Location for GOF 5?

Our next gaming area...?



Have we found a possible location for Gathering of Friends 5?

Tammy and I were able to spend a weekend away (sans kinds) for the first time in... many years. We stayed at Eagle Rock Resort near Hazleton, PA. The resort is a beautiful place, with a "championship style" 18-hole golf course, ski and tubing area, horseback riding, a spa, and over 4,000 acres of mountainous Pennsylvania terrain.

We stayed in a small room at the Inn for $90/night, but would love to go back and stay at the Lodge (at $125-150), with it's incredible views and cozy/warm cottage feel. There is a large area overlooking a cliff with a fantastic view that would be perfect for a day/night of gaming with friends.

Hazleton is only one hour from Scranton and Allentown, and I would love your thoughts on possible dates for GOF5...!

Solving Rubik

Did you have a Rubik's Cube as a kid? Yes, I know I am a child of the 80's (I was born in 1968). I did manage to solve it once or twice, but of course had to cheat. I remember buying a guide from Kiddie City on Alexis Road in Sylvania, Ohio back in the day.

Here's a great site to teach yourself how to solve that cube you have in your basement.

Race Day/Tamsk

Have an order in to Boulder Games, my first time with them. What inspired this purchase was a little game called: Race Day.

Wizkids (the makers of several "collectable card games" and some boardgames), knowing that something like 1/2 the country calls themselves Nascar fans, built a neat little car racing game that is quite fun. The cards are made of a foam-board, and are popped out of baseball-card sized holders and constructed into attractive Nascar cars.

Each car has a special ability, and they race around a short track or superspeedway. A starter pack for $10 gets you 5 cards, and the Daytona speedway on two large foldable sheets. Sixteen cards can be lined up on the track, but we've raced it with 4-8 and it seems the more the merrier.

Decisons revolve around choice of speed, two dice being rolled to determine it. Cars move along a track the number rolled, with a bonus for "high speed" of 2, and subtaction of 2 for a car at lower speed, used when forced to by engine damage or heavy traffic.

Cards have 10 damage points, 4 in tires, 4 in bodywork, and 2 for the engine. There is risk in moving next to other cars or in overheating the engine. A player rolls dice against the driver's skill points, which are modified by time out on the track - each lap a player takes one point of tire damage which is used to modify other die rolls.

I used spare pieces from another game to mark damage during a race on the player card, but the game includes damage markers which can be slipped over tires or popped into the top of the cars.

The track has natural choke points on the track which cause players to have to make difficult decisions - should the draft a lead car, negating overtaking possibilities, but insuring forward progress? Or take a chance and try to roll a high number a pass, risking a crash? Play it safe a slow early in the race, and attempt to overtake cars entering an early pit-stop? Or use a special ability bonus to push the car into dangerous situations that others might avoid, so as to create a shorter path to the finish line?

Cars can spin out if agressive driving forces difficult "collision check" die rolls, especially as tire wear makes them harder to manuever. But a quick pit stop can repair damage and get a player back in the race and in "clean air".

A game with 8 cars took Grayson and I probably about 40 minutes, each playing 4 cars each.

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The second game I ordered was Tamsk, part of the Gipf project. More on this one later.