Jungle Speed

[jducoeur]

[Pardon the burblage -- I'm snowed-in for now, and not having her here to talk to is one of the harder bits.]

One of the rather scary highlights of Birkacon this year was accidentally discovering the game Jungle Speed. It's rather delightful in a violent sort of way: a party game for when everyone is keyed up. (And possibly somewhat drunk.) I commend the rules to you: it's quick and easy to learn, and is almost how we played it. (Except that, this being Birka, the civilized rules about how to conduct duels went out the window -- we had people conducting tickle fights, pulling each other across the table, and pretty much any other underhanded approach we could think of to win. Ryan McWhyte wound up particularly battered by the end of the evening.)

Anyway, I've ordered a copy, and will likely bring it to some appropriate gaming occasions. It's a fine addition to the set of "games that can be played by more than six people" collection...

Comments

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

Justin: I watched the whole thing so joyously.

You came into the room, I said hello, and you said "Are they playing a game?"

I said yes, and you said. "What game is this?"

It was like a kitten finding a ball of yarn.

Next thing I knew, you were at the end of the table playing.

[jducoeur]

To be fair, it took a good 20 minutes before I started playing. (Partly because one of the rules is unobvious enough that it confused me for most of that time, and partly because it seemed inappropriate to start playing until I'd had a full beer...)

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

I had left the room and come back. ;)

[nomadmwe.livejournal.com]

So I'm sitting on the couch watching people play the game, and I notice Justin is standing there, too. He's maybe a foot back from the table, and he has this look on his face as he's watching the gameplay. It was a great look. I know that look.

He wasn't just watching, or trying to figure out how to play, it looked like he was trying to learn to game the game.

It was hysterical to see on someone else. :D

[jducoeur]

I wouldn't quite call it gaming the game. But I'm usually not going to start until I at least feel like I have *some* understanding of how to win.

(As it happens, the main lesson from playing is that I need to play more: I'd bet that doing really well requires enough practice to be able to recognize the fine nuances of the shapes more quickly...)

[nomadmwe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it seems that a very specific pattern recognition is key for this game. Also, wrestling. That seemed to be important as well.

Maybe not gaming the game to a huge extent, but there was concentration there, and more than just, "hey, how does this work here" going on. :D

[jducoeur]

It's a very special form of wrestling, though. Reminds me a lot of spear-wrestling, albeit with an Eensy Weensy and Very Squishy spear. (And a lack of rules that would make the average Viking blush...)