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Greg Davies
United States
Tumwater
Washington (WA)
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A conversation about mixing games I've been having with ludovidoegrapher Rocking Horse Dreams in the comments section of an old geek list has led me to think more about the first round in the tournament. I really like the idea and have used it in a couple of tournament sections already- namely, the Outdoor Survival/Landlord! round of the Alpha bracket, the Time Agent/Throneworld obviousness as the Omega finale (incidentally, I don't even know if the events in Throneworld are alterable in Time Agent, I have to play the game first...) Phil Eklund has linked a couple of games for me already- Origins: How We Became Human and American Megafauna to form Animal Farm, which I will be using to determine the Pope.
So, anyway, I've been thinking of some other ways to link games for the tournament and the first question I come to is, how much is too much? Solitaire multi-player gaming is already somewhat unusual within hobbyist gaming which is already unusual within the larger society. That this is a multi-year tournament using Real People cards, perhaps, makes it more unusual. If I then alter all the games in the tournament, am I excluding whoever's left to derive some enjoyment from this display? The answer I'm leaning towards is that it depends. If I go charging through and blend every single game in the tournament, it'll be an incomprehensible mess. If, however, I blend games in a way that makes sense (Time Agent/Throneworld) or adds something to the experience (Outdoor Survival/Landlord), then I think the effort would be appreciated by the small subset of the small subset of watchers of session videos who think Real People tournaments are a good idea.
Thus, I will not be attempting to blend Ideology and Shogun. I haven't ruled out, however, pitting the winner of Ideology against the winner of Imperial 2030 in a one on one chess game- money versus ideas. Then again, my birthday's coming up, so my palette of games will likely be greater, soon.
An idea I haven't yet officially put on the list yet, but am convinced of, is not so much a blending, but a linking of games (none of the official implementations are actually blendings, yet). The Overseers of Conquest of Planet Earth: The Space Alien Game compete in a game of Gheos to create the world and get some points. They then send their puppet alien races to destroy it- a sort of reaping- after it matures. The link is simple. The points a player gains in Gheos are multiplied by the terror chips, or whatever they're called, a player has at the end of the subsequent game of Conquest to give them their total points. It is a sort of celestial agriculture.
US Patent Number 1 is an inclusion in the tournament that has vaguely concerned me. The notion of putting games within games, rather than just linking and patching them side by side, which came out of the aforementioned conversation led to a solution. I want to keep US Patent because I think CheapAss games deserves the love and because it fits nicely with the culminating Time Agent. I have my doubts as to whether it'll be enjoyable solitaire, however. So, I'm thinking I can use the cards from Chrononauts to make something work. I need to explore their rulebooks, as both games predate my board-game hobbyism and so my memory of their specifics is weak, but I feel confident I can make something work. I may have to create an instructional video first so that viewers can follow along.
In other news, I realized I had crappy HD editing software all along- it came with the camera. It's annoying, but it works.
Also, I'm enjoying Imperial 2030- great solitaire game. I'm excited to film it, but I want to complete a video review first.
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