(For Day 1, go here.)
Day Two of the 2007 Gathering of One found me back at MetaGames. My usual favorite Friday gaming activity consists of hanging out and slinging the bull. I did that, of course, but also got in a couple of games of 24/7, the latest from Sunriver, which Metagames carries through some kind of arrangement with Funagain. (It involves some six-degrees of game retail separation; it's complicated.) I'd previously played 24/7 with three others; I was curious how it'd do as a two-player.
I played Carl, the manager, twice and won both times. It's a fun game, especially when I win, but it seems like a game where seating order is paramount; it's very, very easy to tee up a big score for the other guy.
If you're not familiar with the game, there are forty tiles, numbered 1-10 (four of each; three, chosen randomly, start the game out of play). One random tile starts in the middle. You have a hand of tiles in front of you. On your turn, you take a tile from your hand and place it on the board diagonally or orthogonally adjacent to any other tile. The idea is to make consecutive runs of the same tile, or tiles in sequential order, or rows that sum to 24 or 7. (Essentially.) There are lots of ways to do that, though; for most of the game it's hard to play "safety shots," to use a pool term. There are many games that I sometimes call "nim-like" where the idea is to "pass" in effective or creative ways, until the other guy is forced into zugzwang and has to give you good stuff. These games can be pretty good, but they're fragile and depend on people being knowledgeable about the board situation, and at least a way to minimize the luck of the draw. (Which is why the One True Way to play Knizia's Samurai is by drawing your tiles face-up.)
In 24/7, you're looking for tactical opportunities, rather than long-term planning, since it's so easy to screw up other players' plans. And you can be shafted by the tiles, as well. It seems like there should be some kind of way to eliminate much of the luck of the draw. Say by giving everyone an identical "starting hand," from which they choose their first six, and choose a replacement every turn? I'll have to try that.
What I like about the game: It's fast, it's easy, and encourages good table talk. It leads to good times at the table, even if the game mechanics aren't quite All That. It's not one I'd pull off the table all the time, but as a light game, it's pretty good.
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