Games you've played with the designer(s)
Trevor Gunter
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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Playing a game with the person who made it has always been an interest of mine. It gives insight into the way the game was meant to be played, and lets you put a face and personality to the game.
Feel free to add your own stories, and what insight you gleamed from the experience.
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Trevor Gunter
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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While they were all online (check out http://www.cosmicencounter.com - it's rather well done) I've played several games against Peter Olotka. You could rather easily tell it was him, as his user profile listed his subscription as lasting several million days.
He wasn't the backstabbing type, and wasn't afraid to make deals. All in all a rather casual player, and one who would happily go for a joint victory when possible.
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Trevor Gunter
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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Technically not against the designer, as the game I played was Volcano (designed by Kristin Looney), and the person Andrew Looney (her husband). Still, as he was the designer of the Icehouse set itself playing against Andy was interesting.
He was the type that would analyze the game board for a few seconds, then make his move. Just long enough to get an appraisal of the board, while not long enough to cause the game to drag. He even offered to play a hand of Fluxx or Chrononauts with a friend of mine simultaneously. While playing we had a casual discussion concerning the Icehouse set and the games that have sprung up to be played with it. Between this experience and a look at his Ludography, it seems that Andy Looney likes games to be quick and social.
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Tom Jolly was good enough to teach a group of us how to play this game at one of our local "Game Days" (He happens to live near me in middle-of-nowhere California). I had owned this game or a while and had never had the chance to play it until then. I enjoyed it - it's a relatively light, fun, quick game.
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4.
Board Game: Attika
[Average Rating:7.08 Overall Rank:252]
John Brier
United States
Aventura
Florida
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many of the people who frequent the bsw have had the chance to play this game with the designer, as he frequents the site.
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John Brier
United States
Aventura
Florida
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many of the people who frequent the bsw have had the chance to play this game with the designer, as he frequents the site.
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John Brier
United States
Aventura
Florida
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many of the people who frequent the bsw have had the chance to play this game with the designer, as he frequents the site.
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John Brier
United States
Aventura
Florida
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many of the people who frequent the bsw have had the chance to play this game with the designer, as he frequents the site.
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Steve Zamborsky
United States
Lebanon
Ohio
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Way back when, when I first started freelancing for InQuest, I was given this assignment: review Dark Age: Feudal Lords. I had the good fortune to try it out with the designer (Luke Peterschmidt) at Origins while it was in its playtest stages. We have something in common (both have chemistry backgrounds) and kind of hit it off. I was even able to give him a rule suggestion which he incorporated in the game (I was so excited at the time...LOL).
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Andrea Angiolino
Italy
Rome
European Union
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Nurenberg Toy and Game Fair is a place where everyone is always running in business from a boo0th to the other, from an appointment to the other. Meeting Nick Neuwahl is always a pleasure, since he manage to find the time to show his last releases or prototypes. We played Toscana two years ago: Nice, simple and quick, like most of his games.
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Andrea Angiolino
Italy
Rome
European Union
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One night, during the Toy and Game fFair in Nurenberg, Roberto Di Meglio and me went to dinner with Leo Colovini, Dario De Toffoli and Dario Zaccariotto (if I remember well) of Venice Connection. Roberto and me loived in Langwasser, near to the Fair Center, while the Venice team lived in a toiwn quite far. After the meal we went to their home and we tried the prototype of Carolus Magnus. It was to be showed to a major publishing house the very next morning, and I found a bit surprised by the quantity of changes that they made to the game during that session. Robnerto gave several useful ideas to Leo: just to mention one, the idea of combine adjacent lands into a single one is Roberto's.
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Josh Adelson
United States
State College
Pennsylvania
Hello, can you run as fast as me? I hope not, because if you catch me I will thrash you!
This space available for rent.
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Fantasy Flight always has nice areas set up at all the cons that I attend. Last year I played this with Kevin Wilson (well, he taught it to me) at GenCon. I liked it at the time; bought a copy; have not played it again. I think I like less strongly themed 2-player games, but also I rarely play 2-player games.
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Hannes Riener
Austria
Vienna
Austria
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Pretty frequent, as the designer is pretty active and helpful on the VASSAL-Server (as it comes with a CD with this real-time-program).
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Hannes Riener
Austria
Vienna
Austria
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Played this with my old fellow during the develop-phase and also several times after it was finalized.
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John Rodriguez
United States
Irving
Texas
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Mark Simmonitch who co-designed this great game (and who wrote the 2nd edition rules) sometimes gets out to the North Texas Wargaming group. I've played two games of Successors with him and he won one of them.
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Andrea Angiolino
Italy
Rome
European Union
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Played quite a lot online at www.youplay.it where everybody has a nickname. After a while I discovered that a player in one of my games was Phil Hall, one of the two designers.
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Andrea Angiolino
Italy
Rome
European Union
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Played in a restaurant in Florence many, many years ago - far before than it was released - against Francesco Nepitello. At that time it was just a game by him and Marco Maggi; Leo Colovini joined the designing team far later.
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Andrea Angiolino
Italy
Rome
European Union
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I played it with Leo Colovini, Dario De Toffoli and Roberto Di Meglio (future author of War of the Ring, http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/9609) one night after dinner, in the flat that Leo and Dario rented during the Nurenberg Toy Fair. The game was still a prototype and was to be presented to a major German publisher the very next morning. The playtesting was a very creative one. Roberto gave several suggestions (among them the one to join adjacent lands) and they were promptly included in the game for the presentation of the day after...
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David Fair
United States
Rockville
Maryland
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At EuroQuest 2003 < http://euroquest.gamesclubofmd.com/>;, my wife and I played a 5-player game of this with Don Bone, Sarah Samuelson of GameSurplus < http://www.gamesurplus.com/>; and another player whose name I have since forgotten. Either my wife or Sarah won, I can't recall which. We bought the game from GameSurplus a few months later.
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19.
Board Game: Stack
[Average Rating:6.01 Overall Rank:4188]
On Monday mornings, I'm dedicated to the proposition that All Men are created jerks.
United States
Stratford
Connecticut
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The designer, Jeffrey L. Strunk, was demoing the game at the L.L. Bean store in Freeport, Maine. I played a round with him. It's a fun, quick little game with sooooo many dice. I bought the game, of course. He let buyers custom pick the dice colors (each player gets a fist-ful of dice of one color). I bought a two-player set with red and blue dice, planning to add white (I have many fist-fuls of white at home) to upgrade to a three-player game.
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Louise Holden
United Kingdom
Solihull
West Midlands
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And no-one can ramble through a story like Andrew can! The expansion set "Dark Tales" is due to be shipping in June, incidentally.
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Dave Rohrl
United States
Palo Alto
California
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Played with tom Lehmann at the San Jose origins. I still enjoy this game a good deal, though it has rarely gotten great receptions from my gaming groups.
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Dave Rohrl
United States
Palo Alto
California
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Played with Anthony Gallela at my North Bay Gamers group in San Rafael, CA. I wasn't that enthused, but several members of the group really "dug" it.
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Becky Zamborsky
United States
Berea
Ohio
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I had the good fortune to play this with Eric Lang twice. Not only did I deem him "unbeatable", his general comments about the books, characters and the treachery of the Lannisters made the experience more rewarding and hilarious. He's one of the most approachable and friendly game designers I've met to date.
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Dave Eisen
United States
Silicon Valley
California
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Joe Huber always stops by Silicon Valley Boardgamers when he's in town. Always has a new prototype or two or seven for us to try. He should come by more often.
Kicked my ass at Scream Machine, by the way.
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Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
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I suppose it's only fair that I add an entry to this list now; maybe Al will choose to enter the next one. Of course, I'm fairly certain Al's choice would be Kohle Knies Knete, and that would end that chain straight away...
For all the prototypes I've played and all the game designers I've played with, there are actually very few published games I've played with the designers. For instance, I don't believe I've ever played one of Alan Moon's games with him, among all the games I've played with Alan.
But I have played Tin Soldiers (as Toy Soldiers, at the time) against Al; his team won handily, as I recall...
Joe
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Lexington
Virginia
I have seen photos on the Web of Randolph playing Twixt with someone, but I am not sure who that was. With all the games he invented, it seems likely someone here played him at something.
I played Hex on Playsite with someone whose handle was John Nash, and I think he really was.
Venezia
Unspecified
Francesco