Now, it has always been a goal of mine to develop my own board game. And I've tossed and turned with a variety of concepts, but everything kind of died in the ideation phase, as I couldn't really get the gears rolling.

Over the past month, I've received quite a bit of free time, and to make me feel good and a productive member of society, I decided to get back to work on my dream. Let me just say right now...I DID IT!

Well...sorta...let me explain.

When it comes to board games that I love, there are 3 main qualities that they all share:

• Very easy to understand how to play
• Quick games that are repeatable
• Secretly, there can be some deep strategy

I want games to be easy to understand, because then they can be easy to teach and loop people into playing. If you have to spend 30 minutes or more just to explain the rules, you can lose a lot of people, especially those who are new to board games.

I want games to be quick. Now quick is relative, but if the process for the game gets too labor intensive, again, you can lose gamers. With the quickness, I want repeatability. I want the play to be unique each time you play.  Lastly, for those that play games regularly, like myself, I want there to be underlying tones of deep strategy to hook in avid gamers into an otherwise simplistic game.

So how about my board game? Well, I'm not entirely ready to share all the ins and outs.

I've got a working rules set and I ordered some game pieces so that I can have working prototypes. That still leaves me with testing, editing rules, testing, editing rules, testing and at some point, pictures to take before I'll make a follow up post formally introducing the game to you.

I'm just really excited. I think it is unique, fun, and meets my goals for what makes a game good to me. Plus the concept for packaging the game is A+, a real chef's kiss if I do say so myself.

I know I've said a lot and so little at the same time, but I'm excited and needed to share.

Oh, one last detail...Don't worry, I wrote rules for Solo play.

There are so many board games, card games, and games with dice, that it can be quite alarming when trying to teach someone. This is even more difficult when the people you are playing with aren't necessarily the biggest gamers.

This is where my favorite game comes into play - Cards vs. Dice

Now, you can and I highly recommend supporting the creators, pick up a copy on Amazon for $15 bucks. However, if you happen to have a deck of cards and a pair of dice, you have everything you need to play this wonderful game. Here's what I like to call the "Home Solution":

Set-up

• Separate A-6 from the rest of the deck of cards. Aces are 1s for this game.
• Shuffle and deal the A-6 deck until all of those cards are dealt.
• Place the other deck face down in the middle of the table, this is the Luck Pile.
• Youngest player goes first. (Or however you want to randomize it.

​Game Play

• On your turn, you roll the two dice and discard as many or as few cards as you want that add up to the total of the dice roll.
• If you discard what matches the dice exactly, you pick up a luck card from the Luck Pile.
  • Example: You roll a 2 and a 4. You can discard as many or as few cards to get you a total of 6, but if you discard a 2 and a 4, you get to draw a luck card.
• If you are unable to discard to the total, you pick up the discard and it gets added to your hand.
• Winning the game: The first player with no cards in hand OR has seven (7) luck cards wins.

That's it! Game is very fun, easy to learn, and has great replay! I always have it in my gaming bag to play and often carry it with me if I'm meeting up with friends for a beer or something.

What is your favorite game to teach? Tell me on Twitter!

A set up article like, well most, it's a "What's in my bag?" I'm going to break down the contents of my gaming bag, where you can pick some of this stuff up, and why it is important to think out and plan a gaming bag.

First, here's an overview picture of the contents that are in my gaming bag. The only thing that isn't pictured here is a little "stack" container that makes up a mini med kit. I pack that the day before a big day/weekend of gaming and don't always have it in the bag.

Now that we have the contents, let's take a look at each component and talk about why it was selected, and virtually pack this bag up. Starting with the bag, it is a Waterfly Sling Bag Crossbody Backpack. Now, I have tried every backpack, bag, case that you could imagine, and let me tell you, this one is PERFECT. It is spacious enough to carry quite a bit, but not big enough for me to over pack and be responsible for way more than I intended.  It forces me to think about what I want to bring, but at the same time carry everything quite eloquently. Easy access to all the pockets that my big mitts can get into no problem. I cropped the picture, but it does even have a water bottle pocket on the side. Carries nice on the shoulders and back, and overall an 11/10.

We're going to pack the main compartment now, and inside the main compartment, there is a tablet pocket. Perfect for our digital life pad. Pick your favorite one, the important thing to note about the digital life pad is is saves you paper and lasts pretty much forever.  Also in the tablet pocket, we'll toss our microfiber cloth and playmat (folded up, it's old and beat up, not my prized possession by any means). The microfiber cloth is there to clean my phone screen, clean my glasses, and otherwise, just kinda be there for a multitude of things. Everyone should have a playmat, you can put it in a tube and clip it to the outside of the bag if you want. 

Still in the main compartment, but now we're in the meat of the bag is our pencil pouch and our decks. Completely extra, I have a Quiver Bolt Case. The bolt does two things for me. The first is it keeps my decks from banging around in the bag and potentially making a mess. The more important reason is to reinforce the philosophy of consciously deciding what it is I want to bring and be able to easily manage it amongst the chaos of a large event. My bolt carries THREE commander decks. Well, technically two commander decks and my Cubelet. Without the Bolt, you'll be able to carry 3-4 decks easily.

The pencil pouch is single handedly the most important piece that should go in everyone's bag if it isn't there already. This one is a Sooez Wide-Opening Pencil Case and I'm in absolute love with it. It holds:

• Handful of pencils, pens, markers (both dry erase and permanent)
• Dice, and shit ton of them
• TWO PACKS of InfiniTokens

The reason to have a pencil pouch, and particularly this one is that it is fairly compact for packing, but opens up and sits very nicely at the table. You're able to share with friends if you need to or have it in your play area with little to no obstruction. Never be without a pen/dice/ability to make tokens ever again.

Finishing up the bag, there are two smaller zippered pockets, each having some great hidden pockets for an emergency cash hiding spot or a place to keep your keys. In the front most pocket, a powerbank and cable for my phone that never leaves this bag.  I never have to worry about forgetting my cable at an event and then not be able to charge my phone at home, or vice versa. Both the cable and powerbank are from Anker, and they are the best in the business when it comes to this stuff. Holds a great charge and quickly refills my phone.

That's the bag packed up (aside from some snacks that we certainly do not try to sneak into the convention area) for Magic: The Gathering. This is also my game bag if I'm headed over to a buddy's house for board games or video games. It easily holds a couple smaller box games, which is what I'm kinda known for amongst friends, and it carries my Nintendo Switch with ease. I haven't, but I could easily pack the dock and accessories to the Switch in this bag.

Tell me, what do you think? Anything major I'm missing in my bag? What's in your bag? Let me know on Twitter! Pictures of your set up would be awesome to see!