06/07/21: Major Crimes and Terraforming Mars
TLDR
Update: Feeling anxious
Listening: Ty and That Guy
Playing: Terraforming Mars in person ( ! )
Watching: Major Crimes on HBOmax
End Notes: You can contact me at jadettman@gmail.com
THE UPDATE
I’m feeling anxious about my Magpie Game Design Festival submission this week. Monday, the day you receive this, I should receive an email with feedback on my game and whether or not it has been chosen for playtesting during the festival. Feedback is good (but I’m not great with criticism; which, yes, I need to get used to) and I both do and don’t want my game to be picked for playtesting, simultaneously. I do, because it would be great to show off my work to new people, and I don’t, because I’m always anxious/nervous about playing with people I don’t know (see also: not great at criticism).
I’m sure it will be fine and it’s a process that I need to get used to, especially if I’m going to share games I’ve designed with others, but the getting of the used to it is stressful.
LISTENING
Ty and That Guy is a podcast about the tv show The Expanse in which one of the writers, of the novels and tv episodes, talks with one of the actors from the show. They are doing an episode recap, starting with season one, and working their way forward. Along the way they talk about influences, on the show and themselves, and have an occasional guest on to talk about the show or other Hollywood-ish things.
I’m going to say, upfront, that this is not a brilliant podcast, nor say that you should go out and listen to it. If you’re interested in The Expanse and want to listen to some folks, who are very much involved with making the show, talk about it then maybe check it out.
For me, it’s one of those podcasts I listen to when I want something that is relatively interesting to me and features people who interesting to listen to. I was going to say that it’s popcorn listening, but I’m not even sure that’s true. I think calm, low-impact listening is closer. I listen to it when I want to listen to something that I know (probably) won’t raise my blood-pressure. Gaming podcasts fall into this category too, but they have the pitfall of stimulating creativity which is not great before bed.
https://tyandthatguy.com
PLAYING
We played Terraforming Mars! In person! In our house!
To be honest, we played TM in person a few weeks ago but at someone else’s house (everyone, in both cases, has been vaccinated, so yay for science). The in our house part was weird but good after a year of online only gaming.
Should I tell you about Terraforming Mars? Well, I suppose I will. TM is a game about, you guessed it, terraforming Mars. Each player is playing a corporation that has set out to make Mars livable over the course of several generations (turns). On your turn you get cards, which represent events or projects that you can fund to increase one or more terraforming indicators (oceans, oxygen, temperature). Once you max out all three indicators, the game is over and you count up victory points. Theoretically, the player that terraforms Mars the most, wins.
That description sounds a bit dry but, trust me, it’s a fun game. We have played A LOT of Terraforming Mars in the last five years. We even recently received our 3D tile set, which is what we played with. They are a little crazy but worth it just because we play the game so much.
http://strongholdgames.com/our-games/terraforming-mars/
WATCHING
Major Crimes is a spin-off tv show from The Closer. At this point, I think everyone who knows us knows that we love The Closer. (It’s tempting to make this about The Closer, but I’m going to back away now. Email me if you want to hear the spiel and I’ll talk about it in a future newsletter.)
Anyway, Major Crimes. It has 80% of the original cast and some new faces, which is a nice mix. Up till now, we’ve bounced off Major Crimes, usually because we try to watch it immediately after a The Closer re-watch. This time, it’s been a little while and the transition hasn’t been as difficult. Now, there are characters we’ve missed and we aren’t noticing the missing characters so much.
Honestly, I can’t say a ton about the show itself. We’re three episodes in and the squad is solving crimes amidst personal drama, which is most of what we tune in for. The rest is that the characters are great (which means the actors are great, but I repeat myself). I’m sure I’ll talk about Major Crimes further down the line. Right now, it’s just nice to get back to these characters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Crimes_(TV_series)
END NOTES
If you'd like to send me some feedback or discuss one of the topics I've talked about here (or even a different topic), email me at jadettman@gmail.com
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