Posts by TrollInTheCorner:
Magic: The Gathering, or How I Came to Love the Game and Leave the Addiction
March 23rd, 2011As a nifty online experiment, Ben Gerber – of Troll in the Corner – and I came up with a cunning plan, a sort of blogger exchange program. Once a month, Ben and I plan to share our views and musings with the readers of Troll in the Corner and Dice Hate Me. Look for more cross-pollination each and every month, and let us know what you all would like to see in these columns.
It was 1995 and I was more than halfway through my undergraduate degree. Nirvana was on the radio. I was an active participant in my college RPG club and I had just moved in to a new apartment with a new roommate. As it so happened, my roommate was not in to RPGs but loved such games as Battletech and this newfangled thing called Magic: The Gathering.
Magic: the Addiction
Now we all know about M:tG and what it entails, but then, I was an innocent, wide-eyed gamer looking for new experiences; Magic fit the bill and then some! My roommate and I soon discovered a few other folks around campus who were our age and into non-pro, but competitive play. We had an informal league and soon I was buying cards like there was no tomorrow. Boxes of boosters, boxes of starters. I would spend a decent percentage of my disposable income on new cards.
Then we discovered a FLGS that offered. . . singles! That little spark behind my eyes flamed into a roaring fire of desire. There – right there – was the Lord of the Pit. I’d never heard of the Lord of the Pit before, but on seeing it I knew my black deck needed to have it. I spent the money and got it.
Over the next year and a half, new sets of Magic cards would arrive on the scene and we would start up the next phase in our card stock arms race. My roommate would get a nasty rare card, and then we all had to have it to be able to compete with him. At this same time, I started branching out in to other CCGs as well – Wyvern, Doom Trooper, Middle Earth, Battletech.
In fact, I dove so heavily into Battletech that eventually my roommate refused to play with me because I simply owned a larger variety of better cards.
It was right there, circa 1997, that it finally hit me – in order to play CCGs on this level, I would have to spend tons of money collecting these cards. Duh! Over two and a half years, I had spent a good amount of money on cards. In some cases, the production of those cards had ceased and I owned at least one of every card. In the case of Magic: The Gathering, I realized that this would never happen.
Cats! Fire! Living in a shack without heat for a week! Or, How Mi Gato se Incendia (My Cat is on Fire!) became a board game
February 16th, 2011As a nifty online experiment, Ben Gerber – of Troll in the Corner – and I came up with a cunning plan, a sort of blogger exchange program. Once a month, Ben and I plan to share our views and musings with the readers of Troll in the Corner and Dice Hate Me. Look for more cross-pollination each and every month, and let us know what you all would like to see in these columns.
Hi there! I’m Ben, a guest blogger here on Dice Hate Me, stopping by from my own site, Troll in the Corner. I’ve recently designed a print and play board game called Mi Gato se Incendia! (My Cat is on Fire!) and with the kind permission of those who run this site, I’m going to tell you a tale of game design, alternate physics, moderate insanity and cats.
The creation of a board game is an act that is fraught with stress, self loathing, number crunching and countless hours of play testing. It can be an extremely stressful event, which can lead to arms in the air, disgusted looks and wrecked marriages. That’s why I decided to make a game about cats. Soft, fluffy, funny, cute cats. And fire.
Or, more specifically, cats on fire.
Look, it sounds a lot worse than it really is, I promise. Don’t abandon this article right at the start just because I mention burning cats right off. To keep that warm fuzzy feeling you’ll eventually get from this game, let me introduce you to its main inspiration. Six years ago when I started work on this game, my cat Panger Ban was with me every step of the way. Here she is just two days ago, when my prototype arrived in the mail, as calm as normal and not the least bit paranoid.
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