Hartsfield's Landing: Revisited

If you're dumb, surround yourself with smart people. If you're smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you.  

Isaac Jaffee, SPORTS NIGHT

I think it's this idea that provoked me to tears a couple of different times while watching the staged reading of the classic THE WEST WING episode, "Hartsfield's Landing". I miss having someone who values wisdom and intelligence leading our country. 

I know THE WEST WING is a TV show... and at many levels, a fantasy of a center left administration that didn't have the skirt-chasing/#MeToo issues of the Clinton presidency. I harbor no illusions that a Nobel Prize-winning economics professor will be up for election any time soon... or that everyone who works for the President will spout quips and monologues as if Aaron Sorkin is whispering in their ear.

But I want a President who's "top priority items for a second term" is more than this:

Well, one of the things that will be really great… You know, the word experience is still good. I always say talent is more important than experience. I’ve always said that, but the word experience is a very important word. It’s a very important meeting. I never did this before. I never slept over in Washington. I was in Washington, I think, 17 times. All of a sudden, I’m president of the United States. You know the story. I’m riding down Pennsylvania Avenue with our First Lady and I say, “This is great.”

But I didn’t know very many people in Washington, it wasn’t my thing. I was from Manhattan from New York. Now I know everybody, and I have great people in the administration. You make some mistakes. An idiot like Bolton, all he wanted to do is drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to drop bums on everybody. You don’t have to kill people.

taken from town hall with Sean Hannity on June 25, 2020

Or more recently: 

By the way, nice trucks. You think I could hop into one of them and drive it away. I’d love to just drive the hell out of here. Just get the hell out of this. I had such a good life. My life was great. And then I said, “Let’s do this, darling, this will be a lot of fun.” 

quote from rally in Allentown, PA on October 26, 2020

If you'd like to see an excellent reading by almost all of the original cast (with the exception of John Spencer who passed away during the final season of the show),  HBOMax has made it available for free until the end of 2020. (For those of you who were fans of the show - like me - it's a wonderful trip down memory lane and a reminder that I'm getting older.)

I'm guessing that some of you reading this blog post are sure by now that I am stealth campaigning for the Democratic candidate... I am not. You need to make your own decisions about who to vote for and why. If you'd like to hear more about my reasoning (which pre-dates COVID, George Floyd, tear-gassing protesters to hold a Bible upside, and all the other insanity of the majority of 2020), please read Choosing Not To Die - which I wrote in February of this year.

The Way I See It

Last night, Shari & I watched the documentary THE WAY I SEE IT, which is the story of Pete Souza, the official White House photographer for the Obama administration. He was also a White House photographer for the Reagan administration. 

Pete is known better now for his Instagram account where he posts pictures from the Obama administration in response to tweets from our current president... and the documentary spends some time showing how that developed. The film is filled with iconic still images of both President Reagan and President Obama, as well as contemporary news footage and more recent interviews that provide context for those images. 

Tears ran down on my face multiple times watching the film - and not because I wish that Barack Obama was President again. I didn't vote for him in 2008 or 2012 and disagreed with a number of policy choices he made. Some I've come to appreciate over time; others I still believe were unwise. But that's not why I teared up.

I was mourning the loss of having someone in the White House who understood their role as President was bigger than their personal grudges and their ability to bully people via Twitter. I was struck again by the obvious tenderness of Ronald Reagan towards Nancy and Barack Obama towards Michelle - and the equally obvious reciprocal nature of their love in return. And I was reminded again of how impactful it was that an African-American was not just a servant in the White House, but the leader of the free world. Regardless of your perspective on politics, that was an important step forward in fulfilling the promises of the Declaration of Independence.

Meanwhile, the current President just demanded that the Attorney General open an investigation of his political opponent like we were some kind of banana republic with a tinpot dictator in charge. The cognitive dissonance is deafening.

I'll be the first to admit that this documentary has a soft spot for President Obama and his family - I think it would be difficult to avoid if, like Pete Souza, you spend nearly 10 years (2 in the Senate and 8 in the White House) photographing them. 

I'd recommend you watch the film - it's about to be available on Peacock streaming. Draw your own conclusions. Maybe it will remind you of what we are missing right now.

Solo Gaming in the Time of Covid-19 (updated)

I started doing a lot of solo gaming when my oldest son (and chief gamer buddy) left for college in August 2019. Even with him home during this extended time of quarantine, I’ve still been playing solo games. And with him returning to campus back in August, the solo gaming has picked up again.

I know, I know – there are plenty of board game apps on iOS and Steam… and I own many of them. But there’s something really satisfying about physically playing a game: shuffling cards, moving pieces, seeing it all spread out in front of you. 

And, because I’m “that guy”, I crunched the numbers and found that 20%+ of my gaming this year was solo (compared to 6% last year). I expect that number to rise this fall.

So, what follows are my thoughts on a variety of solo games I’ve played over the last nine and a half months – ordered by number of solo plays in 2020. (Note: this is not necessarily how much I like a particular game for solo play – for example, I think Nemo’s War is a brilliant design but only played it twice this year… so far.)

Oh My Goods! (15 plays)

Solo play requires the Longsdale in Revolt expansion… but there are some clever things going on in this tricky little card game. I’m still looking for an affordable copy of the second expansion (which has more scenarios for solo play). Oh My Goods ranks up with Friday and Palm Island for the best games for solo play in small places (like hotel room desks).

NEOM (14 plays)

I love this multi-player game that mixes city-building and 7 Wonders-ish drafting… and the solo game manages to capture most of that feeling through the clever use of “packets” of tiles. I typically play 2-3 games of this at a shot… since once you’ve got it laid out, it’s easy to reset and try again. I’ve defaulted to play with all the tiles in, which offers more variety and some interesting decisions since you know that you can (sometimes) wait for the tile you need.

Marvel Champions: The Card Game (10 plays)

While Fantasy Flight struggled to get the hero and villain packs in the early part of the lockdown, that seems to have improved. I love the really straightforward design of the game and the way it captures the theme. I tend to play 2 heroes when playing solo – though the game is designed to play with a single hero. For those who’ve played other LCGs (Living Card Games), this is less complicated than any of the others… some would say “dumbed down”. (Sigh.) I find it the easiest to play and teach, due to clear card wording, distinctive superhero graphics, and card design that is relatively easy to read across the table.

Dice Settlers (9 plays)

I bought this from a friend (hi, Janna!) primarily for solo play – and while I’m still having to fiddle a bit with the scoring numbers to make the AI competitive, it actually flows really well as a “big” solo game. I was pleasantly surprised that it works well as a 2-3 player game too. I managed to find a copy of the Western Sea expansion – which really ups the variety and makes the solo game more compelling.

Expedition to Newdale (9 plays)

Another birthday present… and like Terraforming Mars, a multi-player game that works surprisingly well as a solo adventure. This is Oh My Goods: The Board Game… which is a very good thing. I’m about ½ way through the solo campaign and look forward to the new twists that are added each new scenario. (Note: my play of Oh My Goods fell off once I acquired Newdale – I think the board & the game structure are more sophisticated.)

Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade (9 plays)

I blogged about this earlier this spring at the Opinionated Gamers site… and Dale just posted a review as well. This is a really great roll’n’write design that was very enjoyable solo and multi-player. I think the best table is Dragonslayer, though Cyberhack is really close. (Note: I helped proofread the rules for this game prior to publication.)

Terraforming Mars (9 plays)

One of my birthday gifts this year was a copy of Terraforming Mars… and I quickly discovered a thriving community of folks on BGG who love this game as a solo exercise. I don’t own all the expansions… but I think the best solo configuration for me (so far) uses just Prelude. My win rate is about 50%, which seems right for this style of game.

Warp's Edge (7 plays)

The newest addition to my solo gaming quiver of games... and it's a good one. It's a bag-builder space combat game that is designed for solo play. So far, I do pretty well against the weaker motherships... but the higher rated ones turn me to space dust. I just wrote a review of Warp's Edge on the Opinionated Gamers website.

7 Wonders Duel (5 plays)

The nice folks at Repos Games created an interesting AI for solo play this spring… with five different “characters” for you to challenge. The structure reminded me a bit of the original analog Race for the Galaxy solo AIs in the way that they attacked the game system in particular ways that made it difficult for you to win. More of a solitaire puzzle in the 7 Wonders universe, but enjoyable.

Friday (5 plays)

Friedemann’s wacky deck-builder about keeping Robinson Crusoe alive is still one of the best 1 player games out there. I can’t recommend it highly enough. (It was on my Top 50 games list earlier this year.)

Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale (4 plays)

An incredibly pleasant flip’n’write game that works like a charm as a solo game… and will also work well as a “over Facetime/Zoom” game if you use the solo rules for monster attacks.The Skills mini-expansion adds another level of decision-making that works well. I’m glad the game is in my collection… and I’m looking forward to the Kickstarter for the stand-alone expansion (Cartographer: Heroes), which is going to also include new map sets!

Dungeon Alliance (4 plays)

For me, Dungeon Alliance solo with the Adventure Packs (a very creative expansion idea) is substantially more enjoyable than the still very good Mage Knight Board Game. For starters, it’s a four game campaign… and then there’s the mixture of characters and storyline that feel like you’ve been dropped into the middle of the story. 

Palm Island (4 plays) 

This is a weird little deck-builder[?] that I’m not sure entirely works… you hold your entire deck in your hand (17 cards) and flip and turn cards based on resources on the cards. It’s kind of fiddly and I’m not sure I know how to get a better score… yet I keep playing it.

The Pursuit of Happiness (4 plays)

I continue to adore this gamer-friendly version of The Game of Life… and the newest expansion arriving required me to pull it out and play both multi-player and solo. The solo mode is well-thought-out.. players must beat a particular long-term happiness score as well as complete 3 life goals – which can be challenging. (The new expansion and the various Kickstarter extras just continue to add content and variety to this robust system… the delight of creating a life story is a lot of fun.) You can read my original review here.

Seafall (4 plays)

I took advantage of an excellent Amazon sale to pick up a copy of Seafall to play through the game solo. It is NOT a solo game – but I’m playing all five provinces and just enjoying the chaos and the story. (Note: My boys and I were playtesters on the earliest versions of the Seafall prototype.)

It’s a Wonderful World (3 plays)

Another birthday present, another card-drafting game, another wise use of “packets” to make the drafting game work solo. The provided solo scenarios add challenge… I need to pull this one back out and try to conquer them.

Nemo’s War (3 plays)

The other solo game that was in my Top 50 games list… it manages to blend Euro mechanics and old-school wargame elements along with a compelling theme. On top of that, the various objectives change the game and how you play by just changing the scoring to reflect Nemo’s vision of a “better” world.

Roll for Adventure (3 plays)

A recent co-op game from Kosmos with built-in expansions to increase the difficulty/change the puzzle. It’s a dice-driven push-your-luck game with a fantasy theme draped over it. I typically play solo with two random characters. (BTW, solo or multi-player, I like this game much better with 2-3 players/characters than with 4… it feels like the game plays you with four players.)

Roll Player (3 plays)

One of two “RPG character creation” board games from last year (the other is Call to Adventure)… but with the Monsters & Minions  expansion added in, Roll Player is the best choice for solo play. (In fact, I think this is one of the “required” expansions for multi-player play as well… it offers more variety and more options for players on their turn. Most importantly, it gives the game an ending via fighting the big boss that is much more satisfying than “hey, look – I built a character”.) The Fiends & Familiars expansion is also quite good.

Clank: A Deck-Building Adventure (2 plays)

Personal take: the Clank! In! Space! solo campaign on the app is more interesting than the one-off solo mode for Clank… but both are enjoyable. Then again, the Clank system is beloved in our house and I get plenty of chances to play multi-player.

Desolate (2 plays)

A print’n’play space survival game… the files are now free from PNP Arcade. It’s a lot of inkjet ink for a pretty straightforward solo game. I like it best with the two expansions thrown in – I think there’s more decision-making involved and it’s easier to set the difficulty level using the characters.

Legacy: The Testament of Duke de Crecy (2 plays)

While I enjoy the multi-player game, I found both versions of the solo game (standard and The Testament) to be overly fiddly and not particularly interesting. 

Unbroken (2 plays)

Not related in any way to the excellent WWII biography… this fantasy survival game has nice production (for a solo game) and is in the same vein game-wise as the aforementioned Desolate: make decisions on what to face, press your luck, and try not to run out of supplies. It works… but I wonder if I’ll be played out on it after 5+ plays. (Note: I’ve only played it twice and haven’t brought it back to the table in 4+ months.)

51st State: Master Set (1 play)

As much as I love this game, I really detest the solo version – it pretty much kills what I like about the game. (That said, really looking forward to getting this back in rotation soon as a multi-player game.)

Call to Adventure (1 play)

The rules for solo and cooperative play feel rushed and tacked on – which is disappointing, as I really enjoy this character-building/story-telling game with multiple players.

Clank! In! Space! (1 play)

Started a new attempt at the solo campaign embedded in the app. (The multiple games and the special objectives make it a very interesting and challenging experience.)

Finished (1 play)

A solid solo design that other folks like a lot more than I do... one play per year is just about enough for me. (There is, if you're interested, a free app version of it out there.)

Fresco (1 play)

I made an unbelievably unsuccessful attempt to create an AI to play Fresco against. Lots of work but no fun to play. Youch.

Monster Lands (1 play)

The basic game is pretty fiddly… but I give it that for the fun it creates. The solo game is just fiddly, which is sad.

Nations: The Dice Game (1 play)

I’d rather play this with more players… but the solo game works well. If I didn’t have a number of better options (see above), this would hit the solo table more often.

Sauerbaum (1 play)

This is THE original co-op game… it actually won a special Spiel des Jahres recognition as a cooperative game back in 1988. The problem is that I never feel like I have much control of the game.

Star Wars: Outer Rim (1 play)

My oldest son and I both love playing this dive into the Star Wars universe – it’s a pick up & deliver game with copious thematic elements. The game comes with a solo AI card deck that works… but it isn’t a particularly compelling way to play. I’m not likely to solo this one again – but it will hit the table as a multi-player.

Under Falling Skies: A 9-Card Print-and-Play Game (1 play)

In anticipation of the CGE release of this game, I printed my own copy to get a feel for it. I like the ideas but am hoping that CGE will clean up the rules & graphics to make it easier to grok. (Historically, they’ve done a great job with stuff like that, so I’m excited to see the release later this year.)

Games I Own That Still Need to Come Out to (Solo) Play

• Adrenaline (CGE published a solo variant)
• Agricola with Farmers of the Moor
• Hotshots
• Sanctum (CGE published a solo variant)
• Space Cadets: Away Missions
• The 7th Continent
• The Colonists

Recommendations

Thinking about buying and/or trading for some new games based on my post (and how long you’re likely to be practicing physical distancing)?

If you’re new to solo gaming, I’d suggest Cartographers, Super-Skill Pinball, and Friday. For those with a bit more gaming under their belts, I’d go with Nemo’s War, Terraforming Mars, Expedition to Newdale (board game version of Oh My Goods), and NEOM. 

This post is based on a blog post I wrote for my personal blog back in April 2020... and a subsequent version of that post published on the Opinionated Gamers website.

Nibbling on the Hand That Has Fed Me (My Musings on Hasbro & the HeroQuest reprint)

I have to come to realize that many of the things I write about board gaming now start with a decent chunk of personal history. This opinion piece (from, no surprise, an Opinionated Gamer) is no exception.

Some of that I credit to how long I’ve been in the hobby: 

• I bought my first non-American mass-market game in 1973 (Project CIA: The Secret Formula).
• I was a charter subscriber to GAMES magazine.
• I had a bookshelf full of Avalon Hill bookshelf wargames in junior high and high school, including Squad Leader, Air Assault on Crete, Richthofen’s War, and Starship Troopers.
• I played Dungeons & Dragons for the first time using the classic introductory “blue box”. 

And some of that I credit to just being old. Well, older. OK, old.

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

In the 1980s, my friends and I just about played the print off the cards of a set of Talisman… and suffered mightily at the hands of fate through multiple games of Dungeonquest. Games Workshop became my post-RPG go-to company for over-the-top fantasy and sci-fi gaming during that period… great artwork, buckets of dice, cool minis, ridiculously long playing times that only worked for folks without a significant other – in other words, right in my wheelhouse during my college and seminary years. (In fairness, while two different versions of Talisman have been in my collection and subsequently sold, my copy of Dungeonquest [complete with Heroes & Catacombs expansions] still is a regularly played game at the House of Jackson.)

As I continued on in this wonderful hobby of ours, I came back around to wanting more fantasy themed adventuring (dungeon or otherwise) games in my collection and on the gaming table. Fellow Opinionated Gamer Frank “Moo” Branham was my “advance scout”, shooting me emails about things he knew I would love. (I distinctly remember him instructing me to go directly to my nearest Wal-Mart with $40 cash in hand and pick up a copy of Heroscape – “do not pass go, do not collect $200.”) 2004 was the beginning of a beautiful (and expensive) relationship with Heroscape… including playtesting some of the expansions for the Heroscape system. (Yes, Hasbro was the hand that fed me Heroscape terrain & swag, including a really cool Heroscape T-shirt that is literally falling apart but still hanging in my closet.)

A number of great new takes on fantasy adventuring board gaming have appeared in the last 20 years:

• Prophecy (2003) was one of the earliest Vlaada Chvátil designs and is a reimagined (and drastically improved) take on Talisman. (This was, no surprise, another Frank Branham recommendation.)
• Return of the Heroes (2004) was another angle on the same genre, this time with a modular board. (Note: the base game & first expansion were released in English, but the two expansions that were released only in German took the world in some really creative directions.)
• Dungeons & Dragons cooperative board game series (beginning 2010) started with Castle Ravenloft and has since added 6 more games to the series. Based on the newest iteration of the D&D RPG rules and classic settings/characters, these are cooperative games with a wide variety of scenarios.
• Catacombs (first edition 2010, third edition 2015, playmat version 2019) – I once described this as “Carabande/Pitchcar + Descent 1.0 – 3 hours = Catacombs”… that’s still a pretty good description. This is the first of the highly thematic flicking combat games, set in a fantasy universe.
• Mage Knight Board Game (2011) is yet another Vlaada design, this time taking adventuring into an intricate and puzzle-filled quest. Although it uses some clix figures, the heart of the game is a deck-building/hand-management system.
• Descent: Journeys in the Dark (first edition 2004, rebooted in 2012, and something new coming in 2021…) – a sprawling dungeon crawl game with a plethora of expansions, plastic minis, and a really great app-driven way to play cooperatively. 
• Runebound (first edition 2004, second edition 2005, third edition 2015) – set in the same world as Descent (FFG’s Terrinoth), I like the 3rd edition the best. And, yes, you flip “pogs” for combat.
• Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure (2016) used deck-building and a clever “noise-making” (clank) mechanism to create a dungeon romp/race that has been popular with almost everyone I’ve introduced it to.
• Dungeon Alliance (2018) uses deck-building (similar to Mage Knight), but focuses on dungeon crawl and combat. With the full set of expansions, this is an amazingly deep and story-filled fantasy adventure.

And that’s just some of the games that are in my collection – there are numerous others out there that some of you may want to tout in the comments section. (For example, I haven’t played Gloomhaven – which in some circles means I’ve lost my gamer mojo that I’ve so carefully curated over the years. I have actually played Too Many Bones – which I enjoyed but would need to be back in college and without a significant other again to have the time to really enjoy.)

By now, I’m guessing you’re wondering when I’m actually going to say something about the new version of HeroQuest. I”m getting there, I promise. I just felt like I needed to establish my fantasy bona fides before I wrote the next paragraph.

I Have Never Played HeroQuest

So how did I never end up playing HeroQuest – originally released in 1989… or or Advanced HeroQuest, for that matter? How could someone with that much playing time in fantasy board game worlds have missed out on this classic?

We’ll make this a multiple choice question:

• I was a seminary student with limited cash resources.
• I was deeply in love with the young woman who would become my wife in June of 1990.
• I had already plunked down some major cash to buy Space Hulk and the expansions
• The base game was from Milton Bradley, which had done some nice work with the Gamemaster series, but otherwise was still publishing mostly mass market schlock.
• All of the above

(For those of you who are serious GW fans, Warhammer Quest doesn’t figure into this… it wasn’t released until 1995 and by that point the German game invasion had begun in earnest.)

As you probably guessed, the correct answer is E.

Nibbling Rather Than Biting

With my lack of actual time with HeroQuest, I don’t feel like I’m qualified to savage Hasbro or Avalon Hill for the decision to reprint a classic game… but I still have some thoughts based on my decades of experience in the hobby.

I think the best way to do this is to divvy it up into specific concerns that I have.

What’s My Motivation?

I love theater – and was even a theater major for a portion of my college career. “What’s my motivation?” is an acting cliche. But, in the case of Heroquest, it’s worth thinking about.

I wrote a fellow OG writer this last week that it felt like Hasbro had seen the success of Restoration Games with rebooting/reimagining older games – particularly Return to Dark Tower – and saw visions of dollar signs dancing in their heads. 

There is nothing wrong with a profit motive – that how companies succeed and how we get more games. But when the primary motivation is money (in the words of Pink Floyd, “it’s a gas”), creativity and innovation can easily suffer.

New & Improved?

It’s obvious that the team at Hasbro has re-glossed the artwork, updated the miniatures, changed the box shape (from the old GW coffin box that doesn’t fit today’s modern lifestyle), and generally dusted everything off. They’re also adding new campaign material – including bringing back one of the gurus of fantasy adventure game design, Stephen Baker, who had a big part in Heroscape, Battleball, and Battle Masters as well as one of the weirdest Frank-recommended games in my collection, Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier (translated: “The Battle of the Dinosaur Riders”)

But there doesn’t seem to be a lot of work to move the game forward… it’s more like you took HeroQuest to a hot rod shop and gave it racing stripes and replaced the floor mats. I’m happy to be proven wrong here.

Reprint Vs. Reimagine

This may sound overly simplistic, but there’s a marked difference between reprinting a game with cosmetic changes and re-imagining a game to keep what’s worthwhile and let the bits that haven’t aged well go peacefully off into the sunset.

While Restoration Games has proven to be the go-to company for this kind of work, they aren’t the only ones doing it. Fantasy Flight Games did a splendid re-imagine of Wiz-War that is, frankly, a MUCH better game than the original (no matter how beloved it is). They also did a sweet re-thinking of the Gamemaster classic Fortress America. (Both of these were shepherded by the creative genius of designer Kevin Wilson.)

Even Hasbro has allowed their design team to do interesting things to their classic games – Rob Daviau (now a key player with Restoration Games) managed to get a version of Monopoly with victory points published (Monopoly: Tropical Tycoon) and stretched the boundaries of what Risk could be with a variety of games… among them Risk: Balance of Power (two-player Risk), Risk: Black Ops (proof of concept for shortening Risk and adding deeper strategic/tactical decisions), and Risk Legacy (which was the very first legacy game published).

Not every reboot works, though. As an example, Hasbro’s “Heroscape: the Gathering” (combining elements of Heroscape with the theme and card play of M:tG) is pretty uninspired, despite the excellent pedigree.

What Hasbro is doing (from all accounts) is a reprint. I wish they were doing so much more. It might even convince me to pony up the nearly $200 it would take get all the goodies.

Rose-Colored Glasses of Memory

Since this is primarily a reprint of a game that fetches ridiculous prices on the secondhand market (I personally sold a couple of expansions I lucked into for big dollars back 10-15 years ago), it seems like one of the key selling points is nostalgia. 

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that… again, it’s ok for a company to make money. But it seems a wasted opportunity to simply give grownups the chance to buy what they couldn’t afford when they were 30 years younger. 

Why Crowdfund?

This is the one point where I’m actually on Hasbro’s side – the price point of this particular item and the need to make the release go viral means that crowdfunding is probably the safest and most cost-effective way to accomplish both of those goals. And that’s especially true when you’re using your own crowdfunding platform.

We’ll Always Have Board Games

Look, it doesn’t take much to see that my opinions don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Hasbro has (as of October 20, 2020) already had $2.4 million in pledges for their reprint of HeroQuest… which means it will be published. But I still think there are issues… issues that they can potentially mitigate. And I got to tell you some stories, which is always fun.

Well, here at last, dear friends, at the bottom of the page comes the end of our meandering article. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.

Note: as noted in the opinion piece above, I have playtested games for a variety of different companies, including both Hasbro and Restoration Games, and have received board games and gaming swag in return.

I also flat out stole lines from the film “Casablanca” and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings in order to write this article.

This diatribe/rant/musing/whatever was originally published on the Opinionated Gamers website, which all right-thinking board game fans should check on a daily basis.

My Top 50 Games (from early 2020) - The Summary

If I was really industrious, I'd turn this into a series of blog posts... but it's much, much easier to just point you at my Pinterest board where all 50 of my mini-reviews for my top 50 games are linked.

Honestly, I'd rather be playing these games!

Political Advice for Evangelical Leaders

“I also would have steered clear of politics. I’m grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to. But looking back I know I sometimes cros­sed the line, and I wouldn’t do that now.” 

Billy Graham, interview with Christianity Today, 2011

(speaking about Jerry Falwell, Sr.) "I told him to preach the Gospel. That’s our calling. I want to preserve the purity of the Gospel and the freedom of religion in America. I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. Liberals organized in the ’60s, and conservatives certainly have a right to organize in the ’80s, but it would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it."

Billy Graham, interview with Parade, 1981

(speaking about the Moral Majority) "It would be unfortunate if people got the impression all evangelists belong to that group. The majority do not. I don’t wish to be identified with them. I’m for morality. But morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice. We as clergy know so very little to speak out with such authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments. Evangelists can’t be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle to preach to all people, right and left. I haven’t been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future."

Billy Graham, interview with Parade, 1981

“If I had to do it over again, I would also avoid any semblance of involvement in partisan politics. An evangelist is called to do one thing, and one thing only: to proclaim the Gospel. Becoming involved in strictly political issues or partisan politics dilutes the evangelist’s impact and compromises his message.”

Billy Graham, from his autobiography Just As I Am, 1997