ScottVee Gaming

I ran a strategy game in my head to guess if there is any good time to drive up to Julian (CA) where it would not completely swarming with people.  Before Labor Day weekend, I had a Thursday appointment at the DMV so I took Thursday & Friday off.  In my head, I figured a friday morning would be the right time for that Julian trip. It worked out perfectly.  Half the shops didn't open until 11am, so 10 o'clock on a friday was optimal: there were barely a dozen people walking around town. There were tons of games tucked into different shops.  Julian Mercantile had a big game section upstairs and then a huge back room with some really fun themed booths with even more games.   After lunch we went to the actual game shop next door: Julian's Toy Shop.  This had a big selection of classic board games, card games, puzzles and toys.  We already owned almost every one of these games, at least some version of them.  The only thing I could find that I...

We made a quick stop to drop off some mail by the 7-11 near my apartment last weekend, and have some chicken at our regular spot.  When I got out of the car I immediately saw this piece of sidewalk art ... I am fascinated by how many different kinds of hopscotch boards I have seen drawn up in the last few years, but this one is easily the most creative. First, it has "follow the math problem", which is a very progressive STEM theme.  Then you hop onto 3 crayons, a notebook and two apples, ending on a "Happy School Year" finish line.   It doesn't look like it was scuffed by a lot of feet, but the art is so well done, I thought I would share the anonymous work here.  Hop hop.  It's nice to see some children motivated to get back to class. Here's another hopscotch board from the same patch of sidewalk back in May: This time it's Follow the Vines, Jump Over the Bunnies, then 1-2 flowers, 3 is some kind of box, 4 is a butterfly with "Follow the bunny...

We picked up the Deluxe Edition of 221-B Baker Street and gave it a test run.  I've known about this one for a few years now, and all the expansion packs that add 10 or 20 new cases each.  This box had 200 cases. As we played it, we got an odd vibe.  You roll dice and try to get to locations that have clues.  You read the clues from the casebooks, maybe jot down some notes, then roll dice to get back to 221-B Baker Street to give your best guess.  But ... played together as a team, the board and dice serve no real point.  It just randomizes which clue card you read next.  That's it.  We could have just stayed home, picked random clue cards and propose our solutions without rolling dice at all. I suppose this could get interesting if we wanted to compete against each other, or if there was another team playing.  As it was, we wondered why we didn't just watch the next episode of Elementary instead. I did not miss the irony that the designer's ...

We were looking forward to getting Catastrophe -- we were watching old videos of Lil' Bub, even the documentary Lil' Bub & Friends, and then got a ping from Lil' Bub's human about this new game with a tribute to Lil' Bub.  Had to have one.   The box opening was fine.  There's a gorgeous full-sized full-color booklet about famous video cats, including a whole page about Bub.  The cards had those famous cats, and other characters.  A lovely production.  They clearly loved these cats. But then, the gameplay was essentially about sending cats to their doom.  Spending their nine lives, and trying to avoid the Grim Reapurr, to be exact.  That would have been okay, pushing other cats down the tower so you can be the last cat standing.  But the action cards were almost entirely: gain/lose/steal a life unless you roll 3-6 or 4-6 or 5-6.  Sure, you can spend your yarn balls to reroll dice, which was cute, but it's hard to get more. ...

We got Zoomies a few weeks back but didn't have a chance to play it until now.  It looked simple enough, just a big stack of oversized thick dominos with fun dog art, and some little tokens. The game starts with three dominos face up in the middle of the table and each player with two dominos in hand. Basically, each round you play a domino and put a token on top.  When both players have used all their tokens (or were forced to discard them) the game is over.  Scoring is done at the end of the game.  The tokens are: - Leader: you get one point for all matching adjacent dogs in the pack - Frens: you place on one dog pointing at a different dog and those two are now friends, at the end of the game you get 2 points per pair of friends - Zoomies: you make a group of adjacent dogs with the zoomies (paw) icon, and get 1 point for a group of one, up to 15 for a group of 5. - Bones: you make a group of adjacent dogs with the Bones icon and get 2 points for each It's a bit co...

We were hoping to find a fun new game on our trip this weekend, but the ones we found were pretty ordinary.  We did bring one of our favorites, Skip Bo Junior.  It's nice to just deal out the cards and play without having to learn new tricks.  Although we always wonder if we are forced to play every card.  Sometimes, the only strategy there is is to hold back a card to not give your opponent an easy time. Anyway, kudos to the classics and favorites. We found these little gummy pizzas the next night.   Not exactly a game, just being playful. We also play Yut on the tablet a few times per week -- that simple game is still hard to beat for total Sorry-style chaos and unpredictability.