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Archive 1 NEWS, Announcements and Personal Rants! Years End. (12/09/2004) This will be the last post of 2004 unless something urgent comes up. We have just added a new game to the free games section to give you something to do when the relatives come over. In January the 2004 news will be moved into the archives and new items will be listed starting with an extensive review of the game site Games Table online. Have a happy and safe holiday season. We Have Another Winner! (11/22/2004) U-Con 2004 is now over for the year and I would have to say fun was had by all or at least everyone i met. The 4th annual U-Con abstract games tournament had good attendance drawing participants from as far away a Chicago IL; this four hour event pits players head to head playing a wide variety of games that are randomly picked by a judge to emphasize overall playing ability rather than the study of or experience in a particular game. Some of the games played included Cannon, Lines of Action, Power Lines (a Piecepack game), Star, Tanbo, and Zertz. This years winner was Dan Troyka who claimed the Cannon set we offered as one of the many prizes. The 2nd thru 6th place finishers received a prize from one of the other sponsors; Looney Labs, Matt Warden Games and Mesomorph Games. Game collections: How do you measure big? (11/06/2004) Most households have games in them. For some it is just a deck of cards and the knowledge needed to play a few different games. For others it may be party games like Pictionary, Fact or Crap, or a favorite in my home Apples to Apples. Then there are the gamers, the real game players who would rather be playing games than just about any pastime. If you are part of the latter group as I am you probably have a game collection; mine is well over 100 games and growing. This is not by any means a large collection; some collectors literally have thousands. Which leads into the point of this post; when you are buying so many games you can’t possibly play them all, what are you buying them for? An impulse buy could account for some of it but not all unless you are massively impulsive. Some might be collectors items, rare games that could be in a game museum if there is such a thing. Then again for some I imagine its bragging rights to say I have X games in my collection. Now X just represents how much money you have spent and nothing more, it’s easy to buy games and stick them up on a shelf. I propose that a better way to quantify the collection would be based on playing the games. After all that is what they are for to play and enjoy. Wouldn’t it be great to say I have X games in my collection and have played them all. Take a look at your games and take out that one that’s been collecting dust and play it! Remember a game un-played is not a game. It is at best a piece of modern art that can be gazed at or sold to the highest bidder. Speaking of that how about a game of Modern Art? - Group Projects - Winners Announced. (10/19/2004) Just in time for this posting the winners of the latest Piece pack contest have been announced today. Ian Schreiber and Jeb Havens won with their entry “The in crowd”. They will receive not only prizes of gift certificates and games including a copy of our game Cannon but will have the honor of deciding the theme of the next Piece pack contest as well as judging it. The original announcement and review of all the games entered are available at the Yahoo Piece Pack Group. How to make the best of a game that is not the best. or Delivering Message from the Czar from mediocrity. (09/11/2004) Every once and a while you come across a game that sounds like a good idea but when it comes right down to it’s not that fun. What can be even worse is when you know there is a good game lurking in that original idea that can’t get out. This is the case with Message to the Czar; it seems to be the accepted criticism that the randomness of the money collecting/bribery mechanic sucks the life out of the game. It mitigates any skill that is involved in what is already a light strategy game that has plenty of luck supplied by the tile drawing. This article is for those people who bought a copy and were disappointed but why be disappointed when you can just fix it. I propose that bribery can't be eliminated altogether it would take away from tactics involved in maneuvering to a guard that is easy to bribe, this is a major part of the game play. As a solution Instead of collecting the money randomly at the end of the game players collect the money as they travel from inn to inn and village to village. Altered Rules (start by ignoring the existing bribery rules) Take all the njet and blank coins out of the set, this will leave you with one coin per inn. During setup each inn will be randomly given a coin placed face up. The coins will be claimed by the couriers, the fist to reach the inn takes the coin (making the chose of what position to play a more involved decision and hopefully more interesting). The coins will be replenished when the inn is vacated the new coin is claimed by the remaining courier until no more coins are left; there will only be extra coins when playing with 2 to 4 players. When a courier passes the package they also pass all coins they are carrying with it (this makes passing your package more important so that you can collect the coins needed to bribe the guards). Coins may not be passed unless accompanied by the package. The courier carrying the package must have the money to bribe the guard when he arrives or any money he carries and the package are dropped back to another courier, that player’s option. The failed courier is place at the bottom the the players stack. With the added complexity comes a slightly longer game. A long good game is better than a short dull game anyway. The new and improved PyroMyth Games is now open! (09/01/2004) We hope that the new site is easier to navigate and more pleasing to the eye. With the grand opening we are also taking orders for Cannon sets, please check our products listing. What else is new? The Blog is gone as well as most of all my old rants, all such new materials will be listed in this news section including updated reviews for some of the online game sites we think are worth mentioning again. Any old material worth saving will be put in the archive section. News Archive