Ahoy Matey!

Oh Ye Pirates! Hoist Ye Sailes! Strike ye fear into ye hearts!

Ho ho ho! One Gamer (turned Pirate) has been using his Lego armada to enhance the experience of Days of Wonder's Pirate's Cove. In his blog post he logs the details to his game adaption (apparently the game has become a favorite), and Lego's have allowed him to all but eliminate chance from pirate ship skirmishes.

Har har! What ingenuity!

Still, Legos and games have not been strange shipmates.

Aye, when I was a lad we used to make games out of our Lego stash. Legos make great game components! They are naturally delimited and come in all shapes, sizes, colors and styles. Perfect.

Lego the company has picked-up on this as well. Refer to an earlier post at Pinebars about Lego's advances into the gaming sphere.

Oh, and don't forget the popular Lego Star Wars series for video game systems.

See below an excellent rendition of Settlers of Catan in Lego.

I eagerly await the day when an astutely crafted Eurogame design by Friedmann Friese or Klaus Teuber is released exclusively by Lego.

And as you design your own games, consider using Lego's to help you solve your component problems.

In the meantime, answer me this, what Euro game would you like to see designed in Lego?

Build Your Own Board Game

I could not let us go on any longer without addressing a relative newcomer on the board game scene; last year, LEGO put out a baker's dozen's worth of "board" games, and, naturally, I was intrigued as soon as I heard about them. If you're like me, you just flashed back to a childhood full of brick-by-brick building, sometimes by the manual, sometimes letting your creativity take total control. I still have quite the soft spot for LEGOs, and, considering my love for board games, I was quite excited about the possibilities. I have played one of the games and will give you a short review.
The game I got my hands on (literally) was Ramses Pyramid. This game is unique among the LEGO games in that Reiner Knizia helped design it. If you are familiar with German games, you'll know that Knizia is a popular designer and makes quality games. There are some positives to this game; for one, you get to build it! Awesome. Also, the game allows for some memory challenges and offers the potential for strategic thinking. Unfortunately, it stops at potential, at least in the rule book. Like many kid-aimed games, the game hinges on the roll of a die. Guess what the condition for winning is. Go ahead, guess!

You have to be at the top of the pyramid, and then you have to roll a 3. AHHH! Very anti-climactic. Knizia must have been passed out or asleep when they came up with that one. He must have been...

So much for gameplay. HOWEVER... The rulebook is seemingly intentionally vague, and even suggests the creation of your own set of rules. This seems perfect for LEGO, and also perfect for anyone interested in game design. Start by tweaking the rules a little, maybe add your own LEGO bricks, and, eventually, why not start from the ground and build (hehe) a whole new game! Why not take two games and combine them? So, like I said, a lot of potential. It makes me even more interested in playing LEGO's take on Pictionary: Creationary. Imagine playing this one with that huge box of old bricks. Oh... I'm the only one with a LEGO surplus? You can borrow some of mine.