Articles > Gaming Scene

I'm giving away a souvenir of sunny Italy - very hot, very sunny Italy. It's a set of Napoletane playing cards. Yes, I know you can get these on Amazon, but I purchased these at a real, Italian Tabaccheria in Amalfi - a tiny, dark, and refreshingly cool tobacco shop in very hot, very sunny Amalfi.

In the late 70s and early 80s, American boardgame design was going through a bit of a renaissance. Commercial wargames -- attempts to recreate historical military operations on the tabletop -- had been in existence since the early 1950s, and in the intervening years the field attracted more and more talent, expanding the boundaries of design and content. What had started as a hobby with a very limited scope -- the Civil War, the Napoleonic Wars, the World Wars -- began to bend and break and blossom with possibility....

      So far computers have been helping us with our gaming hobby but they've been largely absent from our tabletops. However with the advancement on e-readers I think this will change and this is how we can benefit from it.

Last week, I wrote about how different aspects of time can affect your game purchases.  In the comments, a few people mentioned that often, the people that you game with are more important in getting a game to the table than the playing time.  I definitely agree with that, and planned to write an article on how you should consider the people you game with when you are acquiring games, so that you can get the most gaming mileage out of your purchasing power.  Problem is, Gaming groups are as...

What is both free and priceless at the same time?  You cannot keep it, but you can spend it.  Once you've lost it, you can never get it back.  Answer?  Time.    On F:AT, we talk about the things you should consider when acquiring games.  We review games, we talk about what makes games good, bad, fun, boring, or otherwise.  We also talk about the financial considerations of acquiring games.  Barnes and Ken have both done articles about trimming your collection or trading to save some money when gaming.  One aspect...

  There's been a lot of talk lately about purchasing embargoes, about playing what we have, and about 'responsible' purchasing.  There's also the current US economic mess to consider.  So what's a gamer to do, when money's tight, shelf space is limited, and you're already drowning in a sea of games?   Trade, baby.  It's all about trading.   ...

Boardgaming has a steadily expanding secondary hobby.  Compulsive collecting of games, obsessive thrifting, bell curving your ratings, recording and manipulating statistics, and talking about games on the internet is getting to be a hobby in and of itself, totally distinct from actually playing games.  Most hobbies have a primary activity and a number of peripheral or secondary activities.  Miniatures games are a great example, because the hobby activities are often more fun than the poorly designed games.  I have spent more hours painting minis, reading novels and rulebooks, dreaming up army lists, and...

The phone rings, it's the commander of Guards Armoured Division. As my operations officer hands me the receiver, I can hear the agitation on the other side of the line. “You know where I'm calling from?” he shouts, “do you have any bloody idea?” I glance at the map and spot the Guards' HQ flag. “You were supposed to be at Nijmegen by now” I venture. I'm afraid of what the answer might be....

I know I promised a Year in Review for 2008, but I lied because it's not ready yet.  Instead, I present to you a SHOCKING~! "after action report" for Atlanta Game Fest.  Beware:  lots of game opinions, mindless prattle, and Steve Avery jokes are featured within, so enter at your own risk.