ScottVee Gaming

On Tuesday night, we sat down in the Victorian parlor of the Julian Gold Rush Hotel and played ... King of Tokyo.  That was a satisfying case of being out of phase with the reality around us.  We just bought the game earlier in the day, another case of a game where I saw it and said, "Why on Earth do I not have one of those yet?"  We did play with the Leggs once or twice, and maybe once at a con. Here is the old Tabletop episode where the four players are having a blast. Right away, we felt it is not as much fun with two players.  There was a huge imbalance, because the first player who faces an empty Tokyo space has to move in, and then they get +2 victory points per turn unless they bail out and just have to hang in there until they hi 20 VP to win.  I didn't see the rule that you can't heal with dice while in Tokyo, but it still felt out of whack.  Then I saw the little optional rule for 2 players where you get 1 energy point per turn for starting in To...

We were still on our Julian trip where we were inundanted by games and puzzles of all sorts.  There were even more games in those drawers, including Low Down, Uno, Phase 10, and a few cribbage boards.   There were also these weird little things ... Some were tilt-the-box mazes, others were just unfamiliar.  We have looked at so many little wooden games and puzzles at so many places over the years, I have to say it's a bit sad how many of them don't even have a new on the bottom, or any clue what it is or where it came from.  The trip was winding down, but what a fun experience getting to try so many clever distractions up close and personal.

Of the newer games on the shelves at the hotel in Julian, I wanted to look at Sorry: Madagascar Edition because I couldn't visualize how you would add thematic content to Sorry.  Sorry is just moving around the board, bumping each other and saying you're Sorry when you never really mean it. Right away, the way this was skinned was obvious: use big funny cardboard characters from the movie as the pieces and add more character art to the cards.  There was also movie art on the board itself.  So that's how you skin a game of Sorry. I had a moment where the cards struck me as odd.  It didn't feel right using cards to move in this game, but I think I was thinking of Parcheesi (an ancestor of this game) or the Pop-O-Matic die roller that's actually in Trouble (a cousin of Sorry).  Then I was floored by how much text was on the rule sheet.  It's just Sorry, not some extravagant strategy game. The cards were almost split in half from having been used so man...

In the cavernous back room downstairs at the Warm Hearth, they had a big display of games, including a giant Connect-4, a stack of 1-player Shut the Box games, a game called Disk Dash, and a public table where players can test those out. We have covered Shut the Box before  where our local boba shop has a 4-player version people like to diddle around with, and we have a 2-player one at home that we don't remember where we got it.  This time, it was a one-player version on display, and a copy set up with rules where you can sit and play it.  The rules were the same as we remembered: roll the dice, get a number, and flip down the any combination of numbers that add up to your total.  So if you roll a 3+4, any combination that equals seven can be flipped down.  Play until you can't flip another number, then your score for the round is the total of all your unflipped numbers.  Low score wins. Of course, the Wikipedia page for Shut the Box has name var...

As much as I find Monopoly clones tiresome and annoying, when we're in a small town somewhere and find their own small town rendition of the game, those are fascinating.  They are usually funded by advertising of local businesses, and have a very nostalgic feel, like they're from a parallel dimension where everyone cares about their community. Our hotel in Julian had a copy of Julianopoly.  The box was beaten up and it was a bit sad to see all the houses and game pieces were missing.  We could still enjoy the cards and board.  Everything in the box was a jumbled mess, so while we couldn't play the actual game, we made a game out of sorting it all out for the next person who opens the box. It felt like there was way too much play money in this edition, but we got it all organized.  This edition was made by Pride Distributors, 1989.  Sponsored by the Julian High School Eagle Booster Club.  The Chance and Community Chest cards were turned into Fat...

Here is an idea of just how many games can be found in Julian.  They're everywhere ... Two cabinets at the hotel with other drawers of games not shown: Right next door is the Julian Toy Chest ... The Wolf Center across the street still has Forest Animal Opoly . There are more games at the Miner's Diner.  These are vintage games in small tins, from the New York Historical Society.  They have a whole wall of other games, including miniature editions.  See the wall of miniatures shown up above. Games at the Warm Hearth.  This is just their main game display, just shelf 2 out of 3.  They have more games in a huge room downstairs. Interesting note: the worker at the Toy Chest told some tales of a kind of rivalry between some of the shops in town, trying to outsell or underprice each other.  There are more games at the Julian Garage.  Here's a neat tic-tac-toe game made of shot glasses. And here is their main game area, with more around the corners and ...