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This weekend at The World Boardgaming Championships I stumbled across Mike Nagel.  Mike is best known as the inventor of Flying Colors, an Age of Sail wargame that is very well respected, and he had it set up in open gaming.  As you'd expect considering the venue, four guys were heads down over the pieces firing volleys at each other while Mike tuned in only occasionally to coach.  Flying Colors looked interesting to me personally, but not gripping.  I've played another Age of Sail title extensively and I don't need a second one in the same genre.  But ....

That new plastic smell, now in an economy size. 

    Come on in for another sun-ripened episode of Next of Ken, where this week I'll wax lyrical about gaming experiences being all about what we bring with us, and review both Ghost Pirates and Dungeon Command.  As a side note, this column has been completely scrubbed and is 100% free of Gamer Funk.  With that in mind, join us, won't you?  

I never played Dungeons & Dragons growing up, but I see the appeal. There’s an allure to pretending to be a group of adventurers, delving deep under the ground to defeat the forces of evil. It resonates, and if I was the “MA in Literature” type, I could probably write a paper about the archetypes at work there. D&D was smart to tap into that. But geez, have you ever read a D&D sourcebook? For that matter, have you ever read any RPG book? They are insanely complex to the uninitiated, and even to some old pros. Barrier to...

I don't really believe in kharma, aside from that stupid 'my kharma ran over your dogma' bumper sticker, and then it's just because it's worth a giggle. But if I did believe in kharma, I would say that it was out to teach me a lesson.

Come on in for another home-fried Next of Ken, where this week I'm all bout The Dark Knight Rises, I spend some table time with Lost Temple and Knights of Ten, and give my final word on Omen: A Reign of War: 2nd Edition: Lots of Subtitles.  Join us, won't you?

In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m an egghead.  I've gotten to the age where I’d rather read Xenophon than George R. R. Martin, because to me history is more gripping than the best of make-believe.  I'm not into fiction anymore because it can't be even half as strange as real life.  For good reason -- if it was no one would believe it.

 Games criticism?

You  know those last moments of a convention? You’ve stayed up til the wee hours for three nights in a row, and you’re just killing time before the last door prizes are awarded. Might as well learn a new game,  but for the love of heaven, not something heavy. You’ve spent the whole convention learning 3-4 hour games. This is the situation I found myself in when I first played King of Tokyo earlier this year. Since none of us know how to play, we learn from the rules, which is usually a no-no. But in this case, it’s...

Come on in for this week's Next of Ken, where I'm talking about Days of Wonder's newest Small World expansion, zoning up some skyscrapers with Kickstarter darling Sunrise City, and digging deep into the newest space economic game Starship Merchants, co-designed by Tom Lehman (you may have heard of one of his games called Race For the Galaxy).   Join us, won't you?