Plank's Volatile

Games! As August comes to a close some absentees returned: Joe and Martin from Wales, Adam H from Easton. Also joining us were a celebratory Gareth and a reliably neutral Ian. Your host (Sam) (me) made up a sextet, with Laura sadly having to bow out late. 

We kicked off with Phantom Ink, new to me but very simple - in terms of rules, at least. Adam, Ian and Martin faced off against Joe, Gareth and I, with Ian and Joe the 'spirits' whose job it is to give clues, letter by letter (see Andrew's post for clarity on rules) and Gareth and I both froze in the headlights of an H not followed by an O (I, at least, was expecting Horror). It took just two clues for Martin and Adam to make a successful guess, identifying Diamond as the word!

We went again with Martin and I as the spirits this time. The word was puzzle and I was concerned I'd given far too much away when asked what kind of book, tv show or movie would it feature in. I started writing Krypton Factor and got as far as KRY. But one forgets that it's only obvious when you know the word, and when I was asked what varieties it comes in I only had to write J before Joe cried Silencio! He and Gareth got it on the next guess. 

We moved on to what turned out to be the night's main course, Martin's new acquisition Show Manager. This deceptively prosaic title, with horrific illustrations and exceedingly dubious puns, was notable at first for how badly it seemed to be made. "By bad people" Gareth ruminated at one point. But swiftly the fun began to emerge. 

On your turn you either take an actor - those four cards at the top in the pic above, each with a price to hire them - or put on a show. But the value of the show you put on depends on the actors in it: some are excellent in one role but can't do anything else. Some are decent at a few roles. And some can do anything you like but be shit at it. 

Gemma Smile here can perform admirably in Moonlight and Queenie, but will just be making up numbers if she treads the boards anywhere else. And additionally each actor has a specific role in each play: it's no good having two or three actors who are all excellent playing Big Daddy in Lipstick: when you put your show on, you can only have one actor for each role. 

Performed plays are put on at New York, Paris, London, Berlin and/or Stockholm. The collective value of your actors decides the order they go in, and that order awards points at the end of the game. If all your actors enjoy being in your play, there's a bonus to be had, but that's pretty much it, except to say if you're short of cash you can take money from a previously performed play, devaluing it in the process, as represented by the lower number in the above pic: Gareth took $5k out of his own rats. 

There's a bunch of luck, but also some strategy in when to 'wipe' the available actors in favour of a fresh tranche, and how much to devalue your own shows. And when there's some strategy to be had...

Adam 49

Ian 45

Martin 38

Sam 34

Gareth 30

Joe 26 (edited!)

Longer than we all expected, but good fun, as we all embraced the opportunity to be slightly showy about our shows. We moved swiftly on to Fun Facts, the Wavelength-esque game of perceptions. The first question wasn't quite as Wavelengthy as some though - how many keys are on your keyring - and not bothering to check, I lazily deprived us of points. I don't think I had Charlie on my lap either - that happened a bit later. 

After the drudgery of keys though, we were subjected to more engaging questions, like What's the maximum amount you would you pay your favourite band to play in your house? (Adam: zero) And how satisfied are you with your day (Gareth had to change his score after remembering a good lunch). We were also asked what height we'd like to be, and - all staying within the realms of the everyday - stayed pretty much as we were. Only shortarses Adam and I wouldn't have minded a bit more elevation.

What year would you travel to for a single day was instructive: Adam headed off to the year 40,000 whilst almost everyone else headed to the past, for mostly romantic yearnings. I went to the year of my birth just to find out what the hell was going on. Overall we did decently but not amazingly, scraping about 32 points I think. Afterwards Adam and Joe shucked on coats and left us, but we tempted Ian into a game or three by waving whisky under his nose. That game was Stomp the Plank. 

Gareth's dejection here was down the fact - we later realised - that the engineering of his plank's magnet had gone somewhat awry, meaning it was predisposed to collapsing far sooner than anyone else's, so I don't know how official these results are. But either way we played three times and Martin won every time, despite myself and Ian taking him to the proverbial wire once or twice...

Dumb fun and a nice one to end the evening on. Apologies to Gareth for the inadvertent sabotage; hope to see you all next week.