Archive for Melissa Welborn
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Melissa Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
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Cross-posted as a Session Report.
My husband and I settled in after dinner with our son, age ten and daughter (a stone’s throw from nine) for a quick game of Liar’s Dice.
Round One:
Mama started out weak and continued to bleed out until she was without dice. The son was out next when he challenged three stars in a set of nine dice. In reality, seven out of nine were stars. Tough break. The game was down to the daughter, who was holding on for dear life with one dice against her daddy who still had all five. She couldn’t fight the master with only one dice. Winner: Daddy.
Round Two:
Mama had high hopes, but was out first again. Sitting between Daddy and the daughter is the place of death. Daddy challenged the son’s bid of five five’s out of ten. When the dice were revealed, there were seven five’s out of ten, all natural five’s (no stars). Daddy was out. The son still had four dice, and the daughter was down to three. Then they were tied two to two, and both of them were still in it. The daughter had a star and a three, and the son had a two. He tried to bluff her with two fours, but she challenged and he lost. Winner: Daughter.
Round Three:
Mama beat her previous record by getting out in two rolls, killed by her daughter’s incessant challenges. Everyone else at the table still had five dice. The daughter lost four in one turn when she bid seven two’s when there were only three. And she’s out leaving the two boys, each with five dice. Then they were both down to four. Then they were both down to three. Then they were both down to two. Then the son lost when he got down two to one against his Daddy. Those are tough odds. Winner: Daddy.
All in all, it was a fun night of challenging the odds with a ten and nine year old, playing a game rated on the box for twelve year-olds. Maybe Mama, who is 43, should wait a while longer before attempting it. Or maybe she should sit somewhere else.
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Melissa Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
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Well, this isn't from Larry, clearly, since he's been a supporter since the beginning of time, or maybe since the Al Gore invented the internet. Me, I've lagged along. This is from the wife. I joined BGG a few years ago to surprise my sweet hubby with birthday wishes, but didn't really do anything else on the site for a long time.
But this past year, I've become more involved, and I've met a few people on the site, and we've shared a lot as we've brought our kids more into the world of gaming.
Last night I decided to take the plunge and support BGG under my own account. Why? Because I believe in gaming, I believe in building a gaming market in the US, and I believe that boardgamegeek is the best site out there, both for newbies to find a game and for long-time players.
After today's banner ad appeal, I guess I'm now funding more torture in the Dungeon of Doom. Do I get to pick the ones tortured? 
Thanks to all of the geekers and all that you do!!! Merry Christmas.
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Melissa Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
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If you frequent this site, especially digging down into the blogs, then my guess is you are already wonderfully aware of the fun that board games can bring. This holiday season, when you go visit those relatives that you probably don't have anything in common with anymore, bring a few games. Here are a few reasons why.
It beats talking politics. Even if your guest list reads like a roll-call at the local Republican or Democratic headquarters, you're just going to end up frustrated. If you all are in the same party and agree, what's the point. If you aren't, then, well, what's the point? It won't end well.
You don't need second helpings of dessert. Whipping out a game can keep your mind off the extra slice of red velvet cake just sitting there calling your name.
Football will wait. (Yes, I know, it's amazing, considering my spouse, that I said that out loud.) Or just leave the game on in the background. You can still catch the big plays and you can ignore the rest. In Larry's defense, gaming is about the only thing that can tear him away from the screen when there's a game on.
After our Thanksgiving dinner, where my mother, sister and her family, and my brother and his family were all in attendance, I encouraged everyone to play a game. You might have thought that I had said, "Hey, guys, let's go climb Kilimanjaro. We can be back before dinner!" Despite the fact that they have played "Larry-style" games before (read fun), they were reluctant. My mom and sister said okay, but then my brother and his wife balked, indicating that they had to leave early. (I guess they thought we were talking about a marathon war-game session that lasted hours, because thirty minutes later they were still there, and we had not played anything because they were leaving)
This is of course, after my nieces and children broke out the Monopoly set. Larry has already blogged about that disaster. I chose Diamant, but was still having trouble getting my mom and sister to the table. Larry was non-responsive in the den, which was surprising, but he was holding court over football and a political discussion. A few minutes passed, and I encouraged them again. Sure, my mom and sister said. But my mom wanted to get a few pictures first.So we took pictures. Finally, we sat down to play Diamant, and dragged my brother's wife with us, since he was making no effort to leave.
Did they have fun? Yes. Did my sister then ask for a copy of the game? Yes. "Wow, that was fun. It wasn't long and complicated at all," said my sister-in-law.
Score!!! Score one more for the Euro-gaming community. Come on, guys, I encourage you to get out there and push games this season. These type of fun games are making in-roads into the US market, but it's going to take people like us to push them.
I'm sure Larry will write a blog in the next few days about games for non-gamers, but until then, think about what games you already own that you can bring out for the family. No one needs to hear about who you're going to support in the next big primary. Instead, surprise them by spending time doing something that doesn't require electricity, makes them think just a little bit, and may even build family bonds as well.
Oh, and after we played Diamant, we decided to cut back on our annual gift exchange and use that time on Christmas Eve to play games instead.
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Melissa Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
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Wow, we've not posted about our gaming with the kids since August 7th. Can you tell that school and homework has started back at our house?
So here's a brief summary of the games we've managed to squeeze in among a kazillion other activities...
August 19 - We brought out Ten Days in the USA. We've played it before with the kids, but it's been a while. Our daughter won two and Larry won two. Our son got frustrated and only played one game.
August 20 - We spent a bit more time explaining the game to our son the following day and he won.
We also followed that with a quick game of Ra, the Dice Game. The daughter rocked and won with 72, with Larry second at 60, me at 53, and the son at 48.
August 21 - The daughter was watching her favorite television show and wasn't interested in gaming, so we took the opportunity to introduce our son to Dominion. For his first game we played the original Dominion, and used the Big Money recommended deck, but we replaced the Chapel card with the Smithy. The cards used were: Adventurer, Bureaucrat, Chancellor, Cellar, Feast, Laboratory, Market, Mine, Moneylender, and Smithy. The game was close -- everyone had four provinces, everyone had four estates. Duchies won it -- and the son won his first game of Dominion with 37, I took second with 34, and Larry had 31.
We followed that up with a quick game of Call My Bluff - always a family favorite. I won first place without losing a single dice, followed by Larry, the son, and the daughter. Results fr the second game were Larry, the son, me, and then the daughter.
August 27 - I was running errands, so Larry and the kids played Pick Picnic. The daughter won with 60, Larry came in second with 48, and Luke was third at 46.
August 28 - Potion-Making Practice -- We didn't finish the first game, but preliminary results were Larry 47, the daughter 32, the son 23, and me dragging the back with 21.
September 4 - Played Potion-Making Practice again for real -- Larry 61, the daughter 52, the son 43, and me dragging again with 29. This clearly isn't my game.
We had time for Expedition -- Larry won with 17, but at least I redeemed myself with second (13), the son came in with 4, and the daughter trailed with -1.
September 5 - Enigma of Leonardo - First Play -- Larry won with 7, the daughter had 5 and the son had 4.
And in the continuing tradition of bringing out new games, we hauled out Steam for the kids to play. They liked it. Larry won handily at 50, I came in a distant second with 34, the son had 33, and daughter had 30.
In our ongoing debate of how to find a game to play, we decided to spin the spinner and let that person pick. It landed on our son and he chose Factory Fun. Larry won off the bonus with 70, the son came in second with 58, I was a close third with 55 (which is a high score for me with this game), and the daughter had 40.
We followed that with a game of Bohnanza, our first play in forever!!! The kids loved it. Larry won with 16, I had 13, the son had 10, and the daughter had 8.
September 9 - Second play of Bohnanza, and the kids showed they are really picking up on this one. Larry had 17, the daughter had 16, the son had 15, and I dragged up the rear with 14.
We haven't played as much as we would have liked, but considering everything going on, I think we've made a good show of it. See you next month!
Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:17 pm
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Melissa Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
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As I sit here on Father's Day, I am pondering the irony that the US Open is always played on Father's Day. If Mother's Day is the day when all of the mother's conspire to be taken out to eat, Father's Day may be considered the day when all of the "golfing" fathers want to be left alone to watch the US Open.
In our house, I've told my husband he can do whatever he wants this weekend. Bless his heart, his birthday is Monday, the day after Father's Day, so he gets one combined celebration. He says he wants to watch the ending of the US Open, but he's not wanting to watch it all day. We may go on a hike. We may go swimming. I don't know yet.
Whatever we do, I can pretty much guarantee that at some point today we will play a board game. I am amazed at the enthusiasm that my husband brings to playing with our children. He played pre-school games with them when they were younger. Now, because of the excitement he brings to gaming, our kids love games, and they are quite good at it. They've beaten both of us this weekend at our newest game, which I'll let him blog about.
One of the greatest gifts you can give your children as a parent is your time. I am blessed to share my life with one who gives of his time so freely. So to all of you dads who are bringing your children up in the world of meeples, victory points, and tile-laying, I salute you. Now go play a game.
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Melissa Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
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So, I know this is the equivalent of preaching about going to church to members of the choir, but here goes...
Why have Euro-games not gained more of a threshold in the US market? I know early, when games were all in German, it was a stretch. But now, with most games published in English, I feel that the market should be growing faster than it is.
I know there are people who have absolutely no interest in playing games. Maybe they were burned out by forced marathon sessions of Monopoly as a child. Maybe they only have experience with dice or pure luck games like Sorry or Trouble. Those people will never be part of a gaming market.
But what about the upper third in intelligence in the US? Considering how much gaming helps problem-solving skills, mathematical ability, and logic....I would think parents encouraging their children to push the envelope and get into the top-notch colleges and universities would be all over this. I know our kids have a much better understanding of probability than other kids their age. Any chance we can give our kids to exercise their analytical skills can only help them later in life.
I wonder if anyone has ever done analysis on standardized test scores between gamers and non-gamers? (What can I say, I work for a university where we think of things like that.)
Yet, even when I speak with otherwise educated people, they have never heard of many of these games, and think games are best left to the realm of children. Games are for - pardon the word - geeks.
I guess there's just too much competing for our time, and learning a Euro-game on your own without someone to help can be intimidating. But I get so tired of the commercials for party games.... Ah, we could have so much more.
Thoughts?
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Melissa Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
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Want that whole pie as your afternoon snack??? Go ahead. 32 ounces of prime USDA ribeye in a steak-eating contest? No problem.
Because you can still eat everything you see and then some and still lose weight under this great new plan....
Is your preference to watch 20-24 hours of television a day? You can do it with this amazing new breakthrough.
No, it's not a pill.....
No, it's not surgery.....
No, it's not a milkshake or cookie or smoothie...
Best of all, it will cost you nothing.....
Quick, jot this number down, operators are standing by....
Hurry, supplies are limited.....
April Fool's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gotcha didn't I? For a minute, you wanted to believe. You wanted it to be that easy. You want to have your cake and eat it too, don't you? And still fit into your skinny jeans?
Think about how many magazines you have bought because the headline was "Amazing New Weight Loss Breakthrough" or some such. I throw a few out every time I go on a cleaning binge.
It's time to grow up. Let's suck it up and do what we need to do. Eat healthier food and move more. You know you want to....
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Melissa Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
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Since I have become more active on the site, I thought I would take a minute and introduce myself. Other than Larry's wife, here is a little bit about me....
I went to the University of Georgia, but I work for Clemson, so that, combined with the fact that larry loves Clemson, is where my loyalties lie. In my day-job I manage databases and run queries on enrollment statistics. And no, I don't do math in my head. Ever.
Larry found an avatar that represents me fairly well. It's a quill, and from the time I was knee-high to a june-bug (to use a Southern saying), I've wanted to be a writer. That urge is still very strong, and I write fiction in my spare time. (Working full-time with two kids, there's a lot of that, right?)
I just bought three micro-badges. The first is a kindle badge. Larry bought me a kindle for our 10th anniversary two years ago, and I'm addicted to it. I guess the first step is to admit you have a problem.
The second is a "family" gamer badge. I love playing games with the kids, and it's fun watching them develop into awesome players. They are good enough to beat me, which they do often..
The third is an "I like multi-player solitaire" badge. Yes, I admit it. I don't like terroritorial games that much. I much prefer building my own farm, my own deck, etc. Mostly I added this badge because I see a lot of BGG'ers rant and rail against multi-player solitaire.
So that's me, the two minute version. Thanks for welcoming me into the BGG gamily (new word for game family).
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Melissa Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
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Larry has already written a description of our game-playing Friday night on Family Game night. What he omitted was the misguided attempt that I came up with to have everyone in the family vote for what game they wanted to play. I thought if everyone wrote down their number one and number two game to play, we could get a consensus.
Ummmm........No.
First round: Four different games got number 1 votes, and four more different games got number 2 votes. There was absolutely no agreement or overlap. Our daughter is crazy for Chicken Cha Cha Cha, and voted for that and its sister Gulo Gulo. Our son wanted Defenders of the Realm and Power Grid (which we weren't sure they were ready for.) Larry chose Attika and The Downfall of Pompeii, and I chose Pickomino and Qwirkle. Lovely!
So in the second round of secret balloting, I decided to switch to Defenders of the Realm because I thought it's what Larry really wanted. Our son stayed with Defenders. Unbeknownst to us, our daughter switched to Pickomino, while Larry, feeling sorry for her, switched to Chicken Cha Cha Cha.
As Jeff Probst does on Survivor, we tallied the votes.....The son was happy because Defenders of the Realm got two votes. The daughter cried and cried, with deep racking sobs that no one ever wants to play her game. Larry asked her why she switched, which resulted in even more tears. I sense a round of chicken cha cha cha in our near future.
So much for brilliant ideas.
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Melissa Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
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I thought I would take the time tonight to pay tribute to one of my favorite games, Lost Cities. Back in the early 2000’s, it was one of our strong go-to games.
I was not much of a gamer growing up. My family played the occasional luck games: Sorry, Trouble, Monopoly, and even Life. My grandfather loved checkers, and although I played chess, I was never that good at it. Little did I know that my path would later cross with Larry, who I consider the ultimate gaming enthusiast. We were married in April of 1999, the same year that Lost Cities was published.
Lost Cities is one of the first Euro-games that we had where the box, the cards, and all of the materials were in English. Many of our early games were in German and we only had black and white copies of the rules pulled from the internet. I don’t remember all the games that we got early, but for a non-gamer, they were long and complex. Tigris and Euphrates stands out as an example. Lost Cities, in contrast, impressed me with its speed of play and its simplicity. Because it was in a small box, we could easily pack it for trips to the beach.
Flash forward to 2011. We are playing more complex games, and even our kids are budding young gamers. We’ve certainly bought more games since then, and Lost Cities has to compete with many other games for our attention. But quick and simple games still have their place, and after a few years of neglecting Lost Cities, we have already played it twice this year.
I believe Lost Cities is a great game to share with non-gamers. Who knows? Like Larry, you might find another convert. Just remember these three rules:
1) Finish what you start.
2) Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith, and
3) Low risk gives you low rewards, and high risk can cost you everything.
Now, let's start some expeditions!Lost Cities
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