Jump Drive 50

Sep 23 2023

Tags

Pretty good day overall. I got all the indoor plants watered, did not have to go to the grocery store, got a good start on packing for NYC. The weather has been super mild. I've been way-caffed this last week, and did more caff today than I wanted, but I did manage to use that for a trip to Copy Central to get some Jump Drive record sheets printed out. And with a spiffy new record sheet, time to play.

This game was pretty nuts, as I had a 3 cost and 6 cost Yellow in my opening hand. I put down the 3 cost as it replaces itself in card draw. Next turn played Survey for free and drew up enough to play the 6 cost on the next turn. The next draw got me Alien Institute, and from that point it was pretty much a done deal. Scores:

↓ Turns	Game 50
1	0
2	0
3	5
4	19
5	43
6	75

Here's what the game looked like at the end, which is about as good as a game of Jump Drive can get:

Jump Drive 50 end

What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

Have a solo game ready to play.
Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
Referee a game in progress.