The One Hundred

We Won Something A Long Time Ago

2009-08-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

And we're very proud of it. Learn more at Bored Game Geeks...

One Year Farther Down the Space/Time Continuum

2007-04-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

Hi, campers... the traffic for The One Hundred blog has died down a bit.

OK, it's died down a lot.

But I don't want to go completely dormant, so I wanted to give you some quick updates about The One Hundred and the lives of the people who made it happen.

My plan is for us to take a second run at The One Hundred in the fall of 2008 (that's about 18 months from now.) That will make it four years since the voting originally took place for the "original" One Hundred... which ought to be enough time to see some movement in the games.
When I/we do it again, I/we will probably use some of Brian Bankler's excellent suggestions. In fact, if you're not reading Brian's The Tao of Gaming, you should no longer call yourself a gamer. You might as well go out and buy a deluxe edition of Uno.
Stephen Glenn, the guy who came up with all of this, is about to have another one of his games published by Robot Martini - Jetsetters. (This is actually even cooler than it sounds, as many of us thought that the game would be tied up in the wreckage of Plenary Games, who bought the rights to it originally.)
Mark Jackson, the Pat Sajak & Vanna White rolled into one of The One Hundred, is putting the finishing touches on The Apples Project, which is another one of these compilation projects on gaming - this time by category.

I'll post more in the upcoming months... just don't hold your breath until then!

Matt's Important Questions

2006-04-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

Matt Butcher asked a very helpful pair of questions in the comments section of the entry on Settlers... and rather than bury the answer there, I decided to "share it with the class" (Matt's a teacher, btw) and post it for all of you to see.

Matt asked: "How much do these games cost?"

Of course, the answer varies, but the MSRP for many of these board games hovers between $35 - $50. (Card games usually run $10-$20.) That's what you'd expect to pay if you walked into a brick & mortar game store.

There are, thanks to the magical wonderfulness of the Internet, other options available. For those games that are still in print, you can try a number of different online game shops, where the cost of the games are usually 20-30% less than MSRP. (Example: Settlers of Catan is $40 + tax in a store - online, it can go for as low as $23 + shipping. Please note: Settlers is used as a "loss leader" by many stores - which just underscores how good a game it is and how easy it is for them to move it.)

If you'd like to compare prices Froogle-style, you can use Boardgame Seeker (which is a bit slow but still helpful.) Or you can use Froogle, though it's easy to get lots of odd non-game entries there.

Then Matt asked: "Where do you get them?"

I primarily use two online shops, both of whom offer excellent service & prices:

Game Surplus (based in Pennsylvania and run by the coolest family on the planet... they are the folks who sponsor my website, Game Central Station)
Boards & Bits (based in Seattle, they offer great shipping deals on larger orders)

I've also ordered extensively from Funagain Games, who have an excellent selection but tend to be a bit high on the pricing side. If you're looking for an out-of-print game and don't mind paying for someone else to do the legwork to find it, these guys are a good resource.

Finally, if you're willing to do a bit of legwork, you can't do much better than the BoardgameGeek Marketplace. (Just click on the Bazaar tab at the top of the page...)

I do shop at local stores as well... some of my favorites include:

Endgame (Oakland, CA)
Gamescape (San Francisco, CA)
Rainy Day Games (Portland, OR)

Mark's One Hundred: #10-#1

2006-03-30T21:16:00.000-08:00

#10: Lowenherz

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 1997

#9: Fast Food Franchise

designer: Tom Lehmann
date of publication: 1992

#8: Expedition

designer: Wolfgang Kramer
date of publication: 1996

#7: Um Reifenbreite

designer: Rob Bontenbal
date of publication: 1982

#6: Showmanager/Atlantic Star

designer: Dirk Henn
date of publication: 1997

#5: Puerto Rico

designer: Andreas Seyfarth
date of publication: 2002

#4: El Grande

designer: Wolfgang Kramer & Richard Ulrich
date of publication: 1995

#3: Memoir '44

designer: Richard Borg
date of publication: 2004

#2: The Princes of Florence

designer: Wolfgang Kramer & Richard Ulrich
date of publication: 2000

#1: The Settlers of Catan

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 1995

Mark's One Hundred: #20-#11

2006-03-30T20:48:00.000-08:00

#20: Entenrallye

designer: Walter Muller
date of publication: 1989

#19: Return of the Heroes

designer: Lutz Stepponat
date of publication: 2003

#18: Bohnanza

designer: Uwe Rosenberg
date of publication: 1997

#17: Monopoly

designer: Elizabeth J. Magie
date of publication: 1903

#16: Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper

designer: Mike Fitzgerald
date of publication: 1998

#15: Smarty Party

designer: Aaron Weissblum & Pitt Crandlemire
date of publication: 2003

#14: Ticket To Ride

designer: Alan Moon
date of publication: 2004

#13: Union Pacific

designer: Alan Moon
date of publication: 1999

#12: Carabande

designer: Jean du Poel
date of publication: 1995

#11: Entdecker

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 1996

Important Safety Tips

2006-03-30T10:01:00.000-08:00

#1: Don't cross the streams. (That would be bad.)

#2: Don't run with scissors.

#3: Don't assume that the most important posts on this blog are the most recent ones... the real "meat" here is The One Hundred, which you can access via the links in the column on the right, esp. the sections labeled THE BASICS and THE BIG PICTURE.

#4: Remain seated please; permanecer sentados por favor.

Mark's One Hundred: #30-#21

2006-03-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

#30: Oodles

designer: unknown (published by Milton Bradley pre-designer credits)
date of publication: 1992

#29: Land Unter

designer: Stefan Dorra
date of publication: 1996

#28: Anno 1503

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 2003

#27: Arriba

designer: Thomas Vuarchex & Paul Yakovenko
date of publication: 2001

#26: Stimmt So!

designer: Dirk Henn
date of publication: 1992

#25: Time's Up

designer: Peter Sarrett
date of publication: 2000

#24: Schnappchen Jagd

designer: Uwe Rosenberg
date of publication: 1998

#23: Heroscape

designer: Craig Van Ness, Rob Davaiu & Stephen Baker
date of publication: 2004

#22: Big City

designer: Franz-Benno Delonge
date of publication: 1999

#21: Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier

designer: Stephen Baker & Roger Ford
date of publication: 1993

Mark's One Hundred: #40-#31

2006-03-29T17:54:00.001-08:00

#40: Battle Cry (AH)

designer: Richard Borg
date of publication: 2000

#39: Ausgebremst

designer: Wolfgang Riedesser
date of publication: 1993

#38: Carcassonne

designer: Klaus-Jurgen Wrede
date of publication: 2000

#37: Gnadenlos!

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 2001

#36: Web of Power

designer: Michael Schacht
date of publication: 2000

#35: Industrial Waste

designer: Jurgen Strohm
date of publication: 2001

#34: History of the World

designer: Gary Dicken & Steve Kendall
date of publication: 1993

#33: Lord of the Rings

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 2000

#32: Titan: The Arena

designer: Reiner Knizia & Don Greenwood
date of publication: 1997

#31: Medieval Merchant

designer: Christwart Conrad
date of publication: 1998

Mark's One Hundred: #50-#41

2006-03-26T09:20:00.000-08:00

#50: Konig der Maulwurfel

designer: Gunter Burkhardt
date of publication: 2002

#49: Goldland

designer: Wolfgang Kramer
date of publication: 2002

#48: Basari

designer: Reinhard Staupe
date of publication: 1998

#47: La Citta

designer: Gerd Fenchel
date of publication: 2000

#46: Sindbad

designer: Jean Vanaise, E. Duchatel & J.P. Postel
date of publication: 1990

#45: Star Wars - The Queen's Gambit

designer: Craig Van Ness, Alan Roach & Rob Daviau
date of publication: 2000

#44: Mississippi Queen

designer: Werner Hodel
date of publication: 1997

#43: Midnight Party

designer: Wolfgang Kramer
date of publication: 1989

#42: Cafe International

designer: Rudi Hoffman
date of publication: 1989

#41:

Africa

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 2001

Mark's #1: The Settlers of Catan

2006-03-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

It's become way too cool to crack on The Settlers of Catan... which, frankly, is just stupid. You can complain about the vagaries of the 2d6 distribution, or the plethora of expansions, or the fact that many groups haven't learned a new game since they discovered Settlers back in the late 90's. But that doesn't dismiss what a work of genius Klaus Teuber created.

Think about it - good game play requires more than simply a mastery of The Arcane Secrets Of Initial Placement; you also have to be able to trade (or not trade) wisely. Games are decided NOT by the dice (despite many people complaining otherwise)... they are decided by playing ALL aspects of the game well. Of course, there's the flexibility of the hex-based board system which keeps the game fresh as well.

Can you tell I like it... a little bit?!

Mark's #2: The Princes of Florence

2006-03-24T10:22:00.000-08:00

Princes of Florence is the perfect balance between game length (70 minutes) and an unforgiving system. Any longer, and it would be soul-deadening to play out the final rounds when you know you've lost all hope of winning. Any shorter, and there isn't enough time to make meaningful decisions in this game's Spartan structure (7 auctions, 14 actions).

As it is, this game cries out to be played over & over - experimenting with various combinations of building & buying, exploring the game space & enjoying the heck out of it.

Mark's #3: Memoir '44

2006-03-24T10:06:00.000-08:00

I'll keep this short & simple... it takes the brilliant "Command & Colors" game engine first seen in Battle Cry and knocks all the rough edges off the design. Memoir '44 covers (at this point) much of the European theater of WW2 with a wide variety of 'official' scenarios and 2 boxes worth of expansion stuff (with two more promised expansions in 2006!). The game is supported online with panache & flair by Days of Wonder.

What's not to like? It's my favorite "wargame", hands down. Now, I fully realize as I type this that "real" wargamers are wailing & gnashing their teeth when I call Memoir '44 a "wargame." But as I've said before, I'm a reformed wargamer myself - and I've had more fun playing Memoir than I ever did playing Squad Leader.

Mark's #4: El Grande

2006-02-27T00:21:00.000-08:00

I can still remember when & where I bought my copy of El Grande. It was June of 1997; my wife & I were in San Francisco on an extended road trip (7 weeks) around the western U.S. In the heart of San Francisco, on the line between the Castro & Haight/Ashbury, sat a little game store chock full of European (and other) stuff - Gamescape. (It's still there, btw - just visited it back in the late fall.)

This was the first time I'd been in a store where EVERYTHING I had read about on r.g.b. (rec.games.board - the newsgroup that most newbies found their into when hunting information about German games) was on the shelves. I was like a kid in a candy store.

In the end, I couldn't go too crazy - but there was no question: I was taking El Grande home with me. (I heard the siren call of the Castillo...) I've never regretted that purchase.

Over the years, I've played many games of El Grande - and I continue to love how the game varies based on the timing of the various action cards. I enjoy the bluff & double-bluff that goes into trying to plan your based on what your opponents should (or shouldn't do). I like the way resources are limited by turn position... and I think the map is gorgeous.

As with some of my other favorite games, it really works best with only one number of players: 5. (It will work with 4, but you must avoid 2 or 3.) The expansions are interesting, though not necessary.

Mark's #5: Puerto Rico

2006-02-26T10:35:00.000-08:00

Make no mistake - this is an incredible game. It did not surprise me at all when it was placed #1 on The One Hundred. I am in awe of the design & development wizardry required to create this masterpiece of a game. I'm happy to put Puerto Rico in my personal top ten.

So why, with that glowing introduction, did this wonderful game end up at #5?

First & foremost, it's MY list. So there. :-)
I must admit there's a bit of the "art critic/snob" thing going on here. I know that lots of other people rank it as their #1, so I need to go the contrarian route and chose something else. (There's a lot more of this kind of behavior in gaming circles than most of us would like to admit.)
Finally, something substantive... Puerto Rico is a bit "fragile". In other words, in a group of experienced players, a new player (or a player without much sense) will almost certainly throw the game in the direction of the player to their left. This isn't a problem when players are roughly equal in ability, but does make teaching the game a bit more of a challenge.

Mark's #6: Showmanager/Atlantic Star

2006-02-26T10:20:00.000-08:00

You have to cast four shows with the best possible actors - but so does everyone else. Each turn you can hire a new actor or put on a show. (You can also pay to see a new slate of actors - the infamous cry of "Clear!") And that's pretty much all there is to the game.

Still, Showmanager is a joyous play experience - fast-moving (notice that's a common element of most of my top games?!), fraught with tension, and rewarding wise play. (Much like Expedition, this game is not nearly as random as some seem to think.)

The easier to find Atlantic Star (pictured here) is pretty much the same game, but I don't like the theme (creating cruises), the way the board works (you have to slide cards in a semi-circle?!), the dumbing-down of the ending rules, or the added cards in the ship deck. In other words, find yourself a copy of Showmanager. :-)

Mark's #7: Um Reifenbreite

2006-02-26T08:10:00.000-08:00

Um Reifenbreite is the "Oh, Mickey" or "99 Luftballoons" of German gaming - the designer (Rob Bontenbal) has never published another design (to my knowlege). That's kind of OK, as he did a bang-up job of the one design he did publish.

A bicycle racing game, it manages to capture the "feel" of team racing (as in the Tour de France) while still be an incredibly enjoyable game to play. We don't use the cheating rules (I feel they imbalance the game) and use a dice chart for falls rather than the action cards (which makes the game a little less random), but you can throw this stuff without damaging the game. It's wonderfully resilient.

I'm still longing for a 3-4 race series of this - the rules are there for yellow jersey, supporting the team leader & all that. Sigh.

(I realize as I finish writing this that I've made the game sound dry & dusty - and it is ANYTHING but. Turns are quick, there's enough luck of the dice to keep things fluid, and yet you still have meaningful control of your team. What a great game...)

Mark's #8: Expedition

2006-02-26T07:55:00.000-08:00

At first glance, it looks like a boring geography game. You've a got a map of the world, with all of these important cultural places marked on it. The cards are stuffed full of "color text", telling you about the history & background of the cultural places. (Of course, if your copy is in German - like mine - they might as well have written: "Aboriginal Drawings/Australia - yadda yadda yadda.)

But what hides under all the educational "cover" is a splendid game. Though best with 3 players, Expedition plays just fine with 2-6 and has ample room for clever plays & twists of fate. The players "move" three expeditions across the globe, helping & hurting each other in their quest to finish their assignments first. I'm very good at this one - which may explain why it ended up in my Top Ten. :-)

Thankfully, Ravensburger FINALLY published an English edition of this last year (entitled National Geographic Expedition). Unfortunately, it's only available in Europe. (There's also a slightly different version of the game called Wildlife Adventure - I've never had the opportunity to play, but it is LONG out of print.)

Mark's #9: Fast Food Franchise

2006-02-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

If you like Monopoly at all, you owe it to yourself to hunt down a copy of this OOP gem by Tom Lehmann. Heck, even if you don't like Monopoly, you need to try this brilliant re-imagining of a classic real estate roll'n'move. Fast Food Franchise works like a charm with 2-5 players, it has a nice story arc, and has ample opportunity for smart play while still preserving the luck of the dice. I'm a huge fan - if you can't tell! :-)

BTW, this is the last game on my personal Top One Hundred that isn't also on the "official" One Hundred list.

Mark's #10: Lowenherz

2006-02-23T20:57:00.000-08:00

Klaus Teuber, the designer of Settlers, created one of the edgiest "German" games I know when he designed my #10 game, Lowenherz. The players are princes in a mythical kingdom, waiting for the king to die. The one who is able to amass the most prestige (victory points) when the King keels over wins the game.

Interestingly, it's almost easier in this game to lose points than it is to gain them. It is very easy to bite off more territory than you can protect.

The only bad thing about Lowenherz? It really only works with 4 players.

Mark's #11: Entdecker

2006-01-23T16:46:00.000-08:00

...and don't get me started about WHICH version of Entdecker. Well, actually, you should, because I think that the first version of Entdecker (published by Goldsieber) is a brilliant family game which plays quickly & cleanly, while the second version, Entdecker: Exploring New Horizons (published by Kosmos & Mayfair) is a bloated mess that is too long by 30-60 minutes & unnecessarily chromes up a perfectly good game.

If you need to "gamer up" the original Entdecker, you can use Manu's variant (listed on the Geek & any number of websites). But even without this variant, the game is a splendid 15 minutes per player exploration game with a great sense of story. And it's simple enough that Braeden can play it with help - a plus in my book!

Mark's #12: Carabande

2006-01-23T16:35:00.000-08:00

Literally every place I set this wooden monstrosity up, it acts like a people magnet. Almost everyone (but not our friend, Anna) loves to flick the wooden discs (race cars) around the track. When we set up Carabande at a Board Game Cafe we hosted for a youth convention, it was played every minute.

And how do I feel about it? Well, you can see I rank it #12... I first fell in love with it at Gulf Games 2, when Frank Branham clobbered the rest of us mere mortals with his own set. (Somewhere, there's a picture of Frank in a Carabande track costume... gotta hunt that down. Of course, I'm dressed as one of the cooking devils from In Teufel's Kuche, so maybe the pictures should stay hidden.)

Unfortunately, the game is OOP and expensive when you do find a copy - esp. the Action set, which adds chicanes & a jump to the game. I'd like to find a 2nd Action set (I have 2 base sets + 1 action set) but I'm not made out of money. (Heck, I'm not even made of barterable goods.)

Mark's #13: Union Pacific

2006-01-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

I can still remember my first playing of Union Pacific - Chip Triplett, Ty Douds & I (along with some other folks who have washed out in my memory) got to play a pre-release copy at Gulf Games 3... and by the end of the game, all of us were anxious to our hands on our own copy of the game. Union Pacific had it all - tension, arc, planning, tactics - we were mesmerzied.

And I still am. Alan Moon (the designer) published "2nd edition" rules that tighten up the game... and my buddy, Dave Arnott, designed a splendid 2-player variant, so the game works like a charm with 2-6 players.

Mark's #14: Ticket to Ride

2005-12-28T00:30:00.000-08:00

What a sneaky, beautiful, simple game... Ticket To Ride deserves all of the awards it has received, as it's the perfect blend of smart gaming and social fun. Imagine a rummy-like game that is "scored" by buying up sections of railroad track... and then add destination cards that players must connect.

Once again, Days of Wonder outdid themselves with gorgeous production and incredible web service (including a very good online version of the game). Alan Moon has reason to be proud... this is a keeper.

Mark's #15: Smarty Party

2005-12-28T00:25:00.000-08:00

I've already said a great deal about Smarty Party on my personal blog (aka pastor guy)... but I'll just say one more thing to Aaron & Pitt, the designers:

"We need a second expansion box, stat!" (Because, due to a number of folks love of the game, we've played through the original box of cards TWICE and the expansion box once... sheesh.)

Mark's #16: Mystery Rummy - Jack the Ripper

2005-12-23T18:55:00.000-08:00

The 1st and (so far) the best of Mike Fitzgerald's Mystery Rummy series of highly thematic card games, Jack the Ripper offers a simple rummy-ish system complicated by an intriguing scoring system and some special action cards.

And that description doesn't do the game justice. It's by turns nail-biting and infuriating, allowing you to make clever plays and press your luck, rummy-style. It's just really very, very, very good.