What if Maigret was in an Agatha Christie novel

 I have continued on my journey of Simenon's Maigret with a book that has been published as Maigret and the Yellow Dog, The Yellow Dog and probably other names on top of that. It was one of the earlier books but many of the elements that define Maigret for me were already starting to gel.

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Maigret is called to Concarneau where one of the upper class was non-fatally shot. He has to figure out what is going on as more violent crimes, non-fatal and fatal pile up. Oh and there’s a yellow dog wandering around the town that no one’s seen before.

My impression from the back over was that this was going to be a busman’s hobby. Maigret goes on vacation so of course there’s a murder. Blame Jessica Fletcher for my thinking that. No, Maigret was dealing with another assignment and gets pulled in because he’s the closest superintendent. I like that Maigret is a professional.

This is the first Maigret novel I’ve read that felt a little like an Agatha Christie work. A rural setting. A small number of suspects, although to his credit, when Maigret gives a summary two thirds of the way through, he explicitly states it could always be someone they know nothing about. It really is a who-done-it. And Maigret even pulls a Poirot and gathers all the suspects to explain it all at the end.

With all that said, Maigret doesn't methodically gather together clues like puzzle pieces. He observes people and figures out what makes them tick. He gets into people’s heads. When he knows who you are, he knows what you’ve done. I continue to find that the world of Maigret is one of around-the-size-of-life characters.

And Simenon does not fail to be compelling. In Piotr the Latvian, the first Maigret book, I felt there were some pulpy elements. In Yellow Dog, which wasn’t written long after, those are gone. The story is grounded in believable human nature.

I am still very much of a novice in the ways of  Maigret. I don’t think I can consider myself a proper Maigret reader until I’ve read at least ten books and bingeing the series will burn me out on it. (I’ll still probably read at least that many this year) I’m also still depending on ‘best of’ lists to decide what to read next, although I am amused that some of these lists have no crossovers. 

The Yellow Dog showed up in more than one list, though, and I can appreciate why.

A fan made Catan variant that didn’t pan out for me

 Back in 2012, a Settlers of Catan variation was posted that was effectively a simplified, cooperative Roll and Write version of Catan. And while I had some concerns about some design elements, I was definitely interested in the idea.

The core idea was that it was a cooperative version of Catan where each player was trying to get to seven points. All resources went to the same general pool. And your timer/opponent was the bandit that would slowly destroy resource hexes.

The whole thing could be printed out on one piece of paper, board on one side and rules on the back. Minimalist line art, and you would use colored markers to draw in settlements, cities and roads. The only physical token was the bandit.

When I first saw this variation, I wasn’t even interested in print and play at the time. But I still liked the Idea of such a minimalist version of Catan. With that said, even at the time, I really saw it only as a variation that you would take if you were backpacking in the wilderness.

The variation simplifies Catan by having no development cards. That also means no largest army and sheep are heavily devalued when sheep are already the red-headed sheep of resources. There is also no longest road.

After having this variation with in the back of my head for over 10 years, I finally sat down and tried it out. Admittedly, I did it as a solitaire but with multiple player seats.

And, sadly, the most positive description that I can come up with for it was lackluster. The only way to get the prerequisite seven points for each player was settlements and cities. While very annoying, the bandit destroyed things slowly enough that I wasn’t in danger of losing the game.

The elements that make Catan truly a dynamic, like trading and getting random development cards, aren’t there. And, as much as I really do like Catan, I don’t need a Catan fix this badly.

I am honestly not sure what the state of print and play was in 2012. However, now, particularly with the Covid lockdown boom in print and play games, there are so many good options that you could stuff into your backpack before you head off into the woods. The need for this just isn’t there.

I feel bad knocking with this variation as much as I have. Because I definitely do like the idea of it. I like the idea of having a minimalist Catan that I could play next to a campfire in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, what I think it proves is that there comes a point in simplification where you lose the balance.

https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/75454/settlers-of-catan-cooperative-b-and-w-p-and-p-vers

I feel like recommending PnP games again

 I’ve written about essential PnP libraries and PnP games that I feel would be good for budget gaming more than once. Unfortunately, I still think there is a real, possibly growing, need for that, although the very concept of PnP games comes with the assumption that people have access to printers, which feels like an arrogant assumption. Still, PnP games is one of my hobbies so that’s what I am working with.

Few disclaimers:

- If you this blog on the regular, there will be no surprises. 

- I’m focusing on games that just require printing. There’s a lot of good PnP games that involve cards and tiles and boards and such but I’m focusing on accessible games. If you’re already making cards and chits and tiles, you don’t need my advice.

I have said more than once that, if you are completely new to Print and Play, a good place to start is to go to Postmark Games and buy their whole catalog. Which I think is currently eight games so it’s not unreasonable. And if that’s as far as you go, you will still do well.

With that said, I want to highlight their first three games: Voyages, Aquamarine and Waypoints. Lots of content, solid mechanics and aimed at the general gamer audience. Accessible but full of interesting choices. Great examples of what you can do with Roll and Write.

All three of those games are multi-player solitaires, which is pretty common in the print-and-go niche of PnP. My next recommendation, on the other hand, is totally in your face.

Beards and Booty from Shiny Pigeon Games  is possibly the best Beer and Pretzels PnP game I’ve found. Pirates with special abilities beating the tar out of each other. Plenty of room for smack talk and other good fun. I do recommend always playing with sea monsters. They mix things up and make sure things keep happening.

Around the World in 10-15 Minutes also from Shiny Pigeon Games gets an honorable mention. It has a strong Ticket to Ride and a Roll and Write vibe and I really enjoy it but I also think it is very forgiving. When I play, it’s less of a question of will I do well, but how will I do well this time? That keeps me from giving it a wholehearted recommendation.

My last recommendation (at least for now) is Chateau from Rolling Rhino Games. It’s also the game that made me decide that I should post yet another blog like this. It’s a fill-in-the-grid Roll and Write, which is a ridiculously common mechanic. However, it has a bunch of different maps, each with their own special power. And it has interaction, letting you actively mess up other players’s plans. That’s when I said. ‘People can use this in their libraries’ 

This is far, far from a full list of PnP games that are out there that are worth your time playing. I will also admit that every last game on the list is definitely on the light side. And there are heavier PnP games out there, including ones that don’t require any construction. And I keep meaning to find the time to look at them :)

Still, like I said at the top, I think there is a real need for budget gaming. And this is my way of trying to help people find a way to do that. At the very least, I think I’ve put together enough for a few good family game nights here.

I just keep binging Chateau

 I’d been looking at Chateau for a couple years but I didn’t actually pull the trigger until PnP Arcade announced it was was shutting down business. (I bought a lot of files when that happened)

I had initially assumed it was a resource management game but quickly found out that it was a fill-in-the-grid game. Which is a game genre I enjoy but, particularly at this point, a game has to do more than fill in boxes.

In case you don’t want to read the rest of the blog, Chateau has several design choices that made it a really bingeable game for me. I have really been enjoying it and it has been hitting the table a lot.

I am not going to go through the rules and play in detail because it’s roll dice, consult a chart and draw the matching shape on the grid. Instead, I am going to go though the design elements that I think really make the game rock. 

First and foremost, the game has twenty different maps, all based on real castles. And each one comes has a different special power that, in some way, lets you break the rules. More than that, the game is set up for  asymmetrical play. In a multi-player game, everyone can have a different castle.

This is the single biggest reason I binge Chateau. Each castle is a different enough experience that each one is worth playing. A solitaire session for me is multiple maps. And it also adds a lot of value to multi-player game.

Second, interaction. Now, almost all of games of these types are multi-player solitaires. Part of the setup is drawing a five-square shape on the player-to-the-left’s map. When one’s are rolled, you fill in a square on the player-to-the-left’s map. For this genre, that’s war game level interaction.

(For solitaire play, there are rules to make those actions as inconvenient as possible lol)

Another element I appreciated is that for the four-and-five-sized shapes, you can only use each one once. And, while you do, you get the full assortment of four sided Tetris shapes, you only get five pentominoes. And you don’t get many of the more useful ones either lol Definitely adds a scarcity element to the game.

One thing I’m meh about is that your score is how many turns it takes to fill your castle. Lower score is better. It’s not terrible, but it doesn’t really make me sing. Quite frankly, it speaks well of the rest of the game that I don’t really mind this.

The same week I learned Chateau, I also learned Junk Drawer online. Now, if (or when) I had a physical copy of Junk Drawer, I’d pick it over Chateau to play with the kiddo. On the other hand, I’d pick Chateau for a more ‘gamer’ audience. 

The game comes in low art (which is what I’ve printed out) and much prettier full color art. If (or when) I had a regular group, I’d think about making a laminated full color set. At that point, it would have the same production values as a published Roll and Write. And sometimes, that’s what it takes to get it on the table.

I think the need for budget gaming just keeps getting greater. Chateau, between having low construction requirements and offering solid (if short) gameplay, I think fits the bill very well. (Maybe I should revisit that topic yet again) I enjoy Chateau and I think it has a role in many collections.

Where I babble too much about DC The New Frontier

 For years, I read and heard references to DC The New Frontier. I finally decided that I should actually read it. And, when I did that, I also realized I had no idea what it was actually about lol

And New Frontier turned out to be a wild ride indeed.

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DC the New Frontier is a examination of DC’s transition from the Golden Age to the Silver Age. Oh, it’s also an Elseworlds story, which means it’s out of continuity so anything can happen. (It’s an imaginary story but aren’t they all, to paraphrase Alan Moore)

It also deals with McCarthyism, racism and misogyny. None of these are new topics for revisiting DC in the 50s but New Frontier deals with them in a striking fashion. Possibly because it’s about as subtle as a baseball bat to the teeth.

The actual plot centers around the new generation, as well as the United States in general, having to come together to deal with an eldritch, Lovecraftian horror. Said horror is actually a revision of an element of DC comics that’s been around since 1960, which was a nifty touch. 

And the art by Darwyn Cooke is really cool. Very stylized and very emotive, the art conveys the overall tone and the characters’ emotions very well.

However, instead of the discussing the plot or the overall work, I wanted to comment on some specific characters that I found really interesting. Bullet points.

John Henry - A brand new character, a black man who fights back against the KKK in a clearly handmade costume. And who ends up being lynched but not before making a profound impact. The character and what he represents is as subtle as a hand grenade but things shouldn’t be subtle.

Hal Jordan - Hal is the closest thing New Frontier has to a main character and is journey to becoming the Green Lantern is a definite underpinning structure to the story. Portraying him as a pacifist who has to struggle with violence doesn’t really jibe with any other version of Hal but this is a stand alone story and makes him one of the most interesting Hal Jordans I’ve read.

J’ohn J’onzz the Martian Manhunter - Oh, J’ohn J’onzz is fun. Which he frequently is in any version. Insanely powerful, incredibly altruistic and always a stranger in a strange land. This version binge watches TV (which is one of the funniest part of a book that doesn’t have many laughs) to learn about the human race and becomes a pure hearted cop in corrupt Gotham. Hal Jordan may be the protagonist but J’ohnn is the MVP.

Challengers of the Unknown - the Challengers were a stepping stone between the adventure stories after superheroes went out of vogue in the late forties/early fifties and the silver age return of super heroes. Adventurers and science heroes who wear matching jump suits, they are regarded as Kirby’s dry run for the Fantastic Four over at Marvel. And their basic motivation is a suicide pact. They are heavily used in the New Frontier and that made me go and look up the original Kirby stories. Now that’s been own flavor of crazy.

New Frontier is a fascinatingly meta work because so much of it only works in the context of the reader being familiar with the source material. At the same time, it tells a fantastic story with underlining meaning.

‘There’s the door, spaceman’ isn’t just a badass line. It means something.

Junk Drawer hits the any audience mark

 I make it a point to try and learn at least one new game a month. It was getting to the middle of April and life had been too crazy for me to feel like learning anything. So I used one of my ‘break-glass-in-case-of-emergency’ methods and went to Board Game Arena to find a game to learn.

And, as it happens, Junk Drawer turned out to be a dandy little game.

Junk Drawer is a fill-in-the-grid-with-polygons game. Which is a genre that has no end of examples. Mind you, Blokus was a big deal for me when I first got into gaming and I still think Blokus Trigon is one of the best three-player abstracts that I’ve ever played.

So, I’m prepared to be sold but you got to give me a reason to buy in. (Did that sentence even make sense?)

The theme of Junk Drawer is organizing junk drawers. While not as exciting as World War IV or trading in the Mediterranean, it’s a theme that everyone can relate to. 

Everyone gets a set of twenty-one tiles, all the Blokus shapes except they have images of different types of bric a brac printed on them. There’s a set of cards of the tiles. Cards get shuffled and flipped and you place the matching tile. Boom, you know how to play.

So what’s the hook? What’s the clever bit? 

You don’t have one board. You have four five-by-five boards. And each one is going to have a different scoring condition, drawn from twenty-four possible scoring conditions. And each round of the game is four moves, placing a tile in each different grid.

That kicks things up a notch. Heck, maybe two notches.

None of these elements make the game add any real difficulty to learning or understanding the game. At the same time, it’s adds a lot to the decisions and replayability of the Junk Drawer. They add depth more than complexity.

Honestly, the closest thing the game has to a problematic element is that as soon as any player can’t make a legal move, the game ends for everyone. However, some of the scoring conditions do better with emptier drawers so forcing the end can be a strategic choice, as opposed to being a spoiler.

In short, Junk Drawer is a very intuitive game with a wide open decision tree that is easy to understand. Personally, I think it’s quite a bit of fun. It is a very solid family weight game.

I will keep on playing it online and, if I see a cheap copy, I would seriously think about picking it up. I think my whole family would have fun with it.

[Since then, I also learned Chateau, another polygon on grid games. Which I like even more, due to a number of little twists it throws at you. That said, everything I’ve written about Junk Drawer is true and I think it would work better for a family game night]