Give, expecting nothing thereof!

Is there such a thing as gaming karma? I would like to believe so. However, I am a firm believer in giving to others without expecting in return. It is a nice meld between my personal view of the world and my professional social worker view. In addition, it ties in nicely to my practice of the “golden rule.” For seven years I donated an hour each week to run a support group at Truman High school in Independence, Missouri for students whose family was facing a divorcee. It was not uncommon to meet a student who had never heard of the “golden rule.” My wife has insisted that our sons practice the “golden rule plus.”

This has been a wonderful week in gaming. I finished painting my Malifaux figures I purchased at GenCon. For the first time, I’m sad that I finished painting rather than just be glad it was finally over. During a recent episode on the D6 Generation podcast, one of the hosts suggested to his co-host that if you just get started painting something you like, the painting mojo will build, and you will get into a rhythm. I might describe it has the high runners can get. Before they realize it, they have just ran their miles, and have lost track of the time. I feel so energized that I began to paint several models this afternoon that I don’t have a game for, but bought because they looked neat. I can hear my dad saying, “practice makes perfect.”

At my wife’s request, we played 10 Days in Asia this afternoon, and I got in two new games tonight at Pulp Fiction’s open gaming night. We played Samarkand: Routes to Riches twice, and Hornet once. Hornet is a an area control game / sting your neighbor in the back game. The production value is very good. It includes Hornet meeples, and the board art displays Hornets wearing Luchador masks. However, I could not let go of the fact that Hornets don’t make honey??? Dawson shared he thought it was a translation error. Throughout most of the game, I felt powerless. It is published by Z-Man games, and designed by brothers Jani & Tero Moliis.


However, Samarkand: Routes to Riches was a very fun game where I controled 90% + of my game play. The rules were very easy to learn, and the game play can be very quick. We played the second game is just over a half hour. The game consists of marrying into a trading family, developing camel caravans, and merging trade agreements. In the end of the game, your goods, your routes, your relationships, and all of your money equate to victory points. It is a very solid game. It was published this year by Queen games, and designed by David Peters and Harry Wu.

Project X had a good week as well. On a scale of 1-10 (best,) this week was a 9.5 !!!!!!

"Give, expecting nothing thereof." (St. Thomas Aquinas, based on Luke 6:35: "do good and lend expecting nothing in return, for your reward will be great")