In order to go forward with the story of our Epic Game Night, I must briefly step backwards in the chronology of the night and spin you a tale of a sweet Sadowski Family Tradition (TM).
This is not a turd.
And Joe and I are both highly and publicly addicted to these treats. So when this happened...
You can almost hear the theme song to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly playing...
I think I know just how to do it...
It was to be a game of throwing fists, but they would combatting in a game of Rock Paper Scissors. After we laid down the ground rules (1-2-3, then throw) we were off! Here are step-by-step pictures of the struggle...
The first throw was a tie, although you can't tell from this picture.
The second throw was a victory for Joe (rock breaks scissors).
I stayed in it, though, by doing the same to him on the second throw (rock breaks scissors).
Alas, Joe delivered the finishing blow with another rock-breaks-scissors move.
To the victor goes the sugar rush.
For the video, navigate on over to Tony's blog.
So now that the Zombies game is over, and the sugar and caffeine are hitting the bloodstreams, it was time for some TailSpin, motherfucker. This is a game that was created by Joe based on the Disney Afternoon show of the same name. It's awesome. Creating intricate card games like this is a hobby of Joe's, and Tony and I are always on-board when he needs some playtesting done. For this particular game, you can only have 4 players, and since Paula had never played before, and Anna had only played once, Joe sat out and coached them on how to kick Tony's and my ass(es?).
Joe takes Paula under his wing for her rookie TailSpin game.
Murray wanted to play, but he refused to play as Kit Cloudkicker (to whom he referred to as some unrepeatable explitives, much to our surprise).
Look at these two shmoes. What they don't realize is that this first game is about to end poorly for them.
So, turns out that Joe's tutelage combined with Beginner's Luck spelled a crippling and swift defeat by Paula. At which point she and Anna bailed out for bed. Joe, Tony and I, however, were not done. We all craved a good, clean TailSpin fight to the finish, just like the good old days when we would play over our lunch break. So we selected our characters and rallied the troops.
GAME ON!
So intense was the action that ensued, that I didn't even pause for any photo-ops. The above pic was taken at the end of the first game, moments before the ladies left and the men got it on....
er...I mean...
No wait. Yeah. At least that's how I remember it.
Anyways...Tony won what turned out to be a rigorous and competitive game. And you would think that after such a challenging feat, that we would all be done for the night. BUT you'd be way wrong. We're clearly MUCH bigger nerds than you give us credit for.
At the end of TailSpin Game 2, we all pondered the idea of embarking yet another game from the fourhman.com repertoire: Fatal Frame. This one's based on a horror video game in which you are wandering around a haunted town and you capture and defeat ghosts with a special camera.
--"If I fight you, will you go to bed?"
--"Defeat you!"
Now, by my memory, we never had a game of Fatal Frame go much over an hour. Back in the days of Gaming During Our Lunch "Hour" (TM), most of our matches held true to the 45 minutes - 1 hour duration estimation. This particular game, however, did not.
We were way more into the game when we thought we'd be in bed before sunrise...
Right now, at about three or four weeks since the Game Night in question actually took place, I would have to estimate that we started playing Fatal Frame at about 3:15am or so. It was going well for a while. Every time someone played a "Broken Neck" Ghost Card, we made the "bagh!" sound that people from South Park make when they die suddenly and violently. That kept us in laughs for quite some time. And I found it particularly amusing when Joe had to check his own website for an obscure rule that came up...
I wonder if he clicked on a Google ad while he was there...?
After like, 45 minutes it started to drag a bit, but it was still fun and competitive. We continued to slug it out. Someone mentioned that at this point we were all in this as a matter of principle. We were nearing the end stages of the game and everyone was about even when Tony did it.
In all fairness...it was a good play. He dropped "The Repentance" on the table. This is a card that basically resets everyone back to an earlier level. It wouldn't have been so bad, but the card is linked to a die-roll, too. And the higher the roll, the farther back everyone gets smacked. He rolled a motherfucking 6. We all (him included) got cranked in "ze ballz". Like I said...decent play, but it ended up extended the playing time by another 45 minutes or so... and he played it at roughly 4:15am.
Adds Tony in comments:I'd like to make a correction. The reason it's universally agreed that this was a good play is that all of my Album Points were coming from Items, whereas all of you shmoes' points were coming from...ghosts.So, dumping all of my ghosts was a small price to pay to shut you two out of the game COMPLETELY and continue fighting the mighty endboss with one pathetic die roll a turn.I stand by my play and would've been an absolute legend had we been playing in a Fatal Frame Tourament Setting (TM).
We valiantly played on, like the dedicated nerds that we are. We all battled our way back through the levels and everything seemed like it would even out, but when the clock struck 5am, Joe made the following bold declaration:
"I think I should get home before Clark [his toddler] wakes up."
What a selfish jerk, right? Goll!
So we all agreed to quit with no real winner. It was a Game Night Precedent: we left a game unfinished. But it was probably better this way. We packed up our stuff and finally let Tony go to bed.
Sadly, I lost a picture in the transfer between camera and website. I took a picture of the clock that read 5:03am...Imagine it just above this paragraph. That was moments before Joe and I went out the front door.
I drove home with a giant grin on my face the entire way. I'd had so much fun that I couldn't stop laughing at us and the sheer ridiculosity of the night. We'd spent 9 hours at work, and then we spent roughly 8 hours gaming. Damn! That's awesome! I'm proud to have been a participant in...
Eight-Hour Game Night!
