admin, Author at Cards or Die

Temp Worker Assassins

When I was trying to expand my collection and on the lookout for unusual games Temp Worker Assassins caught my eye. I was attracted by the art work and the premise. You are a temp working at Bureaucrat Castle and you must use items from the stationery cupboard to bring about the demise of your permanent colleagues. Your weapons range from reasonably blunt pencils to a remarkably heavy calculator. I’m such an English teacher that they had me at these modifiers.
 
The game is played over a week. (In game time – not in real life. It’s not an insane version of Risk!). Each day has a power up which you may choose to claim using one of your four assassins. You start out with a basic hand of stationery weapons which you must strengthen over the 5 rounds. Permanent staff carry varying scores and some stack up so for instance, a set of Zombies will earn extra points if you also kill the Water Cooler Elemental. 

During the hot-desking phase of the game you must place your assassins. You can choose to attempt an assassination; strengthen your deck for this round or future rounds; move another assassin or temporarily power up your attack strength. However, there are a limited number of opportunities to claim these actions. For instance there is only one card which allows you to move someone else’s assassin so once someone claims that, you may have to rethink your plans. In addition to this, you must balance out low value easy kills with building your deck to enable you to take on higher value targets. All before the office closes on Friday. Even before I was swept away on a wave of strategy I was already sold on the fact that they had called this the ‘hot desking phase’. Every word, every turn of phrase is considered and deliberate. For the time I am playing I am immersed in a world of bulletins, audits, compliance and compact disc shurikens. 
 
One of the things I enjoy about events is wandering round listening to conversations. Snatches of ‘punch it in the face’, ‘Tokyo’s infected – we need to deal with that next’ or ‘My rabbit didn’t poo in the living room…’ Temp Worker Assassins leads to some lovely conversations that must leave casual visitors to the pub wondering. ‘I’m going to use the evil pencil sharpener to add plus one to these three fairly sharp pencils…’ 
 
This aspect of planning and decision making appeals to me. I like being able to vary my strategy and try different ideas in different games and I enjoy the challenge of adapting within a game; as the cards you turn over for your potential victims vary so too must your strategy.  The five day (round) structure limits the time, so sometimes by Wednesday when your opponent has killed all the typing pool zombies you have to rethink your plans entirely. To think the survival of the Legal Aid Fairy is so fragile that her fate depends on a load of braindead zombies. Oh well, as in art so too in real life.

As well as the flavour text, it was the art that first drew me to the game and for me sets it apart. Each character is detailed and humorously presented; the stationery is horrifying. Even the lack of artwork is genius – the Internal Audit Ninja card features no picture, just the words ‘No image on file. (Also, cameraman missing). The reverse of the cards has artwork which is similar but distinct enough to distinguish the varying card types.

In Brief
Plays 2-4
Time 45-60 minutes
Age 14+
 
By David Newton 
Art by Adam Bolton
 
To win: build your deck strength and kill the highest total value of workers.

Best Bits
Beautifully illustrated with killer stationery and dislikeable victims. 
After a week immersed in your killer role as a temp at Bureaucrat Castle you will never look at a stationery cupboard the same again. 

Come along to a Cards or Die event and play. 

Board Games Hauls and Piles of Shame.

My advertising posts often proudly announce the number of board games in my collection. (Currently 310). Like everyone else I prop up, retweet and add to the jokes about the piles of shame; question the necessity of taking clothes to Essen to when you could just fill your case with new games. However, I also see the danger of these throw away comments and jokes. Regularly I feel disquiet about owning games I haven’t played while I’m still backing new ones on Kickstarter. Sitting around joking about how much money we can waste is a position of privilege that I don’t even want to aspire to. 
 
Being part of the Board Gaming community is not about collecting and bragging. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. Even with my large collection, I am sometimes on the receiving end of sniffy comments about the range of my games; the ‘seriousness’ of them. The phrase ‘proper games’ has been bandied about in a disparaging manner. People who like to reel off a checklist of games I ‘missed out on’ from Kickstarter sometimes come to my events. I try to discourage this sort of conversation. I’ll happily compete with anyone to build the most profitable settlement, get the most cards or get rid of all the cards – whatever the game demands. But I’m not playing this game. In a hobby that is already niche we really don’t need to be marginalising people.

If my business didn’t require me to have a large collection of games including some up to the minute releases then I would not have a collection of this size. Nor would I want so many games. I have played each of my games (bar the newest 5 or 6) at least once. Many of them I have only played once. Some of the games in my collection are for others, I don’t particularly enjoy them but other people do and that’s why they have earned their precious shelf space. Too many of my games I have not been able to play enough. It’s great to have choice but it’s far better to be able to play something enough that you can thoroughly explore and appreciate it. I feel like a smaller collection would allow me to enjoy my games more. 
 
I have placed myself in an odd position – I feel a fraud denouncing consumerism, the greed and sense of entitlement with which we constantly shop. I despair at my children who as soon as they see something, are weighing up its cost; Ebay, google, amazon temptingly at their fingertips. I feel trapped by it all and it is at these moments I feel the mad desire to charity shop all my worldly good and go live on a bus. But it would be difficult to run a board gaming business if I only kept Honshu and Catan. 
 
I wanted to write something as the influx of Essen hauls flood our social media feeds.  I don’t begrudge anyone spending their hard earned cash on board games – there are far worse vices. But I wanted to remind us all that it’s not ok to make people feel like they need to play certain games or spend a certain amount of money to be part of the Board Gaming Community. Being part of a community is about making sure everyone is included and in this particular community a love of board games should be at the root of that. I don’t care whether you backed the latest Kickstarter, whether you have all the expansions or whether you have 1000s of serious games. You don’t have to own the ‘right’ games, the ‘proper’ games or any games for that matter to enjoy board games. It has not escaped my irony detectors that the same people who are so disparaging about Monopoly often have a very capitalist approach to the hobby! 
 
Social Media offers us a glimpse of other people’s lives that they have edited, filtered, presented; it fulfils the nosy neighbour part of me. It’s lovely to see gorgeous photos of games I haven’t played and I love watching the Kickstarter campaigns start at zero and inch towards the finishing posts or smash straight through them. Social media enables me to engage with games designers and share their victories even when I can’t afford to back everything I would like to. Even I remind myself that I can’t support everyone and I can’t have everything – no matter how pretty it looks in the picture and I have a legitimate reason for adding to my collection regularly. I think it bears mentioning that when we see these pictures from me and others, we are looking at someone’s work -whether it’s events, reviewing or photography. Most people really don’t need to own that many games!
 
Whether as a child it was about prising an elder sibling away from the TV to play with me; family holidays in a caravan playing card games while the rain pattered on the ceiling or now, as an adult, prising an x-box controller out of a child’s hand because I still need someone to play with me – I just want to get people together with board games. That might be a Kickstarter preview or it might be Cluedo, as long as we are playing together and escaping the drudge of day to day life, it doesn’t really matter. It shouldn’t cost money (or at least not a lot!) to feel that warm nostalgia and to get people playing together. 
 
Keeping the costs down: 
Charity Shops – I’m always on the look out at Charity Shops especially for retro games. You can get some real bargains. Recently I got a Ticket To Ride expansion for £1.50!  
I try to keep my events free or low cost as far as I practically can to make sure they are accessible to as many people as possible and I know lots of local board gaming groups operate on a similar premise. If you’re not sure of your local group, message me and I’ll point you in the right direction. Of course if you’re in Leeds I’d love to see you at some of my events.  
I really like the idea of the legacy games where groups of friends share the cost of a game and get together regularly to play it. It doesn’t have to be a legacy game that you could share the cost of.  
Some libraries have started stocking board games which is fantastic. If you’re lucky enough to live in Ipswich – that’s one example.  
Most cities have board game cafes where you can try out whichever games you fancy without committing to buying the game.   
Some traditional games are loads of fun and all you need is a deck of cards or sometimes even just pen and paper – Beetle Drive, Flip the Kipper and Battleship are all good fun. Any time my children have been set homework where one of the choices was make a board game, they have always opted for that. All you need are dice, card, pens and imagination! 
I suppose, in short,  what I’m trying to say is – the board gaming community I’m a part of welcomes you, and we’re striving to be kind, thoughtful and above all excellent to each other.

Check out my free events here and come along and play some games. 

Halloween Games!

As well as amassing more Halloween decorations than one house can feasibly use, I have also got quite a few horror themed games. In time for Halloween I thought I’d give you a quick rundown of the Cards or Die horror collection. I’ll just fetch them from the cellar… I’ll take this torch… It does work, you just need to hit it… There we go… Back in a bit…
 
Dentist
This game offers a horrific scenario and spine chilling puns. Remove your patients’ teeth without setting off the ‘buzzer’ to win. You have to question how effective you’ve been as a dentist if you are removing this many teeth. Still, at least you’re not feeding anyone to a giant plant. If you haven’t watched this clip with the sound on, the ‘buzzer’ is a high wheedling scream. It’s enough to set your teeth on edge.
Go on… watch it with sound… I dare you! 

Escape Zombie City

A brilliant co-operative adventure complete with spooky sound track and Scooby Doo esque van. You start off travelling on foot through the city rolling dice to determine whether you can reveal another city square and where you can move to. As in all great horrors you must determine whether you will stay together or split up and explore! Each city tile laid spawns zombies, which then periodically shamble towards the graveyard. You must find the exit tile and collect supplies (again using the dice) in order to escape which you do by meeting back at the churchyard and hopping in the van, screeching towards the exit. Do this before three Zombies reach the church grounds and before time runs out (you have a more than generous15 minutes!) to win. 
 
The game requires no turn taking, you must all play at once. You roll your dice repeatedly until you get the right combination either on your own or working with others who share your board space. Roll all cursed dice and your dice are locked – you may no longer roll until someone comes to your rescue. You see, splitting up is never such a great idea.
 
And when you find that it gets too easy and you’re just slaying zombies and strolling out of there, you can add in additional challenge cards spawning more and bitier zombies with side effects like paralysis, broken arms or vertigo. These side effects see you rolling one of your dice at a time, losing a dice or keeping one arm behind your back. 
 
Geistes Blitz
A fairly new addition to the collection this one is a game of speed and brains. Flip the card and then either grab the item shown or, with lightning fast deduction skills, work out and grab the item and colour that is not represented. Be the first to grab the correct item to win the card and get the most cards to win.
 
The description of it doesn’t really do it justice – it’s such a good laugh to play. And the more rounds you play, the faster your brain and hands work. It’s addictive – like a hardcore spot the difference. It’s another game I like to let my children win at, you know to help them with their self esteem. 
 
Best played with short nails – it’s a bit grabby!

Gloom
In Gloom you are assigned a family to ‘look after’. You must ensure that they stay alive long enough to become thoroughly miserable – preventing any happy events that threaten to befall them at all costs, deflecting them on to other more fortunate families. 
 
The see through cards stack on top of each other and you may alter the fate of your own family or that of someone else’s by obscuring or adding to previous scores. You are invited to add to the story of your families demise, fleshing out the ghastly events with gruesome detail. 
 
It’s all about timing. Family members have to attain a level of misery before they are dispatched. You need to minimise your opponent’s unhappiness while maximising your own in order to win. The moment the families shuffle off this mortal coil must be impeccably strategised. Who’d have thought miserable death could be so entertaining?!

Zombie Drive

Beetle Drive is a brilliant game for kids and adults. Each part of the beetle is assigned a number and you roll that number on your dice to draw that part. The first person to draw a complete beetle wins. You can team up or play against each other. The best bit is that all you need is a bit of paper, dice and some pens. 
 
When the children were little I started a habit which persists to this day – carrying games in my bag. I’m a massive fan of portable games, games you can play in a small space or with limited resources. You can adapt Beetle Drive as I have and do it with any animal/ being. 

Zombie Dice
I know that I have mentioned this one many, many times but thanks to our added soundproofing (a layer of felt glued to the inside of the insanely noisy box) it can often be found rattling around quietly inside my bag. I love push your luck games and the element of probability alongside the tactile nature of the dice makes this game a firm favourite. I’m only disappointed that the markings on the dice aren’t more engraved and distinct as it could be so perfect for players who are blind or visually impaired.
 
Red dice contain more gunshots; green, more delicious brains and amber, an even mix of fleeing victims, brains and gunshots. Each turn you draw up to three dice and roll to see if you will feast or fail. It’s a low scoring game and once you get your head round that it is much easier to win. But win or lose the repetitive rolling of dice coupled with the thin veil of strategic thinking keeps me quiet for ages. And, as my family will tell you – that’s not to be sniffed at.

Here are some links to some of my reviews of other Halloween Favourites:
Zombies
Sub Terra
Zombie Fluxx
 
 
It is at this point, with horror, I realise I have never reviewed one of our family favourites – Temp Worker Assassins. You must assassinate the permies to secure your job in the company – overcoming typing pool zombies, legal aid fairies and health and safety halflings. I will rectify this grievous absence in my reviews as soon as possible. Look out for that review coming soon!
 
And if you’re looking to add to your collection check out the Quirk! Halloween Special over on Kickstarter which promises to be a bootiful addition to your ghastly games collection!! 
 
All of these horrific games are available to play at Cards or Die events– including (soon) Quirk! Hallows. 

Some trivial reminiscences – a blog from a lapsed #BGG

This week I have a guest blog from the fabulous Zebra Marketing and Communications.
 

I grew up in a card playing family. My father’s mother – my Nanny Dosh, short for Doris obviously – taught me a host of family favourites (and the harmonica) when she used to babysit me. And my mother’s aunt – my Great Aunt Madge – taught me other games on her annual visits up North. Many a weekend was spent playing games like ‘Load the Donkey’ and ‘Beat your Neighbour Out of Doors’. Later my parents taught me other games like Pontoon (21s), Cribbage, Gin Rummy and others that you could bet a few coppers on (we took card games seriously in our house). Board games, other than the obligatory Kerplunk, Monopoly and Operation, didn’t really feature.

That all changed with the advent of Trivial Pursuit. Launched in 1979, I seem to remember it got very popular in the mid-eighties and no dinner party my parents attended at that time was complete without it. The Trivial Pursuit craze continued and by the time I was in my late teens and early twenties even many impoverished students sported – albeit a tatty version – the Trivial Pursuit box (or the budget ‘travel’ edition) in their shared house or bedsit.

We found some of our friends were like-minded in their love of games and Trivial Pursuit soon progressed to Articulate, The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game, Let’s Buy Hollywood and many, many others. By the time we bought our own house, the top of my bedroom wardrobe looked more like that of a 12-year-old than an adult with a mortgage and a full-time job.

Games were played regularly throughout our twenties and even now we are known to use phrases that entered family lore around that time. ‘It’s an ‘ing’’ (for a ‘doing word’) or name a double-barrelled monkey (‘Mr Orang-Utan’ of course!) However, as friends moved away, some to literally the other side of the world, and others started families of their own, the games were played less and eventually were moved into the garage and then finally, apart from a couple that survived the cull, ended up in the local charity shop.

I gave little thought to games over the following years until a friend of mine had the inspiration to set up a board gaming business (Cards or Die). It sounded like such a fun idea for a business, but it wasn’t until I witnessed Ann in action, at another friend’s birthday camping festival that I truly appreciated the level of effort and thought that has gone into her business. Cards or Die’s games selection spans a wide spectrum and there is something for everyone. But what really makes it work is the encouragement, recommendations and advice that Ann provides all players – teaching them new games or reminding them of the rules of games played in the past. It turns a game into so much more.

Needless to say, the group of friends I was with barely left the games tent for the rest of the festival and the fun we had reawakened my love of games (as well as reinforcing my position as Connect 4 champion). I think the time is right to invest in some new games and I believe Ann may have a few recommendations for me…

I’m always happy to recommend games – check out the games section of the website for ideas or message me!

So… what have we learnt from Leeds Business Week?

This week I have attended loads of really useful events as part of Leeds Business Week run by the Yorkshire Mafia. Lots of the workshops and seminars were free which is amazing especially when you consider the amount of help and advice you can amass during this week. There are so many events on that it is impossible to attend them all. I thought it might be useful if I shared some of the key messages and ideas that I will be putting into practice. 
 
Become a Great Networker in Just One Hour – Colin Tweedie
 
One of the features of this workshop which I feel confident that I am already nailing is having a good handshake. I am so glad that it was explicitly taught though. Too often I shake hands with people who are unpleasantly limp or who pump your arm so enthusiastically it hurts! As a form tutor, I used to regularly test my kids’ handshakes. It is often either the first or last impression you make on people and it really counts. Having been given a breakdown of what makes a good, firm handshake I am confident that no-one left that room with a flaccid handshake. 
 
But there’s more to networking than shaking hands firmly. We also covered the idea of researching other attendees at networking events in advance. This is not something I had previously thought of doing as it seems a bit stalkery. But actually, information on social media is in the public domain so why not work out who would be good to talk to and then make a point of chatting to them. So much of this seemed common sense – but that’s the most useful advice isn’t it? – straightforward ideas that you can easily implement. 
 
I was also reminded of the importance of using people’s names. Again – it’s not rocket surgery but it’s a very effective thing to do, provided of course you don’t go over the top. Learning and using names was a very basic thing I did when I had interview lessons but it was surprising how many interviewers picked that up as a positive and fed back to me how impressed they were. It’s something, as a teacher, I took for granted. I knew it was important to learn names and I did. So, it was a very useful reminder that everyone likes you to learn their name and use it.
 
How to Use Linkedin to Generate Leads – Nigel Cliffe
 
I have struggled for a while to get to grips with LinkedIn. I share my blog on there each week but beyond that I feel like I just don’t get it. I have accepted many, many requests and have a frankly ridiculous amount of followers – all of whom seem to have messaged me with varying degrees of literacy to offer me their services. One ambitious young man even assured me he could improve ‘every aspect of’ my life. A bold claim indeed. It was reminding me too much of internet dating so I started giving it a wide berth. One of the pieces of advice was to cull your following so that you keep people that you are genuinely interested in and who have genuine interest in what you are doing. It’s easy to dismiss advice as obvious but it’s important to remember that just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean you’re doing it! *cracks knuckles… logs in…*
 
The tips that I am putting into practice are all based on the theory that the focus should be on engagement rather than selling. In that way LinkedIn is similar to other social media. As well as interacting with your now trimmed list of followers, a useful thing to do is ensure that you interact or connect with people who have viewed your page. If it’s free you are only shown the 5 most recent but that just means that you need to check more frequently to make use of this information. 
 
Nigel Cliffe also drew my attention to the social selling index page which measures your effectiveness on LinkedIn. You can click on links to find out more about how you can improve your score which seems a sensible place to start making practical changes to improve my use of LinkedIn.
 
Out of all the people that attend these sessions Nigel Cliffe claims that only 20% will act on the advice they have been given. What a waste of our own time. We have already spent a great deal of time travelling to and from sessions not to mention attending the sessions themselves. It seems madness to not invest some further time embedding these ideas into our day to day practices. 
 
Avenue HQ – co-working space
 
I spent a significant amount of time in Avenue HQ this week, making the most of their offer of free desk space and faciilities. As someone who works from home this space was awesome. It gave me important time to reflect and start to practice some of the ideas I’d picked up. I am determined to be one of the 20%!

Building a Business That Provides a Regular, Predictable Income and Cash – Tendo
 
One of the main benefits of attending this seminar is that I have joined the Facebook group – Business Squad. It’s a Leeds based group who offer support to one another, celebrates successes and shares challenges. It’s a very active group and it looks like a great group to be a part of.
 
This seminar focused on the reality of running your own business. We all start out with a vision of freedom, of following a passion and a dream and if we’re not careful, all too quickly, we are sucked into a quagmire of long hours and stress about money. Admittedly this is a different quagmire than we were in before – we made this one ourselves. But I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse!
 
It’s healthy to take a step back and re-focus on your original plan; it is so easy to be blown off course. This workshop afforded me the opportunity to do just that. We also looked at predicting income in advance and how small adjustments to your planning and behaviour can make huge gains overall. After all it is through increasing income that we can buy that dream of freedom and steer our own course. 
 
We were encouraged to consider how we could generate passive income – considering ideas such as: online courses, online content, membership or subscriptions. I use Ko-fi with varying degrees of commitment and subsequently varying degrees of success! Certainly lots to think about and mull over from this one.
 
The Pitfalls of PR and Making it Work For You – Open Communications UK
 
Lindsey Davies ran this engaging session. I have to say I have never really considered the difference between PR and advertising. The distinguishing feature I took on board is that PR is free and advertising is paid. It’s no surprise then that I am very keen to master all things PR! There’s a reason I feel at home in Yorkshire. 
 
Lindsey Davies suggests buying the local papers every day for a week so that you can discern what is published on certain days. Then you can actively look for opportunities to engage with journalists in a productive, relevant and authentic way. I have opened a column on tweetdeck which shows tweets with the hashtag #journorequests and filtered it to Leeds so that I can see if there are any relevant requests for articles. I am not going to invest a lot of time here because as chief cook and bottle washer I have to carefully allocate my time-just a quick daily check so that I don’t miss out on any free publicity opportunities. 
 
Brand Bootcamp with Magpie
 
This was the most useful activity of the week. It was a one-to-one session looking in detail at my brand and discussing possible opportunities and ways forward. There is nothing I can really share from this as it was completely personalised and bespoke. However I would urge you – if you get the opportunity to engage with Magpie, I can’t recommend them enough. If you missed this year’s sessions keep an eye out for them next year. I know I will be.
 
Empowered Women

The final event of the week featured four female entrepreneurs talking about their personal journeys to success. There were many differences but where they overlapped is worth noting. They all championed the idea of supporting and inspiring other women and continuing on the journey of seeing women more represented at senior levels. They viewed Motherhood as a job in itself, even those on the panel without children acknowledged that at the end of your days work you go back home and start your other job. It was refreshing to hear that shared viewpoint. If you want to watch the full event it was filmed and will be uploaded on Sedulo’s youtube channel soon. 
 
The thing I will take away from this event though is Holly Moore’s statement about core values which was simply
‘Work hard. Be nice.’
An inspiring end to the week. 
 
So to sum up….
The reminder that we should all have in mind a detailed outline of our idea customer (s) – what do they read? where do they go? what do they buy? ran like a thread through all of the workshops. I will definitely be re-visiting and updating this.
 
Pretty much every session I attended mentioned at some point the importance of video. Again this is something I have known for a while and actively avoided! I am vowing to bite the bullet, eat the frog or whatever analogy you prefer and do some live videos. I am telling you this to force my own hand. If you would like me to tag you in my live to encourage you to do the same, just give me a shout!
 
There were many more finer details and points of learning in these seminars and I would encourage you to keep an eye out for any opportunities to attend sessions. This is just a taster of what I learnt this week. I think it’s important to distil what you have learnt and put the most accessible ideas into practice; then review and consolidate. At a later date you can build on that and practice other new ideas. Remember habits are most effective when they are tacked on to your existing successful habits. So what are you waiting for… carefully select some stationary and a nice notepad and get planning!

Spirits of The Forest – a review

I always maintain that Kickstarter and having a crap memory make my life infinitely better. Or at least my post. It feels like Father Christmas definitely exists as I receive random presents through the post that I have no recollection of ordering or paying for. Admittedly, he’s a bit confused these days and his presents arrive willy nilly. Last week Spirits of The Forest arrived just in time for my birthday and it felt like Thundergryph games had sent me a gift. I couldn’t tell you how much the game cost as it was past me that treated me to it (or possibly Father Christmas – there’s no way of ever knowing). Either way it’s brilliant!
 
My hazy recollection of backing it consists of me seeing it on Twitter and thinking ‘that’s beautiful’. I remember clicking on the link, seeing the shiny gemstones and the gorgeous expansion pack and immediately clicking ‘back this project’. The first thing that struck me when I unwrapped it was how stunning it is. I haven’t played with the expansion pack yet as I am still mastering the base pack but the pieces are so lovely it’s tempting to dive straight in. It’s certainly good to know there are lots of layers to be added to the game at some point.
 
I have no idea what these bits do but look at them! They were lovingly crafted by fairy folk I have no doubt.

How to Win
You win by collecting the most of any set of Spirits and/or the most of any set of power sources. If at the end of the round you do not have at least one of each of the Spirits you lose 3 points and if you don’t have at least one of each of the power sources you also lose 3 points. 

How To Play

All of the cards are laid out and 8 favor tokens placed on top. Each turn you can collect up to two identical spirits from the outer edge of the playing area. Players can try to reserve the card they want by placing a gem on it. If another player wants that card however, they can have it if they sacrifice one of their gemstones. 
 
It is a simple premise. You collect sets of cards and try to have more than anyone else of one particular set. But you must ensure you have one of each type too. So there is a lot of balancing to do before you even factor in your opponent(s) who are trying their damnedest to do the same and thwart your plans. Also try not to be dazzled by the art work. I have already lost games by completely ignoring the numbers on the cards (which helpfully tell you the number of spirits of that type there is in the pack) choosing instead to collect the prettiest spirits. Heads up – this is NOT a winning strategy. My favourites are the web spiders and the fruits – respectively the gothest 10 and the cutest 6! 

Solo Play
Rather frustratingly as with so many other games, the solo rules start off by saying that it’s the same as the multi player game with the following exceptions…
Now, maybe I’m incredibly lazy or slow on the uptake but I’d really just like one set of rules to read. If I’m playing a solo variant I don’t necessarily want to learn the multi player version so that I can then adapt it to one player.

Having said that, the solo version is enormously satisfying and challenging. Your invisible opponent’s bonus power sources in this game remain hidden until you clear 2 and then 3 lines. That combined with the random layout of tiles means that there is just enough luck to make the game unpredictable but not so much that it isn’t worth strategising.
 
Plays 2 to 4
We have played with 2, 3 and 4 players. Pleasingly while the game is different with more players it isn’t better or worse. So many games have an optimum number of players and yet this does not. The game feels faster with more players but then there is more to weigh up when you are choosing your tiles. It is easier to block someone from collecting a full set of power sources or spirits but then if you choose to do that it is harder to amass a majority. With 2 players the intensity of decision making remains and the hidden bonus tokens feel more valuable as the balance is likely much closer creating a tense game. 

I can see this getting a lot of time out of its box: it’s beautiful and satisfying to play; easy to learn but not so easy to master. A delicate balance of set collection and screwing over everyone else’s plans! Each game is different and you are at the whims of the Spirits of The Forest so victory is never certain. Place your gems with care … you are not alone in the forest….
 
 Come along and play at a Cards or Die event.

Patricia Jones Eulogy

Having only recently completed my Dad’s eulogy, it was hard to face writing Mum’s last week. Losing both parents so close together has been tough even more so because of Mum’s dementia which meant that we lost her over and over again. I am saving it here as a permanent reminder of my Mum.

Over the last few years Mum had become less and less Mum and that has been incredibly hard to face. Mum survived so many falls, bumps, bruises, tumbles and near misses that it is simultaneously hard to believe she survived so long and that now she has gone.
 
The illustration I always used to make sure that any health care professionals really understood the magnitude of Mum’s ‘high pain threshold’ was the time when Mum and Dad got knocked over by a car. Dad was airlifted to hospital while Mum sat on the kerb insisting she was ok. They both went into hospital, Dad came home with bruises and broken toes. Mum after insisting she was fine was sent home. A few days later complaining of a ‘bit of pain’ Mum went back into hospital. She had broken her hip. Then there was the time she broke her arm while the car was in the garage so her and Dad got the bus to hospital rather than trouble anyone for a lift.
 
Mark suggested selling her DNA to some sort of military training base to build super soldiers and I think he was only half joking. At times I was convinced that stubbornness alone kept her going.
 
There were always glimpses of Mum there though. Marie told me at one visit that Mum had told her to do her cardigan up because it was cold out and another time Marie said to her ‘When Lawrence visits I bet you talk more – you can’t get a word in edgewise with us two’ (me and her) and Mum laughed. She loved looking at old photos too.

We want to thank Aaron Court for the care they took with Mum and for making her life comfortable and happy. The love and compassion that they show on a daily basis is incredible.
 
But Mum was so much more than these final years. As you know Mum and Dad lived in Liverpool during the blitz. Mum was evacuated with Aunty Eileen. She told the tale of how they arrived in a church hall with lots of other children, gas masks slung over their shoulders and then the adults who they would live with arrived. A tall thin woman dressed all in black entered and Eileen apparently whispered to Mum ‘I hope we don’t get the witch’. The numbers in the room dwindled and eventually Eileen, my Mum and ‘the witch’ remained. It turned out that she was an incredibly kind woman who looked after them as though they were her own.
 
In a time of emails and skype it’s difficult to imagine those children gathering at the train station to see if a family member was coming to visit. If no-one visited sometimes a neighbour would bring a package or letters.Those tales always brought home to me how hard the war was both for those who stayed and those who left.
 
Some of my earliest memories of my Mum are when we would go down the Port together. She would stride along with me having to run a bit to keep up. I remember getting to the top of our road and turning on to the main road. It was raining and Mum was wearing a carefully selected headscarf tied under her chin, protecting her hair and as we turned a lorry went through a huge puddle and soaked us both. I think I had started to cry, and Mum was dabbing at me furiously (and ineffectually) with a tiny handkerchief -probably embroidered with delicate flowers – then she just started laughing. She laughed till she was crying, and I laughed too. Then we just turned around and went home.

Regularly as we got very close to home, Mum and I would discuss which was the quickest route home. Of course the best way to settle this was to split up and see who reached the house the quickest. We would both agree to walk and solemnly agreed not to cheat and she we would walk looking back at one another and as soon as we rounded the corner we would run like hell. At least I did and the fact she was always slightly breathless (and very indignant) suggested that she did too so we never solved that! I never thought anything of it at the time but often now I think of her – a stylish, well dressed woman in her late 40s, in heels sprinting down the street alone and it always makes me smile.
 
This is the same woman who in her late 70s had to be told off for cheating at Elefun where you have to catch butterflies which are fired out of an elephant’s trunk. It’s not often that Mum had the height advantage and she was making full use of it to beat Edward and Molly!
 
Another shared early memory was Mum, Aunty Molly and Aunty Terry sorting out money at Grandma’s. You could only watch open mouthed as it went from ‘I owe you £4.50 and I owe Terry £2’ ‘Oh that’s OK because Terry owes me £1.75 and I owe Mam £5 so if you give me £1.20 and I give Pat £1.50 I’ll owe you…’ and so it went on. Until inevitably someone would utter the words ‘So if I give you 30p we’re all square’. And they would put their purses away and carry on chatting while we experienced something like the start of a migraine if we tried to work out what had just happened.
 
Mum used to love having everyone over and at Christmas, she spent most of the day in the kitchen. She was in her element – she was always the last person to remove her Christmas hat. For Christmas tea we always had frozen cream cakes – she would defrost them as per the instructions on the packet and every year we had the same conversation. Mum would worry that they were still frozen in the middle (they were) we would insist they were fine (usually whilst trying to melt a lump of frozen cheesecake under your tongue). This conversation always rumbled on for a while – Mum worrying and us re-assuring her whilst all the time wondering why none of us just said!
 
Then there was Aimee’s special role. Aimee was appointed as the person who knew when the pizzas were done and was able to de-shell the eggs. Any help you offered would be turned down on the basis that Aimee ‘knows’ how to do them ‘properly’. Mum took pride in being able to provide for us. Statements like ‘Marie likes me to make her coffee because she likes the way I make it’ meant that being given any kitchen responsibilities was a huge compliment.
 
Grandma’s cooking was legendary – her home baked jam tarts and scones were far superior to her defrosted desserts. And search as I might, I can’t find scouse that tastes as good as hers. Her sausage rolls were particularly loved by John, Edward and Molly. Emma and Aimee once saw her take a tray out of the oven with her bare hands and then just carry on. Another example of her bizarrely super human skills.
 
When you visited she would basically force tea on you. If you ever watched Father Ted you’ll remember Mrs Doyle – Mum’s offers of tea were reminiscent of Mrs Doyle’s. She would offer someone tea and if they said no thank you she would turn to one of us and ask again in a tone that suggested there was something wrong with our guest ‘Doesn’t Sally want a cup of tea?’ she would say to Lawrence. It was always easier to say yes please. Mark for some reason had the special privilege of making his own tea so he didn’t get two sugars which everyone else did because and I quote ‘John has two sugars’. Even I went to make a cup of tea for Mark only to be told that ‘he likes to make his own’.
 
Mum was always strong and proud which made it difficult to help her at times. One Christmas a toy went under Dad’s chair and without a moment’s thought Mum went over and attempted to lift the chair while Dad was in it! Once, after ‘allowing’ us to help her move some furniture for her she tried to move it on her own as it wasn’t in just the right place.
To say Mum was house proud was an understatement. She is the only person I know who ironed every item of clothing. She maintained she enjoyed it and it was the only time she got to think. She would often come into the living room cross her arms over the back of the chair and say ‘I was thinking while I was doing the ironing…’ and then she would relay some tale or pearl of wisdom.
 
When Mum told funny stories, usually about Dad, she would start to laugh until she cried. By which point you couldn’t understand anything she was saying because she was laughing so much – she would carry on trying to tell you though. I remember Mum rang me once to ask for Katherine’s postcode. She couldn’t hear me properly and we couldn’t even get past the first letter before we were both crying with laughter. It took ages to communicate the postcode.
 
I hope that you will share some of your memories of Mum and that even after today we can remember the laughter and fun we had with her. She was the bravest, toughest person I’ve ever known. I hope that this eulogy will prompt some memories of your own.

Patricia Jones
29th November 1931 –  30th August 2018

The dog ate my blog post.

I aim to publish a blog every Sunday but sometimes life gets in the way. This week was one such week! So, I just thought I’d let you know what I’ve been up to! Prepare to read an elaborate web of excuses. 
 
Social Media Training 
On Monday I found myself delivering social media training with a specific focus on Twitter. I say ‘found myself’ as I’m not completely sure how I ended up with that booking. It wasn’t something I felt comfortable with initially – I took some convincing to do it. My social media knowledge, it turns out, is not as obvious as I thought. Realising you have accidentally learnt a skill is a very good feeling especially as it has come as a by product of getting the business going.
 
This is exactly how thoughtful and reflective we all looked both during and after the session.

Corporate Training and Team Building
By Tuesday I was back in my comfort zone playing Board Games! Nothing brings a team together more effectively than saving each other from the Zombie hordes. Playing co-operative games with teams is an excellent way for people to practice all the skills they need to be an effective team member: you need to plan your strategies; be flexible – adapt your strategies when you realise you’re all going to die; listen to others – sometimes you will need to take the lead while at other times you need to go with the flow and all of this within a strict 15 minute time scale. Board gaming is an area where it is so much easier to accept that losing is an integral part of learning. We all know the feeling of losing at a board game and then coming back stronger – ‘Right, this time I’m going to…’
 
Objectively we all accept that learning must involve failure and the more we practice that the easier it becomes to accept in our work. Type failure into your search engine and there are a plethora of motivational quotations and images but it’s not always that easy to accept. I have a poster by the door of our house and it was always up in my classroom when I taught – it contains this Michael Jordan quotation:
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Allowing people to fail in a safe, relaxed, fun environment is worth its weight in gold. Fortunately my rates are not *that* high! 

The other positive side effect of this is that you come across people who haven’t played board games for years and you are able to re-ignite a long forgotten passion. People talk about getting their old games out and playing with their children when they get home or buying new games to play with friends and family.
 
Bringing teams together and bringing families together is so rewarding.
 
Re-igniting my own Passion!
My personal life at the moment has been significantly less fun than the business – arranging elements of my Mum’s funeral along with integrating my son into a new school has left me emotionally wrung out. 
On Wednesday Katie from Games Explorers came to my rescue. Sometimes running this business still seems like insanity dressed up as a business plan. So meeting up with someone like minded who has the same or very similar crazy ideas is not only comforting but inspiring too. We met at Geek Retreat in Leeds and discussed our plans and schemes which now include plans to collaborate at some point. And inevitably at some point… take over the world. We’re still debating who’ll be Pinky and who’s the Brain! 
 
Being self employed it is very easy to be blown off course and lose your way. This was such a good opportunity to refocus. 
 
While I was in Geek Retreat I also finalised plans to launch a fortnightly board games night on Tuesday 2nd October which I’m super excited about. I hope being in the city centre will 

A very happy birthday with board games.
I drove to Scarborough on Saturday and provided the games for a 40th party. I taught people Exploding Kittens, Colour Brain, Crossing, Truth Bombs, Who Did It? and Guess Who (the Guess Who learners were quite small people) amongst others. Buying a job lot of Exploding Kittens has proved a worthwhile investment as I have been able to teach the same game to a large group of people at a number of events and it always goes down well. 
 
I also made a bespoke Guess Who style game using images of the guests. Conclusion: I’m definitely making one for my own wedding! Get in touch if you fancy one for your special event.

Sunday
Ah, Sunday – day of leisure when my scheduled blog posts itself and all I have to do is share it with the world. Cut to 9pm I’m watching Parks and Recs after a very hectic week filled with all the emotions that exist. I’ll just share my blog I think. What the blog you didn’t write let alone schedule. Oh yeah! That! 
 
I did however have a typically lovely Sunday at Hyde Park Book Club (the official hub of the city these days) playing board games with lots of lovely folks. 

This week I’m planning to have just as much fun but with some days off as well!! 
We’re at Mrs Smith’s Cafe in Harrogate this Friday for the first of our Family Friday’s tea and board games. (Or dinner and Board Games if you’re feeling posh).
 
And hopefully some time around Wednesday I’ll write and schedule a blog post – wish me luck!! And as always if you have any questions about any of that lot please give me a shout!

You can find up to date event listings here.

Self Care for the Self Employed

The challenges of being self employed for me handily play right in to some of my mental health issues: fear of failure for instance – obviously best tackled by working more! That’s ok though because as a self employed person working from home, I can be on call 24/7 and work any ridiculous hours I make myself. No matter how much you love board games they can never be classified as urgent I just need to keep this at the forefront of my mind.
 
The fact that I set out to do more of what I love actually feeds this too. The fact that we’ve made the decision to become self employed suggests that we are attempting to embark on a career motivated by passion and love for our work. And there is nothing that overworks you quite like passion! I’m being flippant but we need to remind ourselves from time to time that if we don’t take time out we will burn out whether we love the job or not. 
 
So, in no particular order here are some of the things I work on… 
 
Time

Time – there’s the rub. There is never enough time is there? Taking some time out to re-focus, reflect and recharge is something I am completely rubbish at. But I know it works and I know it makes me more productive. In a previous blog I talked about my cafe days – each month I set a day aside to make sure I not only plan what’s next but also look how far I’ve come. 
 
But it doesn’t have to be whole days that are set aside. Sometimes it just needs to be a couple of minutes, time to sit and have a cup of tea while it’s still hot. 

At times I struggle to make time to even do the most basic elements of self care so I know how it is to have things like ‘clean your teeth’ ‘eat breakfast’ ‘have a drink’ on your to do list, and that’s fine too. Doing those things is self care and sometimes it’s achievement enough to do those small elements of self care. It all counts. Basically anything that makes you feel more human, more happy is self care. Being my own best friend is what I’m always striving towards and I have to accept that if I can’t lavish that level of compassion on myself, I can at the very least treat myself with as much respect as I would a complete stranger who was having a hard time. 
 
Social Media and scheduling
Social media can very easily be a leech on your time. It’s there all the time – beeping away, shouting to let you know that you’re probably missing something. One of the ways I’m trying to keep it in check is by using scheduling and also a time sheets app which lets me track how I am spending my working hours. Basically I am shaming myself into not spending all my time pretending to social network whilst actually watching cat videos or having random conversations.
 
Social media is a very worthwhile method of promoting your business and getting your brand ‘out there’. It’s great to interact with people and build a support network with people who are doing similar things to you along with potential customers. It can have the unfortunate side effect of making you available at all hours. Most of us honestly do not need to be on call constantly -it’s rare that someone needs an emergency board games event, or an immediate wedding photographer or a chair reupholstered within the next hour. I worked with someone who told me his mantra was ‘Good enough; soon enough’ and that’s a good enough one for me to work by too. It seems particularly pertinent when we consider what we expect from our online enquiries and interactions.

Networking.
The core ethos of Cards or Die is using board games to connect people. I love creating accessible board gaming experiences where people get together, have fun and ditch their phones for a few hours. So you’d think I’d be adept at networking and constantly looking for opportunities to interact with others face to face.
 
In reality, being self employed can be an isolating experience and my anxiety and depression can make isolation very appealing. In an attempt to combat this I have tried out lots of different networking groups over the last year and a half. There are lots of different styles of networking and some are more formal than others. In some the level of formality can be intimidating especially if you have anxiety but if you keep looking, you find the right one for you. My local group – The Horsforth Friendly Forum is just that, a friendly group of people who get together, discuss ideas, share business knowledge and support one another. It allows me to interact with real life human beings as well as learning and sharing hints and tips on how to further the business. Plus the level of authenticity there is refreshing. I do enough pretending that everything is awesome on Instagram, I don’t need that bleeding into my real life. Honestly, in a society that’s full of people who always eat perfect lunches and do dynamic activities with their perfect families it’s a relief to be in the company of normal people.
 
Exercise
It is a fact universally acknowledged that exercise is the answer to all sorts of ills: anxiety, depression, grief, period pains. For a long time I have contended that this is a myth put about by ‘authority’ to keep the proles working. 
 
Grudgingly though, I have to admit that exercise does make me feel better. Whether it’s a walk and some fresh air or doing my yoga practice. Signing up to an exercise classes and dance groups has always been good for me as I lack the discipline to exercise otherwise. If only I was more disciplined I could opt for the thriftier options! The ideal scenario for me involves going with another person. Knowing that their attendance relies on you is a good way to rope your conscience into going. And it really works – it gets me out of the house, gives my brain a break and gives me a structured activity in which to interact with other people. 
 
That’s not to say it always works. Some days what works is curling up on the sofa with chocolate, tea and soft blankets. Self care is about finding what works for you depending on how you feel at that moment.

Once again it all comes back to time. When you’re engaged in activities you love and success matters more than ever, it can be easy to devote all your time to work. I often find it challenging to justify using time for myself especially if it is spent on something ‘selfish’ or ‘frivolous’ but I’m working on it. I try to keep in mind the analogy about the oxygen masks on an aeroplane. If the masks drop you must put your own on first and then help others. If you can’t breathe you’re no use to anyone. 
 
Small steps, not always in a linear fashion is what’s required to make a go of self employment and be successful at self care. And above all when I fail to complete these aims – as I do time and time again – the most important thing to remember is simply this.. 

So, what have I missed? What challenges? What solutions have you found for balancing the demands of self care and the unique challenges of self employment? 

Movable Type – Winning at Words.

When I unwrapped this game and looked at the cards, I felt I had opened a game which had been personally designed for me. I love word games – you can read more about some of the other Cards or Die word games here. One of the frustrating things for me is how little the rest of my household enjoy them and so I rarely get to play. However, my 13 year old and my 11 year old both enjoy this one and, even if they didn’t, there’s a solitaire version. One of the things the children particularly enjoy is the fact it’s quite tactical – you can start planning your final word in round one; pay attention to which letters others are collecting and thwart their plans. There is nothing my offspring enjoy quite so much as decimating each other in a game. I like the planning element and the fact you can deliberately place letters which win you author cards which help later. It’s also beautifully designed; they look like they’ve been meticulously carved and stamped. The choice of authors on the bonus cards is right up my street – among the authors you can win are Edgar Allen Poe*, Ada Lovelace, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen and I’m going to make William Shakespeare the last one I list here. They have chosen fantastic writers to champion your cause. And finally, I know a song about it. I have a song for most occasions and sometimes I have to resort to adapting one (see ‘We built this settee. We built this settee from i-keee-aaaahhh’ for reference) but not this time thanks to the marvellous Commoner’s Choir. I’m even in the video – bonus points if you spot me!!
 
*On World Book Day, I went to school dressed as a raven and spent the day freaking children out. That probably tells you most things you need to know about me!

A synopsis
Movable type is a word building game played over 5 rounds. During the first four rounds you are collecting letters to use in your final word. It will be this word which decides the winner. 
Players 1 to 6
25 minutes
Designed by Robin David, Visual design by Tiffany Moon and Additional art by Alisdair Wood.
 
Playing in a group 
This game is equally enjoyable with 2 or 6 players. Obviously the more people who play, the longer it takes as people need thinking time to plan and then re-plan if someone pinches the letter they needed! If you want to go all out and allow dictionaries then it takes even longer – you have been warned. Although it rules out any unpleasantness and it’s nice not to have a relaxed game without time pressures. We have enough of those all day. 
The key thing is to start collecting the most useful letters then formulate a reasonably flexible plan for the word you will play in the fifth round. 
 
Playing Solo

When you play the solo version of the game you must pit your wordly skills against the formidable Bronte Sisters. At the end of each round you add some cards to your collection just as you do in the multi player version then all of your unused cards go to the Sisters. At the end of the game the word you spell from your collected letters must beat the total points those unused cards amount to. Throughout the first four rounds you can score bonuses which allow you to trash cards or add extra to your collection which allows you to play more tactically. 
There’s three of them, they’ve written some pretty good books and they’re ganging up on you so this is not going to be a stroll in the park. Helpfully, though there are hard and easy modes available so you can beat them and then step up the difficulty which is a feature I always welcome. 
 
The fine print
You begin by drafting your cards. You are dealt five cards and you must choose 1 to keep, passing the remaining 4 on. You repeat this process until you have a new (and if you’re me, a much crapper) set of 5 cards. 
You then play your highest scoring word, or perhaps a word which fulfils one of the challenges and earns you an author card. To end each of the first four rounds all of you choose cards to add to your collection which you will use in the final round – the winner chooses more than the other players. So winning in the early rounds puts you in a good position.
There are common letter cards which can be used by all players and a single letter can be used as a double. So, for instance to spell the word ‘letter’ you would only need to play the letters ‘LETER’. I’m both regretting using the word letter as I feel I’ve overused it and also realising how many other words have double letters in them! 
In the final round you use the cards in your collection, any author cards and any of the newly dealt common cards that you want to create (hopefully) the highest scoring word and attain literary greatness. 
The conditions for a tie in the end say that the first person to publish a novel would be declared the winner. We had two issues with that. Firstly my partner’s Mum has published 6 novels so no-one wants to tie with her and secondly it implies that if no-one has published a book yet the announcement of winner is delayed till such time as the condition is fulfilled. Flash forward to a phone call from one of my delirious offspring announcing both the publication of their first novel and pointing out they are now the proud winner of that game of Movable Type we had 20 years previously. Boom. Double whammy!
 
Epilogue
I thought a few words from my daughter, Molly would be a fitting way to sum up our family’s reaction to this game:
 
Hi, my name’s Molly (I’m the one playing with the rubber
band in the top picture). I really enjoyed this game, it took us a few rounds to remember the rules – she says trying to remember the rules – some of them were slightly confusing so you would focus on remembering the rules then realise you need an “N” not a “W” to spell banker. I’m very good at English (as you can tell from my immaculate spelling during the game) which made movable type a bit easier although if you struggle with it, the game might not be as enjoyable. I really recommend this game for most ages, for people who love reading and love writing but always keep a dictionary on hand!

Movable Type is available to play at Cards or Die events
or you can treat yo’self to a copy here: http://www.robin-david.com/2018/05/movable-type-second-edition-is.html
 

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