Birthday: Games from Nowhere

So I had my 60th birthday, and a party was arranged ... and survived.  Mostly gift cards for Barnes & Noble, which does have games.  Here is the haul as of today:



Botswana was a gift.  Splendor was actually from work, from the weird Recognition program they have where you can send points to coworkers -- I had 110 points saved up which are worth about a buck each, and this was listed for 17 points and arrived the very next day.

The rest were from B&N.  It was really annoying that I didn't notice the Command of Nature one was just an expansion set to a game we don't own ... so that's useless, but it was $10 on the cheap table.  The other two look good.  Will test them out when we get a chance.

I also made mental notes of some of the games that looked good, like Botany, and took some pics of what was on their discount table.  Came home and watched some videos about those, and they just seem too complicated for our current lifestyle, or require dexterity that's not fair to Anne. 

Still, it's fun to look.  We have made a few trips to thrift shops in the last month or two, hoping to find some older games, and the selections have been minimal.  A few garage sales = nothing at all.  Sadly, most of the newer games are sounding the same these days.  But we keep looking.  We enjoy exploring new rule sets and new imagery together.

Speaking of exploration, we had a chance to play Minecraft a bit today, mostly lost in endless caves in one of my highly modded worlds.  That is still the best deal of my life in gaming.  For just $20, with the help of hundreds of modders, I have been entertained off & on for over 12 years now.  Over a dozen very different worlds, some with 50 or more bases and settlements.  And there are still things we have not seen yet.

Anyway, birthday to me.   Game on.

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