Getting Together to Game

The days have gotten long. Our lives our busy. Our friends and family are spread across this small planet of ours. Yet, we can still get together for a good game.

For some of us, during the Holiday season we think of joining round the table to play a board or card game. There are so many to choose from. Yet, how to do so when your gaming group is distributed across three time zones or more. Thankfully we live in "THE FUTURE" where all this can be achieved through asynchronous online play.

It is becoming more and more common for board games to have an electronic game equivalent. If you look through the iTunes* store you can probably find hundreds. While this is all well and good, only a portion of those were designed with online asynchronous play.

For any who may not understand what I mean by online asynchronous,  let me clarify a bit. The online should be self evident if you are reading this on the Internet. As for asynchronous, I don't want a game that all the players have to be online at the same time or on the same network. We are looking for games where I take my turn on my phone, then the next player in Portland gets a notification that it is her turn. She may be asleep at the time. So the game will sit in a holding pattern until she takes her turn. Once the gamer in Portland is done, play moves to the next up in North Carolina.

In order to better compile a list of games that meet these criteria, and run on iOS*, I have compiled a GeekList on Board Game Geek. Check out the list. Thumb it if you are a BGG member and find it useful. Know of a game that is missing? Either add it yourself if you are a BGG member, or let me know about the game and I can add it.

I'm "Moon Ranger" on Apple's Game Center if anyone wants to look me up.

*Sorry for those folks who use non-iOS devices. I have an iPhone and iPad, and many of my gaming group use iOS devices as well. Those implementations are the ones I am most familiar with.

Down and Out in California

Greetings from California.

I am out here for business, but I have lots of friends out on this coast. Unfortunately, I am holed up in my hotel room trying to get things done. I have work, homework, and NASA Academy work, all which needs to be done ASAP.

I am here until Wednesday night, at which point I am taking the red-eye back to the East Coast to participate in an all-day NASA Academy meeting.

I can't wait until things slow down, so I can breathe and have some fun and relax.

On the 24 February, we have made a commitment to go to our favorite game store, the Family Game Store in Savage Mill, Savage, MD. They have open gaming every Saturday night. Everyone is welcome, drop me a line if you can come, the more the merrier. If you can't... play a game in our honor.