T.A.C.K. - a forgotten childhood gem

 When I was in elementary school (and wooly mammoths roamed the Earth), I stumbled upon a series of books called T.A.C.K. and really enjoyed them and reread them over and over. I recently came across copies and decided to see how they held up.

While quite dated as far as technology  and social norms were concerned (Like so much 80s kids literature, these are serious free range kids), the actual writing held up much better than I had expected.

It's a series of kiddy mysteries in an Encyclopedia Brown format so I guess the spoilers buffer is necessary to discuss any of the stories.

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As I already mentioned, the T.A.C.K. books are anthologies of kids solving mysteries with each one ending with a challenge to the readers to solve the mystery themselves before flipping the page to see the solution. The gold standard of this formula is Encyclopedia Brown and almost all of the strengths of T.A.C.K. come from the ways that it is different from those books.

The stories clearly take place in a New England state (while Mr. Brown clearly lives in Florida) with a group of four kids who solve problems, mostly small but at least one major one per book. The name T.A.C.K. comes from their names. Toria who is the narrator with an interest in journalism and sailing. Abby, the agent in remote, who moved away before the start of the series but comes back to visit once a book. Chuck, a toned down version of the All American Boy. And Will, who is the clever one. Will 'goes by K' by as a reference to the old telegraph short hand for Switch, because his brain can flip a switch and see things in different ways. Except that no one ever calls him K and that's not what K really meant in telegraphs. Hilariously, Toria openly admits all that and says it's just to justify calling themselves T.A.C.K.

What I remembered about T.A.C.K. was that the writing was very character driven, with almost all the characters having well rounded, developed personalities. (Sorry, Chuck) Toria's voice is snarky and observant. Having worked with fifth graders and high schoolers, she sounds more like a high school freshman than a fifth grader but there are occasional moments that remind us of her real age.

I am positive that I still have nostalgia filters on but I still think the books have solid tone and characterization going on. 

What I had forgotten was how different the solutions are from the Encyclopedia Brown books. Encyclopedia Brown's stories are all logic puzzles with usually one distinct clue that readers have to find in order to solve the case. While some of the T.A.C.K. mysteries are like that (In one case, how melted ice cream sandwiches were to establish the passage of time), many of them have more common sense application solutions. Being able to make sure a skunk left a garage by sprinkling flour to check for footprints.  Piling up snow to be able to reach a window ledge.

On the one hand, this means that T.A.C.K. isn't as fair play as Encyclopedia Brown, which are literal puzzles. On the other hand, this method leads to better actual stories. It might also lead to better lessons in lateral thinking but I'm not sure if elementary age kids need any help thinking outside the box.

The T.A.C.K. books are long out of print as far as I can tell but managing to revisit them was fun. I don't know if I can recommend them to an adult audience in good conscious but the hour or so it took for me reread the books was fun.

My July Gaming

 July was my month for learning games this year. Work and life will probably keep me busy for the rest of the year but I knew July would be a little more open. And I took advantage of that.

I learned:

16 lueurs d’hiver

Framework

Boat

Bonsai

Packing Party

66 fluers de printemps

Rome Must Fall

Around South America in 15 Minutes

Boxcars (Roll and Write Design Contest)

Glass Garden

Lunchbox Lair

Trial By Fire

Raft

Chutes and Levers

Sink the Bismarck 

Squeaky Clean

While a number of these games are on the light and fluffy side of the spectrum (and ain’t none of these games Twilight Imperium), I did learn some games that were a little heavier.

I have largely stopped buying physical copies of games but I did pick up a discount copy of Bonsai and took the opportunity to try it out. While it doesn’t do anything new, it ticks a lot of boxes for casual gaming, including being pretty and chill.

I also have been meaning to try out Solo War Games games. Martin Melbardis designs Roll and Write war games that are actual war games. Rome Must Fall looked like the most newbie friendly and I felt it lived up to the mission statement. I plan on looking at more Solo War Games games.

I’ve also been working my way through the season games designed for the Accessijeux charity. I had thought about trying to space them out to one a month, but I’m too eager to try them for that. Instead, I have just tried to get at least 10 plays with the one I’m on before I move to the next. They are another good example of solid casual games.

Beyond that, I learned a number of games that I had been meaning to get around to. Heck, I first looked at Sink the Bismarck over fifteen years ago lol

Near the end of July, I made copies of Chutes and Levers and Squeaky Clean from Emily Fagerstrom’s Kickstarter. I found Chutes and Levers to be weak compared to Flipuzzles or One-Card Mazes but Squeaky Clean really hooked me.

While I know that I won’t be learning nearly as many games in August, I do know I will be replaying many of the games that I learned in July.

My July PnP

 July was the month when I knew I would have some time for gaming related stuff. So, it was a pretty heavy PnP month by my standards.

I made:

Quiltable: Oversewn

Quiltable: Garden Patch

Thermopylae: Last Stand

Rome Must Fall

Operation Barbarossa (Solo Wargame)

Lunch Box Lair

Dice on Mars

Around South America in 15 Minutes

Packing Party - Santa’s Helpers

Catan Dice

Jurassico

Raging Bulls

Fast Train to Moyatima 

Raft 

Midtown Mall

Tanuki Matsuri 

Malta Convoy

Chutes and Levers

Squeaky Clean

Starspeaker

My ‘big’ project was Lunchbox Lair. Unfortunately, I found it disappointing. Which happens but Alexander Shen’s track record for me is still very high. 

That being said, I laminated a lot of Roll and Writes. Some were quite, simple. Raft is one of the simplest games I’ve played in a while and I wouldn’t mind seeing it getting a following. On the other hand, some, like the Solo War Games games had some meat.

I also wanted to reset and buff up some of my clipboards of Roll and Writes. It’s good to learn new stuff but it’s good to revisit games I thought were good.

And, near the end of the month, I made copies of Squeaky Clean and Chutes and Levers from a Kickstarter, which were slightly larger projects.

I am sure August will be a much busier month that won’t have as much time for game related stuff so I’m happy for July.

16 lueurs d’hiver, winter expands on fall

Let’s start off with thanking Accessijeux for letting a game published for their charity out into the wild and Benjamin Cronshaw for translating the rules into English.

16 lueurs d’hiver or 16 Winter Lights is a multi-player solitaire Print-and-Play Roll-and-Write that was originally published to raise money for Accessijeux. It’s the second in a series of season themes games, in this case, winter.

While 61 Autumn Leaves uses a format of one die to pick a mini game and one die to use in the chosen mini game with the third die going to the turn track, 16 Winter Lights mixes it up. 

There are five mini games. Each turn, you get to pick one of the mini games and assign two of the dice to it. And, instead of a turn track, you check off a light from numbers one through five, which six being wild.

Each of the turn marker numbers have four lights. If you fill in all four, you get some kind of special power. After someone completely fills in four of the five, the game ends. So the game will last sixteen to nineteen turns.

Make no mistake, 16 Lights is on the simple side of the Roll and Write spectrum.That said, it does have a bump in complexity from 61 Leaves and it offers a lot of good choices. And I really like how you unlock different special powers. I feel like there isn’t one single obvious choice or path to victory. 

The mini games in 16 Lights of include more than just make sets of numbers. The restriction of needing to use two dice makes the choices more nuanced. I could even see the domino mini game being expanded into a stand alone game. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still really like 61 Leaves. I just think  there’s less game in it compared to 16 Lights. 61 Leaves is _very_  accessible but I find 16 Lights more engaging.

16 Lights is not just 61 Leaves with different pictures. It is a meaningfully different game that also happens to be a pretty good game.

First Steps brings to the love to the Fantastic Four

 I am old enough to remember when the Fantastic Four was more important than the Avengers. (Although I am not old enough to remember when the Fantastic Four was more important than the X-Men lol) 

So, when I finally sat down to watch Fantastic Four: First Steps, I did have some emotional investment in the team, even though I haven’t read a Fantastic Four comic book in years.

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First of all, let me say that I have seen neither the 1994 or the 2015 films. And, while I have seen the 2005 and 2007 films, the only thing I liked about them was Michael Chiklis. 

Second, personally, I think a movie needs to be able to stand by itself and that it shouldn’t require familiarity with the material. I have enjoyed plenty of exceptions to that rule, but I still think it’s a good rule.

All of that said, I felt that First Steps was the most fun I had had in an MCU movie in a long time. I’m not saying it’s the best or the most emotionally moving or the most important. Just the most fun. I also felt that it stood on its own and you didn’t have to have seen any of the other 30 odd movies to understand it.

(Okay, Deadpool & Logan was more fun but the Deadpool films are their own weird beasts)

In particular, I liked how they made each of the four a rounded character, particularly taking into account that they are supposed to be the best of the best. The Fantastic Four was cape punk decades before the term existed, subverting so many superhero tropes.

Johnny wasn’t an idiot, for a change. Reed was given humanity. As opposed to leaning into the cranky side of the Thing, this Ben showed the caring side of the character. (It’s worth remembering that the Thing in the comic books is beloved in the wider superhero community) And Sue is shown to truly be the strongest member of the team on every level. 

And focusing on making the Fantastic Four as realized characters emphasizes the family part of the first family. A family has to come together to save their kid. Oh, and the world.

And this vision of Galactus makes him the stuff of nightmares. A purple giant who eats planets sounds pretty silly, but this one is clearly an eldritch abomination. When he rampages through Manhattan, the city literally crumbles around him. This Galactus is one octopus head away from being Cthulhu.

It’s a very back to basics approach. A family who loves each other has to save the world. Maybe that’s why it works.

Trains, dice snd contests

 I’ve been meaning to try out Rolling Boxcars from the 13th Roll and Write Design Contest since, well, the contest from 2022.

It’s honestly amazing how many Roll and Write design contests there were as a reaction to the COVID lockdown, when there as a real need for home printed games. It produced a lot of interesting designs. 

And train themes have long been an interesting one for me. While Ticket to Ride was a big part of my introduction to board games, it was really Mayfair Games presence at GenCon that did the trick.

The late Mayfair had a ribbon event where you played games to earn ribbons. And train games were a major part of their line, since the company was originally formed to publish Empire Builder. (But, let’s be honest, getting the US license for Catan was their biggest move)

I’m rambling because, after trying Rolling Boxcars, I don’t have much to say about it. I didn’t get any sense of theme or innovation from it. Mechanically, nothing wrong. However, I found the game ultimately  forgettable. And I’m pretty generous for finding the bright spots in games.

In fact, Rolling Boxcars made me go back to Fast Train to Miyajima, which was from the fourth R&W design contest from 2020. It is also a simple dice game about loading  trains.

In addition to the fact that I can actually feel the theme, I like it’s mechanic of having to combine primary colored dice in order to load a secondary color train. Simple but also cute and memorable. I still hold that, with a little bit of polish, it could be professionally published and find an audience.

Neither game has an actual entry on BGG. And, while I found Rolling Boxcars didn’t click for me, Fast Train to Miyajima is a very hidden gem. 

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2958172/wip-boxcars-13th-roll-and-write-contest-contest-re

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2442024/wip-fast-train-to-miyajima-r-and-w-contest-compone