We Won Something A Long Time Ago

And we're very proud of it. Learn more at Bored Game Geeks...

One Year Farther Down the Space/Time Continuum

Hi, campers... the traffic for The One Hundred blog has died down a bit.

OK, it's died down a lot.

But I don't want to go completely dormant, so I wanted to give you some quick updates about The One Hundred and the lives of the people who made it happen.

1. My plan is for us to take a second run at The One Hundred in the fall of 2008 (that's about 18 months from now.) That will make it four years since the voting originally took place for the "original" One Hundred... which ought to be enough time to see some movement in the games.
2. When I/we do it again, I/we will probably use some of Brian Bankler's excellent suggestions. In fact, if you're not reading Brian's The Tao of Gaming, you should no longer call yourself a gamer. You might as well go out and buy a deluxe edition of Uno.
3. Stephen Glenn, the guy who came up with all of this, is about to have another one of his games published by Robot Martini - Jetsetters. (This is actually even cooler than it sounds, as many of us thought that the game would be tied up in the wreckage of Plenary Games, who bought the rights to it originally.)
4. Mark Jackson, the Pat Sajak & Vanna White rolled into one of The One Hundred, is putting the finishing touches on The Apples Project, which is another one of these compilation projects on gaming - this time by category.

I'll post more in the upcoming months... just don't hold your breath until then!

Matt's Important Questions

Matt Butcher asked a very helpful pair of questions in the comments section of the entry on Settlers... and rather than bury the answer there, I decided to "share it with the class" (Matt's a teacher, btw) and post it for all of you to see.

Matt asked: "How much do these games cost?"

Of course, the answer varies, but the MSRP for many of these board games hovers between $35 - $50. (Card games usually run $10-$20.) That's what you'd expect to pay if you walked into a brick & mortar game store.

There are, thanks to the magical wonderfulness of the Internet, other options available. For those games that are still in print, you can try a number of different online game shops, where the cost of the games are usually 20-30% less than MSRP. (Example: Settlers of Catan is $40 + tax in a store - online, it can go for as low as $23 + shipping. Please note: Settlers is used as a "loss leader" by many stores - which just underscores how good a game it is and how easy it is for them to move it.)

If you'd like to compare prices Froogle-style, you can use Boardgame Seeker (which is a bit slow but still helpful.) Or you can use Froogle, though it's easy to get lots of odd non-game entries there.

Then Matt asked: "Where do you get them?"

I primarily use two online shops, both of whom offer excellent service & prices:

• Game Surplus (based in Pennsylvania and run by the coolest family on the planet... they are the folks who sponsor my website, Game Central Station)
• Boards & Bits (based in Seattle, they offer great shipping deals on larger orders)

I've also ordered extensively from Funagain Games, who have an excellent selection but tend to be a bit high on the pricing side. If you're looking for an out-of-print game and don't mind paying for someone else to do the legwork to find it, these guys are a good resource.

Finally, if you're willing to do a bit of legwork, you can't do much better than the BoardgameGeek Marketplace. (Just click on the Bazaar tab at the top of the page...)

I do shop at local stores as well... some of my favorites include:

• Endgame (Oakland, CA)
• Gamescape (San Francisco, CA)
• Rainy Day Games (Portland, OR)

Mark's One Hundred: #10-#1

#10: Lowenherz

• designer: Klaus Teuber
• date of publication: 1997

#9: Fast Food Franchise

• designer: Tom Lehmann
• date of publication: 1992

#8: Expedition

• designer: Wolfgang Kramer
• date of publication: 1996

#7: Um Reifenbreite

• designer: Rob Bontenbal
• date of publication: 1982

#6: Showmanager/Atlantic Star

• designer: Dirk Henn
• date of publication: 1997

#5: Puerto Rico

• designer: Andreas Seyfarth
• date of publication: 2002

#4: El Grande

• designer: Wolfgang Kramer & Richard Ulrich
• date of publication: 1995

#3: Memoir '44

• designer: Richard Borg
• date of publication: 2004

#2: The Princes of Florence

• designer: Wolfgang Kramer & Richard Ulrich
• date of publication: 2000

#1: The Settlers of Catan

• designer: Klaus Teuber
• date of publication: 1995

Mark's One Hundred: #20-#11

#20: Entenrallye

• designer: Walter Muller
• date of publication: 1989

#19: Return of the Heroes

• designer: Lutz Stepponat
• date of publication: 2003

#18: Bohnanza

• designer: Uwe Rosenberg
• date of publication: 1997

#17: Monopoly

• designer: Elizabeth J. Magie
• date of publication: 1903

#16: Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper

• designer: Mike Fitzgerald
• date of publication: 1998

#15: Smarty Party

• designer: Aaron Weissblum & Pitt Crandlemire
• date of publication: 2003

#14: Ticket To Ride

• designer: Alan Moon
• date of publication: 2004

#13: Union Pacific

• designer: Alan Moon
• date of publication: 1999

#12: Carabande

• designer: Jean du Poel
• date of publication: 1995

#11: Entdecker

• designer: Klaus Teuber
• date of publication: 1996

Important Safety Tips

#1: Don't cross the streams. (That would be bad.)

#2: Don't run with scissors.

#3: Don't assume that the most important posts on this blog are the most recent ones... the real "meat" here is The One Hundred, which you can access via the links in the column on the right, esp. the sections labeled THE BASICS and THE BIG PICTURE.

#4: Remain seated please; permanecer sentados por favor.

Mark's One Hundred: #30-#21

#30: Oodles

• designer: unknown (published by Milton Bradley pre-designer credits)
• date of publication: 1992

#29: Land Unter

• designer: Stefan Dorra
• date of publication: 1996

#28: Anno 1503

• designer: Klaus Teuber
• date of publication: 2003

#27: Arriba

• designer: Thomas Vuarchex & Paul Yakovenko
• date of publication: 2001

#26: Stimmt So!

• designer: Dirk Henn
• date of publication: 1992

#25: Time's Up

• designer: Peter Sarrett
• date of publication: 2000

#24: Schnappchen Jagd

• designer: Uwe Rosenberg
• date of publication: 1998

#23: Heroscape

• designer: Craig Van Ness, Rob Davaiu & Stephen Baker
• date of publication: 2004

#22: Big City

• designer: Franz-Benno Delonge
• date of publication: 1999

#21: Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier

• designer: Stephen Baker & Roger Ford
• date of publication: 1993

Mark's One Hundred: #40-#31

#40: Battle Cry (AH)

• designer: Richard Borg
• date of publication: 2000

#39: Ausgebremst

• designer: Wolfgang Riedesser
• date of publication: 1993

#38: Carcassonne

• designer: Klaus-Jurgen Wrede
• date of publication: 2000

#37: Gnadenlos!

• designer: Klaus Teuber
• date of publication: 2001

#36: Web of Power

• designer: Michael Schacht
• date of publication: 2000

#35: Industrial Waste

• designer: Jurgen Strohm
• date of publication: 2001

#34: History of the World

• designer: Gary Dicken & Steve Kendall
• date of publication: 1993

#33: Lord of the Rings

• designer: Reiner Knizia
• date of publication: 2000

#32: Titan: The Arena

• designer: Reiner Knizia & Don Greenwood
• date of publication: 1997

#31: Medieval Merchant

• designer: Christwart Conrad
• date of publication: 1998

Mark's One Hundred: #50-#41

#50: Konig der Maulwurfel

• designer: Gunter Burkhardt
• date of publication: 2002

#49: Goldland

• designer: Wolfgang Kramer
• date of publication: 2002

#48: Basari

• designer: Reinhard Staupe
• date of publication: 1998

#47: La Citta

• designer: Gerd Fenchel
• date of publication: 2000

#46: Sindbad

• designer: Jean Vanaise, E. Duchatel & J.P. Postel
• date of publication: 1990

#45: Star Wars - The Queen's Gambit

• designer: Craig Van Ness, Alan Roach & Rob Daviau
• date of publication: 2000

#44: Mississippi Queen

• designer: Werner Hodel
• date of publication: 1997

#43: Midnight Party

• designer: Wolfgang Kramer
• date of publication: 1989

#42: Cafe International

• designer: Rudi Hoffman
• date of publication: 1989

#41:

Africa

• designer: Reiner Knizia
• date of publication: 2001

Mark's #1: The Settlers of Catan

It's become way too cool to crack on The Settlers of Catan... which, frankly, is just stupid. You can complain about the vagaries of the 2d6 distribution, or the plethora of expansions, or the fact that many groups haven't learned a new game since they discovered Settlers back in the late 90's. But that doesn't dismiss what a work of genius Klaus Teuber created.

Think about it - good game play requires more than simply a mastery of The Arcane Secrets Of Initial Placement; you also have to be able to trade (or not trade) wisely. Games are decided NOT by the dice (despite many people complaining otherwise)... they are decided by playing ALL aspects of the game well. Of course, there's the flexibility of the hex-based board system which keeps the game fresh as well.

Can you tell I like it... a little bit?!

Mark's #2: The Princes of Florence

Princes of Florence is the perfect balance between game length (70 minutes) and an unforgiving system. Any longer, and it would be soul-deadening to play out the final rounds when you know you've lost all hope of winning. Any shorter, and there isn't enough time to make meaningful decisions in this game's Spartan structure (7 auctions, 14 actions).

As it is, this game cries out to be played over & over - experimenting with various combinations of building & buying, exploring the game space & enjoying the heck out of it.

Mark's #3: Memoir '44

I'll keep this short & simple... it takes the brilliant "Command & Colors" game engine first seen in Battle Cry and knocks all the rough edges off the design. Memoir '44 covers (at this point) much of the European theater of WW2 with a wide variety of 'official' scenarios and 2 boxes worth of expansion stuff (with two more promised expansions in 2006!). The game is supported online with panache & flair by Days of Wonder.

What's not to like? It's my favorite "wargame", hands down. Now, I fully realize as I type this that "real" wargamers are wailing & gnashing their teeth when I call Memoir '44 a "wargame." But as I've said before, I'm a reformed wargamer myself - and I've had more fun playing Memoir than I ever did playing Squad Leader.