Thursday, June 29th, CHG

People were really starting to arrive for the wedding. I hadn't had a bachelor party, as most of the people involved were widely separated geographically, and wouldn't be arriving until just before the wedding. As a sort of surrogate event, I set Thursday aside to do a little gaming with a couple out-of-towners, as well as whoever of the locals happened to be around.

Chris Lackey showed up from California around 5pm, and we headed over to CHG to wait for Sean Wolfe to get in from New Hampshire. Sean was pretty delayed. Chris and I played two games (six rounds) of Lost Cities, with me coming out the winner in both contests, although they were close, and Chris did win several rounds. I still like Lost Cities as a nice, casual game to throw down with someone when you want to have some of your faculties free to dedicate to conversation.

Sean still wasn't there, so Chris and I joined Peter Franke for some Alpha Magic. Peter only had two decks, so I took his green cards and made a third deck real fast. My deck wasn't very interesting, and I figured I just might be able to play some kingmaker. In the first game, I piled on Pete a little bit, and we eliminated him, with me following him out in fairly short order. The second game Chris was pretty mana screwed, and didn't have much play. With Pete drawing Phantom Monsters and Sengirs right and left, it just took a few turns to finish us both off.

Steve Groom showed up, and Sean was walking in the door not long after. Sean, Chris, and I went down the street to House of Aromas for a late-night caffeine boost. This was a really good chance to sit and talk with old, seldom-seen friends, getting up to speed a little on Sean's family and store (www.tripleplaynh.com), and Chris's current film project (www.thechosenonemovie.com).

Returning to the store, Jerod generously offered to let us play in the back as long as we liked, under the special circumstances. He closed up, and then joined Steve, Sean, Chris, and myself for a game of Arkham Horror.

I haven't played AH since the old Chaosium edition in the eighties. I was impressed with the production while I was punching this - lots of nice, thick, colorful cardboard bits and cards. I was a little worried it would be pretty clunky, but the gameplay didn't disappoint, even when we were faced with the knowledge that Hastur was lurking just a few turns away...

I ended up playing the psychologist, whose ability to regenerate sanity came in pretty handy. We knocked around trying to buff our characters and pick up clues the first couple rounds, and then settled into a strategy of having a couple tanks clear the streets, while another couple players ran around getting clues, then either using them themselves or dumping them to me to get gates locked.

We benefited from a few lucky draws of gates opening where gates already existed, and were able to win. I had a really good time over the several hours this game ended up taking us, as we played casually, talked a lot, and partook of refreshments. I can't thank Jerod, or recommend his store (www.criticalhitgames.net) enough.

GG, GL