I spent the weekend in Stillwater, OK helping Karl (my uncle) pack up his apartment for a permanent move to Tampa, FL.  It was hard work, with Friday and Saturday spent sorting through what he wanted to take, packing it up in boxes, and trashing the rest.  We made one trip to the city dump (not fun!) and hauled two van-loads of trash to the dumpsters behind married student housing.  (don’t tell!)  Karl had a storage room in his place, and most of it was taken up with boxes from his last move that hadn’t been unpacked.  The amazing thing about this room is that it was about 80% full of games.

Karl has been a gamer all his life, and has heard of (if not played) just about anything you can think of.  Most of it he has kept with him over the years, eventually winding up in the aforementioned storage room.  It was fascinating going through the boxes on Saturday.  It was like traveling back in time or opening up a gaming time capsule.  I beheld numerous treasures.  There was the complete set of Talisman and expansions.  (even TimeScape!)  There was a first edition of Cosmic Encounter with all the Eon expansions.  Sadly, this edition was practically destroyed, as it went with Karl on patrol when he was a submariner in the Navy.  I even marveled at the three complete sets of original first edition D & D books, including one copy of the original Chainmail rules.

It was a lot of fun going through his huge collection of games.  Since he wanted to travel light, he wound up giving me a large chunk of his collection.  It was incredibly generous of him.  I’m going to have a lot of fun going through some of the more historical stuff, including the big box of micro games.  He also passed on the bulk of his CCG collection, so I envision lots of card gaming at future Friday night Lumbersmiths nights!  I can’t wait to try out Legend of the Five Rings (I haven’t played it in years), Vampire, and 7th Sea.

Saturday evening we headed over to Distraction Games, the newest game shop in Stillwater.  Karl has raved about the store for the last couple of months, and I was eager to see the place.  It didn’t disappoint.  There was a wide selection of Euro games, including many of my favorites.  The store was bright, clean, and uncluttered.  They had a great spot in the back with tables for in-store gaming, which get used on a regular basis.  Saturday night they had a number of people playing the Star Wars Miniatures game.  I love seeing a store with a community of people that come into the store to play.  Having players in the shop adds a sense of community to the place.  That’s something that Dallas stores don’t have.  Jared and Sally are the owners, and after talking with them for just a few minutes I felt like I had known them for years.  They’re an amazingly cool couple, and two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.  I think they’ll have great success with their store for years to come.  I wish I could have gotten a picture or two inside their store, but I forgot to bring my camera.  (doh!)  I’ve been told they’re fans of my humble website, so hi Jared & Sally!

We did manage to finish each night of packing with a quick game of Zombies.  I hadn’t played before, but that wasn’t a problem as the rules were extremely simple.  The basic mechanics involved rolling a d6 to move, another d6 to attack, and another d6 to move the zombies on the board.  Each player had a hand of 3 cards that let him do something special, like double-move, place new zombies on the board, or wield a weapon for increased attack power.  In the first game I was lucky, drawing a Fire Axe (+1 to hit) in my opening hand.  The Fire Axe could only be played if I was standing inside the Fire House, which I drew on the second turn.  This allowed me a huge advantage throughout the game, and I was able to pull out a victory by being the first to kill 25 zombies.  Karl followed up with 23, and John trailed with 19.  In the second game, I again took an early lead, wracking up a number of kills.  While it looked like I would cruise to victory, Karl drew the heli-pad and was able to play a card that meant no zombies could attack for a full turn.  This let him make it to the heli-pad, but he died while fighting the last zombie in his path.  The unlucky roll let John slip in behind him and escape on the helicopter before I could pickup my 25th kill.

Zombies was a fun little beer & pretzels game.  It was certainly just the game we needed after an exhausting day of packing.  It’s not my usual cup of tea, but if someone pulled it out when I was in the mood for something light, I’d play it again.

That ended the first part of the trip.  Karl drove down to Dallas yesterday as part of his first leg of the trip to Florida.  We played a couple of games with Christina and Brandon, so I’ll have another write-up done soon.