November Report

Here's my second monthly report - letting you know how my gaming and games designing has gone during the last month. I'm hoping that it will provide me with an opportunity to keep track of whether or not I'm getting what I want done.

First up, games played. I played far fewer games in November than October, I missed both Beyond Monopoly days, and only made it to two out of four of Paul's games nights. Dave came round for Space Hulk again though and I played some games down in Bristol with my family and my in-laws. Total games played in November: 19 (excluding prototypes).

• Hey! That's My Fish!: 3 plays.
• Mission: Red Planet: 2 plays.
• Guillotine: 2 plays.
• Carcasonne: 2 plays.
• Space Hulk: 3 plays.
• Border Reivers: 2 plays.
• Ticket To Ride: 1 play.
• Flanderen 1302: 2 plays.
• Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition: 1 play.
• Puerto Rico: 1 play.
• Niagara: 1 play.
• Masons: 1 play.

Only two new games this month: Flanderen 1302 and Mission: Red Planet. Of the two I prefered Mission: Red Planet - I loved the steam punk theme and the game was good fun too.

I bought one new game this month again (Carcassonne: Inns & Cathedrals), which I've not yet had a chance to play. I've played it before though, and it's a good one I'm sure it will get plenty of play in the future.

Looking forward to December I'm still really hoping to get a game of Canal Mania in. I had it down as one of the two games I wanted to play in November, but seeing as I didn't get to BM there was no opportunity. With any luck I'll get a chance to play it at BM this afternoon. I'm also looking forward to hanging out with my family and my in-laws at Christmas - we'll probably play some games, possibly including Shogun.

So that's October from a player's perspective, how about a designer's perspective?

Border Reivers

Border Reivers had a mixed month. I sold another nine copies, mainly towards the end of the month after a slow start. I've gained a few more ratings, but the average has dipped below seven again. In terms of publicity I've had confirmation that the interview for Flagship magazine is going to be printed, and they're going to review it too. Also the BBC MindGames magazine have a review coming out just after Christmas.

Codename: Jorvik (11 plays this month)

Codename: Jorvik has seen a fair amount of play (not included above). I made a new prototype of Jorvik which simplifies a bunch of things and make some things slightly more involved. I'm pretty happy with this new version, but I've several more ideas to try out, I'll have to give those a whirl over December.

Codename: Sennon

One of my goals for November was to make a Sennon prototype, but sadly I only got it half made - I've some of the cards made, but no tiles or counters - I want to get a prototype done to take down to Bristol at Christmas so I can play it with friends and family and start the design process in earnest.

Codename: Artist (2 plays this month)

This one came out of the blue while visiting my family mid-month. Dad suggested a single word, and within twenty-four hours I had some rules scribbled down in my notebook. I made a prototype and then got to play it a couple of times the following weekend. I think it's got potential, the original scoring idea was completely broken, but that's been swapped out and hopefully I can make some progress on this one soon too.

What does December have in store? I need to finish the Sennon prototype, and playtest my prototypes a lot more. I'm expecting a prototype from another designer through the post in a couple of days, and that will need testing too. I hope to build up a decent stock in preparation for the BBC review, and the Flagship interview might come out this month too. I'm thinking of having a prototype games night, but that might have to wait until after Christmas...

In other news I did another set of tiles last night - finishing another copy. I've now got three finished copies at home - yeay! But I've seven outstanding orders! I also started making boxes for the next batch, a batch of six. I cut them all out and assembled three box lids. I'm off to Beyond Monopoly now - session report up tomorrow.