What To Do With The Time That Is Given To Us (April 2020 newsletter) (Patreon)

Well folks, this strange new existence continues ever onward, so we must decide how to continue to fill our time. I've been very hard at work on several new projects. Hopefully you've seen the new Dune tutorials. This certainly isn't the ideal circumstance for teaching a 6 player game, but such are the cards we've been dealt. Now I can move on to learning this great beast.

I played my first game the other night as the Free Peoples and was soundly thrashed, though I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I'm already thinking about how to play differently. Maybe next time the Shadow will have a harder go at taking Gondor. This time around, well...

Yeah...the story didn't quite go as originally told. I borrowed this copy of the game from The Brothers Murph, who did the painting on it. Nick says this is the first game he ever painted and he's terribly embarrassed by it, but I think he did a fine job. I'd use it for the video except that not all of the pieces are finished. I'm also trying to get a hold of the expansions, including the new one that should be coming out later this year, but as Ares Games is an Italian company and their American warehouse is locked down due to the pandemic, that's proving to be more difficult than I hoped for. I might just pick up the expansions that are out, or maybe I'll wait on the expansion videos and do them a little later. Time will tell.

Outside of RTFM, you may have seen me doing a run through of Call to Adventure over on Rahdo's channel. They've hired me to make a few videos for them and asked which game I'd like to cover as an introductory video. Call to Adventure was an easy choice for me, as I really like it and It's something that Rahdo wouldn't have ever touched. I've also got a video for Sea of Legends, a big pirate kickstarter game that's going up tomorrow, that deserves the success I'm sure it's going to get.

My set up has changed a bit since I took this picture, but man, this format of shooting is very different from what I'm used to. I think I'm getting the hang of it, but wrangling all these wires and tech gremlins has been quite a task. That being said, I'm very excited for what comes next.

One thing I've been a little surprised to find is which games I've been going back to more and more as the lockdown continues. I wouldn't have guessed it, but Spirit Island has been at the top of the list for me. While I still think it works best at three, it's such a good medium-weight two player game that we just keep coming back to it. The past month has been a little more stressful than usual, and with the time I've had to play games at all, I often want something that distracts me but isn't too taxing on my time or energy. I'm sure some of you can relate. For whatever reason, Spirit Island is filling that niche for me very well. 

What about you? Which games do you find are helping you cope the best?