Here be my traveling adventures! My trips into the unknown. The unexplored regions of gameboard lands. Please listen to my tales of intrigue and danger to learn from as well as enjoy. And if you are inspired by my stories, feel free to share your expeditions down below.
Record of Travel #6
Sixth Adventure – Recovery
The flashbacks are so horrible! Sorry for not responding sooner. The encounter left me in shock for two weeks. I will have to continue the story later when I am in a healthier mental state. (Reality: I have been really busy with personal stuff that I lost track) In which case, I want to ask you guys something: What game do you guys play when life gets to be too much. Do you choose to play a long, strategy game like the legacy games coming out (By the way, the word on the web is the Betrayal At House on the Hill has one out now!) or do you play a simple deck building game a bunch of times to while away the time. Let me know in the comments so I can find something to play and catch my breath. My wife works in retail and Black Friday is almost upon us. Actually, the hodag doesn’t sound too bad right now.
Record of Travel #5
Fifth Adventure – The Horror Begins!
Guten tag my friends,
Halloween is soon upon us and I hope everyone is making plans to have fun this weekend. I think back to the days of when I used to trick or treat and remember all the fun of going to each house to see what I could get. But then, the trauma begins again. Years ago, I was trick or treating on my own for the first time. They said it is better to gather together in groups for safety, but I, for one, was more daring a character to be scared of what laid out there at night. Or, was I that foolish then. I went house to house with no mind to my surroundings. Enjoying my bounty each and every time I could have something placed in my plastic pumpkin bucket. It, eventually, got very dark and I was near the edge of the unexplored neighborhood. My bucket was very full and thought, “I have a good haul and I have very time to spare before my mother scolds me for being late.” I started to head back home when I noticed the lights in the homes were starting to turn off one by one, but in quick succession. I got nervous and started to speed up the pace when, all of a sudden in total pitch blackness, I hear an ominous sound. Little did I know this would be my first encounter with the infamous hodag. I will share part two of my first story on Sunday. As for the interview I promised awhile back, Would you believe the hodag ate it?
Record of Travel #4
Fourth Adventure – Withdraw
I sit at my campfire resting from another journey of story and news collecting of board games. I stare at the flames flickering against the night background, letting my mind traverse my memories of the past week. I organize my thoughts as best I can to find patterns for my listeners to hear. However, I suffer what many a gamer fear and loath. I haven’t played any games in weeks! Oh my God! My arms roll invisible dice for no reason. I try to play a card game with my cats to no avail (Believe it or not, it is very hard for a cat to hold even one card than five.) Worse, I tried to entice the dreaded hodag to join me in a game of Arkham Horror, only to find it wanted to be the monster instead! The horror of my situation! My question for you this week: What do you do when there is no one to play? Write to me so I can hear your ideas
Record of Travel #3
The Third Adventure – Oasis
Good to see you all again!
In this tale, I will discuss my visit to an event called Octo-gon, a board gaming convention. For some of my board game newbies, this is a place to gather and share our love of board games. My wife and I travelled far( a whole hour!) to attend the event and, though, we lost our food supply to the $%$%@^%$^&*& hodag, we managed to still have a good time. We met new friends and bought more games to enjoy. I will post my reviews and my interview with a game developer soon. Thanks to my wife, here are some pictures of the convention.
The store’s trophies accumulated over the past year! (Actually, this stuff is all free given by board game manufacturers and inventors. A good idea for some of us who can’t attend all the events and board game stores.)
This is one of the many board games being taught to us that day. The game is called Merlin and for those who want a strong balance of strategy and luck, this is the game for you. I would recommend this game for more experience players due to the many rules and options to win the game. For me, I was able to comprehend the game in about two turns only because another adventurer, the host of the game, was able to explain the complex rules very well.
It was a full house at the convention. Andy B, the organizer of the event, even had to set up extra tables for the D&D people.
Where was she when we ran into the hodag! (Actually, this is a promotional poster for the card game called Vampire Hunter. It is a simple, but enjoyable game to play. I will give a more detail review this weekend, but I would recommend this game for all those Van Helsing wannabes out there.)
Record of Travel #2
The Second Adventure – Planning
Welcome back everyone!
This past week, I have explored the world wide web for new and exciting tales for us gamers. Though I risked my life for these tales, I assure you all that each experience I share with you will be worth looking at. If only I could ditch the dreaded Hodag of Rhinelander, WI. This feared beast of lore has stalked me on my travels in hopes of stopping me from attaining these treasured items. Items I hope you enjoy perusing and appreciate as I have lost so, so, much too. But alas, that is another tale I will share in the future. Please share your thoughts with me about my accumulated wealth down below and tales of camaraderie with your friends while playing. For next week, I will be reporting about Octo-Con 2018, a gaming convention in Greenfield, WI; and what I have learned there. Stay tune and keep the dice rolling!
Record of Travel #1
This is my first blog post ever! Help me GOD! Alright, here is the context of the week, new experiences.
This week I want talk about the first time I played a “modern” board game. I am defining the term “modern” as a game created after the year 2000 or a game that is involves more than moving a rolling a die and moving a token a certain distance towards a goal. For me, my first experience playing a modern board game happen about 6 years ago when I was introduced to Settlers of Catan. It is an incredible game to play. It is competitive, frustrating, and enjoyable all at once. You play with 3 to 5 other players to “conquer” Catan, an island located somewhere in the ocean. Each player places their town and road tokens on land tiles which give out resources. These resources are used to build more towns and roads as well as improve towns to become cities. Here is the catch, you can’t receive the resources unless you have a town already there. Also, you or another player must roll dice and match the number on the dice with the number on the land tile. It involves strategy in placing your town tokens mixed in with the anxiety of whether you or someone rolls the dice to benefit you. I really recommend trying out this game with your friends.
First Posting:
Gday, Mates!
Welcome to Derferd’s Boardgame Expeditions. My actual name is Fred Prueter and I currently live in Sheboygan, WI. I picked the nickname, Derferd, because it is unique and it’s fun for me to watch people faces figure out where I came up with it. Here is a hint: Look at the letters of my nickname really close. I grew up in Plainfield, IL (Yes, I was there for the F5 tornado. No. I did not see the Wicked Witch of the West flying by) and then bounced around until about 10 years ago. At that time I met the love of my life, Keri, and wanted to settle down somewhere between where I was currently living, Lake Geneva, WI and Green Bay, WI where Keri was living. Sure enough, Sheboygan fit the bill and we have been lucky and/or blessed since then.
For as long as I can remember, I love to play games. I started to play card games with my parents and siblings ranging from hearts, spades, and crazy eights. Later on, there were traditional board games like Monopoly and Sorry. Unfortunately, when I became a teenager, nobody in my family wanted to play board, tabletop, and card games with me (Cue sad music) 😦 . I filled in the gap between the years of then and now with video games, but it was a lonely experience. It wasn’t until I moved to Sheboygan, WI that I was able to get back to playing board games with people. I made friends with some people from my church who are big into playing board games and I mean “big”. Their house had as many board games as a small game store in Milwaukee! I was able to try modern board games like Settlers of Catan, Citadel, and Mysterium and fell in love all over again. That was about 6 years ago and have been playing new and exciting games coming into market ever since.
Now, I have decided to write this blog in hopes to either reignite people’s lost passion for board games or to encourage people to try them out. Board games are so much different than they were years ago. There are strategy, D&D, deck-building, and cooperative board games that are challenging as well as fun to play. Please join me on my journey in exploring the new and upcoming games being developed and released to us.
“The way a man plays a game shows some of his character. The way he loses shows all of it.” – Uncredited.
Derfferd's Adventures in Board Games 