Writer, Dabbler In Things
Tonight my wife and I finally introduced our daughter to a game we’ve long been big fans of. Dominion was the first game I’d ever played where players build the very decks they’re playing with as a function of the gameplay itself. This isn’t to be confused with collectible card-type games like Magic: The Gathering … Read more
Following the unprecedented Kickstarter campaign success with Exploding Kittens, the same crew published Unstable Unicorns. Here, each player is trying to build up a “stable” of a winning number of unicorns and/or unicorn-type creatures from their hand–totalling either six or seven, depending on number of players–while trying to prevent others from doing the same. Each … Read more
The latest in our growing collection of games originally for older players that have been geared down for kids is this Scooby-Doo-ized version of Betrayal at House on the Hill. The original game has the players as a group of adventurers searching in and around an old mansion, revealing randomized, modular tiles and aspects to … Read more
I realized ages ago that I come up with the bulk of my creative ideas while working on other material. Not as much sitting and staring out the window (though that happens) and not as much while reading or seeing or hearing something (though that happens more), but far and away, the bulk of my … Read more
It occurred to me today that these aren’t days of isolation, per se. When I first started the Isolation Games posts (way back on Day 12… remember those crazy days when everything was weird and scary and toilet paper was bizarrely being hoarded but we figured if we all just did the right thing we’d … Read more
My nine-year-old daughter has had some interest in coding for the last couple of years. Now bear in mind, at that age, “coding” is pretty much using a program that lets the user drag and drop pre-set commands into a stacked order for, say, a basic (real or virtual) robot to execute:Forward 1 spaceForward 1 … Read more
My daughter has been expressing interest in playing the Pokémon TCG (Trading Card Game) off and on for years. Mostly on when I can’t play and mostly off when I’m ready to try it out, or when we’ve brought it with us on a road trip to stay somewhere, or have watched videos on how … Read more
There’s a lot that grown-ups can learn from kids. Yes, we have bills to pay and jobs to go to (or, even more stressful for many more these days, not), and weighing the pros and cons of getting that root canal… there’s no end of big person responsibilities and issues on our minds. But too … Read more
The Family Edition of Trivial Pursuit is effectively the Junior version of the original game: Here, as you roll the die to move around the spoked wheel of the board, every correct question–broken down into the same original coloured categories of Science & Nature, Entertainment, Sports & Leisure, etc.–gets you a coveted coloured pie wedge. … Read more
I’ve written previously about the importance, as I’ve been reminding myself, of finishing creative projects I start. There are times that it’s easy. (Hello, handful of haiku about some inspiring or topical experiences.) And there are times when it just isn’t going to happen, at least not in that form not now. (Hello, first novel … Read more