Francie had a game party at her home yesterday. We usually meet in a dank cellar that smells like mildew and paint thinner, has shitty plastic chairs and is full of loud mini players. Or we meet in a small, stuffy meeting room which also has hard plastic chairs and hardly enough room to squeeze between tables to walk to the powder room. It was awesome to be lounging about in Francie's big, gorgeous Victorian house, with comfy chairs, a fridge full of beer, and a pool table. Some of us even spent part of the day talking in the living room, or out on the deck, like it was a real party and we weren't socially challenged geeks who needed a game board between us to interact with other humans.

What perplexed me, however, is that any game with a playing time of over 90 minutes was shot down as "too long." Most of us were at the party for 8 hours. Some stayed for 10 hours. WTF! A 2-3 hour game is too long??? Also, the games I suggested somehow managed to get shot down for simultaneously being "too easy" or "too light" AND for being "too complicated." Most of these comments came from people who were new to the hobby and had never even played the games.

Last day of school for my little spawn. We looked over her report card. Told her how proud we were of her. Gave her a little gift, and then packed her off to camp Granmama's for the week. WOO HOO.

Tonight was dinner and games with Francie. Tomorrow is a suddenly planned and hastily thrown together game party at Francie's. I'm making my special recipe chip dip. You dump this bag of powder into a bowl of sour cream and stir it. Al is on beer run duty. We still don't know who is coming, but we think we'll have at least 6 of us.

Francie was trying to get Al to call J to find out if he was coming. She wouldn't call herself, because she was afraid the wife would take it the wrong way if some strange woman called and asked if J could come over and play. Are we still in Jr. High or what?

I had a brain burning day at work, and almost decided to skip game club. However, I changed my mind at the last minute and went. This meant that I didn't even get a chance to change out of my work clothes, which makes things a little difficult. Peep toe pumps and old basement steps are not a good combination, especially when carrying a crate of games. I managed to neither break an ankle nor a heel. That was my big win of the evening.

I was too beat to play anything requiring much thought. Another guy was in the same mood, although for a different reason. He had dental work done this morning and got the good meds. So how bad do you suck when you lose to the guy on pain killers?

Anyway, we played a few card games, which I can't even remember. One had fashion designers, one had people with weapons and one just had ugly green numbers. We also played one game of Mordred. Mordred won. Red gave me a hard time about taking too long on my turns tonight , since we were playing such light games. He was right, and I deserved the taunting, but I was so fried I kept forgetting what the hell I was doing. Oh yeah, we also played Rumis, which is a form of torture for the spatially challenged.

Based on iguanaDitty's recommendation , I picked up Glory to Rome. Al really likes it, which is no surprise, as he and iguanaDitty seem to have similar tastes in games.

We had a good sized turn out on Thursday, which meant that were able to get three games going at once. Sometimes, especially during the winter months, we only get 4 - 6 people, which is kind of lame. If there are only enough people to play one game, and most of them are hot to play Turnips and Taxis or Cleopatra and the Society of Accountants , it's pretty much the bone. Either play or leave.

Notre Damned was tossed out as a suggestion. My heart leaped with joy when among the chorus of eager I'll plays, I heard a couple of emphatic Noes. Red had brought Top Race, which he had just received in the mail and was eager to play. I was dubious at first, as I tend to find most racing games tedious. However, the cars were cute, you got paid in Ass Dollars, and Red assured me that there was no downshifting, so I decided to give it a try.

Top Race turned out to be good fun. There was much blocking and moaning. I'm now tempted to get a copy of Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix, which Red tells me is essentially the same game. I think this is one the band boys would like and it is easy enough for a drummer to learn.

RoboRally was next. We had two newbies and one veteran RR lover. My house rule with RR newbies is that if they decide they hate the game, or feel that it has gone on too long, or they are getting frustrated, they can quit. No questions asked. That's the beauty of games with player elimination. Typically someone can quit without significantly impacting the game. A lot of people don't know what they are getting into with RR, and having someone be miserable for an hour or more is not the point of gaming. The RR veteran pointed out that RoboRally was the kind of game that if you liked it, you could happily play some arcane course for 5 hours, but if you don't like it, the game can't end soon enough.

The RR veteran set up the perfect course of his own design. The course was challenging enough, without being frustrating. There was some strategy involved in making decisions regarding when to archive. There were plenty of opportunities for power ups, which makes the game fun. And finally it lasted exactly the right length of time. Although one of the newbies caught some bad breaks, and was rather frustrated, he didn't quit or moan about the game. The other newbie totally got into the game, adding sound effects when moving and shooting. It was such a pleasure to play RR with folks who really like it.

That's the real key to a good game session. Playing with people who are enjoying themselves.