I was in my local game/hobby shop with my boys this past week, and I took a few minutes to watch a group of guys playing D&D in the back of the store. This store is set up with half the floor space covered by tables and chairs for all kinds of game play. I’ve seen miniature war games, card games, and board games played there as well as the ocassional role playing game.

This group of guys was playing D&D 4th edition, but really, what I noted about their play has nothing to do with the edition of the game. I’ve seen similar situations in all editions of D&D, and with many other RPGs. There were seven guys at the table — one DM, six Players — and they all looked like normal guys. But two of them . . .

Keep this in mind when playing games in a public place:

Don’t swing an “air sword” at the game table. Even the most normal-looking guy will look like a total dork when he’s swinging his invisible great sword around. Especially don’t make sword-clash sounds with your mouth when you swing. The youngest guy at the table (probably 19) did this, and God bless him, he looked so incredibly stupid doing it.

Don’t say, “huzzah!” and raise your fist like in the air like a superhero even when your character performs a cool stunt. You can say, “Yeah!” and pump your fist; you can do a number of shouts and gestures to get across your excitement. But no normal person says “huzzah!” in public, and no normal person poses with their fist in the air like they were about to fly up. One of the older guys at the table did this, and God bless him, he might as well have screamed, “I’m a dork!”

For full disclosure: I have done both of the above gestures and sounds when playing a game. But, I game in the privacy of a home, not in a public venue, even a game store, where “the norms” can witness my dorkitude.

Remember, when you game in public, you’re representing all gamers. Try not to look like a dork. Please?

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

I mentioned in a previous post that Calfgrit7 is interested in Pokémon card game (mostly just for the cards). We’ve played a few partial games, and I can give a play test report now.

Overall, it’s a fun game. The general concept is that each player is a Pokémon trainer, and they toss out their various Pokémon to fight each other to unconsciousness. Each player has a deck of exactly 60 cards full of Pokémon creatures, energy (to “power” the creatures), and items, trainers, and other accessories to support the creatures. The decks I bought come with cardboard, coin-like counters to keep track of damage to the Pokémon, and special plastic “coins” to flip for heads or tails.

When I played Magic: the Gathering (MtG), the deck boxes you bought for the game came with completely random cards. That was intentional and part of the gimmick of the game — you had to trade and collect to build a deck to play with. But these Pokémon decks I bought come already organized for play. This is a great thing. You can start playing immediately by buying just one deck. The pre-built deck is not great — after only a few games I see how I’d like to improve my deck — but it is functional and full usable.

The instructions are pretty straight forward, but one thing bugged me because I couldn’t figure it out: the prize cards. The only thing the instructions say about the prize cards is that you are supposed to lay out six of them before play starts, and when you knock out an opponents Pokémon, you take a prize card. Where do the prize cards come from? Do I pick them from my deck, or draw them randomly from the top, can I see them? And when I knocked out my opponent’s Pokémon, did I take from his prize cards, and vice versa? (I think my time playing MtG, with ante and bet cards, messed up my ability to understand this concept.)

The first couple of games we played, we skipped the prize card thing because I really couldn’t figure it out. I eventually found the explanation on the Pokémon game Web site, after having to really search for it. I learned that the prize cards are drawn randomly from the top of your deck, and you get one of them (of your own) when you knock out your opponent’s Pokémon.

So I had finally come to understand all of the basic instructions for the game. But then there are some specific instructions on the cards that could use a little clarification. There’s probably some clarification and errata on the Web site, but I haven’t looked into it yet. If I was playing the game regularly, with serious gamers, I’d look into the info. But just playing with Calfgrit7 once every few days (and usually not having time to even actually finish a game), it’s not worth the effort.

Even though the prize card rule confused me, and some occasional card text is vague, I like the game. I’m considering getting my adult game group into the game for a few plays. I need to play against someone who can be real competitive. Calfgrit7 mostly just likes the Pokémon creatures, and he shoves any new ones he gets into his deck without knowledge or care that he doesn’t have the appropriate energy cards to power the creatures.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

I went by my local hobby/game store and bought the new Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. D&D 4th edition is out, now, and I’m interested to see what’s new and improved. So instead of writing a blog post right now, I’m gonna sit down and thumb through this book. Sadly though, I’m not real excited about it — I’m just very curious.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

A couple of weeks ago, one of Calfgrit7’s friends at school gave him two cards from the Pokémon trading card game. Then last week, the friend gave him two more. Calfgrit7 loves the cards, and he’s taken them everywhere with him for several days. He’s read the text on the cards and inspected the pictures of the Pokémons on the cards, and is just totally thrilled with them.

He let me look at the cards, too, and such is my curse that I noticed editing errors on a couple of them immediately. “Attack” instead of “attach”, and something else I can’t remember right now.

I’ve heard of the game, and over the years I’ve seen kids playing it, but I’ve never so much as looked at the cards, myself. I used to collect and play the Magic: the Gathering trading card game back in the 90s — I eventually sold most of my valuable rare cards for hundreds of dollars profit, which I turned around and “invested” in other games to play — so I understand the kind of game and its appeal. I thought Calfgrit7’s interest in the cards might be a good reason to look into the game. Maybe he and I could play it together.

I stopped by Target and picked up a couple of pre-packaged Pokémon decks, (from the Diamond & Pearl, Great Encounters expansion, if you are familiar with the game). CG7 was very excited to get a whole deck (60 cards), and when we opened them, he dug right into the cards. I skimmed through my cards to get an idea of what the theme looked like, and then went right into the basic instructions.

The basic concept seems like a fairly simple game but there are a few vague and confusing rules. I’ll talk about playing the game in an upcoming post.

As for the cards themselves, they were a big hit with Calfgrit7, and with Calfgrit3, too. CG3 wanted to look at them, and asked questions about them so much that I went out and bought a booster pack (10 cards) for him. He spread them all out on his little bench on the back patio and looked at each one. Sitting on the potty before bed time, CG3 held his cards and sang, “Pokémon, Pokémon, Pokémon . . .”

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com