MetalJim’s Summer of Slack - Part 2
In which MetalJim looks forward to playing a lot of different games…
My current real-life job situation is a little strange, but not too bad in the grand scheme of things. I get paid a decidedly average amount of money for what I do, but it is a full-time job with benefits. I teach a fairly exploitative load of college classes during the semester (five at a time), but I also have absolutely ZERO responsibilities from about May 1st through the middle of August.
It’s hard for me to explain just how bleary-eyed I can get teaching five college classes in one day, three times a week. You don’t know what it’s like to carve through a stack of 50 really mediocre english papers, and then go through another stack of 40 the next weekend. Maybe you do know what’s it’s like to be so mentally wiped out that you can’t really see yourself playing anything more complicated than FreeCell. Anyway, that’s my life for most of March and April.
Anyway, today I turned in my last set of grades, and I am now officially “off” for the summer. I don’t expect a lot of sympathy. Some people would probably go out and get a part-time second job or something. That’s not how I operate.
Instead, I am now embarking on something my girlfriend calls, “Jim’s summer of slack, part 2” since, after all, I didn’t do anything useful last summer, either.
Some prospective highlights…
May 1st-4th – Boardgaming at TN Game Days. Starting Thursday night, and running through about 7pm Sunday, I wil do nothing but sleep and play board games. Not much of the former. Next week’s post to this column will probably be a long list of games that I played. At some point, I need to do a proper review of a board game called In the Year of the Dragon, which I intend to teach to lots of folks this weekend.
Early May – More Painting of Miniatures. There’s a good chance I will blow part of my “President Bush is Awesome” Tax Rebate on more Warhammer 40K minis. Then again, it might be better to refer to that $600 check as the “President Bush screws the future by devaluing the dollar and running up the national debt” rebate check, but that’s doesn’t mean I won’t spend the money. At some point in May, I hope to play a few pick-up games of 40K at one or two local game stores. Expect to see a write-up in this column before long.
May – On the Computer, I’ll be playing something called Europa Universalis III. For those not familiar with the series, it’s a slightly abstract but super-historical strategy game where you can start anywhere between 1453 and 1789, pick the country of your choice, and see if you can do better than your country did in actual practice. See what happens if Portugal gets to the Caribbean before the Spanish. See what happens if you unify India before the Europeans get there. See what happens if the Turks sack Venice. Oh, the possibilities! This game is no longer available at retail, but you can download it through a service called Gamer’s Gate, along with at least one expansion pack. There are some good user mods out there that pack in even more historical realism!
June 6th – This is D-Day for Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition. Anyone who reads this column knows I am already pretty jacked about this state of affairs. I think I will spend several days just reading the rules, making up sample characters, and testing out the new combat system on my tabletop at home.
June 11th – I spend one day on the road, flying up to Chicago. There, I will stand in the General Admission Floor section at the Iron Maiden concert, and fulfill a lifelong ambition to see Iron Maiden playing “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in person. If you don’t understand why this is worth $400 (between airfare, hotel, and ticket) then you probably don’t understand why I call myself “MetalJim” either.
June 19th-22nd – I drive down to Atlanta for another boardgaming orgy, at an event called The Oasis of Fun. Regular d21 comment writer Umberhulk will be there as well. Last year’s event was a blast, and I expect this year’s to be just as fun. Here’s a link to a video from last year – I think I’m actually standing in the background in this clip. Maybe this year I will run a demo table of 4th edition D&D, and confuse all the boardgamers. Hmm…
July – Depending on the reviews, I think I might check out the PC release of Mass Effect, a sci-fi role-playing game by the dudes at Bioware. The Xbox version got good reviews, and the PC version is supposed to have more features, more content, and better graphics.
July – Sometime this month, I hope to be moving out of my apartment and into an actual house, but that was supposed to happen last year, and didn’t. I need to get to someplace where I can actually unpack all of my games.
July – The plan is to kick off an online D&D game using the new DDI virtual game table. I’m thinking Sunday night might be a good night to shoot for.
More summer highlights – Iron Man?, Prince Caspian?, Indiana Jones? Wall-E?
I might have time for some other useless pursuits this summer, like reading a few history books.
I might download and experiment with something called Dwarven Fortress, which is an amazingly complex and bizarre PC game using nothing but ASCII art.
What would YOU do if you had three months to play with?