First Plays and It Never Rains But It Pours

Many of my unplayed games are kids' games, and with the kid here all weekend and no Scrabblette I had a perfect opportunity to play some of them.

First up was Careers, an old game which I picked up at the Lifeline Bookfest. It's the one where you decide your goal which is a combination of happiness, fame and money and then choose your careers to achieve that goal. The kid enjoyed it a lot and though the first time that he'd not known enough about defining goals to be competitive so we played again. He'd certainly learned all of the tricks I knew for the second game but lost a lot of cash in a hailstorm and I beat him for the second time.

Next was Upwords which I've always thought of as a children's word game. Maybe so, but it's a bit difficult and rewards thought. I'd like to play it again with Scrabblette when she gets back. The kid can't compete with me.

Last time we were in Melbourne we found a copy of Booby-Trap in a toy shop and the kid put on his pleading face until I bought it for him. We set it up last night and played 5 games in about 15 minutes. We agreed it was kinda boring and needed to be traded. The main feature of the game seems to be that it explodes and sprays bits all over the room which is not a strong point in my book. Nephew might like it.

The kid was sick this morning so I stayed home to look after him. We played Under Cover with 2 real players and 2 fakes. It was clearly going to be a race between blue and orange (me). The kid caused blue to win, and then revealed that he was purple, who'd come last. Huh? Tell me about the strategy? OK, maybe 7 players would be better.

We then set up 13 Deadend Drive (which I traded from schlappy) only to hear a tsunami warning for the entire east coast of Australia. We live 2 or 3 kilometres from the beach so it was of some concern to me. As we played the game we kept the TV news on, and I kept checking the web for news of whether any places further north had been washed away. As the game wore on the putative tsunami failed to arrive further and further down the coast, until by the time the game had finished I'd decided we were safe. The kid managed to kill one of his own people, and the last two alive were both mine. I can't remember whether the gummy old gardener or the seductive maid got rich. I hope it was the maid...

Next up was Cluedo: the Great Museum Caper. I've owned this game for many years and although I've played it quite a few times, I don't remember who with. The kid has wanted to play it for such a long time, but when he used to ask all the time he was too little to be able to. In our first game I managed to catch him after he wasted time wandering around the museum stealing no paintings. Then I escaped with 2. I think it was during this game that we heard the side gate close, so I went and told the dog that someone had invaded her territory. It was a parcel delivery man who'd delivered some games from unhalfbricking.com.au. I opened it to take delivery of Cave Troll, On the Underground, Hey! That's My Fish! and Funny Friends.

Then ensued several hours of punching and bagging, punctuated by a mysterious phone call from the nursing home where my mum is very sick and a trip to the shops to get some superglue to repair the chandelier from 13 Deadend Drive. I set up Hey! That's My Fish! and defeated the kid soundly. He challenged me to another game and I beat him even more soundly. I need Scrabblette to play that one too.

I had intended to play Cave Troll but when we got back from the shops there was a small parcel in the mail box - the Portable Adventures card games from Third World Games - Lair of the Rat King and 8th Grade. As if I hadn't unpacked enough games today already! We played two games of Lair of the Rat King. In the first, I was very badly beaten, but the tables were reversed in the second.

Phew! I feel like I've done nothing but play games all day, but of course I prepared 3 meals and cleaned up the kitchen and all the other domestic things as well. My Friendless metric was as high as -11 at one stage during the day, but I suspect with all of the new unplayed games (well, just 3 of them) it has dropped again.

Oh yes, we managed to fit a couple of games of Connect 4 and one of Hamsterrolle in there as well. It's been a busy weekend. I'm going to bed to relax with a Dungeon Master's Guide.