And I Thought Wednesday Was Weird

Friday morning I had a certification exam for work in Leeds. I'd not had a chance to prepare for it properly, and the frantic preparation I did on Thursday night was disastrous. I needed 80% to pass, and I was getting 40-60% in the practice tests I was doing. I got to bed late, and had to get up early, so I set off to the exam feeling pessimistic and very tired. When I finally arrived, (after a bus journey and coffee stop spent desperately pouring through the course syllabus that I'd still only half covered) I was told there'd been a problem, and my exam needed rescheduling. The poor woman behind the desk was really apologetic (even though it wasn't her company that had cocked up) and expecting a roasting from me, I think. 'Great!', I said, 'I wasn't ready to take it anyway.' Then I headed back to work. In the afternoon I was feeling pretty rough so I went home and then to the doctor, I've a battery of blood tests to take on Monday morning now :-/.

The day ended with a massive clean-up, our flat was getting pretty messy, and having Border Reivers bits everywhere just makes it feel worse - as there's so much less room. I also got some really in-depth feedback from the first guy to buy a copy from me over the internet. It was a bit mixed, there were things he liked and things he didn't, and they'd played a variant where you roll a D6 for reinforcements and cards and played to a higher points total (49 instead of 40), since the game was finishing too quickly for them. Interesting stuff. I'm surprised by how quickly it played out for them, but very impressed at their house variant. It'll play differently to the way I had designed it, but it might suit some players more as you'll get more armies and cards and hence a bit more action. I'm really pleased that they liked the basic rules enough to experiment with the balance. On BoardGameGeek loads of games have variant rules posted by players - it makes me feel like Border Reivers has made it.

I've listed Border Reivers on the BoardGameGeek marketplace in the hope it'll attract more attention than my website. It'll also generate a cut for Aldie, the guy who gave up his job to run BoardGameGeek professionally. I've a lot of respect for that, and am very keen to support him (I've already bought a supporter's badge for this year). Anyway, why did I mention this? I sold my first copy on The Geek yesterday - so it does seem to be working.

I'm having friends round for games again tonight. It's been ages since my last games night here, I've been so busy with Border Reivers and it takes up so much space that it's difficult to make room for guests around the table. I think we're going to have to stash all the Border Reivers kit away in the bedroom for the night.