Home

Advertisement

Breydon William Stone - Born May 21, 2008

  • Jun. 6th, 2008 at 2:08 PM




My son, Breydon William Stone, was born on May 21, 2008 at 5:18PM. He weighed 6lbs 9oz. He and his mother are doing fine.

Review: John Brown's Plowology

  • Jun. 2nd, 2008 at 2:28 PM

Mark Twain once said "All of us contain Music & Truth, but most of us can't get it out.". John Brown effortlessly weaves together music and truth in his latest Indie CD 'John Brown's: Plowology'. From the opening 'Stomping Grounds', that presents to the listener a bard's tale of how it is--how it was--and how it should be, to the closing 'Along the Way' my ears were caressed by the magic of song and my mind was transported from the corn fields of Indiana to the shores of Charleston and all that is and represents the old south. Great stuff!

Listen to sample tracks and buy your copy here:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/plowology

Writer's Block: Creepy Crawlies

  • May. 28th, 2008 at 9:59 AM

If you had the chance to go crazy and completely overhaul your appearance, what would you do?

Or:

Recount a remarkable incident involving insects.


View other answers

 When I was 4 years old I was playing in my grandparents barn. I spied a horseshoe hanging on the wall of the barn. Climbing a pile of lumber to retrieve the horseshoe I disturbed a wasp nest. I was soon assaulted by a swarm of angry insects. My grandparents rescued me from the ordeal and applied chewing tobacco to my stings which is supposed to draw out the poison.

Tags:

Games in Education Day - Report

  • May. 28th, 2008 at 9:30 AM

Flyers were sent out to 6000 students at all of the middle schools in the Fort Wayne area. The event was advertised on the school district's website and in the local newspaper. We had around a dozen kids show up for the event. It was disappointing to say the least. We had one game company fly out from California for the event and several game companies that donated games for the event. Chessex Manufacturing even created custom dice for us.

So what do we take from this? Is the interest in tabletop games that weak? Is a Saturday event at a local middle school a bad idea? Are middle schoolers not the age group we should be targeting?? What could we have done to better publicize the event??

My feelings are that we probably should have made it open to all ages if were going to do it on a weekend. I think, additionally, that we could do an after school program too. So to make it worth everyone's efforts I am planning to try again in the fall with an all ages event and an 8 week after school program. Will post an update here when we have one. Thanks to everyone who supported the Games in Education Day.

Games in Education Day

  • Jan. 10th, 2008 at 9:19 AM

 I am working on a Games in Education Day at my daughter's middle school. The first one will be held March 8th. We will have tables set-up with a lot of different games for students to play. We're inviting all middle-schoolers in Fort Wayne. Admission is free, but we are asking students to pre-register so we can get an approx count on how many will be attending. All pre-reg students will receive a custom dice from Chessex. We will also have a room set-up for teachers to attend seminars on how to use games in the classroom. I'll keep you posted on this event.

A four-player game... all by myself.....

  • Oct. 8th, 2007 at 10:14 AM

 Played the prototype of Alice this weekend. It cracks me up how different it plays on the table versus the way it played in my mind. I guess that's why games need to be playtested. LOL. I must admit that the version I played on the tabletop was different than the version on paper and it probably explains why it didn't work. Plus I was playing all four players which made it a little confusing at times. But I managed to see a few things that needed to be reworked a little. Basically the game works like this: Alice is moving across the game board one or two spaces at a time. (this is decided by various other characters in the book, which the players control). Oh, did I mention that the character a player is controlling changes every turn? Well, I guess I just did, mention it...I mean...err. Anyway, as I was saying, each player has a pawn that respresents their score by its position on the gameboard. So to recap, Alice is moving one to two spaces a turn while pawns move along the same board and their position denotes their score in the game. When Alice reaches the final square, the game is over and players are scored based on their position on the board. How do the players move their pawns? Dice? No. Spinner? No. 

If you remember the book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you probably remember that there was a trial concerning a certain plate of tarts. Well, in the game players play a modified game of rummy, as their pawns advance, that score them 'tarts' which can be spent to purchase story cards that score the players points and move their pawns. Confusing? Intriguing? My sentiments exactly.

Multiple Projects

  • Oct. 3rd, 2007 at 10:40 AM

Like many people, I multi-task constantly. My day job as an I.T. Director has me working on multiple projects at the same time and it comes as no surprise, to me, that the pattern continues over into my game design. As write this journal entry, I am working on my Alice in Wonderland board game. I bounce back and forth between Alice, Pirate Kings, a super secret game based on a well known horror film franchise, a Civil War Miniatures accessory, etc...etc....etc. And it works for me. I'm hoping to have the prototype for Alice done this weekend. I'll try to post some pics for anyone interested.

GenCon 2007

  • Aug. 25th, 2007 at 12:39 PM

As the 'Week After GenCon' comes to a close I look back on the late nights spent working on Pirate Kings and wonder if I can maintain the momentum. For those of you who don't know I have been working on PK since 2004 off and on. After the last revision I hit a brick wall and was unsure where to go with it. It really is only 60% done as I see it. Sure it's playable. Sure the game mechanics work. But, objectively, is it fun? Maybe a little. That isn't a very good answer. So this week I scrapped a lot of the rules, kept the ones that made it fun and decide to redesign it as a boardgame instead of a card game. It works! A lot better. I spent one of those nights naming all of the pirates in the game. Using a book I picked up from Barnes and Noble that details historical pirates, the period they lived in, and who their captain was. I'll keep you posted