A Little Rickety but Still Trucking (Nov 2023 newsletter) (Patreon)

Hey folks, this is gonna be a quick newsletter because I don't have too much to report. I was hoping to get Barrage finished by the end of November but a short bout of food poisoning and a very unfortunately timed case of covid has slowed me down considerably. I'm all better now, and honestly the symptoms were so mild that if I hadn't tested I wouldn't have believed that it even was covid. The worst part is that I was looking forward to going to PAX this year, as it's one of my favorite conventions, but I had to make a decision by Monday if I wanted to get my money back for the hotel I'd booked. I was still sick then, so I canceled everything only to test negative on Wednesday, so I could have gone after all! Very frustrating. But, I did manage to film everything for Barrage, so at least I'll be able to get started on that.

I also played some good games for Rahdo this month, though I've been pretty bad about taking pictures of them. Save for Kutna Hora in the header, which is a very cool city building kinda game. You've got two layers, the city on top and the silver mine on the bottom and you score points for them in very different ways. You also work with three of the six guilds, and that determines what you make and sell, but the price of goods is constantly shifting as more people come into town and you make more of whatever your guilds produce. It's got a cool push and pull, so check out the runthrough if you're interested.

The other big game I covered was Nemesis Retaliation, which I think I might like the best out of all three. Mechanically there are some changes that I like, but it's mostly thematic. I like that we're going in prepared to fight aliens, so we still might get overwhelmed, but we're gonna do a lot more damage on the way. Again, check out the runthrough if you're interested.

As far as games I played for myself, there was a lot less than I was hoping for. Weirdly, one of the best games I played was this children's game about stacking shapes on a wobbly platform and trying to keep it from falling over. As simple as the concept is, this kind of stuff is often a hit for me. It just provides such great tension. Plus I was able to play it with my in-laws, who don't speak that much english, so that's definitely a plus.

Anyway, there's a lot to look forward to on the horizon. Beyond the Sun will be the next game I teach, but after Barrage is done I'll be taking most of December off. I've got some travel plans with the family and I just need to recharge a bit, as this has been quite the busy year. I've got some great stuff planned for 2024 though, and I'm really looking forward to it! As always, thank you all for being here. I wouldn't be able to do stuff like this without your support. Happy Holidays everyone!