Julie and I want to see a movie today, probably Shaun of the Dead, so we are looking for a movie for the boys to see at about the same time, at the same theater.  I always end up going back to Google to find sites that review the content of films (particularly PG and PG-13 films) for age-appropriateness.  Here are a few decent sites out there that I've checked out:

• Kids-in-Mind - Probably the most thorough out there, as it provides a great amount of narrative detail in addition to scoring the films on various dimensions (Sex & Nudity, Violence & Gore, Profanity).
• Grading the Movies - Uses a letter-grade scoring system on various dimensions (Overall, Violence, Sexual Content, Language, Drugs/Alcohol). This site gives a combination movie review and rating, dealing with a more subjective assessment than Kids-in-Mind.
• FamilyStyle - Hardly worth mentioning, this site scores films on various dimensions (Profanity, Nudity, Sex, Violence, Drugs/Alcohol) but provides very little commentary to back up the ratings.

We are contemplating whether or not the kids can see Mr. 3000 on their own.  Looks like there may be too much profanity and sexual content for our liking, so we may just opt out of Shaun of the Dead and see Hero together as a family.

Many folks into German- or European- or Family Strategy Games or whatever you call them these days played collectible card games in the 90s, especially the original classic Magic: the Gathering and other critical favorites like Legend of the Five Rings, Middle Earth: the Wizards, Doomtown, and my favorite 7th Sea.   I'm mostly disillusioned by the CCG market for the same reasons many others are: the tendency to buy way too many cards, get the latest expansion, get ahold of more rares to be competitive, and a lack of time for the “metagame”: deck construction.

Most of the CCG playing I've done in the past 5 years has been with starter decks or, preferably, pre-constructed theme decks.  This has mostly been with in print CCGs like Lord of the Rings, Magic, and A Game of Thrones CCG.  These games have great underlying systems and shouldn't be ignored just because of the collectible element.  Well, Lord of the Rings isn't such a great system, but you get my point.

The out-of-print games should not be ignored.  I've picked up quite a few 7th Sea cards on eBay for a song, and last night I found a cool deal on a set of Middle Earth: the Wizards challenge decks.  I bought a decent amount of METW when it first came out in 1995, but couldn't find folks to play (everyone was playing Magic).  I think these challenge decks could be a great way to give it another try for about the same price as a typical board game.

What other OOP CCGs are worth trying?

My friend and fellow RipCity gamer Dave Eggleston has a weblog (atom).  Dave is in the midst of an interesting project: developing some Windows-based (but they might run on Mono) versions of KC's games.  In the works right now is Tres Amigos.

Jacob and I gave the SpyCraft CCG a play while at the coast over the weekend.  We also played several other games - I'll post some pics shortly - but I wanted to give a few quick comments on this game.

I really wanted to like this, and thought it had some promise after getting a demo at GenCon.  Maybe I'm just getting spoiled playing euro-style games and their (generally) clear rules and quick learning curve, but I found this game very confusing to learn and explain.  There are certainly great thematic elements to this game and the artwork is good (but not great, especially relative to my favorites: Magic, A Game of Thrones, and 7th Sea).  The rules just didn't sit right with me.

I had the hardest time understanding when certain things could be done, what the always-available actions were during certain phases (e.g., you can always do a combat action during any style of mission, but not a transport action).  There are also a number of things that can be done by certain factions.  My opinion is that once you know the system of the game, you should be able to play it from the cards and not have to remember certain special actions.  What if in Magic, if you played black, you could do an automatic Drain Life each turn?  That would just be silly.

I'm probably being too hard on the game, and if I sat down with someone who was experienced to explain it to me I would probably grok it much more quickly, but I just don't have the patience.  Give me 7th Sea any time...

I didn't see much of the kids this week due to work committments each night, so I was eager to sit down and spend some quality time tonight.  We decided to play a game and I suggested something we hadn't yet tried as a family - Robo Rally.  I purchased this game used from KC and first played it at Sun River earlier this year.

I'm a big fan of programming games - probably has something to do with my software development background.  Simultaneous planning adds an interesting amount of chaos and randomness as well, which keeps things exciting.  The game was easy to explain and other than one bit of rules confusion (do you refresh your entire hand each turn, or keep leftover cards?  Turns out you refresh...), we got underway quickly.

Everything was fine and dandy at the start of our Robo Rally game!

I could tell from the start that this would be a great experience for the family.  The unpredictability of opponents' moves, the complexity of plotting, and learning the workings of the various board elements kept everyone guessing.

Julie and Jacob picked up the programming quickly, making a few small orientation mistakes early on but then adapting to plot things out more carefully in their minds.  Matthew, on the other hand, couldn't quite grasp the notion of turning and orientation.  He was always thinking in terms of absolute position, i.e., if the programming card says “Turn Right” then his robot will be turned to the right side of the board.  Needless to say, this caused a great deal of confusion for him and led to a quick demise (three consecutive kills of his robot by running off the board).  Tears ensued and we had some serious child gamer meltdown on our hands.  He did cheer up quickly, but I don't think this is a great game for him yet.  It will be a great way for him to learn programming though, or vice versa.  Perhaps if I spend some time teaching him Logo, he'd be more prepared for this game.

I was able to pull out a victory at the end while Julie and Jacob powered down to clear out their wounds (and, in the case of Julie, 3 locked registers!).  We played the intro scenario with two boards and two goals.

Come on over and join me in a game of Wallenstein.  The name of the game is Wildcard, password is “cubswin”.

Not only was this the opening weekend for the NFL (my Colts and Cowboys appear to be off to a stellar start.  At least the Seahawks won...), but Jacob and Matthew also began their football and soccer seasons.  Jacob continued his lifetime unbeaten football streak with a dominating win over Gladstone, while Matthew had a fun jamboree-style soccer game and had a pretty good showing.

Jacob once again is playing center on the first team.  Here he is working on snap practice before the game.  Jacob had his best game ever defensively, including a running-back sack about 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

Matthew having some fun kicking around before his game.

On Monday, Jacob and I ventured across town (about as far across town as you can imagine) to KC and Rita's home in Gresham.  KC, Rita, and I are planning a playtest day in November to further develop some of his game designs.  While we drilled down into the details, Jacob joined their kids for some HeroScape.

We combined our two sets, and the kids went crazy with their own design and scenario.  Half the fun with this game is the setup and playing with the minis.

Jacob designed an overhang ambush.  I wish I had focused on the guy inside to give a clearer view.

Jenna and her army.

Just in case you forgot how to fit your minis back into the plastic, here's your guide.

Taj Mahal has been on my must play list for quite some time based on reputation.  I knew next to nothing about the game, but found it easy to learn and very enjoyable to play.  I like it when I can think of a rational plan and execute against it, feeling at least a bit in control of my destiny.  Taj Mahal certainly offers that and more.  I managed to win, but I think they everyone was being kind.

Yesterday was the first day of school for Jacob (4th grade) and Matthew (2nd grade).  Jacob was a bit stressed for most of the weekend, and Matthew in typical second-born nature queried the night before “I wonder if I'll remember when I wake up in the morning that it's the first day of school?”  They both have great teachers and we're looking forward to more success inside and outside the classroom this school year.

We managed to spend Fri-Sun this weekend at Salishan.  We mixed in a bit of housework with some fun - best of all, Jan and David (Julie's mom and step-dad) were there to share some quality time with us.

I did some running and swimming Saturday morning, then took care of the boys while Jan, David, and Julie attended the annual Salishan leaseholder meeting.  The boys and I played a quick game of St. Petersburg, with Jacob giving a much better show this time around.  He's starting to get the sense of transition from cash flow to VP generation.  I think this is a great game to teach kids about cashflow (probably much better than Cashflow for Kids) and the time value of money.  I won the game easily, but I've also played quite a few training games on my PC.  After the game, we spent about 90 minutes practicing golf over at the Salishan course.  Golf isn't cheap there, so we reserve that as a luxury but they have a decent practice facility.  We spent about 30 minutes hitting balls and about an hour working on chipping by playing some games.  If you are spending time with a child teaching golf, I have a recommendation: focus on the short game! I guess the same applies for the adults as well...

I wanted to check out the outlet stores in Lincoln City for some clothes for the boys and, of course, see what's on hand at the KB Toy Outlet game section.  We scored a number of copies of the Mission Command series, which were buy 1 / second half price.  This worked out to about $11 for the entire series of three games.  Not bad, so I picked up 14 individual games for friends and family.

I'll talk about the rest of the weekend with photos below.

While Jacob, Matthew, and Jan explored the beach, David and I cracked open Mission Command Sea.  David grew up on some of the Avalon Hill classics, so was comfortable with the basic elements of a light wargame like this.  This was a close battle and ultimately came down to some unlikely dice rolls on his part; I think he played the better game.

Jan, Jacob, and Matthew took a nice hike south our access point, and managed to drag a good sized log back to our campfire spot.

Jan and David enjoying our campfire and a great meal on the beach.

I rarely get a chance to post photos of Julie and me, so here we are!

The sunset was dramatic Saturday evening.  At one point, the sun was shining through an eye-shaped slit in the clouds, which looked frighteningly like the Eye of Sauron.

On Sunday morning, we did some cleanup and housework and discussed plans for the next 2 months (flooring, furniture, etc.).  Jan and David left around noon, and Julie wanted to do some cleanup and prep work for next weekend's floor work, so I took the boys again. 

Matthew sporting his new sweatshirt from, you guessed it, the Old Navy outlet store.

The boys tried out the Mission Command Sea game in the morning and were quite impressed - this game is right up their alley.

In the afternoon, we gave the Mission Command Air game a try.  I thought this would be a rehash of the sea game, but the two are quite different.  This is a card driven game where you try to maneuver your airplane behind and in firing position to eliminate your enemies.  The planes wrap around the board, turning this into an somewhat abstract positional game.  There's a strong element of hand management as well.  The game is good, but not great - the endgame was a bit tedious, as it can be very difficult to get a firing solution and if both players are out of missiles it can drag on.