Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Games in the time of coronavirus

These are weird times for everyone: Global pandemic, mandatory isolation, economic recession, toilet paper shortage, and probably, sometime soon, locusts. Thanks to this disease, my regular gaming location, Dragon's Lair, is closed, and the second annual FnordCon, set for this weekend, got canceled. But I can't complain; my wife and I are lucky enough to still be working, and our pantry's full. So I thought I would see how everyone has adjusted their gaming in this season of uncertainty.
With face-to-face gaming with my regular group not an option for the foreseeable future, I'm trying to get my geek on at home. My wife and I have been playing The Awful Green Things From Outer Space, teaming up as the crew and using some semi-random mechanisms to conduct the monsters. We still haven't managed to completely defeat the critters, but she enjoys playing it with me, and we both appreciate the quirky art. 
My spouse isn't, however, as big a fan of Terraforming Mars, so we've only played a single game together. Luckily, the solo rules for this board game are enough to keep me coming back again and again. While I miss having multiple opponents, it has a lot of entertainment value as I try to meet the victory conditions. And I'm using the PreludeVenus Next, and Colonies expansions to get even more mileage out of TM.
I haven't done anything minis-related, but I may try to start working on some Ogre minis soon--or maybe I will paint up some of the scatter terrain or fantasy minis I have piled up. Maybe I can get something ready in time for the next game convention, whenever that may be. What about y'all? How are you adjusting your gaming to the new normal?