It seemed like time to update the progress on our Balanced Gamer Challenge Poster! We managed a few more achievements, but we’re still a long way from completing it. Here are the things we’ve been able to scratch off since last summer:
Have Fun Gaming!
This badge was for attending a Dice Tower convention, which we did in September. We went to the Dice Tower Retreat. We were supposed to go in 2020, but of course it was cancelled. We debated whether or not to go this year, but we felt relatively safe, especially when they opened up a mask-only room for those of us who were not comfortable around unmasked people indoors.
Hop, Skip, Jump
This badge was for traveling 2 or more hours to a gaming event. We also achieved this one when we attended the Dice Tower Retreat. Two badges for one event!
Against The Grain
My A to Z game shelf play-through brought us to Phase 10 — a game that Tom Vasel decidedly didn’t like. If you want to see a classic Tom Vasel rant, take a gander at his video.
Unfortunately, we agreed with Tom and did not enjoy this game. It seems like something best played as a background to something else, or as an excuse to chitchat with others, which I assume is how my family used to play it.
Livingstone
The next badge was for playing five games that list “exploration” as a category on BoardGameGeek. This was actually fairly easy. For us the games included Sleeping Gods, Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Near and Far, Star Wars Outer Rim, Paleo, and Karuba.
Shoulders of Giants
This badge was for playing a game with a house rule. Sometimes we’ll do a quick house rule when something isn’t clear in a rule book, and then look up a clarification on the BoardGameGeek forums. But at least one game with a couple permanent house rules is Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle. We’ve separated out the cards available for sale into high-priced and low-priced, and we always have three of each in the market. We found that otherwise we would go several rounds without being able to buy a card, which made the game nearly unplayable if we were unlucky in the card shuffle.
My Own Worst Enemy
Andrew and I have gotten in a lot of solo gaming this year. I can’t say which the first game is that we each won, because there have been loads of them.
Sharing The Love
My best friend’s son got into his Dungeons & Dragons club at school, and when my friend said she had gotten him one set of dice for it, I knew I had to get him a second set. I also got him a rolling mat and carrier
Whew! That seems like a lot, but we still have a lot to go. Some of them will need to wait until we’re back to normal gaming, like hosting a game night again. But that’s okay if this takes a while — it’s supposed to be fun!