The Secret Lair

Last week, I had the opportunity to enter ThinkGeek Headquarters for the Marian Call + Art of Akira event, and it was a wonderful evening. I was only vaguely familiar with Marian’s music prior to that night, and had no idea what the Akira exhibit would contain, but I was intrigued by both. Additionally, the lure of peering into the inner workings of ThinkGeek made this a mandatory trip. Well, that and the insistence of a certain Moon Ranger that we attend.

One might think that the home base of an entity like ThinkGeek would be glorious and resplendent, not unlike (but, still, clearly inferior to) our own Secret Lair. I envisioned it to be festooned with ornate, redundantly secure gates, on a mountain covered with wolves, and with a vast amount of treasure contained therein. I am sad to report that this is not the case. Instead, nestled snugly in the bosom of Fairfax, VA, the ThinkGeek HQ resides in a nondescript office complex, counting mortgage and title agencies among it’s neighbors. That noted, the becubicled interior is guarded by a wampa, and is decorated with the gadgets and toys one would expect.

Marian Call’s concert was simply excellent. She played in the outdoor common area of the complex, which provided a setting that was both open and intimate for the deliberately limited crowd in attendance. Through some sort of environmental techno-wizardy, the ThinkGeekers summoned forth the first perfect summer evening for the show this area has seen all season¹, complete with a massive contingent of fireflies² that appeared at dusk.

While I’d previously listened to a couple of Marian’s songs online, this was my first meaningful exposure to her work, and I am now a certified fan. She describes her musical style as “acoustic folk-funk with a twist of jazz”, and she counts both a typewriter and a rainstick among her musical instrument proficiencies. Her vocal range is outstanding, and she has disarming humor and humble charisma that’s impossible not to be pulled into. While Marian is a certified geek, and this comes through in many of her songs, it’s often quite subtle; it’s clear that her musical passions are broad, and you are as likely to hear a song about her Volvo or her native Alaska as you are about Jayne from Firefly.

Another awesome thing about Marian is her passion for creating her music independently, and making it available in open and interesting ways. The concert was live streamed through her website, and she released a new song online – Good Morning Moon, written as a wake-up tune for astronauts aboard the International Space Station – at the same time as she played it live that night for the first time ever. Also, she teamed with ThinkGeek to have prize giveaways for those tweeting from the show, as well as for one lucky person who downloaded Good Morning Moon from her website during the event³.

The Art of Akira exhibit was set up on the inside of ThinkGeek HQ, and fascinating to peruse. I am forced to note that one of my personal geek sins is that I’ve never seen Akira, which I am led to believe is a landmark bit of anime filmmaking. The exhibit consists of original art from the movie, curated by owner and Akira-evangelist Joe Peacock. His enthusiasm for the movie and the vast collection of animation stills were quite cool to see, and have persuaded me to move Akira up a bit higher on my to-see list. Also, the limited edition Call/AKIRA poster by John Tyler Christopher that was available only that night is a thing of beauty.

To feed the ravenous crowd of hungry pre-zombies, ThinkGeek brought in local food truck Stix to provide rations. Stix, as one might guess, serves food exclusively impaled on wooden sticks, from a rotating menu of marinated land/air/sea meat, to sides like potatoes or corn-on-the-cob, and even cake on a stick. Stix tends to roam about the DC area, and the best way to find out where they’ll be on a daily basis is to follow them on Twitter. The food was quite yummy, and I’ll be looking out for them during future trips into the District.

All in all, this was an immensely enjoyable evening. This marked the second time that Marian has done a concert at ThinkGeek HQ, and all indications are that this will definitely happen again in the near future. If you are within striking distance of northern Virginia, I heartily endorse checking out the next show. Even if you are not, you owe it to yourself to give her music a listen.

1. We are currently investigating their techniques for use in The Lair, because when the time of the Overlords comes, it will be sunny comfort for us and oppressive heat for the rest of you. [↩]
2. Given the obvious Firefly fans in attendance, this was not lost on the crowd. [↩]
3. This ended up being a certain Moon Ranger, which was perfect because of both spacelove and redheaded solidarity. [↩]

Cover via Amazon

There, that got your attention, didn’t it?

I’ll make my voluminous assertion more transparent in a moment, but first, let me say a few words about Sanderson’s latest novel, The Way of Kings, his first installment in a planned 10-volume (!) epic fantasy series called The Stormlight Archive. An ambitious plan, to say the least; I can only imagine how he’s tracking the story structure¹.

And there seems to be a lot to structure. There are four distinct-yet-interwoven storylines going at once, following (what I see as) four major characters, and that’s a lot to track, time out and keep consistent.

After a somewhat (and perhaps purposefully) confusing preface involving some historical figures², we’re introduced to Szeth, who seems to be an unwilling but highly trained assassin. Through him, we are introduced quickly and concisely to a good portion of the culture and magic that pervades the story. Sanderson certainly knows how to make a grand entrance, seeding action, mystery and the story’s knowledge base in one tightly-written chapter. It teaches us some history of the world without turning it into a lecture. If you like the story at that point, then you’ll be in for a treat.

The main main character, however, is (or at least seems to be) Kaladin, a soldier-turned-slave, who is surviving his fate by pure will power. Kaladin is… well… he’s Kelsier from Mistborn, and he’s Raoden from Elantris³. If I were a man to place a wager, I’d say that this character template he’s built is Sanderson’s conduit into being able to live in his stories. Not that I blame him for this– if I could put open a hole in awesome worlds that I’d conjured, into which I could put my soul for a while, I’d do the same thing. Begrudge not the man’s literary vacation home/psychological outlet.

But I digress.

Kaladin is Sanderson’s overachieving, downtrodden, inspiring rebel, someone who always knows the right thing to do, all the while complaining that he has no clue what he’s doing. He’s attempted escape from slavery enough times to earn a brand on his forehead⁴, and he’s destined to become cannon fodder for an ongoing war.

The other two main characters are Brightlord Dalinar, an aging general who is plagued by visions of the distant past while trying to unite the people of his realm, and Shallan, an educated and supernaturally artistic girl looking to apprentice with one of the brightest minds in the world, but with an ulterior motive.

Magic in this realm is as diverse as it is pervasive. Beings called spren are infused in just about everything. One can use the light contained in gems to alter the direction of gravity. Shards of energy become swords in hand. Through force of will and the right combination of jewels, one can change led into gold, or stone into smoke. There’s a lot going on in this world’s magic, and the depth of its power is merely hinted at in the first volume.

Sanderson has certainly set the stage for an epic with Way of Kings, proffering a rich batch of intricate cultures, vast landscapes and complex histories to explore. The arc of the first volume was clean, left me wanting more (in a good way), and I could even feel the proverbial credits rolling as the camera pulled away from the final scene in the book (you’ll know what I mean when you get there).

There’s no denying that this epic has some influence from Robert Jordan (ex. Rhuidean vs. Dalinar’s visions), but as Sanderson is a self-professed fanboy – not to mention the co-author of the last three books of the Wheel of Time series, that was bound to happen. Let’s hope that he’s learned from Jordan’s mistakes⁵ and will take the epic to the heights it, he and we deserve.

So what’s up with the Socialism accusations? I say this with love, whatever you may think. Here is my evidence:

1) He’s obsessed with money — Sanderson has used currency as a form of power – beyond just cash value – in many of his stories, including this one, where spheres of glass hold gems that contain magical energy. In the Mistborn series, coins were used as weapons. In Elantris, food was the currency of survival among the fallen Elatrans. Even in Warbreaker, power was bought and sold (and stolen).

2) He’s obsessed with the downtrodden — In three of his works, the main character becomes the leader of an antiestablishment force comprised of the lowest of the low. I wholeheartedly agree with the premise, mind you, but it does seem to be becoming an overriding theme. Whether this is purposeful, I don’t know.

So put these two things together – a claiming of the power of commerce and a love for the repressed proletariat, and you have the makings of a fine Socialist fist-raiser. Let’s just hope that he finishes his epic before the oligarchy takes him down.

1. For some reason, I’m picturing lots of thumbtacks and red string on a big wall, except there’s no articles about the person he’s planning on assassinating [↩]
2. it’s one of those kinds of things that will make sense after we’ve read through for a while, and you say to yourself, “oh, THAT’S that that was all about” [↩]
3. and he’s –choke– Mat in The Gathering Storm – something that fanfolk everywhere summarily derided [↩]
4. and no, it doesn’t say Poor Impulse Control [↩]
5. read: Crossroads of Twilight [↩]

Along with their 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons product, Wizards of the Coast has released a pair of D&D branded board games: Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon. I could sum this whole review up in saying that the Dungeons and Dragons board games offer a D&D experience simplified into a board game format with no Dungeon Master. In our case, that’s exactly what my wife and I wanted. We’d played and enjoyed Runebound together many times in the past, and although Runebound was a fun game, we’d often have to quit before finishing because a game ran too long. Thankfully, the D&D board games don’t take quite as long to play.

Each game includes five premade characters such as the dwarven fighter and the dragonborn paladin. Character classes are as you might expect. The fighter and paladin are your standard tanks, there to soak up damage and status effects and defend the other characters. The ranger and rogue are effective damage-dealers at range, and the wizard has the best multi-attack powers in the game making him most effective in a game with more players. And the cleric is nearly essential, as she can heal other characters almost every round. These characters each have a selection of at-will, utility, and daily powers, although I haven’t yet identified a functional difference between utility and daily powers in this game, since they’re both single-use.

Castle Ravenloft includes horror-themed monsters such as zombies, rat swarms, and spectres. Wrath of Ashardalon includes more stereotypical D&D creatures such as cave bears, grells, and demons. The board game includes unpainted plastic miniatures for both monsters and player characters. Each time a monster is defeated, the character who killed it gets to draw an item card. Since players can hold a limited number of items per type, trading is allowed.

Player characters move square by square, whereas monsters measure their movement in tiles. Each turn, a player may choose to end his movement at an unexplored edge, thereby adding a tile to the map. When a new tile is placed, a monster is always placed on that tile, and thereafter that monster acts immediately after the player who placed the monster. That player also tracks the monster’s hit points and makes its movement and attacks according to the card’s explicit conditional instructions. This neatly circumvents the need for a Dungeon Master.

Whenever a player ends his turn without exploring a new tile, an event card must be drawn. Ninety percent of the time, these events are bad for the players. They may include adding a monster or trap to the game board or cursing one of the players. Traps are represented by large cardboard tiles that sit on top of a dungeon map tile and persist until disarmed. Any player can disarm a trap, but rogues have the best chance.

All characters begin as level one. It’s possible (although not necessary) to reach level two over the course of the game. When a monster is killed, its card is added to the players’ experience deck. When any player rolls a 20, that character may choose to spend 5 experience points to level up, gaining better hit points, armor class and selecting an additional daily power. Experience points can also be spent to cancel the effects of event cards. If you’re wise, you will do this often.

Each game comes with an adventure book that details a dozen or so different adventures that players can undertake, and these are what make the game truly cool, for each adventure is distinctly different from the others. A Wrath of Ashardalon adventure may have you searching for the dire cavern to slay an otyugh or searching for captured villagers to rescue. A Castle Ravenloft adventure may have you trying to locate an exit to escape the castle or hunting Lord Strahd himself. There are plenty of extra tiles, additional rules, and boss monsters than only appear in specific adventures. A highlight of ours was when we were struggling to kill a beholder and we drew an event card that resulted in Ashardalon the colossal red dragon appearing at the far edge of the map. We couldn’t flee because the only corridor leading away was full of lava (a trap) but we knew that once we’d killed the beholder, we’d have won the game. It became a race against time, and in the end we won – barely.

In playing, I’ve found the number of players to be a huge factor in the game’s difficulty. When my wife and I have played two-player games, gameplay has been very difficult. We’ve had about a 50% success ratio, and we’ve found that we really need to use the fighter and cleric to have any chance of getting through a game without being killed. But when I had a group of six friends over to play Castle Ravenloft, we found the game much easier. In that case, we actually had to borrow a character from Wrath of Ashardalon so that we could all play. This worked well, although in mixing games we needed to select carefully. Many characters have game-specific benefits. For example, the dwarf resists poison, but poison as an effect doesn’t exist in the Castle Ravenloft game.

All in all, the Dungeons & Dragons board games aren’t as complicated as actual D&D, but I wouldn’t call them simple. I’d have to rate the game’s rules complexity at about a seven out of ten. If you’re itching to kill some monsters and you don’t have the time for a full D&D campaign or don’t have the desire to actually role-play, these games make an excellent substitute.

Photos courtesy of Michael Delaney

Castle Ravenloft / Wrath of Ashardalon
Players: 2-5 (Plus one scenario for a single player)
Recommended Age: 13 and up
Time to Play: 1 hour
Price: $45

…that the Nazis are coming back next year…

…that some very strange things come out of Japan…

…and that The Shawshank Redeption isn’t what you thought…

I was notified via the Twitters that the Interactive Fiction Competition is gearing up for its sixteenth year and the call for entries has been issued. This is always an exciting time of the year for me, because I get it in my head that I Will Write The Game I’ve Always Meant To Write, and then run out of time and assist in judging the real entries. This is is probably a win-win for all involved, considering my last entries was titled “Timmy Fell Down The Well” in which you were a dog who…well…you get the picture.

What is Interactive Fiction?

Interactive Fiction is Zork.

Image via Wikipedia

No, that’s not true. Zork is a subset of the entertainment/edutainment genre known as Interactive Fiction.  Interactive Fiction is, at its heart, a game in which the player directs the flow of the game’s story based on choices they make. The choices directly impact the outcome. Traditionally the label is applied to text-based games where the player solves puzzles to accomplish goals the further the story. People remember the games released by Infocom as the gold standard for games of this type.

Even though Infocom’s heyday is long behind us¹, there is still a fan base for these sorts of games.  Every year these folks come together for the Interactive Fiction Competition.

These games are released for free to the public each year, and the public votes on which games are the best in various categories. Best of all, previous years’ games are archived, so if you want to try your hand, you have sixteen years of games to go through, not to mention all the goodness you can find at the Interactive Fiction Database, a catalog of games which are, for the most part, free.

What Does An Interactive Fiction Game Look Like?

Text on a screen, which allows your imagination to fill in the details, much as you do when you are reading a good book.

Image via Wikipedia

In order to play, you’ll need an interpreter, which is nothing more than a program that can load the game file for you. There is a good list of interpreters on the Interactive Fiction Wiki.

Additionally, thanks to some hard work by some creative people you can also play these games online.  Head over to http://parchment.toolness.com/ and look at the list of games they have if you want to try some out.

Okay. I’m Interested. Any Recommendations?

I’m so glad you asked. I’m going to keep my list focused on the games which are freely available. While it is possible to find bootleg copies of the Infocom games out on the internet, they are owned by Activision and downloading those bootlegs is not strictly legal.  Frankly, most of the Infocom titles were amazing, but I will save those reviews for a future post.

Below is a list of games, a short description, and a sample of their opening text. Clicking the Play Now link will take you to a web-based version of the game which you can, of course, play online.

Anchorhead

My favorite by far. You are a visitor to a the small New England town of Anchorhead and must discover what secrets lurk in the darkness. It’s a Lovecraftian setting, and the writing is wonderfully atmospheric. Best played by candlelight.

November, 1997.

You take a deep breath of salty air as the first raindrops begin to spatter the pavement, and the swollen, slate-colored clouds that blanket the sky mutter ominous portents amongst themselves over the little coastal town of Anchorhead.

Squinting up into the glowering storm, you wonder how everything managed to happen so fast. The strange phone call over a month ago, from a lawyer claiming to represent the estate of some distant branch of Michael’s family, was bewildering enough in itself… but then the sudden whirlwind of planning and decisions, legal details and travel arrangements, the packing up and shipping away of your entire home, your entire life…

Now suddenly here you are, after driving for the past two days straight, over a thousand miles away from the familiar warmth of Texas, getting ready to move into the ancestral mansion of a clan of relatives so far removed that not even Michael has ever heard of them. And you’ve only been married since June and none of this was any of your idea in the first place, and already it’s starting to rain.

These days, you often find yourself feeling confused and uprooted.

You shake yourself and force the melancholy thoughts from your head, trying to focus on the errand at hand. You’re to meet with the real estate agent and pick up the keys to your new house while Michael runs across town to take care of some paperwork at the university. He’ll be back to pick you up in a few minutes, and then the two of you can begin the long, precarious process of settling in.

A sullen belch emanates from the clouds, and the rain starts coming down harder — fat, cold drops smacking loudly against the cobblestones. Shouldn’t it be snowing in New England at this time of year? With a sigh, you open your umbrella.

Welcome to Anchorhead…

Download | Play Now

9:05

A short game with a surprise twist at the end. Perfect for playing when you have a break, or on lunch.

The phone rings.

Oh, no — how long have you been asleep? Sure, it was a tough night, but– This is bad. This is very bad.

The phone rings.

Download | Play Now

Galatea

Emily Short is well known in Interactive Fiction circles for how she can push the envelope of the medium to explore new things. In Galatea, you are a visitor in a gallery who is holding a conversation with a sentient sculpture.  This is less about solving puzzles and more about holding a conversation., There are a great number of possible endings, adding to the replay value.

You come around a corner, away from the noise of the opening.

There is only one exhibit.  She stands in the spotlight, with her back to you: a sweep of pale hair on paler skin, a column of emerald silk that ends in a pool at her feet.  She might be the model in a perfume ad; the trophy wife at a formal gathering; one of the guests at this very opening, standing on an empty pedestal in some ironic act of artistic deconstruction –

You hesitate, about to turn away.  Her hand balls into a fist.

“They told me you were coming.”

Download | Play Now

Past IF Comp Winners

You can hardly go wrong by trying out one of the past winners.

2010: Aotearoa, by Matt Wigdahl: The Fish of Māui. The Land of the Long Cloud. Aotearoa. An entire continent of untamed wilds, and the last place on Earth where dinosaurs still roam. If only you’d come ashore under better circumstances…

2009: Rover’s Day Out, by Jack Welch and Ben Collins-Sussman: Three hundred years ago, the Brazilian Space Agency discovered a rocky exoplanet only 38 light years from Earth. With a surface temperature of 1200 Celsius and nine times Earth gravity, it’s hardly the sort of place you’d take your dog walkies. Most days.

2008: Violet, by Jeremy Freese: Calm down. All you have to do is write a thousand words and everything will be fine. And you have all day, except it’s already noon.

2007: Lost Pig, by Admiral Jota (writing as Grunk): Pig lost! Boss say that it Grunk fault. Say Grunk forget about closing gate. Maybe boss right. Grunk not remember forgetting, but maybe Grunk just forget. Boss say Grunk go find pig, bring it back. Him say, if Grunk not bring back pig, not bring back Grunk either. Grunk like working at pig farm, so now Grunk need find pig.

2006: Floatpoint, by Emily Short: It is night on this side of the planet. Settled areas are lit: a jagged crescent in the tropics, lining the inland sea. The bright splatter along the top of the curve is Tanhua, as bright from space as New York. The north continent is darker, sprinkled finely with small lights, where the failing climate makes it hard to survive a winter. And the northernmost point, almost lost on the slope of Mt. Cordia, is the original Aleheart Colony, where the first settlers from Earth landed. It is your destination as well.

2005: Vespers, by Jason Devlin: It has been five days, now. Five days since I made the choice. Five days since I closed the gate.

2004: Luminous Horizon, by Paul O’Brian

2003: Slouching Towards Bedlam, by Star Foster and Daniel Ravipinto:  In the beginning was the Word, and it was hungry. Enter a steampunk adventure set in a London that might have been. The year is 1885. Bedlam Hospital still stands in Moorsfield, a decaying shell used to house the poor and the hopeless. Steam-driven mechanical wonders roam the streets. Gear-wheeled analytical engines spin out reams of thought onto punched paper tapes. And in the darkness – in the alleys and the side shops – hide secrets.

2002: Another Earth, Another Sky, by Paul O’Brian

2001: All Roads, by Jon Ingold: Consciousness is slowly returning…

2000: Kaged, by Ian Finley: Welcome to the Citadel of Justice. The Inquisitor is waiting

1999: Winter Wonderland, by Laura A. Knauth: Young Gretchen could have only imagined the fanciful events that were to occur before finding herself lost in a winter wonderland.

1998: Photopia, by Adam Cadre: “Welcome back to the land of the fucking LIVING, bud,” Rob says. “You planning to stick around for a while or you gonna pass out again? Cause one thing I’ve learned about chicks is that they actually DON’T LIKE IT when you pass out on them in the middle of gettin’ it on. You hear me? So if that’s, like, your PLAN, then I’m droppin’ you off and showin’ up solo.”

1997: The Edifice, by Lucian Smith: Something new in your everyday hunter-gatherer routine: where did this strange edifice come from? Dare you enter and explore the secrets of this… thing, or do you try to face your enemies? Like you have a choice.

1996: The Meteor, The Stone, and A Long Glass of Sherbet, by Graham Nelson: Another day wasted as guest of the Empress, a wretchedly long tour of the breath-taking Boreal Falls, conducted as ever by the Lady Amilia. As if she weren’t bad enough, an honour guard of soldiers, their breast-plates red in the setting sun, march ahead of the procession and protect you from seeing anything unrehearsed. It’s a dog’s life being an Ambassador.

1995: Uncle Zebulon’s Will, by Magnus Olsson: Your eccentric Uncle Zebulon considered himself a wizard, and was rumoured to be very wealthy. But when he died, he only left you one single object in his will…

1995:  A Change in the Weather, by Andrew Plotkin: Walking away from a picnic, you are suddenly caught in a country storm. You must protect a bridge from being destroyed. An ultra-linear game.

I Can Haz More?

You can. Check out the following links for more information:

• Brass lantern’s Beginner Resources
• The Interaction Fiction Database
• Parchment
• The IF-Archive
• IFWiki

1. And for an excellent recap of said heyday, I highly recommend Jason Scott‘s documentary Get Lamp. Well worth your time. [↩]

Image via Wikipedia

Last Sunday was Father’s day, and being a father myself for more than a handful of years now I was the recipient of what for most is a day of relaxation and barbecue.

This year was different. A week before my wife, Erin, asked me if I wanted to relax at home and generally be left to lounge around and not be required to do anything, or if I wanted to do something.

Then she said, “How about doing something on Father’s Day that you won’t forget?”

That made me think. I’d had several Father’s Days where I’ve just lounged and generally had a quiet Sunday. They were nice, but really, not very memorable. I have a hard time remembering those particular non-events, even though I was very relaxed at the end of it.

Besides, I thought, this is a day about being a Father. I have two girls, and I always say that I don’t spend nearly enough time with them. So I said, yes, let’s do something.

That’s when she told me we were going rafting.

It had been years, probably close to ten, since the last time we had been rafting. It was great trip, and one that both of us remember fondly. I knew she was on to something.

So the day came, with a little trepidation as it was overcast and rain was a definite possibility. We all packed in the car and headed out. Things went smoother than normal for us, and we got away about an hour before we really needed to.

Turns out things going smoothly was going to be the order of the day, except for one part. That part happened just as we were getting in to the Starved Rock area. Our phones¹ that we were using the Google Maps directions for, stopped working.

A combination of the latest map update, which caused them to freeze and force quite, combined with a lack of any data signal at all, made them fairly useless.

So we stopped at Starved Rock, and while Erin took the kids to the lodge, I searched for a signal to get our maps back. It was about twenty minutes of searching and waiting, but I won’t bore you with that here.

The lesson learned from it though, as I got back to the car and Erin had found a paper map was, “You don’t need to always have electronics to know where you are.” I knew that lesson, should have remembered it, but it’s hard when you’re always tethered to the ‘net to remember that stuff outside the ‘net exists still.

We arrived at the Vermillion River rafting drop off, still a little early.  As we waited to be dropped up the river, my youngest helped my oldest pick and eat mulberries from the trees.

Being disconnected earlier was just a lead in to the rafting, of course. While on the river I was tempted several times to check our position on my phone, I resisted. Mainly, because we had left all the phones in the car. It was a good thing though, since checking progress on it would have ruined one of better parts of the trip.

That part? Being there.

By not having anything to distract me, I was able to pay more attention. More attention to my girls, Erin, everything on the trip. The river was an easy one, perfect for taking two young kids out on and not pulling my hair out with worry over them.

The girls swam next to the raft several times. We taught them how to paddle the boat. My oldest learned how to steer it.²

The trip was over four hours long, and while I could get a good sense of the time by the sun, it was nice to not know what time it actually was. To not even have the option to do other things.

After we passed under the last bridge and got ashore, I wanted to actually go right back in.

On the way home we stopped for dinner at the Starved Rock lodge. Something we wouldn’t have thought to do if we hadn’t lost our signal to the maps in the first place. Looking around the table, I saw that we were all tired. I also saw the girl’s excited faces as they ate and talked about the trip.

I owe a great thanks to my wife, who indeed delivered on her promise to make Father’s Day 2011 a day to remember. I recommend it to everyone.

1. G2s, we love them. [↩]
2. She’s 8. [↩]

Betrayal at the House on the Hill is currently my favorite board game. Whereas other games I play may give you roughly a dozen scenarios, Betrayal comes with fifty. Five-oh. Fifty different haunted house stories from mummies and werewolves to Dorian Gray and Hellraiser. Well, okay – I’m not one hundred percent on the Hellraiser thing, but I did find a puzzle box the last time I played.

Betrayal includes twelve characters represented by six painted plastic miniatures and six sturdy hexagonal character cards. Each of these character cards contains two characters – one on each side – who can be represented by a single miniature. After randomly selecting a character card, you can choose which of the two characters to use. The character’s attributes are printed on the card as a series of numbers, and you place plastic clips along four of the six sides to point to each attribute’s current value. You have two physical attributes: speed and might, and two mental attributes: sanity and knowledge. They’re used differently in each scenario, but speed determines how many squares you can move, and might affects physical combat. If any of your attributes reach the skull at the bottom of the scale, the character dies. the interesting thing is that each character’s attribute scale is not a linear series of numbers. If your character’s knowledge is four and you find a book that increases it by one, it may not necessarily go to five. The next number on your card beyond four may be five, or it may be another four. It may also be six. Each character is different.

The game begins with characters entering the haunted house and exploring. As characters explore, they reveal new tiles and build the map, expanding it to include second floor and basement tiles. Tiles may have special effects printed on them or require you to draw a card. There are three decks of cards in Betrayal: the item deck, the event deck, and the omen deck. Many room tiles will have a symbol representing one of the three decks. If you are the one to reveal that room tile, you draw the appropriate card. Events often raise or lower your character’s attributes. Items can include weapons, such as the gun I used to murder the other players once when I was the betrayer. And then there are omen cards. Omen cards are special.

Each time a new omen card is drawn, in addition to resolving any other effects it may have, the player who drew it makes a haunt roll. If he rolls lower than the number of omen cards currently in play, The Haunt begins.

This is where the game gets good.

The player who triggered The Haunt consults a chart which reveals the betrayer. Some scenarios may have no betrayer, a hidden betrayer, multiple betrayers, or “none at first”. The player who is betrayer then has to physically leave the room and read the appropriate entry in The Traitors Tome, while the rest of the group reads the appropriate entry in Secrets of Survival. The amazing thing about this is that each side will be playing by slightly different rules and have different goals, and the other side won’t know. The betrayer may be after an item that players aren’t even guarding, or the betrayer may take some action leading the rest of the players to gasp “I didn’t know you could do that!” Likewise, as a betrayer, you may not know what players have to do in order to destroy you or monsters that you control.

The craziness that can evolve from this game cannot be adequately described in a review without spoiling the game’s scenarios. It constantly keeps you on your toes by changing the rules from game to game and by being both cooperative and competitive. For example, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a scenario in which the basement floods and players have to swim around, traversing the basement rooms underwater to find the front door key that would allow them to escape the house. If you stay underwater too long you risk drowning, and somewhere down there the creature from the black lagoon is lurking. By the way, I just made that one up. Any resemblance to an actual printed scenario means that I’m a powerful psychic and subconsciously read the game author’s mind.

I have two complaints about the game pieces. Firstly, the room tiles warp, becoming slightly curved so that they don’t lay flat on the table. Secondly, the clips they give you to track your character’s changing attributes tend to slide around and fall off. You need to guard your character card carefully – if a die roll bumps it, the clips may slide and you may lose track of your attributes.

If you’re looking for a board game to buy, this is the one. It comes with my highest recommendation.

Betrayal at the House on the Hill
Players: 3-6
Recommended Age: 12 and up
Time to Play: About an hour
Price: $42

Image by abiodork via Flickr

To say that work has been stressful of late would be something of an understatement, and I have vowed to work harder at keeping a good mindset and being a still point in the chaos around me. I do this because I think it is important: it not only helps focus my mind, but it does not add to the already-heightened sense of drama that is suffusing my meetings. I value reason and consensus, and a poor mindset in stressful situations can make that nearly impossible.

I started the day by doing part of my Triathlon training, working to get into a good headspace to tackle work and the other commitments I knew would be waiting for me. Fitness has been something I’ve come to value quite a lot in the past nine months, ever since I started working toward my goal of losing 160 pounds. I am 65 pounds down now, and if I do not work out, I feel it both mentally an physically. I slip back into bad patterns of eating and over-caffeinating when stressed, and that’s not good for me, my family, or anyone I need to interactive with. So, I work out to make my world better place.

We cause ripples. Our actions affect others.

I was reminded of this in two powerful ways today. The first was Thomas Gideon’s excellent essay, “Presence.” In it, he discusses the idea of “polishing the mirror.” Polishing the Mirror refers to the prized brass mirror of Japan, where the only way to get the metal to the proper sheen was to use small deliberate strokes for a long time until the mirror was perfect. He talks about self-improvement being much the same thing, and then by extension, by embodying the principles we value, we cause positive change. He cites this as an alternative zealotry: causing radical change by radical means over a short period. Gideon’s point, that the strongest force is the subtle force, inspired me today, and reminded me that the I have a choice in the way I spend my moments. That being there can be the most powerful thing of all.

The second thing: I found out today that I have been nominated for a Health & Wellness award at work. When I read the nomination text, I was deeply moved:

“Over the past year Chris has changed his lifestyle from an unhealthy one to a healthy one. He has lost over 60 pounds, and is preparing to compete in the Cleveland Triathlon in August. More notably, in doing so he has inspired SEVERAL of his coworkers to take their own health seriously as well and to get motivated. I am one of those people. Since January 1st I have lost 45 pounds, and will be competing in the Cleveland Triathlon with Chris in August as well. My life is healthier and happier because of Chris Miller.”

I am deeply humbled by those words, and I am honored that my actions for myself have affected others in a positive way. This reinforces my commitment to myself, to live the values I hold dear: the value of good friends and community, the value of physical fitness as a path to greater peace of mind, and the value of creative work: to give things to the world rather than simply consume.

Live the courage of your convictions. Polish The Mirror. Be There.