Tomfhaines

Just last month, Z-Man Games released the latest title in the Pandemic line, Pandemic: Contagion. This time, however, you’re not trying to eradicate infectious diseases. You are the diseases, working to wipe out as much of the world’s population as possible. With Ebola and Enterovirus constantly in the news, you’d think we’re on the verge of being wiped out by infectious diseases. As it turns out, that’s not as easy as the media makes it out to be—at least in this game.

At a glance: Pandemic: Contagion is for 2 to 5 players, ages 13 and up, and takes about 30 minutes to play. It retails for $29.99. I would say the game mechanics are simple enough to pick up that you could probably drop that age to 10 or an experienced 8, with the caveat that you may need to explain why you’d want to be a deadly disease.

Components:

• 60 Contagion cards
• 24 City cards
• 12 Event cards
• 6 WHO cards
• 5 Player Disease boards
• 5 Score markers
• 5 Petri Dishes
• 75 Player Disease cubes (15 per player)
• 1 score board

The Contagion cards are simply color-coded to apply to different regions. Each card has a color and the associated region in the corner. City cards have the name of the city, plus several numbers in the corner, a few rows for placing disease cubes, and finally a special effect at the bottom. The Events and WHO cards introduce random elements that may help or harm you throughout the game. I will note that the cards are decent quality, but because they have black borders, they’re already showing a little wear after a few plays.

The player boards are pretty nice: there’s a tracker for each of your three traits (Incubation, Infection, and Resistance), a turn summary printed on the side, and a large hole for the petri dish. The trackers have square holes punched out so that your tracking cubes slot into them rather than just sitting on top. I’m sure the game could have been smaller (and cheaper) without the punch-outs and the plastic petri dishes, but it’s fun and adds to the theme. And it’s nice that your cubes don’t slide around on the trackers.

The disease cubes are small translucent plastic cubes, and they look pretty nice. Next to them, the scoring tokens (opaque plastic disks) seem boring. The scoring track is just a simple piece of cardboard with squares from 1 to 50—nothing particularly exciting there.

As a bonus (to me, anyway), the box isn’t huge. There isn’t a box divider but everything just fits into the box without a bunch of empty space.

How to play

The rulebook is available as a PDF here.

The goal of the game is to have the most points at the end of the game by infecting and wiping out cities and mutating your disease.

To begin, each player takes a player board, petri dish, and the disease cubes of their color. Three cubes are placed on the player board marking the “1” level for each of the three traits. The Contagion deck is shuffled and each player is dealt four cards. The City deck is shuffled and a certain number of cities are laid out, depending on the number of players. The Event deck is set up: 3 Events, 1 WHO, 3 Events, 1 WHO, 3 Events, 1 WHO. Finally, each player will get to place one disease cube in a city of their choice.

At the start of each round, the top card of the event deck is revealed—it will affect all players during their turn. Whenever a City icon appears on the Event card, you draw another City and add it to the table. Every two Skull icons, you do a “Death Toll” scoring of all infected cities.

On your turn, you get to take two actions from the following (you may repeat an action): Incubate, Infect, or Mutate.

Incubate: Draw cards equal to your Incubation level.

Infect: Place cubes equal to your incubation level in any city. To infect a new city, you’ll need two cards of that city’s color. To infect a city you’re already in, you only need one card of that color. Any two cards may be played as a wild, counting as any color.

Mutate: Increase any of your trait levels by discarding the number of cards indicated on the track. Note that the number of cards doesn’t always correspond to the trait level. Increasing your Infection rate from 2 to 3 costs four cards, but increasing your Resistance level from 2 to 3 only costs 2 cards.

Your Resistance level helps protect you from various effects—any time you have to remove a cube from a city, lower a mutation level, or discard cards, you may lower your Resistance level to prevent that many elements from being lost.

When you score infected cities for the Death Toll scoring, the player with the most cubes on the city gets the lowest number on the card, and nobody else scores. In case of a tie, whoever was first to infect that city gets the points.

The highest number on a City card (in red) represents that city’s population. If the number of disease cubes equals the population, you have wiped out that city. No more cubes are added, and instead there is an immediate eradication scoring. The player with the most cubes gets the highest number, second-most gets the second highest number, and third-most gets the third number. Again, in case of ties, the player who infected first wins.

Then, whichever player triggered the eradication (even if they weren’t first place) gets the City card. Some City cards have “play immediately” effects, and some may be saved and played at a later time.

When the last WHO card is revealed or when there are only two cities remaining on the table, finish the round and then the game ends. At the end of the game, complete one more Death Toll scoring for any remaining infected cities. Then, add the total of your mutation levels to your score. Highest score wins, with ties going to the player with most mutations.

The two-player game is slightly different, with a dummy third player also adding cubes to cities.

The Verdict

I can’t quite decide if the release of a game about being a deadly disease during the Ebola crisis is great timing or terrible timing. Probably good timing for Z-Man Games, because it’s a topic that is on everyone’s mind. And, let’s face it, boardgamers don’t tend to shy away from difficult subjects in their games, right?

Although Pandemic: Contagion shares its title and branding with Pandemic, the game is a stand-alone and functions completely independently. It was designed by Carey Grayson. You may recognize the disease colors and the various cities that appear in the game, but otherwise there’s little overlap aside from the theme.

The game itself is pretty straightforward, with only three types of actions to choose from. You’ll have to decide how best to use your two actions: should you infect cities so that you’ll be in position when the next Death Toll scoring occurs? Or should you increase your incubation and infection levels so you can draw more cards and place more cubes at a time? Some of it will depend on whether the cards you draw happen to match the cities that are currently on the table, but you also need to make the best of the events as they occur.

I did try the two-player variant but didn’t find it quite as interesting, though some of that may have been because of the particular assortment of events and cities we drew. We had mostly low-population cities, and no Event cards that added more cities, so we ended up wiping out several cities quickly and the game ended well before the 12 round maximum. But I’m also not generally a fan of the dummy-player variants, and I’d much rather play with more real players.

One other downside to the game is that sometimes you’ll feel like you don’t have much choice. Certainly if you have no cards then you’ll have to take a draw cards action, and depending on whether you’ve increased your Incubation level, you may just have to draw cards twice. In some cases, players said that there seemed to be only one course of action that made sense on a given turn.

That said, Pandemic: Contagion does have an interesting feel to it, and success is based on a mixture of luck and adaptability. I also like that it’s an interesting way to model disease and how it spreads; the Events and WHO cards are like a mini-class in public health. Handwashing campaign? Darn. Bird migration season? Excellent.

If you don’t mind the morbid subject matter, Pandemic: Contagion is a fun way to play the flipside of Pandemic. It’s a much lighter game than its big brother, but it’s a pretty good short game that could follow up a round of battling diseases across the globe.

Pandemic: Contagion was released on October 20 and is in stores now.

Disclosure: GeekDad received a review copy of this game.

Thanks for reading GeekDad. Please consider clicking through to our site, we'd love to have you become more involved in our community!

Share and Enjoy:

Thanks for reading GeekDad. Please consider clicking through to our site, we'd love to have you become more involved in our community!

pumpkinpienix:

igperish:

(x)

EVERY TIME I SEE HIM SAYING SOMETHING I LOVE HIM MORE UGH

FUCK YEAH DANIEL RADCLIFFE

Halloween approaches, and what better way to celebrate than by breaking out a few spooky board games? Last year we shared a list of 13 games for Halloween, and this year we’ve got 13 more, selected by Dave Banks, Rory Stark, Anthony Karcz, John Booth, and yours truly. So grab some candy corn or other non-sticky sugary treats (caramel apples are right out), and play some games!

1. Pandemic

I know what you’re thinking: “Pandemic? That’s not a Halloween game.” Usually, no, but this year everyone’s scared of Ebola and Enterovirus D68, so what better way to conquer your fears than by finding cures for nasty viruses? But I should warn you: chances are, the nasty viruses will wipe you out. Here’s hoping life doesn’t imitate art.

Pandemic is a now-classic cooperative game, where you work together to formulate cures before the diseases wipe out too much of Earth’s population. The On the Brink expansion adds a few new roles, more virulent diseases, plus an optional bioterrorist role.

Hate being on the losing side? Next month, you’ll be able to pick up Pandemic: Contagion, where you get to play a disease trying to wipe out the human race. That reminds me: better go get your flu shots.

Pandemic: 2 to 4 players (5 with On the Brink), 8 and up, about 45 minutes to play.

2. Mord im Arosa

Mord im Arosa is a bizarre little murder mystery that requires careful listening. You drop wooden cubes into this tower of boxes, trying to hear which floor they land on. Of course, the goal isn’t to figure out whodunnit so much as to pin the murder on somebody other than yourself. Be careful, though—sloppy investigations leave behind even more clues for other players to find.

Mord im Arosa: 2 to 6 players, 10 and up, about 60 minutes to play.

3. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: The Skinsaw Murders

You already know I’m a huge fan of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, but the second adventure deck, The Skinsaw Murders, is a particularly good set for Halloween. Pumpkin-headed ghoul scarecrows, ghostly haunts, zombies, and crows—it might be a good time to revisit Sandpoint. For extra credit, throw in Syrinscape‘s Pathfinder-themed soundscapes while you play.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: 1 to 4 players (up to 6 with the Character Add-On Deck), 12 and up, 60-90 minutes to play.

4. Tragedy Looper

Tragedy Looper is a game from Japan that got an English printing from Z-Man Games this year. It’s a brain-bending puzzle: one player is the Mastermind, trying to wreak havoc with various tragedies: serial killers, conspiracy theorists, and so on. The rest of the players are trying to figure out who’s behind the plots, and they loop back in time to prevent those tragedies from happening. It takes some time to learn but it’s worth the effort, and playing it out feels like a horrific version of Groundhog Day.

Tragedy Looper: 2 to 4 players (4 is ideal), 13 and up, about 2 hours to play.

5. Dead of Winter

There are hordes and hordes of zombie-based board games on game store shelves; what makes Dead of Winter so great, you might ask yourself, before pointing out that it doesn’t even have plastic minis! Dead of Winter is billed as a “meta-cooperative psychological survival game” which means all players are working toward a common goal, but individual players also have secret objectives. In order to win, both goals must be achieved for each player. But beware! Among the players, there may also be a betrayer, working to thwart your plans by driving down morale. The result is lots of tension, suspicion, and second-guessing each other’s motives. Dead of Winter is one of those games on everyone’s “must play” lists this year, so the only thing more horrifying than surviving a winter in a colony surrounded by zombies might be trying to find a copy to call your own.

Dead of Winter: 2 to 5 players, 12 and up, approximately 60-90 minutes.

6. Night of the Grand Octopus

Have you often thought to yourself, “I wish I could share the obsession and madness that accompany worship of Cthulhu with my kids”? Now, at long last, there is a game for you: Night of the Grand Octopus. In this light-playing and non-threatening family game, players secretly move their cultists and their octopi offspring from room to room of an English university. If you end up in the same room as another occultist, you must negotiate or bad things can happen. End up in a room with an monster, and your game is over. But if you end up alone, you can grab magical goods. Grab enough goods and you can summon the Grand Octopus and win the game!

Night of the Grand Octopus: 3 to 5 players, 7 and up, 20 minutes.

7. One Night Ultimate Werewolf

Few party games at our table get the comment “Come on, let’s play one more time” as often as One Night Ultimate Werewolf. Most people are familiar with werewolf and mafia type games, where players assume roles with special abilities and then try to root out the werewolf (or mafioso) in their midsts. There are plenty of variations, but One Night Ultimate Werewolf is special for a few reasons: First, it looks great; it has wonderful art. Second, you can play this particular game with as few as three players. Third, you don’t need a moderator. Just download the iOS/Android app and start having fun. Fourth, there is just a single round, play is fast. For us, One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a game worth playing a lot more than just a single night.

One Night Ultimate Werewolf: 3 to 10 players, 8 and up, 10 minutes.

8. Dungeons & Dragons – Castle Ravenloft Board Game

How perfect is this to set the scene for a late October night of D&D board gaming:

“The castle rises over the dark forests of the land of Barovia, looking down upon a sad, frightened village surrounded by an endless sea of dense fog and mist. The master of the castle, Count Strahd, is a vampire, and the night and its creatures belong to him…”

Strahd and Ravenloft go way back in D&D lore, but even players who’ve never rolled a saving throw or tangled with kobolds can dive right into this cooperative game as heroes on a mission to defeat Count Strahd and the various monsters within the castle – no Dungeon Master necessary.

Players choose from five characters (Human Rogue, Dwarf Cleric, Dragonborn Fighter, Eladrin Wizard, and Human Ranger), each with different strengths and weaknesses. Using a simplified version of D&D combat rules, you explore Castle Ravenloft and battle a range of monsters, supporting villains, and Strahd himself. The game provides 13 nicely-varied adventure scenarios, and winning isn’t easy: The fun is tense and thrilling.

Castle Ravenloft Board Game: 1 to 5 players, ages 12 and up, time range to play varies (1-3 hours, depending on the adventure scenario and number of players)

9. King of Tokyo: Halloween Expansion

What could be more Halloween-ey than playing as a giant monster with a flaming pumpkin for a head or pile of dark ectoplasmic goo? Well, Iello, makers of the original King of Tokyo (and the upcoming King of New York for which this Collectors Pack has a promo card) have a few extra tricks up their sleeves. Not only do you get two Halloween-centric monsters, and orange and black dice, there are two new gameplay elements: Gift Evolutions and Costumes.

Costumes are just that. You want your Pumpkin Jack to be a Pirate Robot Clown? Then save up some energy and buy them! Even better, steal them from your opponent. The Costume cards are extremely powerful, so you’ll want to spread them out and shuffle them into the main Power deck (that is, unless you want your game to be done in 15 minutes).

Gift Evolution cards are the toothbrush and dental floss that no one wants in their trick-or-treat bag. They’re extremely useful in that they help strip away some of the powers granted by the Costumes; but they’re only for Boogie Woogie and Pumpkin Jack. It would have been nice to get “Gifts” for all the existing monsters too. Despite that one quibble, King of Tokyo: Halloween is a refreshing expansion, in that it chooses to focus on the fun side of Halloween rather than the horror side. Not only is it a solid addition to the original game, it’s chock full of more Halloween goodness than a Werewolf jacked up on candy corn.

King of Tokyo: Halloween: 2 to 6 players, ages 8 and up, 30 minutes. (Requires base game to play.)

10. Smash Up: Monster Smash

Alderac Entertainment Group brings all the ghouls to the yard with their latest Smash Up expansion, Monster Smash. While Smash Up is already pretty spooky, what with its zombies, ghosts, and Lovecraftian horrors, Monster Smash goes full on B-movie schlock-fest with Mad Scientists, Vampires, Werewolves, and Giant Ants. In typical style, each new faction has a certain play style. Mad Scientists infuse their creations with new power. Vampires mow through other minions to fuel themselves; which is helpful when the Giant Ants start to swarm. And Werewolves recruit new members to the pack to gain the upper hand. The art is amazing, as always. The Elvira lookalikes in the Vampire deck and the Giant Ants, especially, took me back to those Saturday afternoons I spent glued to the latest horror double-features. The new factions play a little more straightforward than previous expansions and while “power counters” are new, they aren’t quite the unique addition that madness from the Cthulhu expansion was; but with factions as iconic as these, you don’t need embellishment. Besides, who can resist Ninja Vampires? Or Robot Werewolves? Or Time Traveling Mad Scientists? Or…

Monster Smash: 2 to 4 players, 14 and up, 45 minutes

11. Munchkin Bites/Munchkin Cthulhu

Munchkin Bites is a never-ending joke, cleverly disguised as a tabletop version of LARP sensation Vampire: The Requiem. When a werewolf can put on black nail polish to help him fight a Sunbeam, you know you are in for a campy and punny adventure. To maintain suspense, there are bats everywhere! If a bat comes into play, other players can add bats to the battle. And you never know, someone might imitate Bela Lugosi to go up a level!

Munchkin Cthulhu is a tabletop crossover game. Players can use the Necronomicon in their battle against the Great Cthulhu, or even H.P. Munchcraft himself. Yes, the puns are that horrible. Terrible I say. Enough to drive you mad. At which point you become a cultist – a crazed follower of the Old Gods. When every player but one is a cultist, the last sane person goes up a level just for keeping his wits. If all players become cultists, the game is over. The player(s) with the highest level automatically win! Tacticians beware, you can never stop being a Cultist voluntarily. You are insane, after all. To add to the Halloweeny horror, there are Goths everywhere. Any time a creature with Goth in its name is played, players can also add Goth creatures to the combat.

Munchkin Bites/Munchkin Cthulhu: 3 to 6 players, 10 and up, 90 minutes

12. Zombie 15′

Okay, of course it wouldn’t be a Halloween games list without at least a few zombie games, right? I do like playing long, thematically rich zombie games, but sometimes you just want to jump in and run for your life. That’s where Zombie 15′ comes in. It’s a real-time cooperative zombie game that takes 15 minutes per session. I mentioned it in my earlier roundup of zombie games, and it’s a blast to play (though it takes a while to set up each scenario). Just because the zombies are slow and shambling doesn’t mean your game needs to be!

Zombie 15′: 2 to 4 players, 14 and up, 15 minutes.

13. Legendary Encounters

Halloween monsters traditionally include vampires, werewolves, and zombies, but how about some xenomorphs? Alien is a classic scary movie, and Legendary Encounters lets you relive the whole series, or mix it up. There are several ways to play: you can go full cooperative, or you can throw in alien players when people succumb to chestbursters, or you can even have a hidden traitor working against you. This deck-building game does a great job of recreating the tension of the unknown. (Read my full review here.)

Legendary Encounters: 1 to 5 players, 17 and up, about 45 minutes.

Happy Halloween, and happy gaming!

Thanks for reading GeekDad. Please consider clicking through to our site, we'd love to have you become more involved in our community!

Share and Enjoy:

Just got the notification that my Soylent is on its way.  So we’ll be drinking goop for a week any day now.

You’re in for a treat.

 

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/438742.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.

< XMPPwocky> ow
< XMPPwocky> just got hit with falling curtains
< XMPPwocky> and shortly after, an angry and confused cat

++ | --

Ape Lad posted a photo:

(360): blue gatorade loses no color upon regurgitation.

ashshy writes 200,000 Australian residents reportedly use Netflix today, tunneling their video traffic to the US, UK, and other Netflix markets via VPN connections. A proper Netflix Down Under service isn't expected to launch until 2015. Last week, Aussie video streaming company Quickflix told Netflix to stop this practice, so Australian viewers can return to Quickflix and other local alternatives. But Quickflix CEO Stephen Langsford didn't explain how Netflix could restrict Australian VPN users, beyond the IP geolocating and credit card billing address checks it already runs. Today, ZDNet's Josh Taylor ripped into the absurdity of Quickflix's demands. From the article: "If Netflix cuts those people off, they're going to know that it was at the behest of Foxtel and Quickflix, and would likely boycott those services instead of flocking to them. If nothing else, it would encourage those who have tried to do the right thing by subscribing and paying for content on Netflix to return to copyright infringement."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This is just brilliant. Even if the rest of it weren’t also great, it would be worth watching this just for the Yoda – er, Groda – part. Trust me, it’s five minutes of your life you won’t regret spending.

Thanks for reading GeekDad. Please consider clicking through to our site, we'd love to have you become more involved in our community!

There's a different kind of two-seater roaming the sidewalks of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia: a motorized couch. Thanks to the efforts of a few engineering students, what started as a joke amongst friends is now a Xbox...

Share and Enjoy:

Game storage is a topic that has always intrigued me. I’m not talking about where to keep your games, rather the cardboard or plastic inserts that organize the cards, dice, pawns, boards, score trackers, meeples, and assorted cardboard bits. So many games come with horrible inserts or no inserts at all, leaving players like me to try to fashion something myself from foam core board, battle foam, or some other material. My closets are full of Plano boxes and I’ve purchased enough small plastic zipper lock bags that I am certain I am on a DEA watch list. Certainly, a few publishers put thought into their inserts but, unfortunately, most do not.

All of that could possibly change with the introduction of Game Trayz, a wonderful new and exciting product from Noah Adelman. While Game Trayz is a revolutionary way of thinking about how tabletop games are organized, how Adelman got here is a bit more prosaic. “I graduated … in 2001 with a degree in Computer Engineering. After running a website development and marketing business with my father and brother in law for many years, I decided to take a marketing position at MiniatureMarket.com. My love for board games started several years before that, but my collection greatly grew while working at Miniature Market,” says Adelman.

“I always went out and purchased $8-$12 plastic Plano boxes and little plastic baggies to keep all my games organized, and saw all my friends doing the same. I thought that if I am willing to pay that much for a generic solution, I would gladly pay more for a perfect, well-thought-out solution. After a year at Miniature Market, I had made many contacts in the gaming industry. My idea was to design trays not only to store the game pieces safely, but also help with setup and in game play. I saw other solutions made from foam and wood, so to approach from a different angle I started looking into thermoforming. Another friend of mine had worked in the thermoforming business for many years and was able to get me a job at his office where I have been working for the past year. There, I gained knowledge of the thermoforming process and with the help of my friend, we designed the first Game Trayz for Terra Mystica.”

While the Terra Mystica trays were more of a proof of concept than a complete solution, Adelman went on to approach a friend of his, Stonemaier Games’ Jamey Stegmaier, about creating a complete solution for Stegmaier’s game, Euphoria. “He [Stegmaier] generously offered to put a blurb in his monthly newsletter about Game Trayz, and we instantly got over 600 fans on Facebook! There was much excitement just from the preliminary design mockups. Since then, Stonemaier has been pivotal in helping get the word out about the trayz, and his fans were very responsive to the idea.”

As you can see from the images in this post, the before and after photos of Euphoria are pretty breath-taking. Everything has a place in the Game Trayz and figuring out where to put the components is pretty easy because Adelman has taken the extra steps to put icons or labels in most of the cut-outs so you know what goes where. Adelman also plans on including videos and instruction sheets to be perfectly clear about how to use the inserts, but he says “I strive to make the Game Trayz as self-explanatory as possible by engraving symbols in the plastic to show where all the pieces go.” Additionally, Euphoria has a simple lid to keep all the pieces from falling out of their bins, if the game is stored on its side.

Each insert has been thoughtfully considered and prototyped before being offered as a product. Trays for the resources used most commonly in games are duplicated for either side of the table and are small enough and positioned to be accessible so they can be quickly removed from the box and put into play. Adelman plans on offering the trays in a variety of materials, colors, and thicknesses. “We use plastic that is 2-3 times thicker than most of the flimsy plastic trays that come in some games,” says Adelman. “They are designed to last as long as the game pieces.”

When Adelman sets out to create a new tray, he has three considerations: “One, store the game components safely, plus allow for the box to be shaken and stored vertically without pieces falling out of place. Two, decrease setup and cleanup time to get games started quicker and put away faster. Three, add in-game organization and optimization to streamline play and de-clutter the table.  If I can achieve this, the game needs some Trayz!”

The company, though in its infancy, shows potential for big growth. Just this week, the designer took the big step of leaving the security of his day job to pursue developing Game Trayz full time. Even though there are only trays for two games, Adelman says that will change soon. “Right now we have many preliminary designs for games like Belfort, Eclipse, Tzolkin, Caverna, Coup, Power Grid, and Escape! We are planning on running a poll to get some feedback on what games gamers want Game Trayz for. [We are] also working on how to structure a possible Kickstarter for Game Trayz.”

Additionally, Adelman is in talks to make a custom Game Trayz as a stretch goal for a game currently on Kickstarter called New Salem. It’s a great and really interesting idea for a game on Kickstarter looking for a unique stretch goal.

While the Game Trayz have been in existence for about a year, Adelman is only just now starting to see some real traction. But his early fans are passionate. “I love getting feedback from people who say the trayz have shaved 10-15 min of setup time. Plus, there is always the bling factor, and people love to show off their tricked out copy of Euphoria!”

Thanks for reading GeekDad. Please consider clicking through to our site, we'd love to have you become more involved in our community!

Ape Lad posted a photo:

Dear Discovery Channel:

Mythbusters is my favorite surrogate TV family, my comfort watching, my friends.  And with your firing of Tori, Grant, and Kari – a.k.a. “The Build Team” – from the show, you have just plopped an ugly divorce in my living room.

I am not happy.

But since this move smacks of a budget cut, allow me to demonstrate my fiduciary credentials: every Christmas, my wife buys me the latest season of Mythbusters, often from the Discovery Channel store.  That’s stopping this year, unless the build team is brought back.  I’ve also bought Mythbusters DVDs for friends to spread the word.  That’s also stopping.  As are my purchases of the Mythbusters T-shirts and Behind The Myth tours and the museum exhibit.

I won’t tell you I won’t watch the show; I probably will.  But you folks have probably gotten $1,000 in merch sales from me over the years, and that?  Is gone.  My blogging about Mythbusters?  Is also gone.  After this, I’m not providing any more PR for a show that has made a grievous error.

In particular, the firing of Kari Byron is inexcusable, as there aren’t enough prominent women out there doing science, and the removal of one from perhaps one of the sanest ambassador shows for science sends a very uncomfortable message to girls.  But even aside from that, part of the joy of the show was watching Tori injure himself, watching Grant build a robot, watching the collective joy they exhibited when something went haywire.

The show is an ensemble cast now, whether you like it or not.  And to remove that means that I will remove my wallet from your merch funds until that is rectified.  So I sincerely hope you do an about-face on this ASAP, because I’m one of your megafans.  I’ve been loyal, and more than that, profitable to you.

I hope that soon, I will be again.

Yours,
Ferrett Steinmetz

(If you’d like to write the Discovery Channel, incidentally, I’d suggest you use their form here.)

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/425254.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.

Share and Enjoy:

Ape Lad posted a photo:

Share and Enjoy:

(View on YouTube) | Subscribe to us on YouTube
Created and Directed by Charlie Todd / Produced by: Deverge / Music by Tyler Walker

For our latest mission, we turned a very hot New York City subway platform into an unauthorized luxury spa. NYC’s un-air-conditioned platforms can feel like a sauna in the summer, so we figured we might as well embrace the heat. Our spa’s complimentary services included infused water, towels, sauna benches (already provided by the MTA), hot stone massage, and a human-powered steam room misting station. Random New Yorkers were encouraged to join our performers and use the services and quite a few took us up on it.

Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our mission report and photos.

CREDITS
Created and Directed by: Charlie Todd
Producers: Alan Aisenberg, Andrew Soltys
Director of Photography: Ilya Smelansky
Music by: Tyler Walker
Camera: Myo Campbell, Gabe Chai, Ilya Smelansky, Chloe Smolkin
Photography: Arin Sang-urai (photo credit for every photo on this page)
Sound Mixer: Sam Stevenson-Yang
Edited by: Alan Aisenberg
Production Assistants: Cody Kostro, Michael Tannenbaum, Stevie Wang
Equipment Provided By: Rode Microphones

New York City summers can be miserably hot, and the hottest spot in town, in my experience, is the NRQ platform at 34th Street. With the exception of Grand Central, none of the subway platforms are air-conditioned. Subway cars are air-conditioned, but in a cruel twist of fate, it’s partly the heat generated by their A/Cs that make the platforms so miserable. When I lived in Queens, the NRQ 34th St platform was my mortal enemy, its sticky heat making those late nights waiting for the train seem even longer. To me it feels hotter than any other platform in the system. When this idea came about, I knew it was the perfect spot.

Many years ago I had the idea of turning an un-air-conditioned subway car into a sauna with performers in towels. Every so often in the summer you’ll accidentally step into a car with broken air-conditioning, briefly considering yourself lucky to find an empty car before realizing the reason why it is empty. I never got around to staging this because I couldn’t logistically figure out how we’d be able to reliably find a car with broken A/C. Plus, there would be no audience, as no one in their right mind would enter the car. The idea remained on the back burner until Louis Walch emailed me and suggested a similar idea that would take place on the platform. The platform! Of course! It’s reliably hot and there is no escape.

Subway Spa cast, pre-sweat

We met at the Deverge office and the walked over to the nearby 28th Street station. We had to ride the train one stop north to get to the 34th Street station, which was a pretty funny site itself.

Agent Clark Frankel puts up our magnet

Once we arrived at 34th, we immediately began setting up. We made some big magnets that read “Spa” and put them up around our performance area. We designed these so we wouldn’t cover the “34” to avoid causing any confusion. The signs blended in so well I think most people didn’t even notice them. Those that did got a nice laugh.

While we’ve staged many projects in subway cars over the years, we have very rarely staged anything on the platforms. The most recent was in 2008 when we turned the 23rd Street C/E platform into an art gallery. Safety was obviously a concern. To keep this as safe as possible we kept our cast small (only about a dozen folks in towels) and kept our tables and props in the dead center of the platform, evenly spaced out to allow people to pass on all sides.

Setting up the welcome station

Agents Bethany Hall and Jewel Frankfeldt setting up the water coolers

Agent Ilya Smelansky designed an awesome poster displaying our services in the style of MTA safety posters.

After our stations were set up, the actors began arriving in towels.

The sauna

The brown wooden benches in the subway system already look similar to the type of benches found in a sauna, making our decorating job easy.

We added some rocks along with a bucket of water and a ladle.

We got tons of great reactions from the other New Yorkers on the platform.

Lots of people sat down next to our performers.

Every couple of minutes a new train arrived and a new crowd of people stumbled upon our spa.

Agent Dmitry brought his own Russian sauna branch for use in the “steam room.” Our steam room was a teak platform surrounded by four people with spray bottles of water. They provided mist for anyone who wanted to cool down. Quite a few regular subway riders took advantage of the offering.

This guy was the first non-participant to use the steam room, and he even took his shirt off to get the full effect.

Despite having no training whatsoever, Agent Todd Simmons was on hand to provide hot stone massage. Participants reported it actually felt quite nice.

A few non participants requested massages as well.

Agent Keith Haskel activates the music

Another reason why we chose this particular platform is it contains the awesome art installation REACH: New York by Christopher Janney. Installed in 1995, the installation allows passengers to create music by waving their hands in front of sensors. It’s always been my favorite piece of art in the subway system. It enables complete strangers to interact together and share a smile, a goal shared by Improv Everywhere. Honestly, it’s the only redeeming thing about this sweltering platform! The music it produces contains lots of wind chimes and bird noises– very similar to the type of relaxing music you might hear at a spa. Perfect!

People taking advantage of our lemon and mint infused water

Midway through our performance, two police officers strolled by. They were laughing when I approached them. They got it and were very nice about it but did say they’d have to come back if they received any complaints. I let them know we’d be gone soon.

The guy wearing socks was NOT of our performers. We had a few robes at the welcome station in case anyone wanted to join in, but we figured no one actually would. Not only did this guy strip down and put on a robe, he sat there for a half hour! It looked like he was with family when he first arrived, but I guess he ditched them to enjoy our sauna.

This guy was very excited about the spa and tried out every station. He particularly enjoyed the steam room.

Steam room staff: Jewel Frankfeldt, Katherine Maughan, Clark Frankel, Evan Gregory

We stayed on the platform for an hour or so before packing up. We were all pretty sweaty by the end of it. We cleaned everything up, removed the magnets, and disappeared on a downtown train.

Mission Accomplished

---

OTHER RESOURCES:

Photos:

Full set of photos from photographer Arin Sang-urai

Music:

Listen to the track by Tyler Walker:

If this is your first time here:
-our over 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
-sign up for our RSS feed and Newsletter
-Subscribe to our YouTube channel, twitter, and Facebook page.
-We have merch for sale!

(310): The Australian strangers convinced me to leave him behind when they started chanting Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oy Oy Oy, and told me they had a bunch of beer at their place.

Since learning to play Munchkin in 2009, my daughter and I have largely stuck to our original Munchkin Bites set, with the exception of mixing in The Guild expansion and one personalized (but totally legit!) Go Up A Level card.

For Munchkin fans who want to stir things up in a hurry, Steve Jackson games has packaged six of their previously-released Munchkin expansions into a pair of 45-card Triple Play sets. Each set of three “mini-expansions” includes two more general-use packs with the standard Munchkin door and treasure cardback art, and one specialized pack for a Munchkin stand-alone variant. (Of course, Munchkin being Munchkin, you’re pretty much free to mix whatever dang cards you feel like and create your own house rules as situations demand.)

Triple Play Set One includes the Christmas-themed Naughty & Nice, Skullkickers - based on the comic - and Fish & Ships, an expansion for Munchkin Booty. Triple Play Set Two consists of Easter Eggs, Penny Arcade, and Star Munchkin – Space Ships.

For owners of Munchkin Apocalypse, there’s also a full-fledged 106-card expansion available, Sheep Impact. As with four of the six packs in the Triple Play sets (the exceptions being the two licensed properties), John Kovalic did the illustrations.

As is the case with most Munchkin sets, there can be a little suggestive or violent humor to a handful of the cards throughout these expansions. (I know more than one parent who plays with a few cards removed when younger kids are at the table.) For the most part, though, you’ll find the same kinds of clever, silly references, enjoyable artwork and groan-inducing puns that are the game’s hallmark.

Disclosure: Steve Jackson Games provided GeekDad with the two Triple Play sets and a copy of Sheep Impact.

Thanks for reading GeekDad. Please consider clicking through to our site, we'd love to have you become more involved in our community!

While I don’t necessarily agree with all the choices, this Elseworlds-esque sizzle reel for an alternate Doctor Who 50th Anniversary is really, really good. [Found via i09]

Thanks for reading GeekDad. Please consider clicking through to our site, we'd love to have you become more involved in our community!