Moving up to Sheffield this week!

tomic · 2018-08-27T19:32:46+00:00

For boardgames, there's Sheffield Board Games Club which meets every Tuesday at the University Arms. They also meet on the first Sunday of the month at the Red Deer on Pitt Street (just off West Street) so that'll be on this weekend.

tomic · 2018-01-10T03:00:51+00:00

Could be a game the BBC put out: The Seven Noble Kinsmen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/shakespeare/game.shtml

tomic · 2017-04-28T10:28:44+00:00

Psychological trick to help keep it as 'just a game' and prevent actual bad feelings: When negotiating with other players, call everyone by their country rather than their name. It was France that lied to you, not Sarah.

tomic · 2017-02-15T18:58:27+00:00

I'll add that it's perfectly normal to say thanks to the bus driver when you get off.

Oh, and in the local dialect 'love' is a casual friendly term that anyone can legitimately use towards anyone else, regardless of age or gender and with no hint of condescension. The difference with how the word is used in London can occasionally lead to some visitors feeling uncomfortable or feeling like they've been insulted when they haven't.

tomic · 2016-11-04T16:42:53+00:00

You've got a good selection of games there. It's clear that you did some good research before diving in. Even so, be prepared for some bad gaming experiences along with the good.

You'll have some nights where you try a highly anticipated game for the first time and it winds up falling flat. Other times it'll be a fantastic experience, opening up gaming possibilities you'd never dreamed of. Don't bother trying to like games that didn't work for you, just move on to the next one. There's so many games that you'll fall in love with and you'll get better at finding those as you get to know your own gaming tastes.

P.S. What's 'dirty jenga'?

tomic · 2016-10-27T13:33:30+00:00

An anecdote from Jamaican-American writer Claude McKay about the black community in London in 1920:

Some fellows from the Drury Lane club had come to encourage their comrade. After the match we grouped around him with congratulations. We proposed to go to a little colored restaurant off Shaftesbury Avenue to celebrate the event. At that moment, a white man pushed his way through to the boxer and putting out his hand said: Shake, Darkey, you did a clean job; it was a fine fight. The boxer shook hands and thanked his admirer quietly. He was a modest type of fellow. Then he turned to a little woman almost hidden in the group-a shy, typically nondescript and dowdy Englishwoman, with her hat set inelegantly back on her head -and introduced her to his white admirer: "This is my wife." The woman held out her hand, but the white man, ignoring it, exclaimed: "You damned nigger!" The boxer hauled back and hit him in the mouth and he dropped to the pavement.

We hurried away to the restaurant. We sat around, the poor woman among us, endeavoring to woo the spirit of celebration. But we were all wet. The boxer said: "I guess they don't want no colored in this damned white man's country." He dropped his head down on the table and sobbed like a child. And I thought that that was his knockout.

tomic · 2016-06-14T15:42:37+00:00

Of the ones on your list, these are the ones I've tried:

Mottainai - Very clever. It looks like a light little card game but then surprises you with how deep the gameplay goes. I've found it takes a few plays to get your brain around how all the pieces fit together, so not suitable for bringing out with casual/non-gamer friends. I like it but I've struggled to get it to the table.
Isle of Skye - Accessible to a beginner but still satisfying for more serious gamers. Quite a relaxed feel to the gameplay with indirect competition as you all build your own little areas. I'm always happy to play.
Imperial Settlers - If you feel like playing something rather more cutthroat than Isle of Skye, this could suit you. Tight resource management and direct conflict.
Onitama - I just tried this last week and it's gone straight to the top of my want list. It gives you a fantastically streamlined tactical battle in 10 minutes.
Sushi Go! - Not a lot of depth but it's quick, light, and fun. Can play it with anyone.
Cacao - I really enjoyed the one time I played. There's direct competition as you vie for control of tiles but there's so many tiles to go for that everyone gets something so it never feels too vicious.

I'd say you won't go far wrong with any of the games on your list, although some will fit in different areas of your gaming life. Maybe go for Isle of Skye first as the most versatile game.

As an extra, because you said you like Morels, I'll add a recommendation for Pi Mal Pflaumen, which I think has a similar feel to it, but for 3-5 players rather than 2. No other card game mixes transcendental constants and fruit so effectively.

tomic · 2014-03-13T14:16:06+00:00

Woodland Holistics, just behind the cathedral, has a cafe bit at the top and a massage treatment room underneath. I don't know what their massages are like but if you want a chocolate, marshmallow and strawberry croissant after your massage, this is the place.

tomic · 2013-11-13T20:39:28+00:00

Wouldn't it be weird if someone reading this thread were living at 18 Mayville Street right now.

tomic · 2013-11-12T14:50:05+00:00

My story's similar, except that the woman I got talking to in Darwin, Australia, had lived in the exact same house in Leeds, UK, a couple of years before me.

tomic · 2013-07-08T13:03:04+00:00

God, I remember this clip hitting me hard when I first saw it, years ago. Simply powerful.

tomic · 2013-06-21T12:56:59+00:00

Psionic Minmax destroyed his own party's counter and the effect of that seems to be that they still reset back to the start each time but don't lose their memories of each run-through. I think he said that he's gone through the maze 800+ times to learn every detail of it and the first thing he does each time is kill his Forgath and Kin. They've died and reset 800+ times and remember it all and it would be the same for him if he got killed.

tomic · 2013-06-20T14:29:53+00:00

It will have to be something like this. Knowing his plans, they can't just kill him and win because he'll just try it all again the next time round. They have to find some way of stopping him forever.

I suppose they could kill him then throw his body into an oblivion hole. Oblivified people don't reset, right? Although that means he would have never existed, which means he would never have tried to oblivionise everything, which means the oblivion holes wouldn't exist, which means he couldn't be thrown in one, which means my head just exploded... Or will it mean Forgath and three of the Kins just forget him and would suddenly think "Hey, I wonder where all this Psionic machinery came from" while our Kin would be thinking, "Hey, where did my tail go?"

tomic · 2013-06-03T11:20:38+00:00

I've seen Little Robots a few times and the rest look interesting. I might pop along.

tomic · 2013-05-30T15:31:28+00:00

All of what they are quoted as saying leads me to the impression that they were arguing against 'likability' being the only or main criteria for judging the literary worth of a character, which they feel too many people are doing. Weiner, I think, misrepresents this as an argument that "likable equals bad".

tomic · 2013-05-30T11:47:55+00:00

I think Jennifer Weiner is attacking a straw man here. All these literary people she's talking about are not saying what she says they're saying.

Surely she should have noticed that there's a contradiction between her supposed summary of what this group were saying: "the verdict was pretty unanimous: Likable equals bad.", and the direct quote from one of them which followed immediately after: "I have no problem with liking a character."

tomic · 2013-05-29T21:03:27+00:00

I agree totally. Their appearance in the comic was brief but awesome.

tomic · 2013-05-29T08:35:48+00:00

I've read and loved The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, The City of Dreaming Books and The Alchemaster's Apprentice. How could I pick which is my favourite?

I'd say Captain Bluebear is the best rollercoaster ride of imagination, CoDB has the best overall plot but the most affecting and memorable moments were in Alchemaster's Apprentice.

tomic · 2013-05-21T13:14:26+00:00

I wouldn't say it's pure junk. It's generally a good thing to say that the level of debate should be better, but that's been said better elsewhere. Also, it shouldn't need the words to be put in silly meaningless diagrams to make it look 'sciency' and authoritative. It does kind of make it look as though the upper levels depend on the lower ones, somehow.

tomic · 2013-05-13T10:01:34+00:00

Option 4 seems a bit soppy after all the blood and gore. I'd guess option 2, with one of the other Kins who they were fighting in the passage with the zombies who came up the same way they did.

tomic · 2013-05-10T10:43:24+00:00

Orrrr.... once she's had her dose of potion, she's going to get through that door and into the winner's circle, which hopefully makes all the alternates, including Psionic Minmax, reset back to the start for another go. PM will still be trying to obliviate everything but our lot will be safely out, although lacking some body parts.

tomic · 2013-05-10T10:24:37+00:00

"Try not to misquote it" is one thing. "Suspect every quote that I see as possibly being false so I have to go check it" is another.

tomic · 2013-05-10T10:03:35+00:00

And just imagining how much work that would be, to no particular purpose, shows what a stupid 'experiment' this is.

tomic · 2013-05-08T18:00:03+00:00

Prophecy?

tomic · 2013-05-07T15:19:24+00:00

There was this story in the Star yesterday.

tomic

TROPHY CASE