A night with games

In this occasion at CUFC - Faith and Culture University Centre, by the University of Aveiro, thus becoming the third home for playing board games in the Aveiro Region (Portugal), after S. Bernardo and Borralha, Águeda. Lively tables with not that many empty seats around them, holding promises for the last Mondays of every month to come.

Besides chatting and taking some photos, for the record, I also managed to have a go at some games.

Starting with Xodul, a prototype by Sílvia Rodrigues combinig some pieces and movements based on the more traditional chess, on shogi and xiang-qi, with some original features. A challenge for those enjoying abstract games for two, in black and white!

Then it was time to guide new players into Azul, a game that is becoming increasingly popular, for its components, the game play itself and, no doubt, by the rules so easy to understand and its short duration.

And, to end the night, a play of Sagrada, for some time in the waiting list. A colourful game, matching the underlying stained-glass theme, with a simple set of rules, not that easy to master, and a dash of luck attached to the countless dice that will bring the stained-glasses to life.

More to come, next month!

Playing the Xodul prototype

Teaching Azul

Having a go at Sagrada

Step in and leave your PAW print - Playing Around the World - and follow the PAW tag.
Send a photo of a gaming session, the game title, your name, city, country (and, if you feel like, a short sentence about the game and or a photo of the city) to gamesinbw@gmail.com.

A quest for knowledge - Ep. 5: On Newton's chair

On the road again, after months of hard work. And although I like the afternoons, and the nights, spent around books, scribbling and thinking, I must confess that I was missing the freedom of travel.

Now, the landscapes were slowly unfolding, as I headed North. The approach to the sea was told on by changes in the air. Then, the crossing of the Channel waters, the sighting of the white cliffs of Dover, amidst the dissipating fog, and the disembarking on the other shore, followed suit.

Resuming the way, over dry land, I passed Canterbury, with its cathedral and castle, exhibiting signs of centuries bygone. I crossed the Thames, to the east of London, where I was hoping to pass on the way back. I continued, through hills green from water, water from the flowing rivers and water that frequently fell from the skies. I finally hit the next stop.

I had left the city with a university for the University with a city.

I was in Cambridge. Buildings full of history and knowledge, with its silhouettes at sunset, chapels, columns and spirals, lawn courtyards, river and bridges. Peterhouse College, dating back to the late 13th century, Corpus Christi, King's, Queen's, St. John's, among others. And, of course, Trinity College. I was stepping on the very same ground Newton had stepped on, not that many years ago!

Newton’s first lecture as Lucasian professor took place at Trinity College in January 1670. It was about his research on optics (…). The audience was small, no-one came to the second lecture, and he continued talking to an empty room throughout almost every lecture he gave for the next seventeen years. After that he gave up all pretence of teaching, which he never enjoyed. (*)

The dilemmas I was, increasingly, dealing with, split between the search for and the transmission of knowledge.

The search, demanding, intense, incessant, absorbent, of answers that will always bring new questions. Know, know more, know first, discover, unravel, somehow create. Isolate from the world to better understand the world.

To share, passing on both knowledge and method, starting the flame, awakening the enthusiasm, unsettling the other. Providing clues, instead of solutions, to make one read and reread, demonstrate, debate, listening, knowing how to listen, teach, repeat, insist.

What would I become, throughout this journey, throughout this life?

(to be continued)


On a journey, riding with Newton, a game of Nestore Mangone and Simone Luciani, Ediciones Mas que Oca (2018) under license of Cranio Creations. 
.
(*) Remarkable Physicists - From Galileo to Yukawa, Ioan James, Cambridge University Press (2004).

A quest for knowledge - Ep. 4: Working long hours

I knew the city. The uses and traditions. Both, by day and by night. In the sunlight, or in the shadows. A result of a few months of much study, and of some wandering around.

But there was an urge to consider the present situation, as well as to delve into the near future. I really needed to find a way to increase my revenue, which is becoming increasingly tight, if I am to maintain this living standard.

A part of those gains would naturally be used to acquire even more books. It is not enough for me to just touch their covers, or flip through their pages. I need to have them with me, to be able to carry the knowledge and imagination, to increase the number of my travel companions.

Another part would be necessary to prepare the next trip, now that my stay in Paris was approaching the end.

Fortunately, it was not difficult, to someone of my condition and with my knowledge, to find students in need of private lessons.

One must also consider the fact that many teachers have an auxiliary income such as lawyers, preachers, school presidents, university or college council members, librarians, private teachers, etc. (*).

And this is how my days became longer, divided between the hours at the university, the private lessons and scarce spare time. As compensation, I will have some more volumes to carry. And also a somewhat fuller purse.

(to be continued)


On a journey, riding with Newton, a game of Nestore Mangone and Simone Luciani, Ediciones Mas que Oca (2018) under license of Cranio Creations. 
.
(*) Uma História da Universidade na Europa [A History of the University in Europe], Vol. II – As Universidades na Europa Moderna (1500-1800), Coordenação de Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda (2002).

Six Pack - N.º 2 - Of cities

The Settlers of Catan

Six.

The sides of a dice.

The sides of the hexagon.

Photographs without comment.

Assembled under a common feature.

The Castles of Burgundy

Alhambra

Squad Leader

Tokyo Highway

Solenia

A quest for knowledge - Ep. 3: Et voilá, Paris!

I left. I travelled. And I arrived!

I arrived at the new center of my world, for the days and nights to come. The university, the Sorbonne and the other colleges, the astronomical observatory, the libraries. I was starting to feel at home in the modus parisiensis of college life, spending my time in slots, between the time to get up and bedtime : the lessons, the study, the reading and memorization, the conversations with other students, the teachers, the meals.

I was also beginning to know the city. The Seine and its banks, the island and the cathedral, the streets and alleys, the inns, the taverns, the people.

Of no lesser importance, at least for me, were those moments when I wandered into the typographies and the booksellers, leafing through both legal books as, in a stealthier way, books that only circulate underground, avoiding the scrutiny of the authorities.

“The whole town acts like a book and the Citizens walk through it reading it, soaking up civil lessons at every step they give”, E. Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France, in Homens Bons [free translation from the Portuguese version].

I did not know for how long I would stay. But of one thing I was certain: I would return to the open road, in search of other places, wishing to live other experiences, aiming to find new wisdom. Maybe, too, in search of myself.

(to be continued)


On a journey, riding with Newton, a game of Nestore Mangone and Simone Luciani, Ediciones Mas que Oca (2018) under license of Cranio Creations. 

Homens Bons [Good Men] (2015), Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Edições ASA.
Uma História da Universidade na Europa [A History of the University in Europe], Vol. II – As Universidades na Europa Moderna (1500-1800), Coordenação de Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda (2002).

Elementary!

Do you like a good crime plot, to closely follow the investigation, to pay attention to the clues,to discover where the incoherence lies, to anticipate the protagonists? Are you prepared to read cases, hear testimonies, record facts? Have you ever dreamed of being Sherlock Holmes or his faithful companion, Dr. Watson?

If you answered yes to all the above, then it is very likely that you will enjoy bringing to life the cases present in Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective – The Thames Murders & other cases!

This game, designed by Gary Grady, Suzanne Goldberg and Raymond Edwards, superbly illustrated by Pascal Quidault, Arnaud Demaegd, Nerlac and Bernard Bitler, in an edition of Space Cowboys, France, reinvents, in some way, the adventure game books, in which the story unfolds according to the actions we choose, jumping from one paragraph to another.

London. March 12th, 1988. A body is found. The investigation begins.

We won't be Sherlock! But he's the one who calls us in, introduces us to the case and sends us on a mission.

We're one of the Baker Street Irregulars. Street people who live by the shadows, watching and listening, helping the most famous detective.

The first information about the case, the circumstances of death, the first reports, people to contact in search for relevant information.

On the table, the map of London, full of places that may prove important, or to lead us into dead (no pun intended) ends.

The newspapers of the previous days, filled with current news, social events, births, marriages and deaths, the economy, the sport, the arts, the international scene, the trivia, the classifieds.

Will they enable us to gather clues, names, new knowledge? Will they allow to confirm, or to dismiss, alibis? Will they lead to unsuspected motives? Or are they just irrelevant to the case?

The London Directory, with the alphabetical list of people, institutions and addresses.

Musgrove, Lord Gordon, 79 NW, the same as saying 79 northwest.

Winchester Arms Co, 21 EC, East Central, under Gunsmiths.

Addresses to search for in the map.
Map to reveal new addresses.
Distance and time to be measured.

The Thames River, the Parliament, the American Embassy, the New Scotland Yard.
Regent Street, New Oxford Street, High Holborn.

Familiar names to anyone who's been there before.
Names that will become familiar throughout the history, in this London of some 230 years ago.

The game play is simple: choose a location, based on the available information, to visit or to interview someone; Find the matching paragraph in the book of the case; Read the new information; Reflect upon it and repeat the process.

It is important to know that we can always rely on some important characters, such as Sir Jasper Meeks, the coroner of Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, Porky Shinwell, the owner of the Raven and Rat Pub, Langdale Pike, social columnist, or Holmes himself, among others.

In the end, we compare our deductive reasoning, and the result obtained, with the master's very own solution. Will it be close enough?

The experience began in solo mode, but it will undoubtedly be more fun with two or three more detectives around, exchanging opinions, discussing what to do, formulating hypotheses.

And after a case is solved, which will probably need a good couple of hours, there are nine more on the line! And after solving all of them, how about becoming a narrator for a new group of players?

An excellent game to read, to discover while reading, while talking over.

Night falls over London.

6 October 2018

D-30.
One year ago.
The start of the countdown.
D-day scheduled for November 5.
Symbolic date, for other reasons, to mark a beginning.
Only unforeseen circumstances could prevent the launch.
The name for the blog was chosen.
The timeline defined.

D-30.
With letters.
With numbers.
With parts that connect.
On a table that is also a game board.
Scrabble, Mathable, Catan, Chess.

D-30.
In black and white.
Games in black and white.
In Portuguese and English.
On the way to complete year one.

A quest for knowledge - Ep. 2: All set to go

I had made the decision. I would leave soon. But where to?

To the north, to Leipzig, the hometown of Wagner and the University of strong Lutheran tradition? Too close! Further away, heading east towards icy winters, to the renowned University of Krakow, where Copernicus has studied? Too cold! To Bologna, that after Padua was just the second university to grant the degree of doctor in Philosophy to a woman? Maybe later.

Paris is calling me. The University of Paris. The Sorbonne. The Lights. The news announcing that the great work of Diderot and d'Alembert, the Encyclopedia, Encyclopédie, or Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des Arts et des métiers, has come to an end. More than two dozen volumes, thousands of articles, gathering all the most up to date knowledge. Paris will be!


I did not knew, by then, that the Royal Spanish Academy had decided to send the librarian Don Hermógenes Molina and the Admiral Don Pedro Zárate, two good men, to Paris, with the delicate mission of bringing back to Spain a copy of this thought challenging encyclopedia, against the orders of the catholic church. But that's another story.


Then maybe Cambridge, on the other side of the English Channel, who knows. Or Salamanca, traversing the Pyrenees, by land, or across the waters of Biscay; and from there on to the mysteries of Granada and onto the Mare Nostrum.

Now it was time for the final preparations. I hung the saddlebags in the chair and put some of my belongings on the undone bed. I must travel light. A few pieces of clothing, provisions for the early stage of the journey, the books that would be my fellow travelers, the coins in a purse, the letters of recommendation, from my former masters to my future masters. All set.

I hit the road.


(to be continued)

On a journey, riding with Newton, a game of Nestore Mangone and Simone Luciani, Ediciones Mas que Oca (2018) under license of Cranio Creations. 

Homens Bons [Good Men] (2015), Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Edições ASA.
Uma História da Universidade na Europa [A History of the University in Europe], Vol. II – As Universidades na Europa Moderna (1500-1800), Coordenação de Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda (2002).