Off To A Good Start

We're now two weeks into 2015, and so far it's been amazing.

I ushered in 2015 at Phoenix Games with a good number of people.  I arrived late (as I always do), but I was just in time to help Brian haul in the sparkling cider.

From there, I got sucked into a game of Skull pretty quickly.  It's the same game as Skull and Roses with different art, and we had at least one game going all night.  I played for a couple of hours with people I hadn't seen in a while or who I want to see more often.  It's also one of my favorite games to just pick up and play.  When you combine it with Skull and Roses and Skull and Roses Red, you can theoretically have up to eighteen players (but the game is at its best in that 4-6 range).  One interesting thing for me about this game is just how much the dynamic of play changes depending on the number of players. And who they are.

I think I won one game.  Alex, to my left, won most of them.

After a bit, we switched to Concept - and didn't keep score. We started with six or seven players, and several players rotated through as we played as people jumped in from other games (and out to other games). My favorite thing with this game is that "lightbulb moment," when the person who is placing the tokens realizes what they're doing and how it works.

The highlight for me was guessing "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs."  Some of those words are crazy hard.

Then, the following week at Game Night, I got to play more Skull.  I was also able to play Mascarade, which is one of my favorite hidden role bluffing games.  I actually managed to win a game (which never happens).  We even managed to break out the expansion!

I also got to try Star Realms. In short: I liked it.  I think the fact that you need two boxes for more than two players could stand to be made a bit clearer, and I think the replayability is surprisingly limited without expansions. I've been playing the app on my phone quite a bit, too and it's decent. I wish my phone had a larger screen for this, though (and I have a Nexus 6).

And, lastly, I was able to play 7 Wonders. Base game only.  I'm not sure how, but I managed to win. It wasn't science, and I had at least one of my blue chains broken by another player.

If the rest of 2015 is as strong as the first week was, then I'm in for an absolutely astounding year. And the joys of this year are in no way limited to that first week, either:

This weekend, we get to pick up our 4e D&D game again. The following weekend, I'm going to play Subbuteo with a friend (if he's able to get to the house early enough, that is) and then we have our 13th Age campaign that evening - it'll be the first game post-multiclassing for my character, and I'm looking forward to it.

Bring it on, 2015.  Bring. It. On.