john's blog

There has been a rise in recent years of so-called Euro Games that have some defining characteristics:

- They're short to play -- usually less than two hours.
- No one is eliminated from the game.
- Play tends to be friendlier. While there is competition for resources, there is usually very little direct conflict between players.

Some examples include: Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, and Puerto Rico.

Slightly off-topic for this site, but still worth mentioning. In the same block as Proctors, future sight of Council, at the corner of State and Broadway, is Bow-Tie Cinema's: Movieland 6.

The seats are decent (half-floor, half stadium). The popcorn has real butter. There are no commercials before the movie (just a couple of trailers).

For anyone who is sick of Regal's monopoly on main-stream movies in the Capital District, you should check them out. You can find their showtimes and tickets here:

http://www.movietickets.com/house_detail.asp?house_id=10476

Went to Zombie Planet this evening to game. Played Lunar Rails with Alex Jurkat and Bernie Trombley.

We were joined in the upstairs gaming area by approx. twelve Magic: The Gathering players.

Downstairs, there was a miniatures battle with some card based combat system that George, the owner, was playing. The game appeared to be fantasy skirmish, but I didn't get a close enough look to be sure.

I was there for both slots of the May Game-a-thon and found it to be very well attended. The afternoon featured several games, but was dominated by the rising interest in Heroscape. Eric had *three* tables of players.

I, on the other hand, ran Carcassonne and had two players. I bought the game a few years ago but never took it out of the shrink-wrap until committing to put it on the schedule. I wish I opened it years ago when people were still keen to play it. I like the game a lot. It plays at about the same level as Settlers of Catan, but is very different in play.