think it’s time to admit that pride isn’t the enemy. Of course, one can take it too far, but then it goes back to the problem of egotism. So be proud of your accomplishments. Take joy in whatever part of yourself makes you happy. And more importantly, allow others to feel pride when they’ve earned it. There’s nothing wrong with that. And if you find yourself feeling insulted by someone else’s views or appearance or being, maybe stop and ask yourself if it really has any impact on your own life before saying something.

On resolutions

[image error]When I was younger, I wasn’t crazy about New Year’s. (Admittedly, I didn’t get invited to many parties.) These days, however, I like the spirit of renewal. A blank slate. Casting off the wearied remnants of the old year and looking toward the bright potential of the future.

Yes, it’s an arbitrary date and people shouldn’t need an excuse to improve themselves. But it’s a landmark. A reminder, when we’re so often swept up in the chaos of our daily lives, that we should constantly be trying to better ourselves.

And now, in the Information Age, it’s easier than ever to do. Free apps can teach you a new language, how to play an instrument, how to draw and meditate and all sorts of things. YouTube videos can show you how to make or do almost anything. There’s a mountain of free ebooks and online courses out there that can help you master a new skill or subject. Most of these options are even broken down into chunks that only require a few minutes a day. There’s no excuse not to attempt any pursuit one might desire.

I don’t tend to make resolutions. I made an exception with my Goodreads reading challenge for 2019, and I’ll admit I like the push it gives me. Otherwise, however, I don’t want to pressure myself. I prefer goals. Google Fit keeps trying to get me to lower my fitness goals, make them more consistently attainable for me. But I’m not out to check boxes off every day. I want to strive for those goals. I won’t beat myself up if I don’t make them, but I’ll allow myself to feel good if I do.

I don’t have a lot of goals for 2019. I already started trying to exercise regularly a few months ago, and last year I made some changes to my health that significantly improved my overall quality of life. I want to read more, of course. I do want to try to get the second Sisters of Chaos book out this year. Editing continues to be a slog, but I’m using the spirit of improvement the new year provides to try to push myself to at least continue working on it.

Of course, with all these options for personal improvement out there, it’s hard not to get swept up in the different things one can learn or do. I look at the guitar(s) in my bedroom and think about the apps I’ve looked at to try to start playing again. I watch my daughter using new art supplies and think about breaking out some of my own that I haven’t touched for years. I even downloaded one of those language learning apps on a whim last night.

Is it too much? Maybe. Do I have too little time to explore all these interests? Maybe not, at least based on the apps I’ve seen. Will I lose interest before the month’s out? Possibly. But these options are better than just sitting around playing a silly mobile game or watching cat videos on YouTube, which I tend to do more often in my free time because it’s easier than doing anything that can be judged. Maybe my true resolution should be to stop being intimidated by starting anything.

The key to a good new year is not merely hoping or wishing that it will be better. Now’s the time to start making things happen.

Here’s to a great 2019.

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The year of trying more? Oil pastels, 2.5″ x 3.5″