It's only roll 'n' write but I like it

The coldest summer for decades slowly passes day by day, and we at GNN feel the chill wind through the empty seats around the kitchen table. This Tuesday there were just five of us at Joe's place, with Katy, Ian, Matt and myself making our respective journeys.

We began with Joe suggesting an evening of Roll and Write, the apparently official name for the genre that involves rolling dice and writing things. First was Kibbeln. A Yahtzee-ish game of getting high scores with six multicolored dice while trying to achieve certain criteria such as "no orange faces showing" or "four of one colour showing".

Then there are the four Kibbeln rounds where each player simply has to score as much as possible. The caveat being the your score must beat your score in a previous Kibbeln round or you're bust and get nothing. How cunning.

Joe introduced us to the game and then got the opposite of Explainer's Curse, winning the first three rounds. I came last each time.

But then Matt pegged Joe back in round two, in which Joe went bust twice. Then in the final epic round, Matt consolidated his lead and more bust rounds even cost Joe second place.

Matt 32
Katy 29
Joe 25
Ian 23
Andrew 19

It was entertaining, if perhaps with five of us, it dragged a little. But it was nice to see Das Exclusive in its full pomp. A marvellous sight.

There was no real desire for more dice rolling, so instead we spent some time staring at Joe's games wall, optimistically saying games' names out loud to resounding indifference.

Eventually we chose another new game - Spice Road. The blurb on the box promised the rich excitement of haggling in a Middle Eastern market, whereas the game manages to distill the basic engine-building mechanic of get stuff to get stuff into a simple card game.

Not to say it was a bad game, but it was somewhat dry. As a sort of four-player puzzle, I enjoyed it. I went for a large hand of cards while the others preferred to recycle their hands much more frequently. It's probably a game where familiarity breeds capability, as the final scores demonstrate:

Joe 75
Katy 60
Matt 59
Andrew 57
Ian 40

When this was done, it was about half past nine, so any thought of a big game was out of the question. Instead, we went for For Sale, openly mocking anyone who took the lowest card for free for following Katy's discredited strategy.

Oddly, despite bidding and hustling with the rest of us, Katy did very badly again. Ian, meanwhile, was very cautious with his bidding at first and then, before I knew it, he was out of cash! He must've overbid for something, but I missed the details.

Joe's second round started in peculiar fashion: first he got $0 with a 17 card, and then got $15k with an 18 card. He also kept bluffing me (with the 29) that he was about to play his 30. Evil Joe. Not evil enough to win, though.

Andrew 61
Joe 52
Matt 51
Ian 43
Katy 34

Next up, since Ponzi Scheme was not an option with five players, Katy's request for Perudo was happily accepted.

Amazingly, it was Matt’s first game so, after a rules explanation, we were in. We showed Matt no mercy as the newbie but first I, then Ian, then Joe hit palafico. But each one of us survived our brush with death.

After Joe’s palafico, the numbers of dice were Katy 3, Matt 2, Joe, Ian and me on one.

Ian was out first, followed by Matt hitting palafico and going out. His bid of two aces failed! Then I fell, leaving Joe vs Katy, with Joe on one lone die, compared to Katy’s three.

Joe then managed to win the next three rounds, with the most remarkable being when it was two dice versus one. Katy bid two threes and Joe went for one ace. Katy said Dudo, and they revealed: Katy had two threes and Joe had one ace! Basically, Katy’s problem was that she was too honest in her bids.

1. Joe
2. Katy
3. Andrew
4. Matt
5. Ian

At this point, Ian retired from the fray, citing an eight o'clock start tomorrow as an excuse. The rest of us showed no such signs of fatigue.

Joe introduced us to another dice game. Das Exclusive was retired in favour of the smaller, rounder dice arena (Das Inclusive?) and we played Noch Mal. A game in which players use a combination of coloured and numbered dice to cross off areas on a scorepad.

Points are scored for columns completed, colours completed and "star squares" crossed off. Joe, once again sped into a lead and, this time, held it.

Joe 27
Katy 20
Andrew 16
Matt 13

Another evening wrapped up. This one more dice-heavy than usual, but fun nevertheless. Thanks all.