Saturday I got to go to my first gaming group and I had a blast!  I got there extra early (by accident) and had a chance to visit Bradywine Falls in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  Very scenic with about three or four painters perched at different vantage points around the falls all taking in the morning.  I also grabbed a few quick shots of the bed and breakfast next to the falls before scurrying back up to the library.

Anyhow, it was a great time and I had a chance to play with a great group of players.  We embarked on Baltimore and Ohio which took a long time to play.  I have mixed feelings about it, but all in all, it was worth doing and I'll probably give it another whirl again.  We finished up the day with a four player game of Steam, mostly newcomers or those who had time to play Age of Steam a few times before.  It took a little while, but it was a fun game to play and people seemed to be quite positive to it.

I printed out another prototype copy of Open Rails on Friday night.  I cleaned up the map a little bit by removing a lot of the background map image and making my hex lines lighter.  I also used dashed lines around cities and changed the rivers to match the textures of the oceans.  I was pretty happy with it although Breanna said she didn't like it as well.  She's usually right about these things so we'll keep the old files around as well.  I also went ahead and shrunk the size of the shares and added company boards to help keep track of things. 

The prototype didn't come out this visit as I wanted to get a feel for the group.  The worst thing I could do was open up as a newcomer with a game that I didn't think anyone would like.  However, after seeing reactions to Baltimore and Ohio, I felt a bit stronger in my conviction that this might be a worthwhile game to produce.  We'll see when it comes to a full table, but I think it will do just fine.

I also got to demo a VASSAL module of Steam which appears to be very well thought out and commendable.  More on that when it is officially released to the masses.

In the meantime, I am gearing up for another week of work.  I felt like crap yesterday on the way back from gaming (not enough food or water - duh) and I laid low for most of the weekend.  Mom stopped by briefly and we caught up on her family as well.  Still feeling a little crappy today from the heat, but, maybe things will cool down.