And on consoles I have played and can be said to have enjoyed: Rock Band

Which THRILLS me to no end, I have to say. Other than "Munch Man" our TI when I was a kid, the only other console game I ever played was Tetris on the original Nintendo. RB and GH, tho, I adore beyond reason. Our friends J&S have Rock Band so we went and bought GH2 so we could use the guitar and have all four instruments. Em was at her grandpa's that night and the four of us played for what? SIX HOURS!! Went through a lot of beer.

So I'm excited there's a game that he and I both like that we can play with pther people and have great fun. The only other one we've enjoyed together was Crash Things On Purpose with ND and KT. Werein "Pulling a Pete" was born.

Crash Things On Purpose

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I must have this!

(I mean, I get that it's not a real thing. But still, I MUST HAVE THIS!)

Re: board games. Big fan of Settlers, but has anyone played History of the World? LOVE that game, though it is a major time commitment (or needs to be spread over multiple sessions).

Yep, I have History of the World. Not entirely sure how I feel about it. I love the ebb and flow thing through the early-to-mid epochs, that sweep-of-history feel is the sort of thing I live for; but the game balance does feel a bit swingy to me, and Epochs 6 and especially 7 are particularly troublesome in this regard, as there's not really any further gametime for the receivers of (say) the US and Russia to give France and Britain their richly-deserved beating.

If you like that style of game, I whole-heartedly recommend Britannia. It's fantastic fun and better balanced (although I think the Saxon player has an edge, and is probably the easiest to play successfully if the ther players are unfamiliar with the game's flow. The Romans can be tricky with newbies.)

Oh! While I think of it, someone (Megan?) asked me in Lightbulbs as to the identities of my four Penguin-themed games. They are: the sadly ill-favoured Penguins, the kiddie-focused Penguin Pile-Up, the card-based Penguin Ultimatum (where penguin jesters fight it out to provide the greatest amusement for the Emperor), and the surprisingly strategic Hey! That's My Fish!

I gamed a lot when I was in school during the '80s. Then I moved to DC and never found a group to game with, and I kind of drifted away. So I'm more the era of Nuclear War/Nuclear Escalation. Oh, and Kingmaker -- can't forget Kingmaker.

Is "Pulling a Pete" anything like trying to develop a thermonuclear hand grenade? I was once in a game where a player tried to do that.

I'm eager to figure out this Fantasy Grounds thing. I also wish someone in my area or even old group (if we get this newfangled Inter-Web-Net thingie to work) would GM as I am dead sick of it right now. I wanna PLAY, damn you!

Hey, can you tell me some more about this Fantasy Grounds deal? Is it D&D, D20, something else?

I sympathise with the player thing. I wound up starting my own home game because despite the fact that I know several people in Melbourne who are in home games, none of them thinks to invite me. This is the single thing I miss most about Philly - my gaming group there was simply awesome.

Crash Things On Purpose

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I must have this!

NO! It is a real game! I can't remember what game it is, but one of the setup is your drive the car into a huge amount of traffic and whoever causes the most amount of damage, wins. It's AWESOME!!

Is "Pulling a Pete" anything like trying to develop a thermonuclear hand grenade?

No, "Pulling a Pete" happens when you are playing the car crash game and you manage to drive your car past everything and hit nothing and cause no damage but $500 to your own bumper.

A Staten Island-esque area will not be featured in the game for the reason that Rockstar Games believes it would not be fun to play there.

HA.

Having driven through Staten Island quite recently, I concur entirely.

I forget the actual name of the game that has "Crash Things on Purpose"...it's a racing game ND has and one of the things you can do is kinda like bowling with cars. You're presented with a short course full of obstacles and at the end of the course is a busy intersection and your job is to crash your car into the intersection causing all sorts of secondary crashes and the person who causes the most damage (counted in dollars) wins.

"Pulling a Pete" is running your car down the course, avoiding the obstacles and FAILING TO CRASH YOUR CAR INTO ANYTHING WHATSOEVER. Because when Pete and Jilli were visiting we played this game and that's what Pete did. Failed. To crash.

I mean...how can you fail to crash your car?

As revenge Pete routinely kicks the living shit out of anything and anybody at Halo. And just to grind it in, he's all gracious about it.

Fucker.

Is "Pulling a Pete" anything like trying to develop a thermonuclear hand grenade?

No, "Pulling a Pete" happens when you are playing the car crash game and you manage to drive your car past everything and hit nothing and cause no damage but $500 to your own bumper.

And here I thought "Pulling a Pete" was being adorably loomy.