On The Table

Tabletop games are experiencing a real resurgence of late. I have no doubt that a significant portion of this comes through the Geek & Sundry network, with the incomparably awesome Wil Wheaton's show, Tabletop, currently into its second season. The premise of the show is that Wil gets three or four internet personalities, actors, or the occasional titan such as the legendary game designer, Steve Jackson, into the studio to play a featured tabletop game - usually a board, card, or dice game, and film it. 

I'll admit that, to many people, I think the idea of watching people play through a board game would be the epitome of tedium, but really, the result is surprising. The guests are almost invariably hilarious, or at the very least, plain entertaining, and the show is edited to be sub-30 minutes, skipping through any dull sections. 

The show has been a fantastic means for people to discover new, awesome games to play, but for many, it's been an excellent introduction to the entire format of tabletop games and the fun that can be had playing them. Much like video games, there is a huge amount of variety in style, theme and complexity available in an industry that's been going for a long time (as I noted last time, ancient board games still exist, but the industry has been commercial in the modern world for a while...). I guess I'd classify as a 'tabletop game' anything that requires some number of specific physical components to play. From very straightforward, casual games which can be played in 10 minutes, like Zombie Dice, to well-loved family games like Monopoly, to all-time gaming classics like Settlers of Catan - easy to learn but full of rich possibility, and to epic 'big box' games like Arkham Horror, Game of Thrones, or even the infamous Risk, which can take upwards of five hours to complete. These can be passing diversions with a minimum of effort as part of a relaxed social activity or epic afternoons of machination and scheming against (and with) your friends.

I consider tabletop games to be one of the most readily accessible forms of gaming, and the one that people are most likely to take part in - though much of this comes down to the aforementioned variety in what's available - there are plenty of games that can be learnt in five minutes and played in 10, in contrast to the more complex games which can take that long just to unbox and set up. 

I personally have a huge weakness for these epic 'big box' games, and these have led to some of my most memorable and enjoyable gaming experiences. The flipside to this is that, logistically, it is much, much harder to get to actually play them - they require a much bigger time investment, and sometimes a sizeable amount of space to play.

And this is before fitting any people/glasses round the table...

Actually, I'm not even sure that the top one is showing all of the components...

I also know that they aren't for everyone. I think just about everyone I've played these big-box games with has enjoyed playing them, but I also know that they can drag on beyond what most people enjoy for a game, and therefore can quickly outstay their welcome, which can sour things. 

That said, I'm going to briefly introduce two of my favourite 'big box' games, before suggesting some games that people might enjoy more casually. First up, as mentioned above, is Arkham Horror. You each play an investigator in the HP Lovecraft universe, attempting to prevent the end of the world as a great old one prepares to awake and devour. You must explore the Lovecraftian city of Arkham, closing portals, fighting monsters, and dealing with whatever else happens to come your way. 

I usually describe Arkham Horror to people as 'the game that hates you'. As much as you try to keep enough plates spinning to progressively improve the bleak situation and thwart the old one, the game is the one standing in the corner constantly pulling faces and throwing things at you. The good news here is that all the players are working together - this is a major selling point for me, as lots of people enjoy these longer games more if you're not constantly trying to crush each other! It's nice, too, that the game can accommodate up to eight people, though this slow the pace significantly, and can make it too easy. Luckily, though, there are a bajillion expansions to the game which can ramp up the difficulty even further. To paraphrase Wil Wheaton, I've had more fun losing at Arkham Horror (the game hates you…) than at winning most other games. 

Second is the Battlestar Galactica board game (rounding out a general 'Fantasy Flight games' theme). You definitely get more mileage out of the setting if you're familiar with the (reimagined) TV series, but there's absolutely no barrier to actually playing the game and thoroughly enjoying it if you're not. For those who haven't seen the show, the basic premise is that the remainder of humanity is on the run from the Cylons, a largely mechanical, antagonistic race who have recently demonstrated that certain of their members can take fully realistic human guise. It's replicants in space. 

In the game, you each take the role of one of the characters from the show, with their own special talents and abilities, working together with the goal of reaching safety. Sounds simple, right? Of course it isn't, because this is another game that hates you! Firstly, the Cylons are constantly hot on your tail, and random events will frequently occur where you have to use your fighters and ship weapons to fight them off until you can escape (because you're hella unlikely to win outright). But that's actually the least of your problems, because you're also battling against declining population, depleted fuel reserves and a food shortage. If you run out of any of these, you lose! If Galactica is destroyed, you lose! 

Oh, and did I mention that one or more of your friends are also secretly Cylons? Oh right, I should have said that before! Depending on the number of players, one or two of your group will actually be covert Cylon agents, working to undermine your ongoing battle to safety from within, and you have NO IDEA who they are. It's a wonderful, if horrifying, sensation of paranoia, and leads to some pretty wild accusations and arguments (all in good spirits, for the most part). To add to the drama, halfway through the game, there's a chance that an additional player also finds out that they are a Cylon, even if they weren't one previously. 

Both games have their flaws. Too many players, particularly if a large part of the group is new to the game, can slow an already long game down even further. Secondly, the cooperative elements in both of these games means that experienced players can end up taking over and trying to micro-manage other, newer players. This is bad all round, since it removes agency from some players (undermining the point of their playing in the first place!) which can, fairly, put them off the game altogether. It can also make it just too easy. I'm sure I've been guilty of this at some point, but I desperately try to avoid it!

If you're looking for shorter, more 'quick fun' games, I'd check out Zombie Dice, Tsuro (a beautifully artful and simple game with a great core mechanic) - you can see both in this video. Also Munchkin.

Munchkin is a...relatively...simple card game structured around a given theme (Fantasy setting, Lovecraft, Superspies, Pirates, Superheroes…) which offers a ridiculous, irreverent, and silly slant on more serious games. One of the best parts is stacking different sets together for obscene genre mashups (flying half-dwarf cop with laser vision and a sneaky bastard sword, anyone?).

If you're looking for something with a bit more depth, but without going all-out, I'd check out Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne. Both are total classics and pillars in the modern history of tabletop gaming.

This is another long post, but I can never really do true justice to how fun some of these games can be to play. If you're interested in hearing more on any of them or looking for recommendations to suit your tastes, post in the comments below! Likewise, it would be great to hear about some of your favourite tabletop games, or some of the best experiences you've had while playing.

Look back next Monday for more of my thoughts on all that gaming has to offer us.

How the Other Half Read: She's Loving Angels Instead

George: I've been sitting on this guest post from Georgia for waaaay too long. This should be from way back in March or April, so mentally adjust any time references accordingly. Georgia, too, has been keeping up with reading, and should be doing some more guest blogs in the near future. This time, I promise to post them in a more timely fashion.

Hello again! Over the past couple of weeks I have read four books - The Strain Trilogy (Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan) and The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ (Philip Pullman). As serendipity would have it, these are connected by their reference to angels and the questioning of the existence of a Judaeo-Christian god. The trilogy weaves this into a combination of old-school vampire stories and 28 Days Later-style, virally-proliferated apocalypse - which sounds overly complicated but actually works quite well. I'm not sure that there was quite enough material to warrant the third book being as long as it was (not actually that long, to be fair) but, overall, this is a gripping story which goes well beyond the usual vampire story and proffers a compelling origin myth.

Similarly, I suppose, Pullman offers his own take on the origin story of the New Testament. A very quick read, I found this extra interesting as I read it the day before the first day of Passover, during which I also watched Giles Coren's BBC programme on a Seder where Jews from lots of different families, traditions and geographical origins were invited. Obviously, the climax of the Jesus story occurs at this time of year, so it seemed really appropriate to read the book at this point. The reason I mention the BBC programme is because both it and Pullman invite you to consider how very old stories are remembered and interpreted very differently by pretty much everyone - whether as history or parable or fiction. Speaking as someone raised by a secular, humanist mother and a practising Jew, turned C of E priest father, the book certainly prompted me to reconsider the messages within all those stories surrounding Jesus which I was taught in Primary school but never really discussed at home, and which I have not considered at all for at least a decade.  Which was refreshing, but the book also resurrected frustrations about the virulent nature of proselytism - linking us neatly back to The Strain. (I'm aware that my last comment, with some extrapolation, could perhaps be interpreted as my likening what some people believe to be god incarnate to a vampire...so I'm going to say sorry and stop talking about it.)

I'm also trying to unlock some of George's proposed achievements (having already attained my own Three is a Magic Number - read a trilogy) so I'm aiming for the Internacional (foreign language book) by reading The Eclogues and Georgics in the original Latin (some 3000 lines of hexameters). This also completes what I'm going to call the Fields, Farming and Furor achievement (aka the Why Did You Bother achievement), namely reading everything Vergil ever wrote (I read the whole Aeneid for finals). It also allows George the opportunity to keep repeating a terrible Classicist joke, which, judging by the frequency with which he is making said joke, he is very much enjoying. 

 I don't know what to read next...hmmmm...

Literary Love xxx

Books completed in chronological order of reading:

Stabat Mater, Tiziano Scarpa (2011)

Facing Violence, Rory Miller (2011)

Un Lun Dun, China Mieville (2007)

Open Secrets, Alice Munro (1994)

The Dragon Queen, Alice Borchardt (2001)

Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Walters (1998)

The lost books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason (2007)

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien, (1937)

The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman, (1991)

The Hypnotist, Lars Kepler, (2012)

The Strain (2009), The Fall (2010), The Night Eternal (2011), Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, Philip Pullman (2010)

Burn Them All

I've survived most of June! I realised close to the end of May that the first two thirds or so of June were going to be totally ridiculous, but looks like I've not only made it, but actually been able to catch up reading also. I've still got a backlog of books to write up, but looks like I'm back up to date (thanks, again, long-haul flights and audiobooks). 

The latest two books I've finished have both been very interesting ones… These are Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctrow and the absolute classic Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. 

For those that haven't come across Doctrow before, he's an irrepressible blogger and 'net activist, editor at Boing Boing (the 'zine/group blog). I can't remember where I first came across Doctrow, but I've a feeling that it was through one of several references to him on XKCD. I went to a talk of his at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2011, the title of which I sadly can't remember or find easily, but this prompted me to pick up his book Makers, focusing on 'maker culture' in the near-future - being the living embodiment of hardware- and life-hackers.

Pirate Cinema, like Makers, feels fundamentally like a form of geek wish-fulfilment. Unlike Makers, Pirate Cinema is aimed primarily at Young Adults, which gave it a rather different (and more accessible) tone, and made it on the whole less depressing. The novel focusses on a near-future Britain where over-bearing technological restrictions and laws have been put in place in attempt to curb piracy, with the media companies easily able to twist the collective arm of the government to get what they want in terms of legislation, despite general unpopularity. Being caught pirating leads to having your internet cut off, which, as the politicians in the book seem to generally fail to grasp, is for many families, a sort of death sentence, with some people unable to work, get their medication, study, or pay their bills.

The message here is clear - the politicians are sufficiently far removed that they don't understand that the internet is increasingly becoming another vital service, more akin to water or electricity, than a passing distraction or pure entertainment tool. The implication is that this is as true now as it in the novel, and this viewpoint has been validated repeatedly in the past. 

But the book is not a pro-piracy tract. The specific emphasis is on piracy enabling creativity. One example is the main character's, Trent McCauley's, pastime - cutting footage from movies of a particular dead actor to construct entirely new short films through a mixture of encyclopaedic knowledge of his work and nifty video editing. The results, it is indicated, are generally as good or better than the original works, and is a clear example of artistic creativity - something which, it would seem, the media companies want to stamp out at any cost, regardless of the resulting curbs to the freedom of the general populace. 

Pirate Cinema is a fun read, which is formulated to induce anger at how close we are to some of the thing in the book actually happening (I refer you to the repeated attempts to introduce stupid and ill-considered internet legislation which have been repeatedly shown to be wildly unpopular, and yet which still keep resurfacing - you can certainly find more on Boing Boing). It's not a must-read, by any stretch, but is a entertaining look into this topic from a YA perspective. 

Next, we have the phenomenal Fahrenheit 451, probably Ray Bradbury's most famous work. Now this is something I feel that everyone should read. Published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is set in a dystopian world where books are banned, the population is kept disinterested and desiccated through easily-digestible and trite, meaningless television broadcasts and driving their cars really fast. Houses are fireproofed, so now the job of the 'firemen' is to go and burn books where they are reported, and ensure that those who are found to have them are dealt with. 

The story follows the fireman Guy Montag in his awakening into the real horrific nature of the world around him. The whole narrative burns with passion - throwing the rage of someone waking up to the truth of their situation against the sterile, processed world. At its heart, it is a love story to books and libraries, and a cautionary tale of the world we might expect if we give in to censorship, but there's so much more to it than that. It's not just some broad allegory warning 'there but for the grace of God go we' - it's the painful journey of one man in an impossible world. As with 1984, we see the world through the eyes of one, solitary figure and feel their pain, which makes the impact of the world so much more striking.

I saw the 1966 film version of Fahrenheit 451 some years ago. I don't remember much of it, but I still think it's worth checking out. While reading the book, I couldn't tell whether there were some big differences between the two, or whether I was just misremembering - it seems it was the former, and that efforts were made by the director to soften some of the punches of the book. Looking back, I think it strips out some of the most interesting elements of the book, but is telling partly a different story (which Bradbury seems to have been on board with). 

If you haven't read Fahrenheit 451, I would highly recommend it. It's not a long read, and is powerful and illuminating. 

Look out for another gaming blog post on Monday, and more book write-ups when I get the chance. Until next time...

The Game-ut of Gaming

It's been a relief to find that, lack of blog updates aside, I'm really not as far behind on GRaBaW as I had thought I was. By the time I get to posting this, there's a good chance I may actually have caught up [edit - I'm not, quite] - I yet again refer you to the beauty of a long-haul flight for actually getting things done. I certainly don't get to fly any distance very often, but I increasingly regard is as a magnificently distraction-free block of time in which to get things done. Or perhaps it's more a sign that I'm too easily distracted when the internet is available. 

I actually want to talk now about something other than books and reading, something which I've talked about on the blog before in some measure. It's one topic that gets me excited in a way that most others just don't, often to an obsessive degree, and while many don't share my fanatic love for it, I  sincerely believe it to be a fundamental aspect of human nature. If you hadn't guessed already, I'm taking about gaming.

I'm not limiting this to video games, though for many, these are synonymous with the term 'gaming'. I'm talking about games of nearly every form - card games, dice games, tabletop games, role-playing games, yes - video games, social games; games of skill, games of chance, games of skill with added variance. 

The tools of the trade

I'm actually stopping short of including sports because I really feel that they fall beyond my remit. It's not that I think they 'don't count' in some sort of definition-snobbery. You could easily argue for each of 'games' or 'sports' to be a subset of the other, and there would be those in both camps who would disagree with such vehemency that you'd quickly find running to be neither a game nor particularly sporting at that moment.

I mentioned above that I consider games to be a fundamental human activity - something that we're  wired to do. I'll talk about why I think that is in a minute (though I'm sure there are many more learned and scientific discourses on the topic). I have on my shelf a copy of 'The Royal Game of Ur', an ancient Sumerian board game. 

Ancient treasures - The Royal Game of UR (British Museum)

First, since I know that the majority of people do not share my overwhelming passion for games, at least consciously, I want to try and back up this contention. Gaming is an ancient pastime that does not appear to have been confined to any particular social class. Plenty of dice have been unearthed which date back to before recorded history. We have literally been playing games for longer than we have been writing. This may be why so many of us today fail to achieve our dreams of authorial fame as we spend some much time playing on the Playstation. Or something. 

The ancient Greeks and Romans had a healthy penchant for games, and many ancient games are still being played today. Surviving examples from China alone include Mah Jong, I-Ching, Chess, Cluedo (okay, perhaps not that last one). If you want to get a sense of the history of social games, check out this  infographic from Jon Radoff (his blog link appears to be dead, so I can't link to the true original source).

A further consideration which occurred to me today - have you ever encountered anyone who truly, completely doesn't like games, in any form? Okay, so this is entirely anecdotal, but I cannot think of anyone. Not everyone is as much of a gibbering fanatic as me (and, thankfully, some of my friends!). Some people don't enjoy playing epic big-box tabletop games which take 5 hours to finish, some people don't see the point in a simple game that comes down entirely to the chance roll of a dice (personally I'm not such a fan of up-chance gambling for this reason); some people love playing casual games on their phone, but wouldn't never dream of picking a fully-fledged console controller. But everyone has some sort of game that they enjoy. 

There are few things I this world that I enjoy as much as sitting down to play a game - but why exactly is that? Why do people take part in these activities which are essentially sideshows from the real world, and, arguably, have no point in and of themselves? I've heard many people disparage gaming in some form or other as a waste of time, one in which they don't understand why people would invest themselves. On one level, I find this a pretty fatuous argument, because you could apply the same thing to quite a significant portion of modern culture (why watch a movie, or read a book? At least part of it comes in deriving enjoyment from media for its own sake), but I do understand where this comes from. There is a difference between spending two hours watching a film and pouring hundreds of hours into living in a massive online world (but one which remains, conspicuously, not the real one), or the aforementioned five hour epic session round a gaming table. 

Generally speaking, I can see a few more obvious reasons that people enjoy gaming. The first is classic escapism - many games involve taking part in an activity which represents something of the real world while being largely divorced from it. This applies notably to video games, roleplaying games and many tabletop games. They can represent entire different worlds, the chance to play at being different people in a different situation which can be a million miles away from our own experiences or comfort zones. This can be so LIBERATING. It can be such a thrilling experience to step outside of your own life for a while. 

This doesn't mean that we're all so sick of their own lives that we're desperately searching for the chance to break free from them - I think instead that this is an impulse which comes from the same place as our love of stories and narratives - the same feeling you go through when you get so lost in a great book or film that it dominates your entire world for a short time. 

Games provide a way for us to make sense of things, and can act as social facilitators, giving people a guaranteed point of shared ground or a framework for an interaction. There are plenty of arguments to be made against this, and again, it's not to say that games should be a go-to substitute for genuine human interaction, but they give us a chance to explore social situations and learn things about each other that we wouldn't necessarily find otherwise. 

This also gives us the chance to act out different social roles. Those that have played group games with me will probably know that my behaviour can be very different depending on what we're playing (for better or worse…). I can be that sneaky, double-crossing, untrustworthy so-and-so if the situation calls for it, which (I hope!) is a long way from my everyday personality. 

On this last point, I'm touching on something that I want to cover in more depth in a future post. Simply put: games teach us things. About each other, as I've alluded to above, but you also just pick things up, as you would from fiction - facts and pieces of information, but also analogous experiences and ways of thinking that can surprisingly often be applied to everyday life.

Big boxes, small sneak preview

So there you have it, a wild flurry of my thoughts around gaming, and why I think it's such a big deal. I want to do a couple more, hopefully shorter, posts, where I can get into some specifics, and pick out some of the things I love about different types and styles of games, as well as some of the games I love and why. Hopefully some of my crazy passion for this has come across, and revealed something about myself.

If you've got your own counterpoints on games, happen to know someone who hates gaming in all forms, or just want to share your favourite games or gaming stories, post in the comments below. 

In The Garden

So, having actually finished some books in the last few days, I'm also actually managing to take the time to write up some of them. Looking back at the list of what I've read (I've now hit twenty, woo!), it seems there's a fair amount that I haven't covered on here, since I've been spectacularly failing to update for TWO MONTHS. It's going to take me a while to catch up on that, but I've at least published the current list below.

In terms of reading list (another thing that needs updating), I think I'm going to be moving slightly away from trying to stick to the recommendations I've been gathering from people. This is partly because I want to work through the books that I have sitting on my shelves (or eReader/iPhone), and also to try and encourage me to get some of the momentum back up, which I think will be helped by reading whatever I feel like at the time, or is closest to hand. For those from whom I have gathered recommendations - sorry! I'm still going to try and stick to some of these where I can, but not as rigidly as I had originally planned.

This evening I finished listening to the audiobook of 'In The Garden of Beasts', by Erik Larson, read by Stephen Hoye. The book is a narrative history account of life in Germany during the rise of the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler from the perspective of an outsider - centrally William Dodd, the US ambassador to Germany from 1933 - 1937, and his family.

Drawing heavily on documents, letters, dispatches and memos, as well as personal accounts of those involved, it builds an interesting picture of some of the practicalities and minutiae of life in a unique period in world history, in addition to the more generally known events of the period.

Having studied some of this period some time ago for GCSE history, but not having really revisited since, I had some background on the larger global political events that took place. That said, however, the fact that I lacked any recent familiarity with the period, combined with the difference in focus made for a very different perspective.

The balance of narrative and sections drawn directly from the relevant documents makes this a good way to approach the topic, getting a level of supporting detail without risking becoming too dry. It's certainly not a light read, however, given the subject matter. There's actually a good amount of humour injected into the book where appropriate, which feels like a necessary relief.

If you're looking for something a bit more serious, this is worth a look.

More updates on the way soon, see below for my current list.

Week 23

20/52

Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman (2006)

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (2011)

The Revolution of Saint Jone - Lorna Mitchell (1988)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carré (1974)

I Can Make You Hate - Charlie Brooker (2012)

Looking For Jake and Other Stories - China Miéville (2005)

The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett (1989)

The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter (1979)

Jobs* - Walter Isaacson (2012)

The Plague - Albert Camus (1947)

Ready Player One* - Ernest Cline (2011)

Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Phillip Pullman (2010)

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1931)

Storm Front* - Jim Butcher (2000)

Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman (2005)

Fool Moon* - Jim Butcher (2001)

Iron Man: Extremis - Warren Ellis (2006)

How To Eat Out - Giles Coren (2001) 

How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran (2011)

In The Garden of Beasts* - Erik Larson (2011)

Currently Reading:

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (1953)

Lectus Interruptus

So it's been a while... I have been reading, but not enough, and I haven't been writing, even a little, hence a rather poor lack of updates. Upcoming travel for work, among other things, mean that I will likely have some good time for reading (gotta love those long plane journeys), but little time for writing.  I am working on my backlog of updates and will get things up again soon!

It's currently week 23, and I'm on 19 books completed (though imminently 20).

The Reading List

Hey folks, as promised, here it is, the list so far. I've been keeping it in Evernote to date, but transferring it into a spreadsheet made me see just how many books I've already accumulated that I want to read. That said, and because I want to keep it flexible, all the non-recommendation stuff is subject to change...

Let me know what you think, what's good, what's bad, and what's missing. I'll update the list periodically.

http://bit.ly/WUPgEF

While I'm here, just a quick note on the list I tag onto the bottom of each post. So far, I've been including a complete-to-date list of what I've read at the time of writing, as opposed to a list of what's been covered up to that post. As it came up in conversation with someone, I realised that this might actually be a bit confusing, or might make it look that I've skipped writing up certain books.

To rectify this, from this point, the list at the bottom of each post will be whatever I've written up as of that post. This means that sometimes it might look like I'm behind when in fact I'm not (check Twitter #GRaBaW for the latest...).

Thanks, as ever, for reading.