Gem Getter is the start of something good

 I decided it was time I started learning the Gem Getter family, starting with Gem Getter. The series also includes Gem Getter Pro, Gem Getter Gets Better, Gem Getter Galactic and the inevitable Gem Getter Saves Christmas. (No, I'm not kidding) They all follow the same basic format (drawing shapes on grids and covering up symbols) but they all also have their own little twists.

And the original game is the simplest, to the point where I believe the designer recommends it for kids and that older gamers should skip to the other games in the series. Well, that sounds like the perfect place for me to jump in, particularly if I have had a stressful day and thinking hurts.

As I've already mentioned, Gem Getter is another game where you that you are drawing shapes in. This is a theme I see over and over again in Roll and Writes. I enjoy it but I literally wonder if I've played over a hundred games that do this. There are some that I really like, like Aquamarine from Postmark Games, but I'm at the point where a game has to bring something interesting for me to want to play it more than once.

In many ways, Gem Getter takes the idea and pares it down to the bone. Roll dice. Consult a table. Add shape to your board as long as it connects to a shape already there. Any symbol you cover up, check off on your score chart.  

So, does Gem Getter do anything interesting?

Well, first of all, there are eight different boards. Just in the first game alone. Each one of an irregular grid, as opposed to a square or rectangle. There are some spaces you cannot cover but you can score if you completely surround it on all eight sides. And you get bonus gems for completely filling rows and columns.

In addition to having different boards, there are two different shape tables. On top of that, each table is actually two tables, one for a light die and one for a dark die. (I just use black and white, which makes me boring) However, you only get to pick one shape per turn.

And the different types of gems have different scoring conditions. The most common gems have to be collected as sets before they are worth points. Other gems aren't worth any points until you collect enough. One type will score negative points until you get more than one. Oil doesn't score points but lets you earn bonus shapes to add to the board.

Game lasts nine rounds. After that, you figure out your score and most points wins.

Okay. There is absolutely nothing new or innovative in Gem Getter. If you had handed me the game without any of the rules, I'd have been able to play it without any problems. The core mechanics are pretty much the absolute basics for this kind of game. Which does make the game very intuitive and easy to learn or teach. It also comes with a decent amount of content. However, I can point to a plenty lot of games that I can say the exact same thing about them. 

However, the depth and complexity of the scoring (Well, as much depth as a nine-round fill in the grid game is going to have) is what made me keep playing Gem Getter. Figuring out what scoring options you can optimize creates a much better decision tree than I was afraid of when I first looked at the game. Playtime is short but engagement is high.

With that said, I had planned on waiting to try Gem Getter Pro but, when I found out I could play it online, didn't wait. With more intricate scoring and more complicated shapes, I do think Gem Getter Pro is much better. If you aren't a completist like me, starting with Gem Getter Pro is the way to go.

One thing I am, curious about is if you can mix and match the shape tables between the two versions. I do know you can have people play on different boards from the same game and still be competitive. That’s cool.

The Gem Getter series is very easy and accessible but also engaging with good choices. Gem Getter Pro is on its way to become part of my regular rotation.

What did Lovecraft do to Brian Lumley?

 I cannot figure out what Brian Lumley's deal with Lovecraft was. 

On the one hand, when Lumley was writing Mythos fiction in the 70s, he demonstrated an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the Mythos. Not only was this back before the Internet was something ordinary people used, it was before Chaosium published Call of Cthulhu (the RPG, not the story) which served as what had to have been the earliest encyclopedia of Mythos stuff. (I'll get back to that) And not just of of Lovecraft's writing but other authors including Derleth and Belknap Long and Lumley's contemporary, Campbell. To me, that really indicates Lumley was invested in the Mythos.

However, as his Mythos writing went on, it feels like he started actively attacking the core concepts of the Mythos. And not in an interesting or fun deconstruction either. His protagonists became super powerful and able to contemptuously beat the Great Old Ones. (The phrase Mary Sue does come to mind but I view that as too easy an accusation to make) It comes across as mean spirited.

Mind you, Lumley has come across as a bit of a spoilsport to me a number of times. I'd read for years that he'd argued that Titus Crow's time Clock was actually older than the TARDIS, which confused me because the first appearance was eight years after Doctor Who first aired. Then I finally read that his argument was that the clock was from the 1934 Lovecraft story "Through the Gates of the Silver Key". Okay... But Lumley added that it was bigger on the inside than the outside and could fly around time and space, which makes his argument more disingenuous. It also had a laser that could blast Great Old Ones and their minions, which I admit isn't from Doctor Who but wasn't from Lovecraft either. (Lumley was English, which doesn't mean his claims of never hearing of Doctor Who in the 1960s and 70s  not impossible but makes it less likely than if he was from a different country.)

He also apparently pitched a fit about the inclusion of his Mythos creations, like the Cthonions, in Call of Cthulhu, claiming that he never granted Sandy Petersen permission to use his work. Which might even be true. The early years of the RPG industry were copyright nightmares. However, I appreciate how much Sandy Petersen has done for the hobby and Mythos so, even if this is true, I'll personally overlook it.

When trying to research just what was going on with Lumley and Mythos, I read that August Derleth mentored him. I don't actually know if that's true. Derleth is, to put it mildly, a very divisive and frequently hated figure in Mythos culture. I think he had his good side (I actually enjoy his Solar Pons stories) but his interpretation of the Mythos really doesn't hold up to Lovecraft's. Much the way cotton candy doesn’t hold up to a power washer.

Three years ago, I read The Transition of Titus Crow. When I was done, my basic reaction was: What was that? and I was done with Lumley for a while. However, I decided to give the next book, the Clock of Time a try.

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The Transition of Titus Crow is the one where Lumley's psychic detective becomes a superpowered cyborg, befriends Cthulhu's good twin brother, gets an elf girlfriend and zaps Yog Sothoth with a super powered laser. There is a lot of room to deconstruct the Mythos but this really sounds like "My dad can beat up your dad" More than that, I can accept bad Mythos as long as it's not bad writing but the Transition of Titus Crow was a serious step down from the Burrowers from Below. Morbid curiosity made me pick up the Clock of Time.

And, look, the Clock of Time isn't great. But at least it isn't the Transition of Titus  Crow.

Part of why is it is better is because Lumley pretty much blew the wheels off the bus already in the earlier book. Titus Crow would have to grow to giant size and hogtie Cthulhu to get more extreme. Lumley jumped the shark. That ship had sailed.

The Clock of Time is also helped by being set in the Dreamlands which was Lovecraft wearing his Lord Dunsany hat. The Dreamlands are more fantastical than despair filled cosmic horror. Which I know from stories like The Taint that Lumley can write but he apparently wasn't in the mood when he wrote the Transition of Titus Crow or the Clock of Time. The Clock of Time is a swashbuckling pulpy tale of action from start to finish so the tone remains consistent. 

Henri Laurent de Marigny must fly the Time Clock to the Dreamlands to save Titus Crow and his magic girlfriend Tiania. Then they fight Cthulhu's incursion with the goal of corrupting the Dreamlands. The good guys win.

There were a couple of authorial choices I liked. Since Cthulhu is so linked with dreaming, having him try to invade the Dreamlands feels like a very natural choice. And when N'yarlathotep almost captures Titus Crow, it takes the direct intervention of the elder gods to save him, as opposed to Titus being tougher than a God. Yes, a blatant deus ex machina is improvement over the Transition of Titus Crow. 

At the end of the day, the book is still kind of a trainwreck, particularly as a deconstruction of the Mythos. I'm planning on rereading Roger Zelazny's Lonesome October which is definitely a cheeky deconstruction of the Mythos but has some story and substance. The Clock of Dreams feels like cotton fluff.

I do find myself going back to the idea that August Derleth mentored Lumley. Again, I don't know if that's true. However, Derleth definitely tried to reframe the Mythos as good versus evil as opposed to Lovecraft's never-ending existential scream.  Not that good always won but it was clearly there.  Lumley takes that philosophy to the next level.

My September Gaming

 September, as I've mentioned elsewhere, was a very hectic month for us. Lots of adulting to get in so it wasn't a month where learning new games was any kind of priority.

I learned:

Pinball Dice

Morning Coffee Dungeon 02 - Just a Dungeon

Gem Getter

Gem Getter Pro

Morning Coffee Dungeon 01 - Deep Sea Adventure

Morning Coffee Dungeon 03 Night at the Museum

All light Roll and Writes. Honestly, times like these are a one of the reasons I got into Roll and Writes. A good Roll and Write can condense a gaming experience in both time and space. 

I honestly have not enough gotten enough gameplay in with Pinball Dice to really know it yet. Early play has been promising, making me feel like it takes the Paper Pinball experienced and takes to a more balanced, elegant level. I eagerly await more game sheets to the system.

While I felt Gem Getter was solid, Gem Getter Pro is a much better sequel. Gem Getter Pro was the highlight of September for me and it's a good highlight. It is a game that has already entered regular rotation for me and I plan to laminate all the bonus boards. Only nine turns but those turns are full of fun decisions.

Morning Coffee Dungeon. Alexander Shen has a real knack for tiny little games and puzzles that are good for when you have no time or brain power. And I hold that that is a deceptively hard thing to do. The Morning Coffee Dungeon series, though, has decisions that are too simple and the die rolls too easily overwhelm those decisions. Despite that, I'll probably get more play out of them when the brain fog is too thick.

Honestly, I expect October to be at least as busy of month of adulting. I don't think I'll get much gaming in but I will try and squeeze at least one new Roll and Write in.

My September PnP

 September was a very hectic month. Almost everything I made was just laminating Roll and Write pages and not playing most of them.

I made:

Count of Nine Estates

MCD 02 - Just a Dungeon

Gem Getter 

Gem Getter Pro

MCD 01 - Deep Sea Adventure

MCD 03 - Night at the Museum

Sea Scrapers (Legends of Dsyx)

Fairy Fair (Legends of Dsyx)

Dragonvault (Legends of Dsyx)

My ‘big’ build was Count of Nine Estates. I really enjoyed the original Count of Nine game, enough that I now want to revisit it. I was shocked to see that I hadn’t apparently played Count of Nine Estates. And, sadly, I still haven’t actually played it yet.

On the other hand, I did play Gem Getter, which I’ve been really meaning to try. And I enjoyed it enough that I went on to Gem Getter Pro. And Gem Getter Pro became the game I kept on going back to in September.

On the third hand, I am going to look back when I am more rested and wonder how tired I was to play one Morning Coffee Dungeon game and then decide to play the rest.

I also decided that I wanted to revisit some of the Legends of Dsyx. When I first explored Roll and Writes, they were a big deal for me. And I firmly believe Hall of the Dwarven Ming holds up but I want to look at some of the others.

October is looking like it will be crazy as well but I am hoping I will find my pace and get in more gaming.

You know, Maigret gets some good translations

 While reading Maigret at Montmartre by Georges Simenon (really, who else would have written it but it’s just common decency to always list the author), I realized that it had also been published in English as Inspector Maigret and the Strangled Stripper  and Maigret at Picratt’s. All by different translators.

Over the last several months, I have been reading Maigret novels. And, from the start, I have known that the blessed things were originally in French. However, I hadn’t really thought about how there must be different translators, how there must be different little touches here and there. Because the tone has been pretty consistent throughout my literary journey.

Which isn’t to say that Simenon’s voice must be so strong that it overpowers any quirks of individual translators. Instead, I think Simenon is considered important enough to get it right.

I sometimes forget just how much of what I read started off in another language. Because sometimes it takes a bad translation to remind you that these aren’t the authors original words. 

And I don’t think I’d get enough out of reading these three different translations of this 1954 Maigret book to justify it. I feel like I’ve done well to myself to read one.

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As the strangled stripper version of the title would suggest, the book deals with the seedier side of life. Simenon has a very psychological approach and does a remarkably good job not glamorizing unsavory things. Instead of exploitation, he discusses the exploited.

There were some strikingly homophobic scenes. And while you can just say ‘it was 1954’ which isn’t unfair but the extent that Simenon humanized sex workers makes him dehumanizing another group stand out.

Look, I love the work of H. P. Lovecraft and I also know he was incredibly racist, even by the standards of his own time. I am going to argue that it is all right to enjoy a creator as long as we acknowledge the issues we have with them. We don’t benefit from closing out the world. And a friend of mine has said that particularly applies when the creator is dead and won’t get any money from us buying their works.

And Maigret at Montmartre delivers why I read this series. I read Rex Stout to watch Archie and Nero bicker and I read Simenon to watch Maigret into everyone’s minds.

Bonsai- Earning points or slow sculpture?

 I picked up Bonsai for five bucks from a clearance rack at Barnes & Nobel. What I ultimately found was something that had a little bit more style over substance, but was firmly aimed at the casual audience. Which is an audience that I have found I fit more and more with.

Like you probably figured, it’s a game about cultivating your own bonsai tree. It combines an action point system/resource management, that you cultivate with a tableau of cards, with tile laying. 

The mechanics of the game are very familiar. While the game terms are meditate and cultivate, it’s really draw cards and place tiles. 

For the meditation action, you draw cards from a central board that let you increase your tile storage capacity and the number of tiles you were allowed to place, along with cards that just give you points. You also get a limited number of tiles while you are at it.

Cultivation is tile laying, building up a bonsai tree out of hexagonal tiles. The tile placement restrictions are very intuitive and will create a very traditional looking bonsai tree out of tiles. You can also earn bonus point tiles if you hit certain goals with your tree.

At the end of the game, you get points for certain tiles, specific cards and any bonuses you got on the way.

Bonsai is not quite a true multiplayer solitaire because you are all drawing from the same pool of cards. However, even the indirect interaction is pretty limited.

However, that’s not really the point of the game. While there are points, and there are winners and losers, you aren’t fighting clever tricks to outplay your opponents. You are figuring out how to make your own best bonsai tree.

While Bonsai isn’t the prettiest game I’ve ever seen, the artwork really leans into the theme. I would even go so far as to say that it is understated in the right way. It lends itself to the soothing process of creating the slow sculpture of a bonsai tree.

A family favorite of ours is A Gentle Rain. While there is a goal and a way of determining how close you came to achieving that goal, it is really the decompressing process of creating a tableau of flowers that makes us play it. Bonsai fits into a similar category.

Bonsai isn’t a game for everyone or for every occasion. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the audience for it is even bigger than I think it is.