Cabin Con 2021 - Part VIII

 Cabin Con 2021 - Part VIII

But seriously, y'all: check out the Twitter that follows the exploits of the most excellent friends and adventurers who have so graciously welcomed me to Cabin Con for these past two years. They're hilarious, they're creative, they can't always cook rice but they've got good hearts: they're the Champions of Valinwood!

NEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDSSSSSSS! And you can find them on YouTube, too!

We come now to the end of Cabin Con 2021. All good things must end, and though I was real sad to see the end of Cabin Con this year, I was ready to turn around and drive home to St. Louis. I love my family and my city, and I missed both. I don't like my state, but that's another issue entirely...the point being, I was ready to go home. So let's close this thing out so we can hurry up and wait for Cabin Con 2022!

At this point, it is incumbent upon me to mention that besides talking about "tiny hands" all weekend, the crew kept talking about wanting to "disarm a bomb." As was true of the former, I had no damn clue what they were talking about with regards to the latter. I didn't bother asking because I figured I'd find out in time. And sure enough, at some point in the weekend (I believe it was Sunday evening?), it was thus declared: "Let's disarm a bomb!" There were cheers of agreement and I was introduced to "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes." This is another one of those games in which I only have interest with certain groups of friends because of how wildly different the approaches would be. Basically, the way I was introduced to this game was that there would be two teams of two guys each "in vans" calling out instructions to me and Ryan who were in the room with the bomb. We described what we were seeing on the bomb with regards to levers, lights, wires, etc., the two teams would look through their books, and then based on the info we were feeding them, they'd come back with sequences we needed to disarm the bomb.

I don't generally like real time games. They stress me the hell out in a way that I do not enjoy. X-COM is one of the few I like, but I like playing the Scientist every time because it feels as though the stakes are lower for me than anyone else while I serve in that support capacity, you know? But the novelty of this was really cool. That said, what really made it for me was the role-playing this group utilized. It felt a lot like Sheriff of Nottingham all over again. I had played the game prior to Cabin Con 2020, but not with each player role-playing through the whole game. It just added a whole other dimension of enjoyment for me. So I wasn't playing "Keep Talking..." to win so much as I was for the experience. We played several times, and it was just a lot of fun. I liked being with the bomb, but had more fun being a guy in the van looking through the booklet based on information I was being fed. I think that through my several attempts, I only managed to disarm one bomb. But exploding one less time than I had to is still a win!

On our last night at the cabin, we also played We're Doomed. The fellas had introduced me to this game the previous year, and while I'm not a big fan of it or anything, I was up for trying it again. The premise of the game is that the world is coming to an end, and everyone has to work together to build a rocket in order to escape into space. But as these things go, there's a good chance there won't be a seat for everyone. So everyone has to contribute while also looking after their own interest. It's a card game that's full of negotiation between players/nations, and while I like playing with this group, the game itself doesn't necessarily hold that much interest for me. It's worth noting that this is another real time game. I was an Autocrat, which meant that it's cheaper for me to nuke another leader, thus eliminating them from the game. Whoever was on my right was also an Autocrat, so we were both considered threats. There was a Democracy, a Theocracy, and I can't remember what role the fifth player had.

The game ended up turning on a vote in which I convinced the majority of other players to vote all banked Influence from the player with the most over to me. I'm pretty sure Mike was running the Theocracy and had that huge stockpile of Influence (which is used to determine who has priority in being seated on the escape rocket). This happened closer to the end of the game, and so I was the first one seated on the shuttle. There was another card in play that said whoever had the most Influence had to choose one person to kick off the vessel, even if there was a seat for them. Though I delighted in choosing who to leave to their doom, the truth is that the game result felt quite arbitrary, as I was not doing particularly well in the game until I got that windfall of Influence at the end of the game. It broke my way, and that was fun, but didn't feel much like an accomplishment. I'm happy to play this game once a year, but that's probably my limit on it. And honestly, I'll never be the one who suggests dusting it off.

We also played Not Alone, as well as Lost Temple. Both were totally new to me, so I was looking forward to learning more new games. I was more interested in learning Not Alone than Lost Temple, but as I'd already had some surprises over the course of the weekend, I was willing to try just about anything my friends pitched in case I discovered yet another game that I liked far more than I anticipated.

I was not a big fan of Lost Temple. Players are explorers seeking a lost temple hidden deep in a jungle, and our actions are determined by role cards that we draft. I didn't look at its rating on BGG ahead of playing it, but generally, unless I know a game already, I'm looking for a rating of 7+. Lost Temple has a 5.9, and that's pretty consistent with my experience with it. There were a couple of turns in which I did literally nothing. I'm not talking about turns wherein I *felt* like I had bad turns and didn't accomplish anything. I mean two consecutive turns in which the action I chose had absolutely no effect. There was one in which I chose a card to move me forward and I didn't move at all. The next, I picked a card to get me some resources. I earned zero resources. From a game design standpoint, there's a difference between having a suboptimal turn and a turn in which a player does literally nothing. The former can be found in any game at all. The latter is not found in games I enjoy playing. I may not like that my choices didn't net me a gain, but at least I did something. Even if it's a zero sum. But if I can have turns in which I've done literally nothing at all? Yeah, that's not a game I'm going to revisit. Needless to say, I lost this one and it wasn't close. It was mercifully short, but that's the only praise I wanna give it.

FINALLY, the last game I'll be writing about for this 8 part recap is Not Alone. We went into space, got shipwrecked, and so had to escape The Creature that was hunting us. It's a PvA (player versus all) game in which one player plays The Creature, and the rest of us play the unfortunate space travelers. It's another light card game in which bluffing is central. Basically, each player other than The Creature gets a hand of cards that correspond to locations. As the game progresses, players can gain new cards to add to their hand, thus expanding accessible locations. Additionally, The Creature is attempting to anticipate where the players will go so it can meet them there. The Creature does this through counting cards, and that gets harder as players expand their hand. If I remember correctly, we played the game twice: Josh was The Creature for the first game, and Drew was The Creature for the second game. It's also completely possible that I made up the second game as consolation for losing the first one. It's now been two months since we played, and while I'm convinced we played this twice, the more I think about it, the more I question the integrity of my account. Lesson learned to write these up way faster in the future!

That disclaimer aside, here's how *I* remember it: In the first game, we simply never found our feet as Josh kept kicking them out from underneath us. I was one of the people who got hit HARD in the second and third rounds after feeling clever with my first round choices. In the second game, all of us had a better handle on what we needed to do and were able to confound Drew's Creature and escape.

EDIT: I was reminded by the Cabin Con gang that, in fact, Suf was The Creature in the first game and handily beat us while Josh played The Creature and lost in the second game. So I was WAY off 😂

Overall, the game was fun! I didn't love it, and or anything, but I had a good time and would play it again. I'm sure that sounds like faint praise after some of the games I've covered on this blog, but sometimes, good enough is good enough. There are only so many game archetypes out there, right? Only so many permutations of mechanics. And after years of playing games, I have hit a point wherein I know a lot of my favorites in various genres. As I have limited time to play games in the first place, it means I generally want to ensure that I'll enjoy whatever I get to the table. And I really do only have so much room on my shelf, so I am trying to do a better job of investing my time and money in the games I enthusiastically pull off the shelf each time.

All of that to say that not every single game will fit that bill. But it doesn't mean I will only ever play what I think are the best games. To that end, while Not Alone is not a game in which I'd invest my money, I will happily revisit it and invest my time.

And that's it! That was my experience with Cabin Con 2021! I hope you've enjoyed reading these even just a fraction of the amount I've enjoyed writing them. A final look at the glorious pile of games played (both before and after I arrived) as we bid farewell to the best Cabin Con yet. Here's hoping next year is even better!