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Feb. 24th, 2002 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ralphmeltonLast night, we went to a Queria party at Mark's house.
The first part of the evening was dinner and conversation. Both were very good. The steak was particularly tasty, and social conversation with the Queriads is always nice.
After we had dessert (Lori's white-chocolate-chip cherry brownies were very tasty), a subset of us gathered to play Prairie Railroads, a game of railroads across Kansas that Mark had given to Larry for his birthday.
I wasn't really interested in playing the game; I had been enjoying the conversation. And since I had seen that the company was based in Pittsburgh (in Regent Square), I suspected that this might be a small-press game--and that carried an increased risk that the game might suck. But since I've been the person most likely to try to suck other people into games, I felt a social obligation to play with good will.
The game turned out to be much better than I had expected. There was a separation between the players (who own shares of corporations) and the corporations (who were the ones who actually build track) that I found quite novel. I don't think that the strategies that afforded were entirely apparent to all of us. In particular, it seems that two people working together on a well-funded railroad can make it do amazing things.
Raven was by far the winner; I came in second largely due to successfully riding on her coattails.
It was pretty good--I would happily play it again, and I might buy it.
(Random aside: I tend to do poorly at games about money--i.e., games with auctions, buying and selling, and so forth. I can usually play well, but not best. I'm not sure why I seem to have this sort of strategic blind spot.)
The first part of the evening was dinner and conversation. Both were very good. The steak was particularly tasty, and social conversation with the Queriads is always nice.
After we had dessert (Lori's white-chocolate-chip cherry brownies were very tasty), a subset of us gathered to play Prairie Railroads, a game of railroads across Kansas that Mark had given to Larry for his birthday.
I wasn't really interested in playing the game; I had been enjoying the conversation. And since I had seen that the company was based in Pittsburgh (in Regent Square), I suspected that this might be a small-press game--and that carried an increased risk that the game might suck. But since I've been the person most likely to try to suck other people into games, I felt a social obligation to play with good will.
The game turned out to be much better than I had expected. There was a separation between the players (who own shares of corporations) and the corporations (who were the ones who actually build track) that I found quite novel. I don't think that the strategies that afforded were entirely apparent to all of us. In particular, it seems that two people working together on a well-funded railroad can make it do amazing things.
Raven was by far the winner; I came in second largely due to successfully riding on her coattails.
It was pretty good--I would happily play it again, and I might buy it.
(Random aside: I tend to do poorly at games about money--i.e., games with auctions, buying and selling, and so forth. I can usually play well, but not best. I'm not sure why I seem to have this sort of strategic blind spot.)
