Halloween Party at the Prasad's: Ligretto, Liar's Dice, Hart an der Grenze, Nacht der Magier
Saturday, October 28th

Halloween was coming around and we were lucky enough to be invited to a party out at the Prasad castle. I'm thankful we've been able to make friends quickly enough to have social opportunities like this.

The costume theme was medieval. Unfortunately, the various costume elements I utilized during my six summers as a character at the Bristol Rennaissance Faire are languishing in a cardboard box someplace in a barn in Western Illinois. Since Kristin and I have been so busy, and, well, neither of us is handy enough with sewing to come up with anything suitably "medieval," we ran out to the party store on Saturday morning. Thankfully, we were early enough to beat the majority of the crowd. I grabbed the fairly appropriate and simple medieval monk costume, complete with ridiculous monk-hair wig. Kristin didn't really like any of the costumes, and settled for a simple nun get-up, that looked like it could be re-used as a part to other costumes.

Late in the afternoon, we jumped in the car and made the drive out into the countryside. This is a beautiful drive, at a wonderful time of year, and put us in a pretty good mood.

Upon our arrival, there was a game of Ursuppe going on, and several people sitting around. There were a bunch of cards sitting on the table where we were sitting, and, in turns, Brian and Ravindra variously explained the game, Ligretto, to us, as well as to Greg and Michelle.

Ligretto

This is a simple card game. There are several (I think four) colors, with numbers 1-9. You have four face up cards, and a table deck of ten from which replacements for them will be drawn. The rest of your share of the cards (all of them are delt out) is in your hand. The object is to work through the ten cards in the table deck. You do this by playing cards, in order from one on up, on top of each other in sequential order, out on the table. The first to empty their deck has a score of 0 plus the number of cards they've played. Everyone else has negative points for each card remaining in their deck.

We played two rounds, getting various rules wrong, and not really keeping score. This was a hectic, intense game, not really my cup of tea for a relaxed game evening, but a fun exercise for a party mindset. We all enjoyed it.

Liar's Dice


We were joined by two more people, who's names I've forgotten (sorry). There was some sort of contest going on, playing LD for chocolate coins. We didn't stay until the end of the evening, so I don't know if anything ever came of it. The first game was a learning game, and I won, without losing any dice (my first real victory at this game). The second game I also won. We played a third round, which Kristin won (her first group game victory, of any kind, in NC). I sat out the fourth round, which had a thrilling conclusion with admirable bluffing by Michelle.

After this, we were read a scary story by Sarah, and ate dinner, which was a splendid affair involving sausage, chicken, tasty potatoes, and green beens. There was a brief media interlude to watch the "Hush" episode of Buffy, and then we had a play-dough sculpting contest. After that, there was more gaming.

Hart an der Grenze

Mary wanted to get a game of Hart an der Grenze going, so Kristin and I jumped in on that, along with the couple from Liar's Dice who's names my brain is inadequate to remember. I had a huge first round, with tons of contraband, putting me well in the lead and putting a big target on my back. I still had a good round the second round, guessing and bribing fairly well, and getting some good stuff through. However, the final round was terrible for me. I was dealt nothing big, and was searched about every time, with nobody accepting bribes. I only took a few points through. Mary won, and Kristin also passed me handily, especially with Mary managing to hide three big idols under her case.

Nacht Der Magier

Mary wanted us to get a chance to play another one of her new acquisitions before we left. NDM is a neat game that is played in the dark. The board is raised off the table and has several dark disks on it, which are surrounding several cylindrical pieces, which each have a glow in the dark symbol on the top, which in turn are surrounding a hole in the board, which is covered. Players each have a pushing piece, and are trying to get one of the cylinders with their symbol on it into the hole. Your turn consists of edging your pushing piece onto the board, stopping when you hear something fall off the edge of the board and hit the table. This is a very quick, fun little game that is perfect for Halloween parties. I'm glad we got a chance to play it. I don't remember who won, except that it wasn't Kristin or I.

After this, it was time to head home, as it was getting fairly late. I'm sure the gaming went on well into the night, though.

GG, GL
JW