Road Trip: Ohio. Again...
Day 10: Thursday, April 20, 2023 - Columbus, OH
Day's statistics:
Weather: upper 70s
Steps: Steve 6,536; Linda 3,479
Travel: 0 miles
Breakfast was a buffet of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, bagels, toast, fruit, and pastries.
Today was the first day of Mind Games® (MG) for me - my sixth MG.
Linda was going to be a hotel room widow for the next three days - but she is okay with that. At least that's what she tells me...
As a member of Mensa, I am considered a judge (some players are guests of Mensans and while they can stil play the games, thier votes
don't count). We get two sheets. The blue sheet contains the 30 games that as a judge I am REQUIRED to play, and the yellow sheet contains
all the others - any or none of these can be played, but they just don't get judged by those that have the games on their yellow sheet
(there ARE judges that have these games on their blue sheets). This year there were "only" 56 games - last year had 78 or so.
MG opened at 10:00. I made my way to the main conference room to check out all the games on display.
A little after 11:00, the room was full of gamers.
I knew one of the games I had to play - Blood on the Clocktower - was an 8 player game. If you are familiar with the
game Werewolf, Clocktower is a LOT like it with day and night phases, a killer, and villiagers.
It is advisable to play the big group games first because everyone that needs it, needs it. As more players play the
games, the fewer that need it so getting a big group together gets more and more challenging.
Fortunately, there was a large group - 14 at the start - that went off to one of the small conference rooms to
play Clocktower. I joined them. Eventually we got up to about 18 - still playable as I believe the cap was about 20.
We started setting up. After just a few minutes, someone entered the room and said "I've played this game before and
can readily explain it and help set it up. It is still going to take more than an hour to play. If anyone wants to
join me, we're going to the [small] conference room next door." I joined this group.
The facilitator - I'll call her Jane - told us about the game as she set it up for us. One of her kids, who also had experience
playing this game, read the instructions too, so that we could all hear them.
As a quick aside, as a MG judge, one of the components of a game is reading and understanding the instructions. The approach our
group was taking on this game is / can be frowned upon. But on the other hand, a game is supposed to take less than 90 minutes
to play - so there's that. We didn't mind this approach, in this case.
After some time, we started playing. Right after the first night phase (everyone closes their eyes and puts their heads down while
the facilitator gives information to certain players depending on their role) of the game, Jane realized she made a mistake (not
that there's anything wrong with that) by telling the wrong player who the killer was. So we started over.
In this second try, I was assigned the roll of Saint. The person next to me was the drunkard - but didn't know they were - and
falsely accused me of being the killer, and nominated me for execution. Jane asked me what my defense was. I said "I'm the Saint
and if you kill me, the game will be over." (That's the rules of the game.) Jane asked the group "Who wants him executed?" Everyone
raised their hand. Game over. Well, that was fun...
Some people enjoy - REALLY enjoy - this sort of game. I did not. But at least I was able to get this game checked off my list.
Lunch was provided to me as my attendance at MG. I had a buffet of salad bar that included chef salad toppings.
After sitting and eating for a few, I returned to gaming.
Linda, separately - in the room - had the end of the havarti and the last roll for lunch.
A little out of sequence here.
For dinner, Linda visited the Chinese restaurant in the plaza next to the hotel. She had lotus wraps, hot and sour soup, and chicken
with mixed vegetables and fried rice. She ate some, and kept the rest in the room fridge for the near future.
I played late into the night.
Lunch was sufficient, and hospitality had enough snacks available that I didn't break for dinner. I don't even know what it was.
I played for thirteen and a half hours the first day, and at 11:30, I went up to our room having completed 16 of my required 30
games. I also played two additional games from the yellow sheet. The sheets have the game codes listed on the left side so two or
more pages can be put together and people can easily see what games they share. So I wound up playing a series of games with Kim and
Ryan. The three of us sat and played seven games together. A good strategy for playing a number of games like this is 1) having a
number of games in common (determined by comparing sheets), and B) agreeing to "I'll play that game if you play this one afterward."
IMO, it is best to pile on as many games as possible in the beginning and take it easy later on, than go light in the beginning
and then be pressed to complete the required 30.
So one day down, and essentially half my games were completed. Great start. Time for bed. There's still tomorrow. And the next day.