http://www.marquand.net A blog focussed on my family, my thoughts, and all of the boardgames we play. en-gb http://www.marquand.net/images/rssLogo.png http://www.marquand.net http://www.marquand.net/article.php?story=20080708135805126 CafePress is offering free shipping for domestic (US) shipping destinations for orders over $65. You can get your gaming gear from Uberbadger.com and The Board Game Gift Shop shipped for free. Just enter the coupon code FREESUMMER during checkout.Unfortunately it's not within my power to open up the coupon to international shipping destinations. http://www.marquand.net/article.php?story=20080707085210885 Last week, Noah was one of about 40 youth attendees to Christian Howes' week long Creative Strings Workshop. Before Noah switched schools to attend the accelerated 4/5 Eclipse class, Noah was in the same class with Christian's daughter and they're currently attending the same Suzuki Violin group. If I'm not mistaken, this is the 4th or 5th year of the adult workshop but this is the first year for the youth workshop and boy was it amazing. Noah was one of the youngest with most attendees in hi... http://www.marquand.net/article.php?story=20080706213739663 I pulled out El Capitan this weekend and started going through the rules...playing some sample turns. El Capitan is a rework of a game called Tycoon. As I understand it, Tycoon came out on the heels of El Grande and due to El Grande's success, Tycoon was largely overlooked. Wolfgang Kramer was involved with both designs.El Capitan has been rethemed, and with some new rules and artwork by Mike Doyle the game got a fresh start. This area control game requires the players to sail their ships fr... http://www.marquand.net/article.php?story=20080703173143314 At IGS III I got my first opportunity to play Pandemic. Bob, a gaming buddy of mine whose copy we played, is a relatively new gamer with the buying bug and he allowed a temporary swap of my copy of Mexica for his copy of Pandemic. If you're familiar with the game, you can jump forward a few paragraphs. However, if you're not familiar with the game, the game is probably different than most games you've played in the past. It's cooperative. By that, I mean that rather than there being one win... http://www.marquand.net/article.php?story=20080702225140389 The designer of Pandemic discusses the board game design process in a Google "Tech Talk" (about 50 minutes). http://www.marquand.net/article.php?story=20080629232227820 I organized an impromptu gaming event at my house for a small group this past weekend. We didn't finish up until almost 2am so although that may sound horrible to non-gamers...it was an awesome afternoon and evening of gaming. We took a break and walked a couple of blocks to Chipotle for dinner but other than that...the gaming was on!Rich arrived a little late so we set up one of my favorites Tigris & Euphrates. Jason was new to the game and Bob had only played once but it didn't take us ... http://www.marquand.net/article.php?story=20080626222910249 Well, it happened finally. A design of mine at Uberbadger.com got "CUPped" today. Basically it's a lock down of a design due to a violation of content usage policies. It happens at some point to most shopkeepers so it's not surprising. However, the reason for the CUP is strange to say the least.Apparently, my violation is well known by most shopkeepers but strikes most novices. The issue is with using the word "Caution" in your apparel design. It seems that there is a gentlemen that tradema... http://www.marquand.net/article.php?story=2008062323510277 The Uberbadger.com gaming gear contest has come to a close and the winner is BGG member gwen who resides in Aalter, Belgium. Congrats!There were 1498 correct answers submitted and 43 unique designs chosen as prizes. gwen's selected prize was an "It's A Meeple Thing" shirt designed by enzo622.Thanks for playing and thanks for your continued support of Uberbadger gaming gear and your fellow BGG members who design the products.If you didn't win this contest, good luck in the next one. http://www.marquand.net/article.php?story=20080616091653465 Uberbadger.com is sponsoring a Free T-Shirt Contest at BGG. The contest requires you to guess the names of 22 games represented in a single collage. For each game you get right, you earn a chance to win a shirt with the design of your choice.Hop over to BGG to check out the contest and give it a shot. Uberbadger's newest designs are also posted. There are some pretty cool designs coming out. http://www.marquand.net/article.php?story=20080615213755308 I woke up this morning to a bright, cool, day and after drinking some coffee I tucked into an omelet and some bacon that Lisa had made me. The kids went and grabbed presents and I got several items for my bike (I've been riding more recently due to the price of gas being so high) like a lock, lights, a rear-view mirror, and even a honky horn made for a tricycle!I also got some BBQ equipment and an awesome gift certificate for Game Surplus, my favorite online game store.We played Oasis, I fix...