Raven Oak's Blog, page 57
June 1, 2015
Monday Night Gaming: 7 Wonders
Publisher:
Asmodee
# of Players: 2-7 players
Best with: 4 players
Playing Time: 1st time through, maybe 45-60 minutes. After that, 30-45 minutes.
# of Expansions: Five, plus lots of promo cards
# of Parts: 157 cards + 46 conflict tokens, 7 wonder boards, score booklet, and rule book.
Before now, we’d only played 7 Wonders in two-player mode, so I held off on reviewing it until we could play it with at least three players. (In two-player mode, you play wit...
May 29, 2015
Flashback Friday: Don’t Bite the Sun
A few days ago (May 24th), Tanith Lee passed after a long battle with cancer. She was an author that I discovered in high school, but with Don’t Bite the Sun and its sequel, Drinking Sapphire Wine, being two books I love, I felt it fitting to do a Flashback Friday post on it.
The first time I read the book, it was in the omnibus form titled Biting the Sun and contained both Don’t Bite the Sun and its sequel.
This book was t...
May 28, 2015
Book Cover Throwback: Damia
This week’s Book Cover Throwback: Damia by Anne McCaffrey, art by Larry Hampton.
Click to view much larger.
What I Love about This Cover: I love the leggings the women in this series wear. I always wanted a pair as a kid. I also love the geological backgrounds in the series of covers (The Rowan, Damia, Damia’s Children, The Tower & the Hive, etc.).
What I Don’t Love about This Cover: The man in the background (I can’t remember if that’s supposed to be her father or her future husband) has some s...
May 25, 2015
Memorial Day’s History
Normally I’d have aMonday Night Gaming post today, but between the holiday and deadlines, it’s not happening. Instead, I’m reminding folks of Memorial Day’s history.
My husband and I were at the store on Friday. While there, we were bombarded with “Memorial Day Sales!” and urged to “Buy 1 Get 1 Free!” for our “Holiday BBQ!”
We both looked at each other and sighed.
Memorial Day in the U.S. has a rich history that has nothing to do with BBQ, parties, and fireworks. It’s not the 4th of July folks,...
May 23, 2015
Scrivener Saturday: Compile Replace
Built into Scrivener‘s compile feature is the ability to do a Project Replace. Seems like a simple and underused option until you find yourself running into a huge issue that spans both Windows and OS machines–the dreaded quotation mark.
More specific, the quotation mark that follows a hyphen.
Important!
Example: “If I wanted my quotation mark to face the wrong way, I’d—”If you use straight quotes, it’s not normally an issue, but if you dare to use smart quote...
May 22, 2015
Flashforward Friday: Cloning
For this week’s Flashforward Friday post, I’m filling in for a guest-post cancellation. Sometimes I miss doing these, so I don’t mind the chance to fill in!
Flashforward Friday: Cloning!Despite DNA not being discovered for another twenty years, Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley explored the theme of cloning. Fandoms like Orphan Black, Doctor Who, and Star Wars have leapt into the ethics of cloning.
As a species, we’re obsessed with questions like Who am I and How did life begin, so it mak...
May 21, 2015
Book Cover Throwback: Don’t Bite the Sun
This week’s Book Cover Throwback: Don’t Bite the Sun by Tanith Lee.
What I Love about This Cover: I love the imagery and the style of detail in this cover. I had no idea Brian Froud was the cover artist when I picked up this cover. I’m a huge fan of this work, so coupling it with an awesome book was bonus!
What I Don’t Love about This Cover: I wish the DAW logo wasn’t that large. Otherwise, there is nothing I dislike about this cover. Absolutely gorgeous.
Click here to view other Book Cover Thro...May 18, 2015
Monday Night Gaming: Pokemon Rumble World
Last week, I took a look at thefreemium game Pokemon Shuffle, which fell prey to everything people hate about the freemium game model. Where Shuffle failed, Rumble World succeeded.
Shuffle lacks any sort of plot line, but Rumble World possess one (albeit a simplistic one). In Rumble World, players act as their Mii‘s in the Kingdom of Toys. Inside this kingdom are 719 “toy versions” of Pokemon. The King has asked the player to travel to...
May 15, 2015
The Cake is NOT a Lie!
The Cake is NOT a Lie! Seriously.
There will be cake. And you can eat it.
What am I rambling about? Glad you asked. Tomorrow (Saturday), May 16th, I’ll be one of four awesome writers/editors at a mixed writer/reader event. We’ll begin with a look at how not to write a novel, then move into a Q&A. This will be followed up by readings from all of us and a book signing.
The event is organized by Cascade Writers in conjunction with the King County Library System and UW Bookstore, who will be on hand...
Flashforward Friday: Diversity
For this week’s Flashforward Friday post, I’m filling in for a guest-post cancellation. Sometimes I miss doing these, so I don’t mind the chance to fill in!
The topic of diversity has come up in conversation lately, and it’s something that I hope we continue to evaluate and understand as we move forward into the future. The dictionary defines diversity as:
the state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness:diversity of opinion.variety; multiformity.the inclusion of individuals represen...
