Monday afternoon my fellow Math for America colleagues in New Haven had a going away party for myself and another one of us that is moving back to New York City. (She ended up not being able to make it, unfortunately.) We ate hot dogs, drank beer, sat on the beachfront porch at Michelle’s house in Milford, and, of course, played a game: Ticket to Ride. Mike also taught me a new game he learned at the Museum of Math, but I’ll come back to that.Read More »
Author: Riley John Gibbs
Socially functioning geek.
Superfriends are Thwarting my Escape Plans!
My good friends Cari and Mason invited me over this afternoon to play board games with them. The opportunities to see them are quickly becoming ever more scarce, so I set aside all the things I need to do in preparation for my move this afternoon to head over. Our friend Tom also came to play with us. It turns out that Cari and Mason’s dastardly plans to thwart my feeble packing attempts were more advanced than I anticipated: not only did they give me yet another game, Sentinels of the Multiverse, as a going away present, they even cooked me dinner after I borrowed their car to pick up boxes from Home Depot!Read More »
It Just Became a Bit Easier to Judge a Game by Its Box
Despite my attempts not to acquire any new games until after I move (happening very soon), I was given Labyrinth as a going away present at the same party at which my Tsuro board was split in twain. Labyrinth is published by Ravensburger, who added a nice feature to the back of the box that I hope catches on.Read More »
I Would Rather Just Be Both Lucky and Good
On my last day at HSC, one of my students suggested a game of Monopoly. I of course encouraged this idea, because I love Monopoly. I ended up playing with two students, whom I’ll call Karen and David, who are a couple. Karen hadn’t played Monopoly in a long time, if ever, so she needed a reminder of how the game was played. I figured this wouldn’t be much of a game, but maybe I could teach them some strategies.Read More »
There Goes the Village. And the Tsuro Board.
The last couple of days were days of goodbyes, as I leave my job at High School in the Community. My coworker, and one of our elected leaders, Cameo, threw me a going away party in her backyard. When she was first planning this party, she told me that we would do at the party whatever made me happy, and wanted to know what that was. The answer was easy: let’s play games.Read More »
Final Ultimate Werewolf
Last week was my last week with my 8th graders at Worthington Hooker School. We finished all of our work for the class and they took the final on Tuesday, leaving us three days before their graduation. The principal was awesome enough to agree to let us keep meeting those days to play games together, something they can never seem to get enough of. In particular, they love Ultimate Werewolf. So that was what we played.Read More »
Following the Leader
I taught a couple of my coworkers, Mary and Kelly (Baker), how to play Settlers of Catan at the bar down the street from my apartment this afternoon. I front-loaded the explanation of the rules a lot, but otherwise I feel I got through them pretty efficiently, and the game went pretty smoothly.
I was reminded though how frustrating this game can be the first time you play it, when you aren’t sure where to place your first settlements. They make those 6’s and 8’s red for a reason, but if you don’t realize how important the frequencies are, your ship can sink before it leaves the dock.Read More »
Last Hurrah for HSC Game Club
The school year here in New Haven is rapidly coming to a close with the last day of finals today. So this afternoon we had a final meeting of the HSC Game Club. It was a fun affair, with the four student regulars attending along with one of their significant others, a nice fellow from another school that I’m happy to host in my classroom. We also had an HSC alumnus from last year come back to play with us, and one of members of the Future Project team, Zachary Hill. This guy may have my dream career.Read More »
Acquisition Hiatus
I’m about to move across the country, so I’ve placed myself on a games acquisition hiatus. Any game I buy now is a game I have to move thousands of miles, so it’s best if I hold off. This is extremely difficult for me.Read More »
No Free Parking Money 