In praise of geeks

I am a geek. I love nothing more than to sit down in the company of other geeks and talk about science fiction, fantasy novels, movies, books, hisotry, rpg's, and board games. I work in the IT field, but strangely enough, I am not a computer gamer, MMOG'er, or first person shooter. I knwo that those things have a social side, but I think the filter of the computer makes that sort of geekdom less my bag, man.

And another thing, geeks come in all shapes, colors, sexes and political preferences. You can sit down with a stark raving birther, but when the subject is geeky, like a game of Twilight Imperium or D&D, that stuff usually fades away and the important thing is the new world you are creating together. (Although I will say that most of the geeks I know are more often politically moderate-to-liberal than conservative. That could be me self-selecting for social comfort, though.)

One thing you will find few of in the geek world is many religious conservatives. Those subcultures seem to dissuade folks from developing active imaginations, for whatever reason. Their loss.

Dune, Arrakis, Desert Planet

Back in 1979, Avalon Hill put out a board game based on the Dune universe. The game is a masterpiece of subterfuge and treachery, and is highly sought after on that big auction site. A decade or two later, a French company put out a version with all new art and several expansions included. Well, a few years ago, a friend of mine, who knew I was a massive Doonie, gave me the copy that had been languishing in his closet for years. Score!

Now, the game had some damaged pieces (someone spilled some sort of chocolate shake, I'm guessing) and a few missing spice counters, but in general, everything else was there and in good shape. I have just spent the last week or two of evenings putting together a hybrid set, replacing, fixing or just creating stuff to make the game whole again. The web is full of stuff that fans have created, even files for entire homemade version of the game. (It has long been OOP.)

So, here's the thing: this game is best played with six players. Five is doable, but with six, you could have the Bene Gesserit player scheming out a win by bending the game to meet her pre-game prediction, or the Spacing guild using its monopoly on space travel to frustrate the other factions' goals, or the Fremen using their desert ways to call worms down on the evil Harkonnen.

I think that if you like the skullduggery of the BSG game, you will probably like Dune. It is the grand daddy of dagger-in-the-back games. As far as the time commitment goes, I think that the first few games should allow for an entire evening, but experienced players can generally have a game done in a couple hours.
Here are a few pcs of the game from Boardgame Geek:

The Board:



An example of the leader counters:



If you want to see more of the components or read the rules, this is a great site for all that.

And if you are interested in getting in on a game, just leave me some safe way to get a hold of you in the comments. (I almost never remember to check the email for the blog, sorry.)

Comment spam

Well, I had to add the deal that forces folks to type the code word to comment. Too much spam on my tiny little blog. The things these a-hole spammers spend their time on...

Mr. Deity and Genocide

This episode of Mr. Deity is a slashing attack on the vengeful OT deity. Spot on, dark humor. My favorite line: "I know, I'm ridiculously competitive." Check it out here.

Blinky Bill

I spent some of my most formative years living in Sydney, Australia. Went to public school, wore the uniforms with the little gray shorts, and practically lived on Coogee Beach. When I got sun-burned, a kindly neighbor lady would cut a tomato in half and rub it on the burn. Doesn't sound smart, but it felt great. I guess it was some kind of Aussie home remedy.

My Mom is by nature a diligent person, and her boys were going to read early if she had anything to say about it. We had labels on the furniture from the time we could see straight, and even though money was never in any comfortable supply, we had access to books and were encouraged to read. I did not need any pushing on that front. One of my earliest reading memories is of a series of books about a Koala named "Blinky Bill." So I was happy to stumble across the ebook page for some of the Blinky stories. Bill was a Koala who had all sorts of bush animal friends. Even for stories written in the 1930's, the books have a conservation theme, and you can tell that the author, Dorothy Wall, had a strong stance against cruelty to animals. If you have kids just getting into reading, maybe the Blinky Bill tales would be something they might enjoy. Here's the Amazon page for BB stuff.

To crush your enemy...

This weekend I was able to play a 3-player game of "Age of Conan" and was not disappointed. It went a little slow at first, as it was a learning game, and we only got through 2/3's of the game due to one player's time limit, but we got the hang of it. I really liked the game, and feel that a couple more plays will only help me enjoy it more. Like BSG, there is a learning curve, as there are several things going on. But the "feel" is spot on. The game does a good job capturing the spirit of Robert Howard's Conan tales, and the big barbarian can really play havoc on your territories. So a thumbs up of AoC, and let me know if you'd like to join me for a game if you live in the KC metro.

Avatar: A really happy surprise.

Loved it, even with the 3D glasses. So the story was a tad predictable, it was still competently told. This is the best movie imagining of an alien world ever done. The plants and animals, while truly weird, are wonderfully fitted into an entire ecosystem. I was astounded by the richness and variety of the jungle in this movie. There will be details to discover after ten viewings. And the blue folks were just beautiful to watch. It is a BIG effects movie, but it does not assault you like a Transformers flick. I saw it on IMAX, and it was worth the extra four bucks. Anyway, for once a big movie lives up to the hype.