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Woo boy! What a week, what a weekend, what a Monday. Details? Sure.

So last week was conversion week, when our IT sector performs their big update to prepare for the upcoming year. It’s a quiet week really since several key systems are down. I took the opportunity to schedule myself an extra long weekend knowing that the first day after conversion is always full of surprises. I had Thursday and Friday off and got some gaming in there as one does.

This weekend was Shawi-Con. What is Shawi-Con? you may ask? Why it’s Shawinigan’s pop culture convention. This was the second iteration of the con and after sitting out the first one last year, I thought I’d brave the con waters once again. I’ve just about lost my passion for cons in general but this one is a) small and b) local so it didn’t require a really big investment. The biggest selling point was getting to spend time with my dearest friends…and Fab (I kid! I kid! He’s the one most likely to read this so I make with the playful jab so as not to get all sentimental and whatnot). There wasn’t a great deal in the way of panels, but I did attend one on the history of wrestling in Quebec that was quite interesting (to me). They did such a great job that I went and bought their book on the subject. Good stuff!

Today was, as expected, a little chaotic. I wasn’t at my desk for even a minute when I started getting reports of things not working properly. I spent the better part of the day getting us on track. Then the latest bombshell was dropped.

As part of the agency’s reorganization, it was decided last November that our office would change designations. That means that my current job is going away and I’ll be learning something brand spanking new to do for the next who-knows-how-many years of my career? Two weeks ago, I was told I was going to one section, most likely in March, but that turned out to be a mistake and I was actually going to another, possibly in April, but at the latest in September. Since it’s happening one way or another, I gave my preference for sooner rather than later and that’s what going to happen…next week. Turns out my new sector has an urgent workload arriving sooner than expected and the April date was pushed forward to Monday. I’m still a little shocked to tell the truth. Interesting days ahead.

Game-wise I got to try a classic last Wednesday. Citadels is a role-selection game where every round players draft one of eight roles and use the powers accorded by this role to best advance themselves in the building of their individual cities. The game ends when (at least) one player builds their eighth building. Each building is worth a set number of points and there are bonus points for getting to eight (which I was not able to do) and also for having at least one of each of the five building types (which I WAS able to do). Even though I had seven buildings, they were worth a good number of points each and with the colour bonus I was able to win by one point. Huzzah! It’s a good game but there’s a good deal of “Take that” to it which means it’s not ideal for play with my family (they’re not big on that sort of thing). I will therefore probably not be adding it to my collection (though there’s a really spiffy new edition that just came out for it).

That’s about all there is to report this week. Have a great seven and we’ll do this all again next Monday. Carja V.

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Hello Top Men and Top Women! Can you believe it’s Monday again? It seems we just had one of these seven days ago!

I’ve reached the end game for Barnaby’s To Derp or Not to Derp storyline. I can reasonably guarantee that it will be completed by the end of March. I’ve got to start thinking now of some short gags so that I’ll have some material to go before launching into the next storyline. I have three storylines in mind but I haven’t decided which to go with yet.

This week will be the beginning of the Firefly flashbacks. I just finished compositing the comparisons for the first four pieces and I’m really pleased with the improvement. I still have a lot of room to grow artistically, but it’s really nice to be able to concretely see how much better I am now than I was five years ago.

New games, new games. I’ve played a number of new games this week. I’ll get the disappointment out of the way first. T.I.M.E. Stories is a really cool concept but it didn’t quite stick the landing for me. The central conceit is that the players are officers of some kind of Time Police that travel through time to fix anomalies. When you arrive in the time period, you have no idea what’s wrong. You explore to try to learn what needs to be done but you only have a certain amount of time to do so before you have to start over. The goal is to try to start over the least number of times possible. It’s scenario based and once you’ve played a scenario you’re pretty much done with it because you know all the secrets and can just go through. It’s a choose your own adventure story where you have to figure out which parts don’t advance the story so you can skip them on your next read-through. We did not succeed in our first go-through (which I think would be impossible to do) and didn’t feel engrossed enough to start over so I don’t know what the game does to ramp things up during the next attempt. We were having an off night though so I might have to give it another chance to see what else there is to it.

I received one of the games I backed on Kickstarter last week. Masmorra is a PvP dungeon crawl set in the same universe as Arcadia Quest (there are cards included with Masmorra so you can use the characters in both games). From what I’ve read, Masmorra is less mean about the PvP nature. Players explore rooms, disarm traps and defeat monsters to gain XP. In the basic game, the game ends at the end of the round where one player reaches 16+ XP. The person at the end of that round with the most XP wins. It’s by CMON Games so you know the production values are high. I backed at the higher level so I got all kinds of add-ons that add some flair and fun and enhance the replayability. I’m looking forward to playing again.

Finally, I got to try Star Wars Destiny, which is a collectible card game with specialized dice. It has received comparisons to Dice Masters which is also a collectible game with specialized dice and cards. However where Dice Masters is a dice game with cards that explain how the dice work, Destiny is a card game where the dice help fuel play. I didn’t get to play a full game as we ran out of time but I really enjoyed it.

The Royal Rumble was last night. It was a little disappointing with no exciting twists. Almost everything played out as expected and the surprises that did occur weren’t ones I thought were well-served. It’s clear that several things will have to happen for things to fit with the rumors of what Wrestlemania is building up to be. Hopefully those happenings will make the matches more enjoyable.

That’s all for this week. Have a great seven and we’ll do this all again next Monday. Carja V.

Hello Top Men and Top Women! It’s Monday and I’m back to blogging because that’s what Mondays do best…or eat lasagna. I may be getting my references confused.

Last week was a week of meetings. I know more than I did before these meetings but they’re still things I’d rather not have to know. I have to keep reminding myself that in the long run things are better off, but the short run isn’t going to be fun. I said I wasn’t going to comment anymore, but it’s difficult not to think about it and so I’ve made a liar out of myself and commented again. That’s what a blog is for though right? Not the lying, the commenting.

My favorite (and only) niece turned 17 last week. We got together for brunch on Saturday to commemorate the occasion. I chose the funniest card I could find at the store (at least to me). She didn’t laugh. Well, she smirked. She was much happier with the money that was included in the envelope (go figure!)

I revisited Betrayal at House on the Hill over the weekend. It’d been at least 10 years since I’d last played. And now I remember why. The pieces are all there to have a fun experience, but it’s uneven. You can spend the entire game feeling like you didn’t get to do anything based on what cards you draw. I was the “traitor” which is to say my character died and I played the monster who killed him.

Much more fun was getting to try King of New York, Colt Express and Champions of Midgard. King of New York is a follow-up to King of Tokyo. It’s a gamier version of the original that still plays well. Colt Express I ended up liking a lot more than I thought I would. It’s simple without being boring. I just don’t like the gimmick of the punch-out train. It looks cool, sure, but moving the meeples around is a nuisance. Champions of Midgard is a worker placement game in the same vein as Lords of Waterdeep, only it incorporates a luck factor in that the warriors you recruit to fight for you are dice and so there’s always a chance they’ll fail the mission you sent them out on. After reading comments about it being a Lords of Waterdeep killer, I have to say I like Waterdeep better. I enjoyed Champions though and would gladly play again.

On the horizon, I have Blood Rage, Arcane Academy, X-Com and Android: Mainframe to look forward to being introduced to (my friends went on a bit of a game-buying spree). For my part, I’ll be bringing Star Trek Panic, Batman Dice, Hand of the King and Big Book of Madness to the table in the future (so did I). Perhaps even as soon as this Wednesday when the Criq finally begins its winter season.

I caught the WWE UK Championship tournament over the weekend. I liked what I saw. The cruiserweights were impressive from an in-ring standpoint but haven’t won me over personality-wise (Jack Gallagher being the notable exception). The UK roster has much more interesting characters. Wolfgang and Pete Dunne especially look to be standouts. I’m not sold on Tyler Bate, but he definitely had a huge following at the shows. I liked the two night format much better than the way the cruiserweight tourney was spread out over the summer.

So that pretty much covers what’s on my mind this week. Have a great seven and we’ll do this all again next Monday. Until then, know that sometimes, even something  as simple as an automatic card shuffler can bring great joy.