Risk Legacy

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/105134/risk-legacy

I recently discovered there had been a new version of risk published, which is explicitly designed to be build up over time for people who play multiple games. That is, when you meet some condition (some happen when we start a game, some when I win a game, some when the group as a whole meets some limit) you open a little packet with a bunch of stickers in, and get to apply them to the board.

These can make your current position better, but remain in place for the following game. Sometimes you can rename a major city to whatever you want, and then have preferential rights for starting in that city. You can both add stickers which increase/reduce the value of a territory just because you prefer the game like that, or to bolster a position you are likely to start the next game in.

Obviously lots of people have suggested vaguely similar things, but I was still extremely pleasantly surprised by (a) the company had the chutzpah to expect people to irrevocably alter the game board (literally tearing up unused stickers), possibly even buying ANOTHER set to experience different choice, and people went ahead and tried it.

And (b) it seems to actually work. When I heard it, I would have wagered money that it would be gimicky and unbalanced, that as stickers accumulated it would get overcomplicated and some territories would get unbeatably good. But apparently, according to reviews on board game geek, it's actually really fun (for people who WANT to play 15 games of risk in the first place :))

Obviously there was a lot of playtesting to make this work, more than I'd usually expect for a board game even to just make sure that the most likely choices didn't lead to degenerate behaviour. But I'm heartened that they tried something innovative and it worked!

(I don't know if I ever want to play risk or not.)

PS. For the record, what you see above is what I get when I post a "short post, just a link" :)

Wedding livestreaming

One of the ideas we half-jokingly suggested for the wedding was streaming it online for the benefit of the couple of people who'd like to see but really can't come. I'm not sure if this would ever have been practical, and we don't think we have time to plan it now. But in theory it can't be too difficult. Has anyone ever done something similar, and have any useful advice about how difficult it really is, or would like to have a try at setting it up themselves?

Car MOT and service

Yay, car MOT and service managed with no hassle. Service has been somewhat overdue, so I was worried there would have been something wrong, but apparently all fine, all conducted 5 min walk from work, and apparently friendly and helpful people.

Update on vegetarianism as culture

Over the last few years, I have more been coming to the conclusion that I don't think there's anything ethically wrong with eating meat from ethically raised and slaughtered animals[1], but that I have no intention or desire of ever doing so myself[4].

[1] And as a practical matter, I suspect abstaining from milk is as important as abstaining from meat, although I don't know the practicalities of it as much as I'd like, and ashamedly haven't acted on that yet.[2][3]

[2] And caring about human suffering in the production of goods is much more important even though not always as conveniently written on the packet.

[3] In brighter news, I still think that reducing one's meat intake counts for vegetarian-ethical purposes, whether or not one is able or willing to take a stricter stance of no animal products at all.

[4] It is as if it's purely cultural -- the way expatriate British celebrate Christmas, and non-observant Jews celebrate passover, it has completely snuck up on me that being vegetarian is such a big part of who I am that I don't want to change it, whether it seems an eccentric habit or not.