Calfgrit7 and I played a few games of chess, and this time I was a bit more aggressive. I wanted to see how he would take an aggressive game, and if loosing quickly would bother him. I remember a five-move-win strategy I was taught way back (I’m actually pretty surprised I remember it), and I tried it on him.

The five-move-win is easy to defeat if you know it or see it coming, but against novices or someone who doesn’t look more than one move ahead, it tends to work. And it worked this time, although it took me seven moves to pull it off because he unknowingly through a couple pawns in my way.

Calfgrit7 didn’t seem to notice or care about the quick loss, and we played a second game. I went for the quick win again, but this time he kept throwing blockers in my way, so I couldn’t get the super-quick win. The way he played and acted and talked, I don’t think he knew or intended to block my fast attack. He just seemed to accidentally move the “wrong” pieces (from my attacking perspective). He never stopped my strategy, he just delayed by one turn, two turns, three turns, four turns, a dozen turns. I eventually won, again, but it wasn’t really quick.

And all during these games and the next, Calfgrit7 was in constant motion. The chess board was on the floor, and I was laying on my side. He was sitting up, laying down, turning, shifting, rolling away, sliding aside, talking to his mother, his brother, me, and just generally a bundle of action. He was moving so much he had a hard time placing his chess pieces accurately on the board. Occasionally his foot or arm bumped the board or knocked over a piece. It really started to drive me crazy after so many minutes.

I decided to hold back in our third, and last, game. I figured I’d let him have a win to go to bed with. But he was so unaggressive. He never once went after my king, after so many turns, and so many minutes, it was past his bedtime, so I had to bring the game to an end. I turned aggressive and went after his king with everything I had. But he was slippery as a greased pig.

I think he’s learned some good basic strategy, but we don’t play often enough to really train him. I think most of his good moves are random, or are the result of my being distracted in most games. (Calfgrit3 wants to help me play.) I ended up winning the third game, too, but he made me work for it. And his constant movement almost brought me to screaming (but I never said anything to him about it except when he got distracted away from the game).

Even if he hasn’t turned into a chess champion, he has at least shown he’s a good sport, even when loosing. He offered to shake my hand after every game, and I accepted with pride.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

What is it about the D&D Expanded Psionics Handbook that they’ve become rare and expensive? Since starting this new D&D campaign, with psionic characters, some Players in my group, me included, are having a hard time finding the EPH for less than 60+ dollars. Local stores don’t have any and can’t order any. Online stores don’t have them, but some say they can order them (but I’m leery of that claim from smaller online stores). And the only seller on ebay is in Australia, charging full cover price plus $13 for shipping. I never expected the EPH to be a hard find. I mean, it’s the D&D3-revised psionics book — it’s not like it’s a classic or a rare printing.

The DM of this campaign has a copy, but he’s had it since it was first released. Another Player paid over $40 plus shipping for is. And the other two of us can’t find it for less than around $65. That’s ridiculous.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

We’ve started a new D&D campaign, with one of the other guys as DM. (I was burning out, and need a break.) This new campaign is set in Freeport, a few weeks after our previous Freeport campaign ended (about two years ago, real time); the previous campaign had us running through the first three Freeport adventures.

For this new campaign, we’ve all decided to play psionic characters: two human psions and a human soulknife (my character), all brothers of a gypsy clan. Where our previous campaign had [some of] us playing heroes fighting the evil and chaos of Freeport (I was playing a paladin), this new campaign has us playing less than good characters out to take over the town’s seedy operations. We’re not playing evil characters (I wouldn’t like that), but we definitely aren’t heroes.

We’ve only played one game session so far, but it looks like this campaign direction will be fun. The psionic side of D&D is interesting, and new (to me), but it’s basically very similar to standard D&D magic. The psions are like standard D&D sorcerers, and my soulknife is like a standard D&D Dex-fighter. It’s all just different enough to feel different, but not so different to play differently.

I don’t know nearly as much about psionics as I do standard D&D magic, so I’m being mildly surprised by some of the things the other characters can do. I’ve always had a dislike of the concept of psionics in D&D — psionics feel more like science fiction than fantasy, to me — but I think this change of mechanics is interesting in actual play.

I still doubt I’ll ever bring psionics into any of my own campaigns, but it’s good to see and feel how they actually work in play, in a situation where I’m not running the game.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Our Thursday game nights got put on hold for a couple weeks during the holidays. Last night was the first time in three weeks that we all got together, and it was good fun. We played Dungeons & Dragons till 11:00, and then we just sat around in the den talking about D&D and World of Warcraft until 12:30.

I love my game nights. It’s so much fun to hang out with my friends, play games, and talk about our hobbies. We guys communicate some through emails, but sitting around playing and talking face to face is really much better. It’s so fun, in fact, that nearly every time, I end up staying and talking much later than I should.

It’s a 40 minute drive back home, so staying till 12:30 means I don’t get home until after 1:00. Then I write this post, upload it, and it’s nearly 1:30 by the time I get in bed. Six o’clock comes early in the morning; it’s really dumb of me to stay so late.

But hanging out with friends, talking and playing is just so much fun. And now that job and family responsibilities restricts that time to just once a week (at most), I like to stretch the time out as long as possible. Oh for the teenage and college years when I could hang with my friends for hours a day, several days a week.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com