Night #2 of the week of games at Argo Tea on Randolph Street has passed and with it, another fun night of games.  There was something for everybody as players participated in Spades, Scrabble and Backgammon.  I had the privilege of reintroducing a hopeful Chicago transplant to the game of backgammon as we brainstormed ways to provide games and fun to the armed forces - an entirely new idea that I hadn't even considered.

A couple of the Argo hospitality are getting intrigued as well - it wouldn't surprise me if we had a couple of them joining in the games later this week during their days off.  I even had the privilege of meeting the visionary who founded Argo Tea - we have plans later in the week to talk, entrepreneur to entrepreneur.  I'm excited...

As I walked south from Foster through the blanket of fog toward my home, I took a moment to reflect on tonight's game activities.  The main attraction of the night turned out to be a little known card game called Fluxx.  To explain the rules would be impossible, as the rules change while you play.  Not unlike Calvinball, albeit a little more structured, half a dozen of us were playing Fluxx at any given point throughout the night, discarding, picking up, resetting rules and the like.  I'm definitely eager to play that game again as soon as I can.  Perhaps Renea will be cordial enough to bring it on Thursday when she will be returning to GameTime Afterhours.

Several of us took a break from Fluxx to play a game of Scrabble.  The most memorable word combination of the night was "LIAR", where the 'R' also turned "BONE" into "BONER".  Dick, ironically, had the most to say about that word pairing.

Ray and I also had a chance to play a few head-to-head games of backgammon.  He was a most worthy and cordial opponent and I look forward to matching wits with him in the future.

Thanks to all who came out for the evening.  There were some strong personalities that helped make the games even more exciting.  Also, special thanks to Argo Tea - they were the most accomodating venue providers I have had the privilege to work with in some time.  We look forward to seeing you again every night this week for more GameTime Afterhours!

One week ago, my father came up with an idea to "level the playing field" with Scrabble.  Instead of each player receiving their own hand of tiles, there is a community hand of seven tiles.  Instead of each player having their own turn, you play in "rounds", where everyone has to come up with the best word and placement and then everyone submits their word.  Each player earns the points for their submitted word and the highest-scoring word goes on the board.  I dubbed this "Socialist Scrabble".

This past Saturday, my adventurous friends Jim, Fidel and Dick decided to pilot the experience.  As I explained the rules, Fidel and Jim started accusing me of "vaporware", especially after I admitted that we had never played this variation before.  Once we settled that debate and got into actual gaming, we found that there are a lot of rules still to be ironed out.  For instance, what if two people submit the same word or there are 2+ words that tie for highest-scoring word?  Who gets to pick out the tiles each turn - the person with the highest score or the one whose word was just placed on the board?

I'd love to get feedback from you - the community - to see how you would address these and other potential challenges.  Do you think this could be a feasible Scrabble variation with a bit of tweaking?