Elwyn Darden
United States
Richmond
Virginia
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One result of playing your college buddies for years after graduation is that everyone develops predictable tendencies. One fellow in our group was so famous for his volcanic rages when he got stabbed (not that he was shy about stabbing others) that it became an essential part of my strategy whenever he played. Someone was going to stab him sooner or later, if only for the reaction.
I made it my business to be nearby when it happened, whatever awkward strategic posture it may have demanded. Once I reached the conclusion that someone was likely to stab Jim in the next turn or two, I would then decide whether I wanted: 1) to provoke Jim to an monomaniacal crusade of revenge over the slight and grab his undefended territories, or 2) to deliver a stab simultaneous with the stab I saw coming because whenever Jim got stabbed from more than one direction he was certain to go into civil disorder and leave the game.
The second option was the higher form of art.
If there was absolutely no way I could take advantage of the explosion, I would just get a fresh Coke before the orders were read and sit back and enjoy the show.
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Carlos Ocaña Salceda
Spain
Madrid
Madrid
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So, you may think Twilight Imperium is not precisely one of those games that have something to enrage people but you are wrong: just play with the appropriate kind of gamer.
A friend of mine is the whiner kind of player, specially when it comes down to his luck with dice (which, as far as I know is no worse than anybody else's). However the incident at hand was very different. We were five people including myself, we had chosen secret objectives (we take two and keep one) and all and I had selected one of those about taking over somebody else's homesystem.
That day I had had too much caffeine so my patience was as thin as it gets but this friend of mine complained all the time about why I was raising an army by our common border and why I always chose to attack him and yadda yadda. You get the idea. Truth is by luck or randomness most times we have played he's ended being one of my neighbours and, obviously, one of the targets for expansion or to cripple his forces but he takes it on a personal level. However, I got so fed up with that game that when we finished I took my secret objective card and I yelled at him till I got sore throat "Look! This was my f@$%&ng secret objective, as@#$%&! It's nothing personal, it's a game!". I think my head was twisting all the time and I made the promise of not playing again with him as a neighboring empire and I have the intention to keep it until I die.
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Jim
United States
Oshkosh
Wisconsin
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I'm embarrassed to say I flipped out so bad our gaming group even has a rule named after the incident.
This happened about 1997 during a Battletech game. I was home on break from graduate school and I guess I was pretty stressed out. We were playing a simple team battle and my rolls were just horrible (see my comment on Axis and Allies in this very list where my rolls were awesome). We all used our own dice, as most gamers do.
No matter what I did, the dice would stab me in the face. I could line up a perfect back shot and roll snake eyes. Or my autocannon would jam. Or I'd end up with only a few missiles from an LRM-20 hitting. Things were just going bad for me. Gotta roll for shutdown? Oooooo, too bad! Everyone else was having decent enough rolls - statistics would probably show that their dice were returning a proper bell curve.
Finally having had enough, I picked up my dice after another terrible roll and threw them across the room like a major league pitcher throwing a fast ball. They bounced off the stairs and ricocheted around the room, causing the other players to duck as a few dice returned to us. "We should all use the same dice!" I fumed. Everyone sort of sat there and looked at one another and I realized just how childish I had just been (I was in my mid-20s). I quickly apologized and set off looking for my dice. One ended up being lost.
Everyone else starting make light of my outburst. A missed roll was met with a mock throw of the dice across the room, out the window, out the door, at the game, whatever. It actually became quite comical.
In future games, however, we did use one set of dice and pass them from player to player. This became known as "The Jim Rule." The Jim Rule has passed away, though. We are all much more mellow now and bad rolls are just met with a heavy sigh and a roll of the eyes.
Ahh, good times.
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Yeah the contest is over, but this story belongs here.
So we're playing Heroscape in my friends shed (We'll call him Ben). Ben has a friend call Sam who is primarily a PC gamer. Ben, myself and a mutual friend casually played the heroscape base kit every other week as a fun way to kill an hour or 2 in between drinks & laughs.
Sam was introduced into our weekly Heroscape bash against his own wishes- he basically had to join in because we were all playing it & he had nothing else to do. Sam was reluctant to play but assurances by Ben & myself that "its just a game" & "you'll have fun" got him into choosing an army (300 point base set) & playing the game.
Now, this guy knew how to play games. Heroscape is nowhere near brain surgery, but he insisted on being the fool when it came to playing his turn properly. He would make bum moves & degrade the game, calling it childish & beyond understanding based on strategic merit- but we persisted through round after round trying to make the best of the situation.
But then, on a turn no different to any other this game, I snapped. I called him a child for not understanding the rules (pointing out the age recommendation on the box) & told him if he wasn't going to play properly that he shouldn't play at all etc etc. He said he didn't want to play in the first place. So, dramatically, I removed his pieces from the board while the table lay silent. Let me tell you, Awkward with a capital Kward.
Nobody said anything for what felt like minutes as we stared at the board. I blare "if we're not going to play, I'm packing this shit up".
Nobody protested. We haven't Heroscaped since.
The bright side is: Sam & I have reconciled our differences & despite such, have gained much common ground. He is a gamer & myself being the same, we have much to talk about. The awkward situation was diffused at a separate party & I appreciate the friendship I have found in him.
If only the bugger would like Heroscape.
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Mac Mcleod
United States
houston
Texas
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We started playing Civilization and at around two hours we noticed that no one had ever played "Piracy" yet. Someone asked if anyone had it in their hand and everyone replied "No" and we figured it had been lost.
About 3 hours into the game, with the end game coming up, one of the traders was given "Piracy" in a move that completely devastated his position and removed his ability to win.
The person who had the card said, "Hey, it wasn't a fair question to ask who had piracy".
The victim, said... "There is no piracy card. It was not in the game" and then proceeded to take the card, tear it into 16 tiny pieces (rip, double over, rip, rip, ...) and then walked out the door, not to be seen again for about seven years.
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Christine Doiron
United States
Juneau
Alaska
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I had a friend in college (a white guy) who would only date Asian women. He thought that if he could find an Asian woman to eventually marry him, she would cook and clean and generally take care of him and he wouldn't have to do much of anything else for the rest of his life. Anyway, he ended up dating this beautiful Filipino girl - who eventually wised up and dumped him.
But, a little before she dumped him, we were playing Pictionary one night very late. And, the two of them were partners. He's trying to draw "Bread and Butter" and he's done a pretty darn good job of it. But she keeps guessing "Bread and Cheese." He got so frustrated and angry with her that I almost thought he was going to hit her. He was like "You're an American now, you ought to know about bread and butter!"
Not really a funny story, I guess, but it sticks with me.
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Kevin Devine
United States
Silver Lake
Ohio
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This is a friend's story and I hope I get the gist of it.
Eight players at Origins playing a game of Mystic War. Essentially, you need to get enough resources to make your goal. When a player reaches the goal, there is still another round played to see if anyone else can reach the goal with a higher point total. (If I remember correctly, you needed 60 total resources of differing types based on your goal card).
One player was described as a "D", we'll call him Richard. So, Richard is playing and pissing everyone off by bragging about how he is going to win and getting a lot of dragon cards (these destroy opponent's resources). In the end, he is going to win, he has gotten his goal and the only other person who is close is Jim.
My friend, Jeremy, plays a card on Jim's resources to raise one of his stats so he'll have more than Richard. At this point, Richard goes ballistic. "You can't do that! You can't give resources to other players! You are cheating! You just are upset I was going to win! That is against the rules!"
Fortunately, Richard did not attack Jeremy, because Jim brought everyone down with the simple retort... "It is legal and in the rules. I wrote them." I thank Jim Hlavaty for this great story. Jeremy had never seen a player put in their place so well before...
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Carter
United States
Wisconsin
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What? No Talisman on this list?!
I've got many tales that belong here from my childhood, with 2nd edition. But, I think it worth mentioning what happened more recently:
A friend of mine made a 4 hour drive to town for visiting, and more importantly, to get in a few games of Taliman with the new edition. The game went as usual. By fate my friend became far more powerful than the rest of us, so he journeyed through the mines, sacrificed three followers to the vampires, and progressed to the pits, seeking the Crown.
What he did not suspect was that I had been biding my time, holding onto the Acquisition spell, and he had but one Talisman amongst his myriad possessions. On my turn, I acquired the Talisman, rendering him stranded in the Pits, unable to enter the Valley of Fire. I chuckled a bit, and started to go through my routine of "..oh, I bet you didn't expect that coming...", until I realized that he was just staring down at the board with a frown. Silence. More Silence. Turns continued, and he headed grudgingly back to the Pits, which he easily bested.
At this time I noted that, since he'd sacrificed his followers to the Vampires, and had just 3 lives remaining, he may actually die upon return to the Vampires (and when someone is in the inner region, death is permanent). In fact this is precisely what happened when he rolled a 5. There was no outburst or other craziness worthy of this list, but he just gave me a thousand mile stare; it lasted literally for over a minute. The game ended an hour or so later without drama.
This friend of mine, well we've been playing Talisman since we were in grade school. Often multiple times per day. Hundreds of games, if not thousands! Never had someone used this tactic, and it was just so painful. While it did not result in any black eyes or broken windows, the long silence and stare remain etched in memory. Fortunately, such a silly thing cannot break lasting friendships 
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Krzysztof Zięba
Poland
Kraków
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I'm from Poland, but I have cousins in the Republic of South Africa. One of them, Luke, came over for Christmas with my uncle (who is from Poland). For my present, he bought me Neuroshima HEX - a game I wouldn't buy for myself, but I was pretty happy with it at the time. So we played a couple of games. He, being new to board games, was making some mistakes - stupid unit placing etc. So I did tell him from time to time: "Dude, this isn't exactly the right spot." or "Are you sure you want to put it here?". I do that, and he totally looses it. He storms out of my room, down the stairs and then screams downstairs, where my whole family was sitting, saying some nasty things about me (don't exactly know what) to my parents, who don't speak English. He finally gets calmed down by my uncle, but he didn't speak to me for the next two or three days. We did talk a bit after that, but it was obvious he was still crossed for some reason. He didn't apologise.
The funny thing is, he was about 21 or 22 at the time I believe. A grown man going to his dad to tell on me? Come on...
At any rate, a simple "Dude, shut the hell up, I want to play my own game." would suffice...
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Stefan
Canada
Surrey
British Columbia
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So, I've got a fairly green group of gamers together in my most excellent group of friends. Granted, most of them have played games in the past (Chess, Risk, Moonploy... you know, the "Classics") but every time I bring out a "new" game it's like the second coming or something ("My God, where'd you find this game?"... "This is so unique"... "How do you keep finding these things?"...).
Anyways, I decided a few months ago to teach the games Citadels, thinking that it'll be a major step up from Ticket to Ride and the other games I've introduced them to over a period of a few months. Our first game was a four player affair: Dave, Andrew, Dave's French Girlfriend (this is what I call her and neglect her name at every occasion) and myself. This first game goes surprisingly smoothly. They catch on quickly to it's "unique" mechanics and all goes well. I win, but barely as The French Girlfriend is extremely intelligent and learns quickly that it's all about not telegraphing your character choice.
A few weeks later my most excellent friend Sean finally is able to join the group for a gaming night. His job has kept him away from the table for a while so it's going to be a fun night. Sean is the resident big buffoon who just makes any gathering of the group pure magic when it comes to laughter and having a good time. We're often poking fun at him and his secret mutant power is that he gets better at a game the more drunk he gets. This guy is lethal in a game of poker if the booze is freely flowing.
So we're only about 3 turns into a game of Citadels. Andrew has just announced that he's discovered some sort of dynamite strategy as he smirks and passes the deck to Sean. Now, Sean's a bright guy who as I said just gets better with booze. He looks over his available options (being the second player in this particular round) and after studying what he's got he blearily looks up from his concentrated study and says "Hey Andrew, why'd you take the Magician?" Well, Andrew just looks up from his smirk-filled revelry at what he perceives is a imminently brilliant round and his face turns white: first with that look of bretrayal and then it slowly turns into white hot rage. "You bastard, my plan was flawless. I was going to mop the table with you guys. Sean, you're such a prick". Andrew stomps off and proceeds to turn on the Grammy's of all things.
Now, you've got to remember that this is Sean's first play at the game. He's a bit drunk and getting more brilliant by the moment. Me and Dave just look at each other with that "what the f--- just happened?" look. Play proceeds, and Andrew never joins us for the rest of the night, preferring to watch the Grammy's instead.
Our subsequent games nights always now must include a reference to that night in some way, much to the glee of Sean and the shameful consternation of Andrew.
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Genghis Ahn
United States
San Clemente
California
Sometimes You Are Wrong !
Coolest Promo Ever ! Stonewall Lives
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Andy and TNW: A tale of Two Cities
Well every once in awhile we convince my friend Andy to play his least favorite game: TNW. We have so many stories to choose from but I will list our group's two favorites.....
Exhibit One
Andy is playing Britian and even though he is totally dominating the seas he just cannot stand leaving two French fleets blockaded in Brest. So he decides on a "cutting out" mission to rid the seas of the French scourge for all time, even chuckling at time about the prospect of putting a beat down on the frogs. Well SEVEN fleets go in and you guessed it not one returned. Adding insult to injury not a single French fleet was destroyed. Even then I think it would have been OK if the French player had not started laughing uncontrolably. Andy muttered something unrecognizable and stormed out of the FLGS peeling his Mustang out of the parking lot.
Exhibit two
Happened a year or so later after much convincing on our part for Andy to play TNW once again. This time Andy was the French player and Nappy decided to assault the British in Gibraltar. Well Nappy got spanked when the British player rolled four sixes not ONCE but TWICE!!! The whole table burst out laughing after each roll. (We have a morbid sense of humor!) This lead to parking lot peel out number two.
Andy is a good sport and we have since played several times with no incidents. 
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Lester Klew
United States
Norwich
Connecticut
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This one time when I was nine I was playing against my cousin, who was twelve. We flipped a coin to see who went first and I won. I thought about it and thought about it, and just couldn't come up with a good strategy so entirely on a whim I put an O in the middle box. My cousin looked at me and said, "You have to put an X. I'm the O." I said I went first so I got to decide. My cousin kept insisting that I had to be X. and absolutely refused to put an X on the board. Finally I told my cousin to put whatever onto the board. Bang, there's another O. I put the third O down and win without a single X on the board. My cousin calls me a cheater and punches me in the arm. We then proceed to have a knock down drag out fight through the whole house which only ends when I smash a jelly donut into my cousin's hair, which sent my cousin off crying to mommy.
To this day, when I see my cousin at family parties, she still won't speak to me.
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James Goodfriend
Berwyn
Illinois
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I wish I'd seen this contest when it was going on, because I'm sure this story would have won it. If i can get it across right. This is the greatest flip-out I've seen in any context. I'm not going to mask the names or specifics, because, well, screw this guy.
This was about 1995 in Ames, Iowa. I was a typical puffy uber-nerdy game geek there. I was getting a ride home from John. The other passenger in the car was Mike, who was college aged. He eventually went on to run a game store in Des Moines. I don't remember their last names or anything. Haven't had contact with them in many years.
John was older, and was a super-nice super soft-spoken guy. He weighed at least 300 lb and his politics and religion were anathema to me, but really we got along great. I swear, I never saw anything like what happened that night coming. If you'd asked me I would have told you beforehand he was well-balanced and wouldn't hurt a fly.
Mike and I were in the back and we were all coming back from an out of town session of some game...I really don't remember, but it could well have been Magic. We'd just dropped someone else off, I think, and John started extolling a character he was role-playing in GURPS.
Now with us all being puffy white dudes in our 20's, our standard way of interacting with each other was to endlessly mock each other. You know how this goes. Everything was in-jokes and snarkiness. So the way this conversation went was in no way unusual. If John was going to go off on a classic "My character is so awesome" thing, Mike and I were sure going to make fun of it. The following conversation is from my best memory of the gist of what happened next
John: So my totally awesome fighter guy has this awesome goblin sword, and he's entering the dungeon, etc...
Me: So this is a sword made of goblins?
John: No, shut up, it's a magic sword, and he's killing so and so with it and-
Mike: [funny voice] Did you gather all the goblins yourself? For the sword?
John: Shut up, I'm telling a story. We're in the dungeon and
Me: Because I would think the goblins would object, you know. [Ha, ha]
This went on for a bit. As I say, we had dropped someone off. We were in one of those dirt road trailer parks all over little midwest towns.
Suddenly, John floored the gas. I want to say now, it gets my adrenaline pumping in fear even remembering this moment, 15 years later. When I say he floored it, I do not mean he just accelerated recklessly. I mean, his foot was all the way down. We were zero to 60 in the middle of this narrow road. Ramming speed right at an oncoming car...which we somehow missed...John swerved, and we were out on the main road. At top speed.
I was screaming. And screaming.
At the top of a hill, through a red, John turned and hit the Lincoln Highway. You know, Route 66? Runs right through Ames. But for those not in the know, even though I say "highway" this is just the main strip in town, with lots of traffic, buildings and houses right next.
We were hitting it at maybe 80 miles an hour, and up. I really really thought I was going to die. No hyperbole here. My hands are shaking as I type this 15 years later, thinking about it. We flew at the top speed his car could do through light after light, each one a death sentence, each one we somehow narrowly escaped.
As my brain came down from red alert I realized this was this guy's suicide moment and he'd decided to take us with him. This is NOT the type of story where you exaggerate it a little after the fact. This is the type of story where I wonder now how we managed to avoid being maimed for life.
After about 3-4 miles he let up, going from trying-to-die speed to reckless endangerment speed. I actually let him drive me the rest of the way home. What else is one to do in such a situation? It was so unbelievable.
No words were spoken. I tumbled out of the car at my home. I remember just sort of standing there, shaken. I remember being shocked Mike didn't get out of the car. An hour later I called him and he told me John had calmed down and driven him home relatively reasonably, with no words spoken.
A couple weeks later I ran into John at the game store. He was extremely apologetic. Very sorry, no excuse, etc. I bitched him out, told him there was no excuse, he ought to be jailed, and to stay the F away from me.
End of story. No consequences for anyone involved, I guess. Weirdly now that I think about it I don't think I told anybody this story at the time, nor did Mike and I ever discuss it. It was so crazy an experience that I think it's like spotting a UFO. It was so intense and bizarre that I guess I didn't think people would believe me, or understand how truly terrifying it really was. "Hey, you know John? He tried to kill me the other night." "Yeah, cars are funny. You want to catch a movie?" See?
I should have died that night because this nutjob had locus of control issues. Eh.
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Chris Buhl
United States
Pittsfield
Massachusetts
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Well, it wasn't this version of D&D, it was the old blue box, but here's my story of me flipping out. Our cousins from Minneapolis came east to visit, and brought this game. I was instantly in love (to this day, I love no game more than D&D). In our first game, my brave first level fighter decided to gain some XP by vanquishing a ferocious badger. Without going into gory detail, my brave fighter was killed by the badger. Brutal. So, as any good young teenager does, I flipped out. I swore at my cousins and brother and kicked them out of my bedroom. They offered to let me be alive again, but I was too heated, so I kicked 'em out. Thank goodness I didn't give up on the game.
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Kendra Scott
United States
East Syracuse
New York
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Five of us were playing one night and came to the "Haunt" part of the game. The heroes (four of us), split into two groups with different objectives, but before splitting up some item-swapping occurred so that neither two-person team would be an easy kill for the traitor. My friend and I headed upstairs with the revolver while the other two headed to the basement. The traitor quickly gained the mystic elevator and began to go after the other team, continually weakening the strongest of them to the point that he was almost dead. He began making comments about the two of us upstairs being "selfish b**)&es" (because he originally had the revolver), culminating in a confrontation between him and his fiance where he said "You know in every horror movie how there's some annoying b*^(h who can't keep her mouth shut? That's you!" This led to the immediate ending of the game, an hour of crying and a near cancellation of the wedding.
Suffice to say, they are never playing Betrayal again!
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So I'm at the National Settlers of Catan tournament. It's a two day tournament and I end day one 5th bottom on the ladder. My mate is currently ranked number 1 so I decide to hang around the tournament area all day two even though I've only got one more game to play and it's virtually impossible for me to reach the semi-finals.
After somehow beating the opponents in my final game in around 15 minutes and with the nearest rival on 5VPs, I think I've had my highlight of the tournament and am eager to wait how much that helps me on the final rankings... little did I know  .
The final results are put up and I find it absolutely hillarious that I end up at Rank 17, coming from the bottom to just missing out on the semi-finals. I turn up to the semi-final round two hours later to support my friend who is still ranked number 1. His semi-final match started but I really needed the toilet so thought I'd duck out as I'm not too phased missing the initial placement phase.
I just happen to walk past the tournament officials as one was saying "One of the semi-finalists hasn't turned up, we can't do a semi-final with less than 4 players, this hasn't happened before, what do we do?" The other replied, "Hmmm, who was ranked 17th?". Without a moment of hesitation I declare I was and offer to take his spot. They were a little hesitant at first and said they would give him 20 minutes to arrive before they would put me in the semis.
15 minutes to go, the tournament official has me in one ear going "Can I play yet? Can I play yet?". 10 minutes left and one has a bright idea to find his phone number on the registration forms and I'm thinking, this isn't good... Luckily for me, he only registered on the day (after apparently being told by the officials many times to pre-register - lesson for you kids!), which meant they didn't have any of his contact details and they couldn't contact him. 5 minutes left and two of the officials start running around the convention looking for him. His time is up and they give me a seat at the semi-finals... wahoo for me!
We are about 5 minutes into the game and guess who decides to turn up! He starts arguing with the tournament officials saying he was told the start time was half an hour later and demanding that I should give up my spot and the semi-final should be replayed. They keep saying, they gave him 20 minutes, everyone else turned up on time and someone in the game has already scored their 3rd victory point so the game is well in progress, so they can't let him play.
The guy just angrily stands by our table watching on in rage. When suddenly he decides to clear out the table (in a boss is about to have passionate sex with the secretary, so let's knock all the papers and stationary off the desk and let them go flying across the room sort of a way... but way more aggressive than passionate). All the hexes and pieces go flying across the tournament floor. One of the semi-finalists stands up and starts to pick a fight with him, security get called, people are yelling everywhere and I'm quietly sitting on my seat just thinking I was happy to be in the semis! 
Security drag him out of the tournament arena and that's the last we hear from him. We spend a lot of time trying to find all our pieces and luckily in the semis all tables are exactly the same so we manage to get the game back in gear.
Who would've thought security would be called over a game of Settlers...
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Michael Erb
United States
Parkersburg
West Virginia
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Sorry I didn't get in on this story-fest earlier, but here is one that happened to me.
A bunch of us in high school were playing Magic at the home of these twin guys I was buddies with. The twins were identical, but in personality were very different. One was very intense, very aggressive and had a hell of a temper. The other one was a bit understated and tended to be in his brother's shadow, but was very passive-aggressive: if he thought you couldn't get you back, he was ruthless.
During one game the aggressive brother is getting trounced. Everyone at the table thinks he is the threat, so we're all taking shots at him and it is wearing him down. So his brother, the passive-aggressive one, starts teasing him, showing him cards in his hand, saying "how are you gonna defend against this one? Oh, I don't think you will..." and singing "You-ou are gonna lo-ose.." Real toddler stuff. We keep warning him to cut it out, seeing the first twin was getting red in the face and that vein in his head was starting to throb.
So the passive-aggressive brother, he plays a couple of cards, takes a big chunk of his twin's life points, and then makes some smart ass statement. Suddenly the agressive twin, without looking, punches his brother in the side, knocking the guy off his chair. We all went into shock, you could hear the hit, and literaly the passive-aggressive brother hits the floor and is under the table, coughing and trying to breath, his twin never looking up from his cards.
The worst part? The guy on the ground catches his breath enough to gasp out "I win!" And then his brother dropped his cards, stood up and started stomping him.
Everyone dropped their cards and we bulldogged the guy, pulling him away from his brother who was still whispering "I win... I win..."
I never played Magic with them again.
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John Bell
Canada
Gatineau
Quebec
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Oh wait. I thought it was "Games Where Some Guy Just Totally Flipped It Out". Never mind...
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Keith Jones
Scotland
Kilmacolm
Inverclyde
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When my kids were younger (10, 12 and 14) we used to always try and play a game together on a Sunday afternoon. On one particular occasion it was "Chinatown" and they all grasped the rules and idea of the game very quickly. As it progressed my younger daughter (Lauren) picked up a location which my son (Alex) wanted but she refused to trade with him. I thought that she was holding out for the best deal she could get but we reached the last round and by now Alex was offering her everything he owned for the location which would mean that Lauren would be almost certain to win and yet she still refused. I explained to her precisely what she was being offered and asked why she wouldn't trade with him to be told "he ate the last of the ice cream yesterday and I didn't get any". Needless to say Alex threw down his cards and swept the counters off the board and ran to his room. I explained to Lauren what she'd done wrong and, sadly, this marked the start of the end of our Sunday game sessions as from this point on they turned into bitter rivalry between the two youngest children
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Seth Dwyer-Frazier
United States
Rhode Island
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So I don't really like to lose any game, but there's only two games in my life that have reduced me to a raging psychopath, Parcheesi and Blood Bowl...
So in college we had a Blood Bowl league every year, and as the playoffs approached I was in a bit of a slump. Most of my friends had come to expect a certain level of tantrum from me in games when a foul killed my players or I fumbled picking up the ball. In particular dice were thrown if they rolled bad numbers (cleaning up the office at the end of the year always discovered a few dice thrown by one player or another that had been lost).
The room we played in was in the basement of the Student Union, and was a 10' by 10' room made of concrete blocks. The table was positioned directly in the center of the room. Rob (my opponent) was a good sport about my flipping out most of the game (and I generally tried to apologize for my atrocious behavior, when I had calmed down).
Late in the second half I failed yet another roll, this one a necessary one for winning the game. I hurled the offending die across the room from me. It hit the wall behind Rob bounced off and came back hitting Rob in the back of the head (impressive both for the distance traveled and the apparent accuracy). I, like the other witnesses in the room, was absolutely shocked and I immediately apologized (one of the reasons for the thrown dice was to try and limit my other tantrums).
That weekend the story spread. Before long everyone in the club knew I had hit Rob in the head with a die (the phrasing here is important). What they didn't know was that Rob had gone to play paintball that weekend. On Monday our friends were hanging out in the club and Rob walked in with a large circular bruise (paintball sized if you will) in the center of his forehead. They immediatly jumped to the conclusion that this had come from the die, and Rob being quick on his feet immediately agreed.
So while I became known for a wide range of tantrums at Blood Bowl, no story was more famous amongst my friends than the tantrum that "seriously injured" a friend...
It's been years and I still haven't quite lived it down.
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Scott Everts
United States
Foothill Ranch
California
MITCHELL!!!
Push the button, Frank!
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Years ago at a game con in Los Angeles a friend of mine pulled this out to play. We had one spare spot so this guy shows up and asks to play. We agree.
When he sits down my friend tries to explain the game to those of us that never played before. This new guy starts to act strange, he won't pay attention, he interupts, he complains its taking too long, etc. This is a coop game so during the game we all discuss our moves to take the best advantage. This guy won't listen, he won't take suggestions or even help the team. He gets angry and starts shouting. We explain calmly its a coop game and we are working together but he won't listen. Since he didn't listen to any of the rules he makes simple mistakes and gets angry when we try to correct him.
As I remember, he finally stormed out when his character died. I've never met a person like that before and hope to never play with someone like that again.
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Dave Robinson
United States
Massachusetts
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I never liked this game very much to begin with, but after this event, it has rarely hit the table. I had invited a bunch of couples up to my family's lake house for a long weekend. We brought a bunch of games with us, and at that moment in history, most of our games were easy party games. One evening, we decided to play Cranium, which was a fairly new addition to the collection.
We split up into teams, and it became apparent fairly quickly which of us were the ones playing to win. The folks who were sort of along for the ride just sat back and let the competitive ones duke it out. But then, someone moved their piece to the center ring and all hell broke loose. The game lurched to a halt as two of my friends got into a shouting match about the interpretation of the movement rules, and whether or not they made any sense. As the fighting continued, people left the table, until it was only the two of them. I have no idea how they left it, but suffice it to say that we tried not to game with either of them ever again.
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Dave Robinson
United States
Massachusetts
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My girlfriend (now wife) lived off campus my sophomore year of college with some of her friends. Since they were her friends, they were also mine, and I spent a lot of time there. I don't remember playing many games there, maybe because this memory of gaming obscures any others.
So, it's four of us playing: me, my girlfriend, her female friend, and her male friend. Everything is going fine, and we're having fun. Someone rolls and "E" and when we read the answer for "Things that foam", the female friend proudly answers, "Elephant!"
Needless to say, we all laugh and say, "Huh?"
She's a pretty lateral thinker, always has been, and explains that if the elephant were soapy, it would foam. None of us buy this. It is the SOAP that foams, we argue, not the elephant. The elephant is merely FOAMY. She pleads her case, going into exquisite, though ultimately useless detail about the nature of this elephant bath. We take a vote. She loses. And continues to argue. We tell her to move on. She claims that we are trying to stifle creative thinking, and that she can't play a game where she can't be creative, and storms upstairs to her room crying.
For the record, she's right: I hate when people get too creative with their answers. And to this day, I can't hear the word "foam" without thinking about this incident.
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Andrea Angiolino
Italy
Rome
European Union
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It was back in june 1981. I was 15 years old and with two firiends, a couple of years older than me, we formed the "Little Wars" wargame team in Rome and we went to a tournament. We played Sniper!, Starship Troopers, Wooden Ships & Iron Men and Anzio in the different turns of the tournament. We chatted with the umpires, older guys who soon would release some boardgames with a big Italian publisher: they boasted that they played real simulations, not that lousy gamettes they were forced to use for the tournament for timing reasons, and we answered that we also played tougher stuff. But in the long Avalon Hill Vs. S.P.I. fan confrontation we were all on the same side - pro SPI. After a while, a gauntlet was trown: We accepted and Gregory proposed "Campaign for North Africa". They said OK.
I don't know if you know it, but it's been quite daring by Greg. The game has quite a huge map, 1200 counters with an individual accounting of men and veichles on paperwork, 58 chapters of rules. It is supposed to last 1200 hours if you play in 10. Not the largest ever, not the richest of components, not the longest rules... But the most complex boardgame ever for sure, because of the mix.
We agreed on the "quick" El Alamein - The Last Chance Scenario (one phase, out of the 100 turns of 3 phases each), 3 against 3 people, at the flat of one of the umpires. We spent a day studying the rules, that we did not know at all. In that saturday afternoon, we reached this huge flat in a quiet middle class quarter at 3 pm. We were showed a monster game of Wellington's Victory: Battle of Waterloo going on in another room, full of other games on the shelves: a tour of the house set just to impress us.
We were the Axis, with the "quite unlikely" (as the rulebook said) goal to enter with at least one unit in Alexandria, so we started to attack. All the battle went on cruelly for hours. The Allied threw every reserve to the front to stop our advance. It was a breathtaking clash of armies.
We were used to play WRG Ancient rules for miniature wargaming, using cheap Atlantic plastic Egyptians against luxury lead armies of expert (and richer) guys. So we were used to send some light chariots on the flanks to try to overtake the enemy from the side or the back. We tried there too. No way to do it North of the Via Balbia because of the Mediterranean Sea. So, in a far corner of the south part of the front, just to see what it could happen, we sent some Italian light Fiat L3 tanks (a two-seats, very small, very underarmored and underarmed tank called "pilchard tin" or worse by the crews) into the dreaded El Qattara depression. The Allied team started to laugh, not even caring to send somebody to stop them, and most of our tanks had mechanical failure and fell apart - their rate of breakdown is normally high, but on such a rough terrain becomes very very high. We just abandoned the wrecks along the way. But some of them survived, finally getting close to the Nile. The enemy was still busy filling every gap in the front and taking every opportunity for bloody counterattacks... a bit more North and East of there.
"You can stop, it is pointless", some of us said. "We won". The roaring laughs of the opponents reached every flat in the building. "No, seriously", we insisted. "See these Italian tanks on the road to Alexandria? They will reach the city next turn. No way to stop them." The laughs freezed. The threat was not even German panzers, just a few lousy (but quick...) Italian tankettes. Then, all of a sudden, one of the almost adult, no more boasting opponents had a nervous breakdown. He became all read in his face. He shouted that it was not possible, that it was incredibe, that it was... Then curses and four letter words followed. His two friends took it one per side and tried to calm him, while we shyly saluted and went silently down the stairs of the building...
Sorry for him, but even after nearly 30 years it's still one of my best memories in my wargamer career.
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BoB Teijema
Netherlands
Utrecht
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About 20 years ago we (myself and 4 friends) went on a weekend trip to an island. During the day we were outdoors to enjoy nature. During the evenings we planned to play some games.
Right the first evening we started the first game. We brought along some nice games, but one of the friends (a gorgeous looking blond girl) did not want to play any of the "real" games, but insisted on playing a game of "Mens erger je niet", some silly Pachisi-variant. We tried to talk her into a game of Acquire, but she was really just willing to play 'Mens erger je niet'.
The others, just wanting to play games, eventually (after 15 minutes) gave in. After deciding that we were going to play 'Mens erger je niet' we straight went into the next discussion: The same girl was insisting to play with red. The only problem: Someone else already captured the red pawns. After another discussion of a quarter of an hour that person gave in again and the blond girl played with red.
Of course now it was time for the next discussion. The blond girl insisted on being the starting player. This discussion was relatively short (the others loosing their interest already) So after five more minutes she started the game by rolling a '3'. She picked up her first pawn and moved three steps. Following the rules of 'mens erger je niet' however, one first has to roll a '6' to move one of your pawns to the starting position. So we told her to take back her pawn. She didn't want to do that and first wanted to check the rules whether we were right on the first-rolling-6-issue. She checked and we were right. (10 more minutes gone)
And then to our extreme surprise she insisted on re-rolling the die, because she "did not know she had to throw a '6' at the moment of throwing the first time."
All other contestants looked at each other, nodded and took the pawns, the dice and the game board, put it back into the box and went to the fridge for a drink.
In total the "game" took us three quarters of an hour and ended without one legal move having been played. And yes, of course, needless to say, the game ended in tears for the initiator of all discussions
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reward for the most entertaining episode. No made up stories though. I will be checking references...
Posted Fri Jul 13, 2007 3:07 pm
