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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
UnspecifiedWelcome...to my Shed! -
Opening a Museum has been like opening a treasure chest: it's becoming less about emptying a house that's too full of games and more of opening the door to other people's lives. Marked-up/personalised copies of family favourites (score pads, house rules and strategy pages included), donations from generous locals, bequests from recently-departed pals and - now - the donation of a Grandfather's game designing legacy. His granddaughter, Eileen, messaged me via the Museum's Facebook page:Quote:I have been clearing my attic and I have a suitcase with 13 tubes with board game plans (on paper/card with instructions) all invented by my grandad in the 1920s until 1950s. My understanding is that he sent these to Waddingtons over the years but never got commissioned. There are titles such as Prime Minister, Shopkeepers, Cricket, Racing, Athletics, Pools and several others. I wonder if yourselves at the museum would be interested in seeing these and giving them a home?This is the result - freshly-couriered from one end of the country to the other:
And here is the gentlemen in question:
Once I've sorted out how best to store and display these gems, I'll blog about them in more detail: in the meantime, I've got some wonderful hours ahead of unrolling and admiring this rare catalogue!Quote:Aside: please consider becoming a Patron via https://www.patreon.com/themuseumofboardgames
Everyone Needs A Shed
Life and Games (but mostly games) from Tony Boydell: Father, Grandfather, Husband and Independent UK Game Designer.
Archive for Tony Boydell
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
UnspecifiedWelcome...to my Shed! -
I was made an offer I couldn't refuse when gaming pal Giles sent me a preview list of a recently-acquired game collection. A first 'skim' alerted me to a number of desirable bits to add to the Museum's exhibitry which I sent back tagged as 'Interested'. There followed a further 'special stuff' menu...
...which had me pulling out the abacus and doing the finance sums: they weren't cheap but, for the Museum, they were an unmissable opportunity:
Giles was generous enough to apply a 'donation' discount to the whole consignment and the deal was done. The main problem I now have is one of display space: does anyone have any IKEA glass cabinets they'd be willing to donate? RADSTA are best...
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
UnspecifiedWelcome...to my Shed! -
Feeling the nerves numbing in my backside, it was imperative that I get out for a bit and get the blood flowing into my legs: the middle-of-the-night terrors get you sometimes and, recently, being tied to a wing back armchair for 8 hours a day has brought flashed 2AM images of Deep Vein Thrombosis while arguing the toss over ServiceBus availability %-ages! So, with a firm - but gentle - slam of the laptop to 'Closed', off we trekked into the heat-haze of a Wednesday PM:
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The 'Works' site for the Newent station / canal restoration has upped-sticks and disappeared, leaving behind an old railway bridge; all the metal fencing - and the Portakabin - disappeared.
A short burst of last-minute messaging alerted me to a couple of new attendees at the Museum this week: Sandra and, eldest lad, Joe. With mutual gamer pals, they're not unfamiliar with the modern oeuvre; Joe is also a keen roleplayer and keen to find a D&D group locally too - fortunately, I already have a couple of peeps on a form of 'waiting list' so a spin-off meetup could be coming soon! For this evening, though, the two tables were fully occupied: Paul, Tom, Dave and Gary spending the whole time putting Viticulture World: Cooperative Expansion through its paces (and having a rollercoaster time of it, from the feedback) while Sandra, Joe, Richard and I whistled through a triple helping of friendly goodness:
Cubist is a straightforward, tactile treat and the perfect way to open a welcome session: roll dice and use the pips to build up 3D shapes to match - and claim - the point-scoring blueprints. No fuss and no frills, Richard looked to have exploited the potentiality of our (figurative) marble blocks the best but I managed a sneaky, last-minute spamming of the central Museum to snatch the win. Everyone announced themselves delighted.
Continuing the 'stacking' them, a conversation around "What games have YOU designed, Tony" led smoothly into my pulling Totemo from my vanity shelf:
This time, Richard was able to assert his authority by averting a three-way tie at the top - sneaking the extra point ahead, he almost punched the air!
To close, now that we'd warmed everyone up properly and safely, I scanned the storage shelf and immediately pulled out Stone Age:
An entirely-suitable and utterly-wonderful entry to the worker placement genre, Stoners was an instant hit with the table: Sandra went heavy tools, Joe hoarding materials in readiness for a huge spurt of hut-building and Richard breeding out his tribe to the max. It was a close-run thing at the finale with me jogging passed Joe and Sandra - despite Sandra's evil* filling of the gold-panning spaces in the penultimate round thus preventing a game-ending build from me and giving them an extra turn each to hoover up more points!
Aa-and as the Sun was finally beginning to set on the dot of 10PM, everyone was finished - including the Endurance Event that was Viticulture World - and we scooted, happily, away into the night.
*Huzzah! Welcome to the Club!
Thu Jun 23, 2022 10:41 am
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
UnspecifiedWelcome...to my Shed! -
Graciously, MrShep sent me a small parcel of 3D-printed bits for my mocked-up copy of Atiwa and they arrived, fortuitously, in time for the Tuesday trip into Gloucester. Reciprocating for my gift of the source art files, we now both have almost-real copies of the 'new Rosenberg' and I cannot stress enough as to how cool I find having early access. Would you be surprised if I told you that Lookout Games have also sent me a sort-of expansion for it too? More on that, perhaps, in a few weeks...
Picking up pal Ian on the way - the first time his shift-working schedule has gifted him a Tuesday evening since early May - the Tuffley club was buzzing like a honeysuckle hedge on a June Sunday. Our table, of four, settled down for some environment-nurturing goodness:
Having the animeeples really added to the atmosphere and, after a quick teach, Jeric and Tom were up-to-speed with us experienced lags (Nick lost out on the tie-break rule last week):
There was a lot of shoving on both the landscape and terrain card actions in particular, as everyone was wise to the need to spread out and grow ones' tableau: good space = good supply flow. Nick pipped me with a little more gold and a few more fruit bats, Tom came in last but with a very respectable score (he kept pushing his timing luck and missed a couple of card builds due to insufficient gold on the second, slightly-more-expensive spots). Jeric, on the other hand, seemed to have settled in to a fine rhythm until the last round when he slaughtered ALL of his fruit bats for feeding! I'm pretty sure Atiwa - with it's integrated mechanisms and laudable theme of environmental awareness, harmony with nature and tree-shitting Chiropterae, needs a Final Scoring rule of automatic disqualification for such a heinous manoeuvre!
I, barely, had time to quell my righteous indignation at Jeric's Extinction Level Event (and to pop Atiwa back in my bag) than Nick had slapped down and unpacked his copy of The Castles of Burgundy:
I haven't played this in an absolute Age - mainly utilising boiteajeux.net to spin simultaneous games (usually against Boffo and Smudge Bateson) - and seeing it out in all its fiddling Glory had me a little excited.
The proper version - I'll not entertain any ideas about that planet-destroying, overproduced and unnecessary Deluxe edition, thanguverrahmush
Despite the usual vagaries of dice-rolling, I fixed into a smooth groove of buildings chaining buildings, boats and goods selling - supplemented by a couple of juicy end-game scoring tiles - to push into the 220s and a convincing victory ahead of Tom, who thought he'd just edged me out. It was a VERY late finish (gone 11PM), middle son was waiting at a nearby garage for a lift home, so I had to grab my stuff and scoot away leaving the others in a busy cloud of clacking table folds and the clang of stacked chairs.
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
UnspecifiedWelcome...to my Shed! -
The best part of being me, by the longest margin, is the privilege of being a Father; the stages of our childrens' lives have offered - and continue to offer - challenges and rewards in a stew of all human emotion. Those five fabulous, joyous, talented, loving and generous individuals are what gives my life meaning; YMM, of course, V.
After the rains of Saturday, Sunday - Fathers' Day - dawned warm and bright and, with it, came roast dinner and presents. It also gave us a chance to try out one of my UKGE bring-and-buy bargains -DropMix:
Arty and I used the pre-built decks that come with the core system - Crown, Controller, Sweets and Axe - for 45 minutes of pumped-thru-the-Bose groovery. I am re-assured (after first exposure at the last Gathering of Chums), by guru of this kind of nonsense Mr Matt Green, that with a) more cards and b) some proper deck-building techniques, there is even more Joy to be wrung from this hidden gem!
During the day, I was also notified of a home-crafted gift inspired by The Museum: Tuffley regular Jack, entirely enamoured of the Museum's older exhibits, took it upon himself to build a version of Tiddly-Golf for his Dad:
The wider World forgotten; a day spent in the company of (almost all of) the best people I have ever known!
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
UnspecifiedWelcome...to my Shed!
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
UnspecifiedWelcome...to my Shed! -
A couple of items arrived while I was at the Museum yesterday - and I’m NOT referring to Swav and Josh! - and they were these:
A selection of donated games including a very nice copy of Sorry from the 1960s and a complete, tidy copy of Masterpiece!
…and the virtually-final version of the Aleph Null box art:
The rain may have poured but it was a bright day to be a Curator!
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
UnspecifiedWelcome...to my Shed!
Sat Jun 18, 2022 6:10 am
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
UnspecifiedWelcome...to my Shed!
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
UnspecifiedWelcome...to my Shed! -
Press <PLAY>:
There is no better time than when the Sun is shining to get out of your lazy bed / work chair and stride out into the wide,bluegreen yonder; this was my long*, Thursday lunchtime:
*two and a half hours: conference calls be damned!
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