This is wonderfully in depth and a fun read. And yes, I still have yet to play the game.

I have a player whose character has a deity following them around (well, technically, they are developing an affinity). Throughout game, a red handkerchief or bit of cloth keeps appearing. We are now three sessions in where, at the start of game as people are gathering we talk about the red cloth, and after game has wrapped he suddenly sits upright, galvanized, eyes wide, exclaiming, "The red handkerchief! I forgot again!"

I may well change the deity to Lethe.

I showed this to +Sarah Edwards, explained the basics, and she (who is a serious gamer, but bad with game designer names) asked, "Do I know any games he's made?"

She does, but the first I happened to say was, "Yeah, beyond his professional stuff, he wrote the Gargoyles the Vig..."

"Done. Back it. Add $10 for the hobo knife. Dude has our support."

I can't tell you how many times we played Tales of the Floating Vagabond as a between games one-shot. I am sure I'm not the only one. And I have now run three very successful campaigns of Gargoyles the Vigil.

Plus, it looks like a pretty fun little easy-to-play card game.

First play impressions of Frog Juice (Edit: Photo in comments, as I can't edit this and add one).

This is a pretty card game with fun art. It is a super simple game that touts being educational (basic arithmetic). For adult players, there are some strategies, but the game appears to have a fair amount of luck due to the scarcity of points and their importance. I suspect luck beats strategy. That said, it's a quick play and has a pleasant rhythm, in the way that a table of Euchre can be. It's a perfect "killing time while chatting" game. The rules make it seem like a much more complex game, but there is essentially a card game that could be played with regular cards, plus a few extra cards that have special mechanics.

The basic game is played with the number cards, each having a spell component pictured (Frog Juice, Monkey Powder, Newts, etc). Each player has a hand that refills to 4 at the start of their turn, and there is a central spread of cards. During your turn you can use special cards (witches can cast spells, witch wash blocks, etc), pass, or:

- Pull a single card with cards from your hand that add up to the same value.
- Pull a single card with a single card from your hand that matches value.
- Pull multiple cards with a single card whose value equals the sum of the cards.

You can also (as a separate action on your turn) place or try to fill spell cards by playing cards from your hand or asking for those cards from other people's hands. Without getting too deep into a list of all the special cards, this is an example of how the special cards add some strategy: keeping the spell components of other players out of your hand becomes important, and you have to decide if you want more cards to go for the two "most cards" points or play a less useful match to prevent a player score a point for the finished spell.

If you don't want any supernatural spells and witchcraft, this isn't for you, but it is strictly children's book level stuff. I'd drop this from a box of games for a church family game day, but I personally wouldn't have a problem with any child of any age playing it. If your kid is into Harry Potter, this is perfect. Or if you're sitting around waiting for players to gather to play Lords of Waterdeep, this will kill time pleasantly.

There are a ton of bad maps out there. There are even a bunch of good free maps. But almost all are dungeons or caverns. Over on his Patreon +matt jackson has started doing some nice inns and other buildings. These aren't in the super-slick color tile style aimed at miniature play, but rather the really useful classic line drawing style that makes for a great reference at the table.

Disclaimer: I have one building named for me, as I suggested an abandoned location for adventurers to sleep in and potentially defend against a night time attack. Because that's how Mr. Jackson rolls: he listens to his Patreon supporters. And yes, this is a blatant "if you like his work, stuff the tip jar" note.

His Patreon is located here: https://www.patreon.com/msjackson/ And G+ won't pick up one of the building images I'm talking about for this post. There is one in his new zine, Lapsus Calami, also found at his Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/lapsus-calami-01-20716068

#GamemasterMeditation - When running a sandbox campaign, you don't need to take perfect notes or remember everything. It's like outrunning a bear: you just need to have better notes and memory than your players.

I had a family member pass away late last week. Suddenly, this week's plans are (likely) changed for my wife and I. Anybody know if there's anything possible to do with GenCon tickets? Any way to transfer them or recover some of the cost in any way? I know the website says no, but I figured I'd ask the pooled experience here just in case.

Still kind of reeling; I won't even know what's going on for sure until tomorrow.