Posts filed under 'Collectible Card Games'
If we gamers consider ourselves Homo ludens—humans who play—we can’t ignore that we have subspecies. Many call themselves “gamers,” but most mean something more specific. What distinguishes Homo ludens from people who don’t call themselves gamers, what unites us, is the perceived geek-factor of the games we play.
Within our geeky species, though, we’ve got varieties so distinct from one another that they can hardly be considered the same animal.
- Homo ludens sangoculi
Those whose eyes begin to bleed after avoiding blinking for five hours during an important raid. In other words, video gamers.
- Homo ludens terataleae
Those who play with monstrous dice. In other words, tabletop roleplaying gamers.
- Homo ludens con-concilii
Those whose definition of “diplomacy” is almost the exact opposite of Webster’s. In other words, board gamers.
- Homo ludens shovelens
Those who shuffle. In other words, card gamers. This subspecies is broad enough to encompass such infraspecies as homo ludens shovelens economica (trading card gamers).
No taxonomy is perfect. As with life taxonomy, the borders are blurry and subject to change. Unlike life taxonomy, in which separate subspecies rarely mate outside of unusual circumstances, Homo ludens is basically engaged in one enormous, non-stop orgy of crossbreeding. In common with Douglas Adams’s Hagunenonns of Vicissitus Three*, Homo ludens is a super-evolutionary being that morphs from one life form to another several times over lunch.
Despite that, though, most gamers do seem to wind up identifying more as one particular subspecies than any other, at least for a given time. For instance, although many MMO players also play roleplaying games, the vast majority of WoW players seem to be Homo ludens sangoculi, and many have never touched a icosohedron in their lives. A quick survey of gaming blogs supports this hypothesis. There are many video game blogs, many roleplaying game blogs, and so on. But there are very few blogs that embrace both kinds of games.
I enjoy different varieties of games with equal fervor. Surely, I’m not the only Homo ludens ecclecticus, right? Who else is out there? And what other subspecies belong in the taxonomy?
*If you don’t know about the Hagunennons, do get your hands on a copy of the original The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy BBC radio production. It has quite a few gems that didn’t survive to the many later versions of the property that will absolutely tickle a fan of the setting.
October 16th, 2007
Sabertooth Games is offering two free random demo decks of their UFS (Universal Fighting System) collectible card game, along with a copy of the complete rules. All you have to do is fill out the form here before supplies are gone.
I’m not the target demographic of this game. I have never been very interested in the fighting video game genre, and the last thing I need is another CCG to interest me. That said, this seems like a great chance to try something I wouldn’t otherwise even consider, so I’ve signed up.
Any devotees of the game out there? If so, put up a comment letting me know what to expect!
September 7th, 2007
No, I don’t know why Heroes Kingdom spells its name that way. That didn’t stop us from enjoying the store as a fun spot to visit on our vacation in Vermont. We stayed about half an hour away from St. Albans, and friends staying in a nearby cabin decided to visit the town one evening. They spotted the store, but because it was closed couldn’t investigate.
So we all went together a couple of days later.
Truth to tell, I haven’t spent much time in game stores, despite my passion for the hobby. Online prices always beat brick-and-mortar prices, and online information is good enough that it hasn’t seemed worth the time to me. But now, even though I won’t be back to St. Albans for a year, thanks to this store I have resolved to make time. We would up spending a total of about two hours there.
The RPG section leaves a lot to be desired. It sits on two smallish shelves and features about 95% D20 books. The board game section is small, too, but it had some good offerings. Descent
tempted me, but I resisted for now. My friend grabbed Zombies!!! 
I picked up both the board game–inspired Settlers of Catan Card Game
and Deluxe Illuminati (which has nothing to do with board games).
The store focuses on collectible games. Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures
and DC HeroClix figures
(and many other collectible figure games) lined the shelves. Magic The Gathering
and other collectible card games were also well represented. My other friend managed to snag some booster packs of WizKid’s Pirates at Ocean’s Edge
, her passion and something she’s had trouble finding lately.
Other shelves were laden with action figures (which mean nothing to me) and Warhammer
materials.
Best of all, though, my two-year-old had a grand time. The back room, normally used for gaming, had a stash of pieces of various board games, including some oriented toward kids. She played with an odd collection of a bus, a dragon, and some other bits and pieces while we grownups looked around.
My daughter has already developed something of a dice fetish, so she and I spent some time looking at the broad display of colorful polyhedrons. After we left, I kept wishing I’d gone ahead and bought some of the unusual barrel dice they had for sale. As luck would have it, we justified a return trip a couple of days later, and I did snag a set. Since I mostly play GURPS, I don’t have a great justification for the purchase, but they’re fun, interesting, and different.
And they’re tempting me to go out and buy Serenity Role Playing Game (Serenity)
, partly because I love the setting, partly because I’d like to try the game, and partly because it will give me an excuse to bring out these funky fellows.
August 29th, 2007
I got four copies of the Promotional “The Eyrie” card (P28) through the brick-and-mortar pre-order Fantasy Flight Games was offering. I put up three of them as “Haves” on Tzumainn.com and almost immediately got four offers for trade.
I’m new to all this, so I asked for advice, and two folks gave me some excellent tips on online trading, the relative values of various cards, and how to go about wheeling and dealing.
In the end, I settled on what are probably not the most optimal deals for me. I suspect that, given the current demand for these cards, I could have held out for more. But I feel genuine gratitude to the two traders who gave me advice, so I was happy to repay their time with deals that are better for them.
And here’s hoping that as I fill out my collection (and as I said before, I’m more a collector than a player, though that, too, may change), I’ll find more opportunities to trade with these great guys.
July 19th, 2007
Thank goodness this most excellent of sites, the ultimate card-trading site for the Game of Thrones trading card game, is back up. Apparently, the web hosting service made a major blunder.
But, though several days of data have been lost, that’s a small price to pay to have the service up again.
If you’re at all interested in the game, be sure to check out the site and take the time to upload your inventory. I made a “Haves” list and a “Wants” list, and I’ve already managed to plug two big holes in my collection for the cost of extra cards and a bit of postage, all through one trade.
Are there similar sites for other CCGs? I haven’t found one for Pirates of the Spanish Main, but surely someone’s built something like this.
July 2nd, 2007
Over the past few weeks, I have—for the first time ever—become addicted to a CCG. And ironically, I’ve never even played it.
I never thought I’d get caught up in a CCG. I much prefer roleplaying games, rich with collaborative storytelling and infinite possibilities. The fantasy trappings of games like Magic: The Gathering have struck me as a fairly thin veneer on top of a stilted card game.
But I’ve been swept away by A Game of Thrones. This is no doubt due to my passionate love of George R. R. Martin’s astonishingly good fantasy series
, perhaps the greatest fantasy series ever, ever written. On my birthday a month ago, I received a few booster packs from some good friends (along with other Song of Ice & Fire–related gaming goodness), and it lit a fire that nothing save getting every single card will quite be able to extinguish.
Obviously, at this point the pleasure I’m deriving owes much to the glee of gloating than the game, but it’s also quite fun to see the rules each card has, not just the artwork (which is, of course, uneven—some stunning, some astonishingly amateur). And even though I don’t know anyone else who collects the cards, Fantasy Flight Games has seen fit to release some pre-built, playable decks (I don’t know how competitive they are, but at this point it doesn’t matter). As a collector, I’ve gone ahead and acquired them, but I’ll certainly be shoving them into friends’ hands so we can try out a quick game.
Alas, it appears A Game of Thrones isn’t nearly as popular as other CCGs (none of which particularly appeal to me). Though a new expansion is coming in August, my local game store has decided to stop carrying the cards. Let’s hope the expansion will instill new vigor in the fan community and give me a chance to get out and play more.
But I find the simple act of collecting surprisingly entertaining. I now have notebooks with card sleeves to display every single one, bright divider sheets, boxes for storing the surplus, and careful indexes.
June 27th, 2007