NJW Games

FLGS intro: Witch House

Posted on 2015 October 31 by njwOctober 31, 2015

The other FLGS (after going to two branches of Alchemy) I had to visit in Taiwan was 女巫店 Witch House.

It’s not strictly an FLGS, I suppose. They sell games, and they’re plenty friendly. Primarily, though, Witch House is a pub. Lots of people go there with no intention of gaming or buying games. There is sometimes live music; they serve alcohol; they serve snacks and set meals. I’ll note here that they also have one of the funniest, punniest menus I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t make a lot of sense if you don’t know Chinese, and the current menu is actually a bit toned down from the original one. But still, if you’re in Taibei, I’d almost recommend going to Witch House just for the menu.

However, Witch House is also a boardgame cafe. They have a pretty huge selection of games to just use, and they sell a nice, large variety of games as well. (Not as many as, say, Alchemy, but still good.) On the day I was there, there were two groups of people playing games. One large group was playing Bang; another couple were playing Once Upon a Time. I’m not sure if Witch House does specific boardgame nights, but it seems like pretty much any time (except when there is live music, I suppose), you can just go there, get a game, and start playing with some friends.

There aren’t a lot of Taiwanese-produced boardgames yet. There are lots (and lots) of translations, so it’s easily possible to play (for example) Terra Mystica, Settlers of Catan or Citadels in Chinese. But there aren’t yet many games actually produced in Taiwan. When I went to Alchemy, I asked them if they knew of any locally produced games I could get; they mentioned The Wonderful Island. I of course bought it. Similarly, when I went to Witch House, I asked if they knew any locally-produced boardgames I could buy. It took a little looking, but they found a copy of 無良商人 ‘Heartless Merchants’, which I bought. It looks quite good, but I haven’t had time to actually open it up yet. Hopefully I’ll be able to review it here sometime in the future.

It’s also worth noting that Witch House has pretty cool politics. Right next to the boardgames, they have a banner stating very clearly their support for Taiwanese independence; nearby is a poster stating their opposition to nuclear power. (Always a sensitive topic on a densely-populated island with not a lot of natural energy resources.) Also, I should mention, of those two groups of people playing games the day I was there, only a handful were men; it’s a very welcoming environment for women. And Witch House is downstairs from 女書店 Fem Books, the best feminist bookstore in Taibei. The two stores’ names rhyme in Mandarin (“Nǚwūdiàn” and “Nǚshūdiàn”), and I assume there’s some kind of relationship between them, but I’ve never been clear what it is.

Boardgame cafes have become pretty popular in Taiwan; there are a lot of them. But Witch House was one of the first — it was certainly the only one when I lived in Taiwan, back in 2004. (In 2004, when I was looking for a place to introduce some friends to Search for the Emperor’s Treasure, it was the obvious destination.) If you’re looking for a nice, welcoming place to relax, have something to drink and play a good boardgame in Taibei, definitely check it out.

Yes, this post is partly inspired by Halloween.

Metatopia: Assistance available!

Posted on 2015 October 4 by njwOctober 4, 2015

Metatopia is a con in New Jersey that’s aimed at indie game creators. I heard a few reports about last year’s con, and it sounded pretty amazing. The folks who run it also seem to have a pretty good sense of the diversity problems that exist in gaming circles. The Indie Game Developer Network and the folks who put on Metatopia have just announced that there is monetary support for people who’d like to go to this year’s con (which is November 5~8). The deadline is October 9 — next Friday! If you’d get something out of it but marginalization has prevented you from going, go apply!

Indie Treasure Trove +3

Posted on 2015 October 2 by njwOctober 2, 2015

I was lucky enough to have Blade & Crown in the Indie Treasure Trove +2. The Bundle of Holding continues to be a great way to get a bunch of cool RPGs for very little money.

The Indie Treasure Trove +3 has just come out, and it also includes a bunch of cool games. Questlandia, by Hannah Shaffer, looks really cool. It seems to have a flavor slightly similar to Microscope, but it uses dice and has more emphasis on playing characters. I haven’t had time to read the whole thing yet, but I really like the narrative voice Hannah has used in writing the rules — breezy, engaging and very clear.

And there are six other books in the Bundle! Go check it out.

Idle thoughts about 三体 The Three Body Problem

Posted on 2015 September 23 by njwSeptember 23, 2015

Another of my treasures from that Taiwan trip was the three volumes of 三体 The Three-Body Problem, by 刘慈欣 Liu Cixin. In the small amount of time I had to look, I tried a couple of Mainland import bookstores, but neither had copies of the book, so I got a set in Traditional characters. Yes, my luggage was very heavy on the way back.

I’m very slowly working my way through the eponymously-named volume one. It’s pretty interesting, and gives me a lot of things to think about as I’m reading it. Here are some idle thoughts I’ve had so far:

Is Liu going to use the word 现在 xiànzài at some point, or is it going to be 现下 xiànxià the whole time? If he does finally use 现在, it will be pretty dramatic.
Why does the English version have such a different chapter order from the Chinese version? In the edition I have, it starts with Wang Miao, and doesn’t get to Ye Wenjie until Wang has already gone into the game. Which order is closer to Liu’s preferred arrangement?
How much background do you need in Chinese history, philosophy, etc. to get everything that’s going on? The section in the game with Mozi was pretty amusing to me — for someone who studied Neo-Confucianism in grad school, it’s pretty biting satire to see Confucius die in the desert, burned instantly in the hot sun for his vast impracticality. (Also, echoes of PKD’s Timothy Archer, there.)

I’ve actually tried asking Liu Cixin some of these questions, but haven’t gotten a response yet. Things to keep wondering about.

Review: 美麗島風雲 The Wonderful Island

Posted on 2015 September 11 by njwSeptember 11, 2015

When I went to Taiwan in June, I tried to do what I could to support the local gaming scene. When I visited Alchemy on Zhongxiao, I bought what looked like a great game, produced in Taiwan: 美麗島風雲， translated as The Wonderful Island.

It’s a highly satirical game. If you know Taiwan’s politics, the game is pretty much straight up hilarious. It hits a lot of the major stories and personalities of real life: paparazzi recordings, fake polls, overseas bank accounts, gun attacks, media frenzies, court summons slowly accumulating until candidates finally end up in jail — seems like it’s pretty much all there. The different personalities have their own different powers depending on the person: Shi Mingde can win if he is the first person sentenced to jail; Zheng Hongyi can give someone a national scolding; Lü Xiulian needn’t worry about stratagems from male candidates. Even the name and the cover art hint at political meanings: the title of the game alludes to the Gaoxiong Incident, also called the Meilidao Incident, a formative event in the formation of the DPP; and the cover art showing Ma Yingjiu and Chen Shuibian is a visual pun for “deceit” (馬 + 扁 = 騙). I don’t know if I’d recommend playing The Wonderful Island as an introduction to Taiwanese politics, but it will certainly help you learn. And with the presidential election coming up in January, now’s the time to learn.

The Wonderful Island is a partly-hidden identity game. Very consistent with modern Taiwanese politics, your true loyalties are not publicly known. You may actually be in the Green Camp, or the Blue Camp, or just out for #1. Secret meeting cards allow you to scope out your fellow players’ loyalties, but only with vague certainty. It’s also possible for multiple people to win at the same time, since agendas can be very different. Just as it should be.

The production values are very high. The boards are very thick cardstock, the cards are on nice paper, the printing is all very clear. The illustrations by 簡振傑 Rockat, especially, are amazing — beautiful caricatures that are completely recognizable yet completely hilarious.

There isn’t an English version, so far as I can tell. The rules are also, um, not the clearest. Specific rules are sometimes hard to find. The language used is very formal, meaning that pronoun references are sometimes a bit unclear. And the game tries to do a pretty thorough simulation of the Taiwanese election process, so there are a fair number of exceptions and edge cases. There are, however, plenty of resources available, including a series of official “how to play” videos (1, 2, 3, 4) and a very helpful fan video. With help from those videos, I was able to dash off enough of a translation to play it last night with the weekly group.

I had already put sleeves on the cards; I don’t usually do that, but this game is going to be a little difficult to get replacement components for, so I want to preserve it well. I printed off some of the translations and inserted them in the card sleeves. This proved not just useful but almost invaluable; I’ll have to do the same with the action cards.

We had a pretty good time. It took about an hour to finish one game, which is consistent with the game’s estimates — pretty good for our first time out. We had a bit of frustration with not having enough useful cards to play, but otherwise, it seemed to go pretty smoothly. Even when one player ended up in jail, they were able to continue exerting influence. (Again, as it should be.) We’re going to play it again next week; and I’m planning to run this at Con of the North next year. Come check it out!

Calteir: Working in the pixel mines

Posted on 2015 September 8 by njwSeptember 8, 2015

I keep making progress on Calteir. The CSS for the main webpage all seems squared away. Some very kind folks have given me very good advice about the campaign in general, and I’m doing a lot of thinking about all of it.

In addition to thinking, there’s one last major obstacle: the video. There was an earlier version that I got a lot of really good advice about, and I’m integrating those changes. It’s all getting closer to reality. Dawn is about to break over a new world!

Calteir: Continued progress

Posted on 2015 August 23 by njwAugust 23, 2015

Not only did I finish a major rework of the main Calteir map (second in priority to the Morensia map re-edit), I’ve finished a bunch of small details for the Kreshar region and re-did the infeudation map to show all the various baronesses’ and barons’ demesnes. So again, apologies if I’m not more active here — trying to apply my energies to Calteir.

Heirs in the latest Bundle of Holding

Posted on 2015 August 19 by njwAugust 19, 2015

You may have noticed what a big fan I am of Chad Davidson’s Heirs to the Lost World. It’s set in a 17th century New World where the Aztecs and Maya had access to powerful magic, and so the Conquest never happened. The rules include, as I’ve noted before, one of the best stunting mechanics I’ve ever seen in a game — creating cinematic, over-the-top action sequences is very directly encouraged by the system. Here’s my report on this year’s Con of the North session of Heirs, and here are all my posts tagged with Heirs to the Lost World.

The other games in this Bundle look pretty good, too. If you don’t have Heirs yet, it’s well worth your while to buy it; and it’s always good to support indie game developers.

Pre-gen PCs 1: Pijada the Ex-Warrior

Posted on 2015 August 5 by njwSeptember 17, 2016

I continue to work hard on Calteir. I have big plans for this over the next month or so, meaning that posting here is only occasional. Mountains on the main Calteir map are the big focus right now.

So I’m going to do something I’ve talked about for a while: post some additional PCs to use with B&C. The first bunch will be characters from the Mountain Monastery Mystery. All of them, save one, are trans women; some have completed their Great Work, some have not.

This first one is an ex-warrior, now trying to do penance for her part in causing so much death. Players have had a great time with this character — the highly capable soldier trying to keep up a mien of placidity is lots of fun. Will she resort to using her formidable martial prowess? Or will she keep it all under control and solve the mystery without resorting to bloodshed?

Pijada the Ex-warrior

Calteir: Morensia map revision done!

Posted on 2015 July 31 by njwJuly 31, 2015

The main focus of my development for Calteir has long since been Morensia, a semi-unified island country in the north. For nearly four years now, my monthly Blade & Crown group has been adventuring in one tiny corner of this kingdom. There’s a lot to explore in Morensia.

As part of detailing the island, I’ve created a meticulous map of it. For the past year or so, I’ve been reworking the map to get the distribution of settlements to feel a bit more natural, tweak some of the bridge and ford placement and generally make it feel more realistic and consistent.

Here’s a sample, the Gyrshar region of southwest Morensia:

This sample is, by area, only about 0.1% of the total map; Morensia has a lot of terrain to explore.

I’ll probably continue to tweak the map over time — I keep finding small things that could use a little reworking — but now my main focus shifts to writing up all of it in more detail. It feels good to have the main revisions done; few things are more satisfying than creating a giant, evocative map.