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- The Eggle
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festschrift (fest'-shrift) n.
a memorial or complimentary volume issued in honor of a scholar,
usually in the subject area in which the individual distinguished
himself or herself, often written by former students, colleagues
or admirers; also, a similar volume honoring an institution or
society, usually on a significant anniversary.. [from German
fest "celebration" + schrift "publication."]
King Kong [2006] :)
Naomi Watts learns
(first hand) of Shaken-Baby-
Patty-Hearst Syndrome.
Garfield
Randomizer
"BTW: I was thinking about how I 'feel' while I'm playing
Fluxx. I started realizing I feel better in certain circumstances
(Not necessarily my favorite cards.) These circumstances have
little to do with winning (In fact, I seem to get more satisfaction
from certain cards being in play than from actually winning the
game {unless it's a really cool win.}) I don't know if you all
have any interest in such things, but here's my list:
- Best feeling rules in play: Draw 4, Play 3, Final Card Random,
Tax Bonus, Time Bonus
- Best feeling Goals: 10 cards in hand, 5 keepers, All you
need is love
- Best feeling Keepers: Love, Brain, Bread
- Best feeling Actions: Draw 3 Play 2, Pilfer the Trash, Everybody
gets one
Thanks again for making such incredibly cool games." -- email from Dayle
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Treehouse and Wooden Phasers |
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This
has been a very productive week for me as a designer.
Not only did I create a nifty new Icehouse game, which I call
Treehouse,
but I also developed a rubber-band-shooting wooden
phaser!
Treehouse is a surprisingly fun and amazingly easy new Icehouse game, which
uses just one stash and a six-sided die. You can play Treehouse
with any stacking Icehouse stash and a regular D6, and it works
with 2-4 people!
How does it play? Oddly enough, Treehouse is a lot like Fluxx. Each player has 3 pyramids,
which are initially arranged in what we call a Tree (a small
on a medium on a large). This little supply of stuff is like
your Keepers, and you're trying to re-arrange this trio of pieces
so that it matches the grouping in the center of the table, which
is basically the same as a Goal card. Each turn, players re-arrange
their trio pieces, or maybe instead those of "the House."
The actions you get to make are directed by a random element
-- the luck of the draw in Fluxx is replaced by rolling the die
in Treehouse.
And it plays sweet! I could tell immediately that Treehouse
was going to be a winner, just by watching the way people have
been reacting to it. It's great!
Even the name is a winner! It fits perfectly with the elements,
since "tree" is already a well-known Icehouse term,
and it easily makes sense to call the central grouping the House.
Treehouse sounds like kin to Icehouse, which it obviously is,
yet no one has used that name before, either for an Icehouse
game or for any other game (from what we can tell). And since
you can carry a Treehouse set around in your pocket, it's the
perfect game to play IN a treehouse!
We're so very excited about Treehouse that we've decided to
put it on the fast-track to becoming our next release. While
you can play Treehouse with any stacking stash, with all players
having the same color pyramids, it's nicer when everyone can
have their own color. Treehouse sets will be available, in 2
color schemes: Rainbow (Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Black) and
Xeno (Orange, Purple, Cyan, Clear, White). Moreover, Treehouse
is playable with any six-sider, but again, it's nicer if you
have a custom D6 with the names of the 6 actions printed on the
sides, instead of having to consult the lookup table.
Here too, everything just falls into place perfectly! The
colors work just right, since we already have 10 colors of Icehouse
pieces. It divides out so perfectly that each of the 2 color
combos will feature one opaque color, which is itself perfect
because in the game, one color is set aside as being different
from the rest. And including a single D6 in the set is perfect
too, since no other added gaming equipment would fit into the
tube!
The whipped cream on top of all these yummy new ideas is the
game itself, which is so easy that my 9-year old niece instantly
got into it, and yet compelling enough to grab the attention
of my poker-obsessed gaming buddies. Best of all, it's simple
enough to explain the whole game just in the space available
to us on 3 of the long skinny sides of the stash tube packaging!
At least I *think* that's true... let's find out. This week
I'm posting a first draft of the rules
to Treehouse, as formatted for printing onto the tubes. I
am NOT posting them in any other form at this time. I want to
know how well people are able to figure out the game just from
this very spartan version of rules. Please playtest it for us,
and let
us know what you think!
Treehouse finally gives us something we've long desperately
needed: A cheap, yet complete, introductory Icehouse set. Obviously,
the added custom D6 will drive up the cost... Kristin's still
getting dice priced, but we're hoping to retail Treehouse for
$9. And we're hoping to get them done in time for the GAMA Trade
Show in March!
On the other hand, we're taking things slow on the Holy
Fluxx products. The Jewish Fluxx mailing list has been flooded
with messages and we're still debating the exact details of the
New Rule and Action cards which that set will include. As for
the Christian version, the card set seems solid, but we've become
embroiled in a massive (and at times, heated) debate about what
to call it: either Bible Fluxx (which the Christian market would
prefer) or Christian Fluxx (which I like better, since it's consistent
with Jewish Fluxx and more technically correct). So, we haven't
officially announced this product to the industry yet (much less
sent anything to the printers), and we're taking some extra time
to make up our minds...
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In
other news, over the weekend we helped out at a big birthday
party for my niece & nephew, and for the occasion, I invented
a way of making a rubber-band shooting phaser out of a piece
of wood, some nails, and a binder clip!
James
and Sharon turned 9 on Friday, and what they told their parents
they wanted for their birthday was to have a sleepover. While
this filled the parents with dread, they agreed... and quickly
lined up extra adult supervision, i.e. the 3 of us. Since James
has recently become obsessed with Star Trek, that was to be the
overall theme of his party, while Sharon's theme, Animals, reflects
a long-time passion.
Less that 48 hours before the party was to supposed to start,
I got email from Judy saying, "I'm trying to figure out
a craft that the boys can do during the party. We are going to
watch the Trouble with Tribbles episode and I will make up tribbles
and the girls can decorate them with glitter, eyes and so forth.
James informs me that that won't cut it for the boys and he says
they should make phasers. I'm stumped on how to do that. Do you
have any ideas on phasers or any boy-related craft we can do?"
So I started brainstorming with Alison about how to make phasers.
I suggested carving some basic phaser-shapes out of wood, and
she described some very simple, rubber-band shooting pistols
her dad had made when she was a kid. Just then, Jeff called.
"How would it be," I asked, "if these phasers
shot rubber bands?" Jeff thought for a moment and said,
"Well, I think James will revere you as a God, and that,
in the fullness of time, I will forgive you." So, rubber-band-shooting
phasers it was!
My band saw quit half-way through the project (broken drive
belt), and we had to finish up with more primitive equipment.
This delay (plus rush-hour traffic) made us an hour late for
the party... but I had phasers for the boys!
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They
were a big hit, too! Much bigger than I was expecting! Those
boys carried their phasers everywhere they went ("In case
of Klingon Attack!") and it was a major crisis whenever
one got misplaced. Notice how you can see all 5 phasers in the
photo above, each hand colored by the individual crew members.
My original prototype is shown here on the left, alongside with
a real phaser (for comparison). [It says BOB on it because I
made this one out of an old piece of scrap wood that, for some
reason, had this name painted on it. (It used to have Larry's
name on it too, hence the LA on the grip.) This is why my phaser
is named Bob.]
The party as a whole seemed to be a big hit too. We were all
glad to have Alison on-hand, since she's very good at calming
down a big group of kids (from her years of working at camp).
But there's only so much an adult can do... to no one's surprise,
the kids were up giggling most of the night. Jeff says that at
one point, well after 3 in the morning, after numerous demands
that they all go to sleep, he looked in to find all five boys
sitting in a circle up in James' bunk. "What is going on?!?"
he demanded. "None of us can get to sleep," his son
explained, "so we're having a meeting to try to think of
a way of falling asleep!"
But of course, it wouldn't have been a successful slumber
party without shenanigans like that. In the morning, I made sourdough
pancakes and waffles for everyone, and by 10 am all the kids
had gone home. Whew!
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Thanks
for Playing Our Games! Have a great week! |
PS:
Secret Message to James (and his crew): Here are those instructions
you asked for, on How to Use Your Phaser. Remove a rubber band
from the magazine and hold the trigger open with your other hand.
Stick the end of the rubber band into the clip and release the
trigger, so that the very tip of the rubber band is caught in
the middle of the trigger-clip. Now stretch the rubber band up
the side of the phaser, towards you, pulling it back to the Setting
Adjustment Knob, turning a corner around that, then stretching
forward to the notched tip, where you hook on the other end.
Your phaser is now loaded! To fire, point at the target and squeeze
the trigger. This will open the clip and release the rubber band!
But be careful where you shoot, and remember, it has a tendency
to pull to one side.
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While growing up, Jeff and I were both very fond of the American
Heritage series of war-themed board games, Battle Cry (about
the Civil War) being our hands-down favorite. This weekend we
got to play our first game of Skirmish,
a 5th title in the series, published in 1975, but unknown to
us until recently, which he finally got a copy of via eBay. It's
about the Revolutionary War, and we both really liked it! Both
the history and the game play are solid. I'm looking forward
to playing it again! |
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Kids at birthday parties now routinely sing (or rather, shout)
"cha-cha-cha" in-between the verses of the traditional
birthday song. Perhaps it's a regional thing, but if you haven't
encountered it yet, just wait... it's a powerful meme. In the
distant future, no one will sing it any other way. |
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TSI-TelSys has finally gone completely under. The technology
company Kristin helped found in 1996 (under the leadership of
our mutual boss from our days together at NASA, Jim Chesney)
has been struggling to stay afloat for years, and finally ceased
all operations last month. Naturally, this is a bummer for us...
when Kristin left TSI to start Looney Labs, she retained a lot
of hope for TSI (not to mention founder's stock, which is now
officially worthless) and since Marlene and I also worked at
TSI-TelSys for a time (and various friends and relatives of ours
actually invested in the company) this was sad news for many
of us here at Looney Labs. |
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