[Travel] Did you know that the Dutch call him Koethulhu? And other stories of geek stores in Utrecht.

As some of you may know, I’ve been working in Amsterdam and staying in Utrecht, the Netherlands, for the last three months and have been able to explore the local gaming/geek scene. So, as is my habit, today, I present a list of what I discovered (Utrecht edition).

Just a note before we begin: most of the people I’ve met here have no problems with English. Though my knowledge of Afrikaans did help a lot, even the most monolingual of English-speakers should get on just fine in Utrecht.

Interestingly, my daily walk to and from Utrecht Central Station took me by all of the below-listed stores, each threatening to eat up my per diem and leave me living off tap-water and air. I’m still unsure if I’ll have enough space in my luggage for all the loot.

Whoops

Even though this store is the closest to Utrecht Central Station, it’s a bit off the busier pedestrian routes and I discovered it quite accidentaly (a pleasant accident, though) due to my weird city/street plan fetish and explorative nature.

The store is quite small (the smallest of them all), focusing primarily on manga, comics and graphic novels, table top wargames and trading card games. Entering the store pulls quite pleasantly on any otaku heart strings you may have. Unfortunately, my current interests focus more on board games and role playing games, so I probably didn’t spend as much time as I should have at Whoops, and thus can’t quite give it a proper write-up.

Next time I’m in NL, I’ll get PB to review Whoops and its piles of yaoi.

Unlike Whoops, the rest of the shops are located along the Oudegracht/Vismarkt just south of De Dom, all clustered nicely together.

The Joker

The Joker is actually two stores. I was not very impressed with the main store, which focuses almost exclusively on board games and trading card games. Maybe if I was still into the Magic scene…

I, however, did fall in love with the secondary store. Only two doors down from the primary store, the second Joker store acts as a second-hand board game store, providing a great opportunity to pick up those now-out-of-print games.

Piet Snot

I love the name of this store. Piet Snot is a comic book store (not much for gamers here), and probably has the best supply of t-shirt and TV/movie memorabilia.

Labyrinth

Labyrinth isn’t the easiest store to spot (in fact, I walked straight by it twice while looking for it), but, once inside, you’ll find quite a large store, with an upstairs gaming area. The store stocks board games, card games, a small role playing section, an impressive collection of LARP gear, puppets and books (both Dutch and English). The staff are friendly and I had my very first all-Dutch conversation about zombies here.

Blunder

Blunder is a three-level comic store. The below-street level houses the manga and American comics and graphic novels. The ground and upper floor holds all the European comics/graphic novels and figurines. I am seriously considering buying the Asterix chess set… it’s just about 4 days worth of food.

Never Never Land

Never Never Land has a large board game selection (there’s a small RPG and minis/wargames section towards the back.) The owners of the store keep their personal, not-for-sale games on the tops of the shelves. Amongst this collection, I spotted Betrayal at the House on the Hill. It’s one of my favourite games in my collection and f00 has always wanted his own copy. Since it’s out of print, it’s kinda hard to come by and , unfortunately, I failed my diplomacy check and couldn’t convince the owners to part with the game.  ;_; Hmm, maybe if I challenge them to a game of Agricola…

Strip & Lectuurshop

Situated just above Subcultures (in fact, there’s an inside stairwell that links the two stores), Strip & Lectuurshop is a comic book store, boasting a large collection.

Subcultures

Subcultures is my favourite store of the lot. I spent WWDDGD 2009 #1 and #2 here. The staff are friendly (offering free coffee) and the store is well stocked, carrying RPGs, board games, war games, LARP gear and, most importantly, a NERF armoury. The store is at canal level, so you’ll need to keep your eyes open.

That’s it for the stores. Next time, I’ll talk about where to go to find a game.

- jatori

[Gamer Lifestyle] Your FLGS and Shopping in Amsterdam

It started with these two posts here and here.

It’s now near certain (as certain as it can get with whispers of GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS! going around) that I shall be working in the Netherlands for a few months beginning in March. So, just like last time, I’m hoping that one of the readers of this post can answer the following:

What’s the gaming scene like in Amsterdam/Utrecht? Where are the gaming stores and clubs? Where can I buy an awesome burger?

I was planning to stop by London and look around there too, but due to the recent bumbling of the South African Department of Home Affairs, this has just become a bit too pricey. Grrrr.

I’d like to make these travel geek posts a recurring thing on tenletter and, at the same time, inspire other bloggers to write about their FLGS (Friendly Local Game/Gaming Store/Shop) and advertise their part of the world. In the near future, I’m hoping to get one of the other authors here to write about a few South African FLGSs.

- jatori

Shopping in Toronto for Geeks

Here’s my review of the Toronto Comic/Geek/Gaming stores that PB and I visited. Some of these stores we first found through Google maps, the comment on my post here or other blog post searches and others we found simply by walking around. Apparently, back in the day, there were far more stores in the Toronto area (not that we even got to go to all of those still around), but in that one city, there were more stores than I believe even exist in South Africa.

Yesterday’s Heroes: (742 Bathurst Street) Advertised as the oldest comic book store in Toronto, this store unfortunately feels old and a little run down. PB and I did manage to buy a whole bunch of card sleeves (the plastic covers used to protect your precious trading cards during play) for about 40% of the South African price (after conversion from CAD and CA tax). And, if I remember correctly, I spotted a 1985 Playboy, featuring Madonna, for sale too.

Silver Snail: (367 Queen Street West) A well laid out, well stocked and well lit store (quite different from the stereotypical dark and dingy comic book store). We even managed to wow one of the employees with the flat vowels of our South African accents. Unfortunately, though it may make business sense, we were asked to check out bags etc. at the front of the store.  I don’t like it when businesses treat every potential customer as a criminal – it ruins the vibe of the place for me – and that’s exactly what it felt like leaving our bags at the front desk. It’s kinda like DRM and EA.

The Beguiling: (601 Markham Street) Great place for graphic novels (one of PB’s developing vices). If only we had discovered this place earlier in the trip, then our suitcases may have contained more yaoi.

Hairy Tarantula: (354 Yonge Street) This one’s quite easy to miss, as it is not on ground level, but rather up a narrow flight of stairs hidden away between other stores. A very well stocked store, with employees that seem to embody most any geek stereotype. The staff are knowledgable and are willing to haggle a bit, especially if you come at them with a PB that’s-too-expensive-sad-face look.

Grey Region: (550 Yonge Street) PB proved once again that investing points into your barter skills is not a bad thing. This was the first store we visited and it seemed like you could fit in three or four South African stores in there. Friendly staff, but not as well stocked or laid out as some of the other stores.

1000000 Comix: (531 Yonge Street) Unfortunately, I didn’t get much of a feel for this place (we didn’t stay too long) and most everybody in there at the time of our visit had their attention almost focused entirely on the build up to the Obama inaugaration. I can say one thing though, it did really look like they may have had a million comics on sale.

401 Games: (401 Yonge Street) This store focuses more on TCGs (my well developed vice) than any of the other stores we visited. Unfortunately, individual employees weren’t as clued up on all of their products as we would have liked and perhaps lost out on a sale when they couldn’t convince us of a game. There were, however, some great January specials and, after doing a bit of internet research, we did go back to buy some things (though towards the end of our trip when funds were running low).

Pacific Gifts Ltd: (Pacific Mall – Unit E61) Pacific Mall is some sort of permanent indoor Chinese flea market of sorts. Pacific Gifts focuses quite heavily on TCGs and, though not as well priced as 401, they knew their products and organized an impromptu demo game for us. Great way to land a sale. Pacific Mall has other gems  hidden in its many aisles for the discerning anime/manga geek, including figurines, plushies and cosplay outfits.

-j

Back Online

Peasant Butcher and I have returned from our brief adventure to Toronto. It’ll take some time to get over the jet lag and catch up on a few of the comment discussions (on this and other blogs) that occurred during our absence. I intend to write about the gaming/comic stores we managed to visit there (sorta like a brief visitor’s guide for geeks and man-children obsessed with plastic figurines).

And stay tuned for future posts about some of the games I managed to blow my money on, including the Savage Worlds RPG and Cthulhu Munchkins.

In other news, I should be hosting my first online RP session this Sunday. More on that later.

Time for a nap now.

-j

P.S. f00 finds himself in Atlanta currently, so things will probably be a little quiet from his side for awhile. However, if you’d like to share what you know of the gaming scene in Atlanta, please do.

Battlemage Jaes Walks Alone

It’s RPG Blog Carnival time again. Uncle Bear is hosting it this month and the topic is: New Year’s Gaming Goals and Resolutions. Of course, my primary resolution requires some sort of brief introduction:

Not too long ago (Sunday), I was involved in a game of Runebound and I was trailing far behind the other players in terms of xp, gold, equipment and allies. Never one to back down from a challenge though, I boldly declared that, unlike my cowardly opponents (which were hiding behind their hired minions at the time), Battlemage Jaes walks alone. Even though Battlemage Jaes got beaten to a pulp on several occassions and lost the game (and you just did too) after that declaration, the game reminded me of something I had been wanting to try with pen and paper role playing: a solo game.

Battlemage Jaes

By solo game, I’m referring to a game in which you still have a GM, but only one player. Sometimes this type of game is referred to as a duet. I have tried this twice before (me as GM, PB as player), but it never really worked out well. Previously, I had not quite got a handle on the differences between a solo game and a more typical group game. I have since discovered that I tend to let my players do a lot of the work when it comes to playing a game. When running a solo game, PB didn’t have any other supporting players and I didn’t prepare well enough to take on that load. Hopefully, we’ll get it right this time around. We’ll be having our first session tonight and I shall report on the progress made later in the week.

Until next time, I leave you with the following link. It is this thread that first drew my attention to the solo form of the game.

-j

P.S. Some other things I’d like to see happen this year:

• Start an online RP game with my ol’ university gaming buddies. Growing up and getting jobs has scattered us across the globe and it’d be great to play with them again.
• Mark Rosewater visits the blog and leaves a comment. (I should start writing a bit more about Magic then).
• Get more involved with the greater gaming community – both local (dependant on relocations) and online (maybe start contributing to one of those open source/content projects I love so much).

Quest Completed: Looking For Group

It’s been a long 9 months since we relocated to Durban. In that time, We had a few false start gaming sessions that never led to anything concrete (Lia, Willow and Raistlin have unfortunately passed onto the unfinished campaign PC heaven in the sky). This past Saturday, however, I think that Peasantbutcher and I found a gaming group that we can roll some serious dice with (in between the role-playing, of course).

I’ll be playing a 4th level 4e half-elf paladin this coming weekend (thesis workload allowing). I’m going to try and build the character (mechanically) without looking at the builds floating on the internet and see what I can come up with. I’ll report on my character’s performance (both roll and role) after the event.

PB is playing an Eladrin ranger and I’m sure she’ll be posting a few stories too.

The group is an interesting ensemble of individuals and I’m sure a few stories will creep onto this blog in the near future, especially since we have one of those players. Placing players into player archetype boxes is a horrible habit of mine, which I picked up from Mark Rosewater during my Magic days, but still a somewhat necessary habit when it comes to GMing (at least I think it helps me). When I refer to those players, I am referring to the ones that always place the rest of the players into a bit of a pickle when ever the opportunity arises, because they tend to shoot first, loot later.

Till later, remember that hacking up the corpses nets you more expees.

-j

P.S. For those interested, I’m a Johnny-Spike Magic player (more Johnny than Spike), favouring a blue-green approach to the game.

Daring Apprentice

Today we have guest post from Kestell, sharing his views on Magic: the Gathering and Reenen’s Daring Apprentice, an open-source, 3D, Apprentice-like M:tG tabletop.

***

I’ll address some questions that I think people may have about Daring Apprentice.(DA)

1. What is Daring Apprentice?

Well, it’s for playing Magic: the Gathering on a PC. Currently, only for playing against yourself.

2. Why do I want to play Magic on a PC at all?

Assuming that you do want to play Magic at all, you fairly quickly run into a couple of bridges. Firstly there is the issue of MONEY… Magic cards costs money, and you can play with virtual cards without paying money .(unless of course you WANT to pay for virtual cards, then you can go to Magic Online)

Secondly, playing on a PC saves you a lot of time in sleeving, desleeving and, of course, shuffling your deck.

3. What makes DA better than the alternatives (Apprentice or Magic Workstation(MWS))?

To be honest, for 2 player play, it is not (yet) better. Because it cannot play 2 player yet.

But the deck editor is far superior to that of Apprentice or MWS. The deck editor is a SEARCH ENGINE, it is not a deck editor. It is perfect if you want to search out a combo piece, or all the elves that are standard legal and costs less than 3.

If you are building a Standard red deck that burns, you just want red, artifact and land cards. (So, i filter on Format “Standard”, Colors: Red, Artifact and land)

But the deck needs to have a low curve, so in DA, I can say only cards with converted mana cost 0-4. (change mana cost to converted, 0 to 4)
Now I filter on cards that have the word “damage” on. DA will pick up gold cards that are red unless you tick the “mono-colored” button.

Then DA is VERY good at decktesting.

I am currently testing for nationals 2008. I need to determine which deck is best. So I put the 1 netdeck in the one player’s hands, and another deck (netdeck or maybe a deck of my own) in the other player’s. Then i start playing for both players. MOST plays in magic are fairly obvious and don’t depend on what the other guy is holding. Obviously I continuously try to make the best play for both players. I actually prefer testing in this way, because this gives me a fair indication of which deck is better in the matchup; there are not as many playskill related issues that you can get if playtesting against a buddy. Also, when decktesting, you want to get in as many games as possible, you don’t want to sit and wait for an opponent thinking for several minutes when the game is effectively won by one player.

NEITHER APPRENTICE NOR MWS can do decktesting in this way. MWS can possibly do this if you have a registered (paid for) version.

Daring apprentice is a good midway between the simplicity of Apprentice and the cumbersome MWS with its bad shortcut keys.

Greetings and salavations

Greetings and before anyone gets confused, I am not from New Zealand (though I do find Flight of the Conchords quite enjoyable in as much as I enjoy any satire).

But this tenletter blog (which has nine letters in its name but who’s counting?) is about gaming and I like gaming. I have enjoyed RPGs since Baldur’s Gate. From there it was a short step to table top RPGs including DnD. Then jatori introduced me to Magic the Gathering (I have stopped that (for now)). And now I am looking at boardgames, since they are games too. Plus I need a break from coding (which is where my nick (avianfoo) comes from).

I hope this blog stays around longer than some others I won’t mention. So until next time: leave the politics to madmen.

println(“foo”);