Here you go. New and old, front and back.

Lovely! Thank you!

In case you're interested, Sarah's answer in the game show wasn't totally random. She figured "The Space Under the Clock" was the least interesting title, and what Andy would be least likely to write. Being a writer may have given her an advantage.

The really impressive part is that she ignored the temptation to change when she saw no one agreed.

I'd be interested in seeing the whole list, actually.  Sounds pretty neat, eh.  Good job.

Your wish is my command.

Here's what I've got so far.

I might guess the Start the Clock card is from the 800 or 812 series. 811 looks like multi-card packs.

Thanks for all of these. There were a couple of numbers I suspected, but several I hadn't even heard of. I'll have the list updated after work.

Some others (AFAICT):

LOO-68 - Retro Loonacy

LOO-70 - Firefly Fluxx

LOO-71 - Nature Fluxx

LOO-72 - Mad Libs The Game

LOO-73 - Ugly Doll Loonacy

And of course: LOO-074 Pyramid Arcade

Another:

LOO-811-12 - Party Favors - 9 Fluxx cards celebrating the game's 20th anniversary

LOO-524: The Aquarius 'Looney Labs Peace Puzzle' from 2004

Other items not on the list but I don't have numbers for...Do they even have numbers?

The 5x5 & 6x6 Volcano Boards

The treehouse die & ice-dice dice that are now sold separately. 

Looney Pads #1 & 2 from 2003

The Icehouse Handbook - 80 page book from 1992

Icehouse - The Martian Chess Set 

Also,

QTurn - Not sure about the question of a deluxe version (LOO-006 / LOO-008).  I have two sets, one doesn't list a version, the other says V 1.5 and the changes are as follows: The non-version marked set I'm assuming came first, as it has one of the 6 instruction panels dedicated to 'Choosing a Token'.  The V 1.5 set does not have that panel in the instructions, instead it's replaced with an 'Also from Looney Labs' promo panel, and has an added 'Caution, contains small parts' warning.  Between my two versions, I also have just one set of the 4-colored tokens, though I'm not 100% sure which one they came in.  The token edges are wrapped in wire which makes them kinda neat.  Logically, they probably came in v 1.5 which no longer has the 'Choosing a Token' text, as they were then provided, and would be the 'small parts' in the above mentioned warning.  So, it's my guess this makes that later version 'Deluxe'?  In any event, both show the year 1999, neither of them have a LOO# anywhere to be found, and both have the same ISBN number.

It was a great weekend at the UKGE. I think I spent, 1 and half days in the looney labs area, chatting and eventually demoing certain games for Andy & Kristin. also i think on the sunday me, andy, kristin and 2 other people were the last people still playing a game at the expo. Also on the Sunday i noticed kristin making a quick sketch of a demo / stall layout for next year maybe :D ??

Well, the warm glow hasn't yet warn off ;)

Since getting home I've started to strip out all the 'promo' cards I've added to the different sets of Fluxx I own, I've added so many promo cards over the years, the decks were beginning to get a little 'unbalanced' and unwieldy. My aim is to strip them all back to basic sets, then add the promo cards, where I think they will fit best, adding to each deck rather than detracting from the flow of the game.

This task has been made a little easier, since Kristin and Andy showed me the way that each deck has it's own font (I'd never previously noticed), so I can largely flick through the decks, pulling the cards with the wrong font.

We're still playing Loonacy (great game) when we have a couple of minutes to spare, but in the two days we've been home, we've yet to have a family game of Just Desserts. Not because we don't like the game, but my son has exams this week, and I'm still unpacking and sorting the games I purchased while at the expo. Seems like "we're going to need a bigger boat", or certainly a bigger games cupboard.

The box I had my Looney Labs games in, is overfull, I can no longer add any more games to it, so a new box needs sourcing. And the game cabinet itself is so full, I've had to stack games in front of it. But it's a nice problem to have :)

I know from the podcast, that Andy and Kristin were planning a 'European break' following the expo, so hope they tell us what they thought of both the expo, and the break when they get back.

You mention Andy was playing more than one game.  Did he run an "Andy Versus Everyone" event?  They set up a bunch of tables in a ring or line or something, with Andy on one side running around playing games, and everyone else on the other side challenging him to just about any of his games.  Those are sooo much fFun!!! 

Although I'm sure that Andy was willing (Kristin did mention it to me), space was VERY limited this year, and the foot traffic was pretty heavy near the Looney Labs area, so it couldn't possibly be set up.

If they do come again though and have enough room to give this a go, I intend to be one of the players ;)

Neat... but why didn't you stay consistent with the progression of shapes after inverting them? Shouldn't the progression be:

1 = /\

5 = (white triangle)

10 = (black triangle)

50 = \/

100 = (invert white triangle)

500 = (invert black triangle)

1000 = (white diamond)

10000 = (black diamond)

(dotted diamond)

[The bold shows where I flip-flopped your progression.]

What he said.  I would have swapped your 50 and your 100.

But otherwise, really neat.  Well done!  =)

For ease of remembering the more common numbers, I kept the open triangles common to 1's, and the closed triangles common to 5's:

1 is Λ, 100 is V

5 is Δ, 50 is ▽

I also considered the following, rotating the characters clockwise as the value increases - this would be more progressively uniform like you mentioned - but in the end I decided I simply liked the visual aesthetics of the more varied characters in the original post:

1 is Δ, 10 is ▷, 100 is ▽, 1000 is ◁, 10000 is ◇

5 is ▲, 50 is ▶, 500 is ▼, 5000 is ◀, 50000 is ◆

Thanks for taking a long enough look to question that!

I have ordered mine (several days ago, admittedly), and got a shipping notice that it should be on its way.  So I would say the site is actually down, in some manner.

Ooh, good point!  Time to start planning the next round of events, isn't it!!

I go to several college conventions in my area, including Simcon at The University of Rochester, UBcon at The University of Buffalo, and Running Gagg at State University of New York at Geneseo.  I often take my set of giant pyramids to these events.  Maybe I'll also actually make it Arcon this year.  These are all towards the beginning of next year, but it's around this time one needs to get events on the schedule.

My next convention is a new anime con in San Diego at the Town and Country called Hanadoki Con where we will be having a game room and some great demos. hope to see you there! 

Honestly, I'd rather have a new multi-colored stash, with obvious ability to take it to 5HOUSE, for my money. It'd be a much better move, with the ability to expand the color selection, and it's going to be pretty hard to get someone to buy more than one stash if there's only one color available. Many have commented about the steam punk package, which I've been a huge believer in, and that could be a cool concept, if there was a game that could take specific advantage of it's form. 

Some thoughts… There are many ways that a pyramid kickstarter campaign could be devised successfully, should LL decide that it makes sense based on demand and their ability to get a lower production order made with their Chinese manufacturer.

The first two options you mentioned could be put together into a KS campaign (as they often include items that are unlocked). However, as we have two opaque colors already, I don’t see them putting out five new opaque colors (or even five more translucent ones), as most pyramid games are for four or fewer players (there may be more of a demand here than I realize).

At the very least, I believe that there may be enough demand now for a gray set with existing pyramid players. I think it would great if they bundled a gray set with another opaque color (i.e., gold), which could be sold in stashes or in grouped trios. If they had a game using the opaque pieces designed for three or four players, they could sell them in groups of six or twelve pyramids; those wanting complete stashes could then buy an additional set or two.

Stating the obvious: Zark City exists to make Zarcana/Gnostica more accessible to players who don't have (and wouldn't buy) a tarot deck.  It also happens to be easier to learn, so it's easier to get into.  (I prefer its simplicity actually…)  Caldera was created to make Volcano accessible without buying ten stashes worth of multi-color pyramids now that the monochrome stashes are a thing of the past.  (Workaround: You can still get Pink Treehouse, and if you can't, 2x Pink Hijinks works…)  As with Gnostica and Zark City, both are still enjoyed because they wind up being different games in play.

I think I agree with you that, aside from a limited run of grays, there just isn't going to be a whole lot of demand for a new monochrome stash aside from people looking to complete collections (hi!).  Anybody looking for a 6th mono stash for Volcano has already gone the pink route (hello!) or found themselves five Xeno stashes (hi again!).  Gray is not really required at this point, unless you want an option cheaper than a pair of Pink Hijinks sets.  That's likely to continue as long as Pink Hijinks is sold, which I do not anticipate being forever—a somewhat sad subject for another thread.

Gold's an interesting idea to pair with gray and perhaps brown.  Two or three trios of each, maybe.  You can perhaps see where I'm going there, but I'll stop short of proposing any particular game or mechanic to keep LL out of dangerous legal waters if they decide to go forth and do it.  :)

Come to think of it, I'd love to see a game or two published using two Xeno stashes as a more convenient way to package and buy them.

Zendo cards are probably easy enough, and I know Zendo stones should be.  Hmm…

I would buy in to a pyramid-themed KS, certainly.  :)

Yeah, I think a game designed for two opaque colors would be cool, especially if the hypothetical game is largely self contained (or maybe necessitating a treehouse set in addition, which most people pledging would already have). I imagine, if it was scalable to three or four players (with black and white pyramids), that would be cool, but it could play as is with two. It might be attractive to pyramid players who don't want to go out and buy additional Xeno and Rainbow sets, and, those of us who want to tinker with other games would pledge enough to get complete stashes.

I'm sure these scenarios have been thought of, but they might not be realistic. That's the appeal of a Kickstarter campaign though; different ideas can be put together, with some of them to be unlocked when there's enough support.

I think there's some danger in thinking of the idea as basically a group buy of something new and cool.  Or not so new, no longer available, and wanted by new players.

Looney Labs is a small company, and ultimately it needs to make teh moniez, especially in this insane economy.  We've been dealing now, mid-2014, with basically eight years of I Can't Believe It's Not A Depression type economic doom.  Oh sure they money guys are making money.  They make money on people's miseries as well as fortunes, as long as they can predict what'll happen.  But this isn't the forum for THAT “little” discussion.  :)

The Looney clan hasn't been too secretive about the size and scope of their operation—it's tiny! Until not so long ago, the company offices were the basement of a house bought by Alison.  They lease space in a warehouse and have a small space where they prepare and palletize current orders.  They have large distributors, which is how their stuff gets into larger stores and whatnot, but it seems that they handle at least some of their smaller customers themselves.

They're small enough to do something like a KS project for a new game using pyramids, with support levels for the fans and everything, but they're also a big enough operation that they've got to make sure everybody's getting paid.  A labor of love, for sure, but it's no longer just that.

But owning a small business myself, I realize that no matter how much you love your work, you've got to make it sustain itself.  They can indulge us only so long as we continue to help them make money.  For them that means making new games, and for us it means buying, selling, and playing their games, and telling them what works and what needs more work.

That would be great. I didn't know there was a retailer kit. Thanks for the information!

This is a thing that interests me!  I am not yet absolutely completely certainly going to origins, but I probably am.  And I am quite good with the pyramid-based games.  I might be able to bring a set of giant pyramids.

What sort of game space do you have in mind, anyway?  Sort of a big experiment thing, but much smaller?  Some tables and some games, basically?

I'm hoping to attend this year. If I will be there, I would certainly help.

I did see the WWN article (and Andy's Facebook post pointing to said WWN article), but an email never landed in my inbox.  I've submitted a request through the webform.

Maybe it's time to switch email services.... Excite has been letting too many messages SMEF these days.

I didn't get an email either, but I've also submitted a request (or maybe 2) through the webform.  Awesome for any game manufacturer to do a holiday gift.

It landed in my mailbox today.  I won't ruin the surprise for anyone who's still awaiting theirs, but it is indeed very nifty and it brought a smile to the entire Hackelhaven Trio. 

I can't think of a game publisher that is as frequently generous to their fans as Looney Labs has consistently been.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Fluxx start out as a holiday gift?

Assuming standard mail times, and if I am getting the holiday thing as requested, it will most likely take a week or 2 before anyone in the UK, including myself actually gets theirs.

It's really nice for any game publisher to do such a thing, so I am grateful myself to have such an opportunity to get something from the Looneys.

I don't disagree.  Like especially at conventions and stuff?  Totally need as many pockets as possible!

I've not been to a convention sadly, but yes, I would wear the cargoes no doubt.

Cool, dude!!!

My group of Starship Captains playtested a new Looney Pyramids game that I'm working on. It was good fun.

I know I've already made the a similar post elsewhere, but here goes, we played;

Family Fluxx

MontyPython Fluxx

Fluxx v1

Fluxx v3 (plus bonus cards, lots of bonus cards)

Zombie Fluxx

Star Fluxx (twice)

Cthulhu Fluxx

We also threw in a deciding game of Ice Dice. Only four players this time (it was a family game), but lots of fun.

On Saturday, I was at Marcon, a science fiction convention that had Looney Labs as its Gaming Guest of Honor in 2007 (when I first demoed games for Looney Labs).  I had lots of non-gaming things on my schedule this year, but I did manage to play a few games of Star Fluxx in the afternoon with a couple of people in the game room.  And although I had Star Fluxx in my game bag, it was actually another person who provided the copy that we played.

Bonus: I played Seven Dragons with somebody on Sunday in the Green Room.

Sadly, our planned late night Werewolf on Friday night fell through when the Werewolf deck had an untimely encounter with a leaking can of Cherry Coke.  But there has been a lot of Werewolf recently, since several people in our gaming circle got the Deluxe Kickstarter Edition.

At the Looney Lounge I played:

1x Star Fluxx (earned my StarFluxx badge)

2x Chrononauts

2x Fluxx: Board Game

1x Pharaoh

Elsewhere that day I played:

1x Organized Chaos (which didn't go over well)

6 hands of Rack-O

Munchkin, Munchkin Quest, Betrayal at House on the Hill, and... I was going to host one session of Zendo, but we wound up playing three. I had to buy two more treehouse sets to accommodate the people at the table. We're hoping to get a regular pyramds group going. Played at the Gamer's Grind in Orangevale, CA.

Kell the re-new Kid from Carmichael, CA

TableTop day in the UK is not well supported, we're having a 'Family Fluxx' day in the Feenix household. Hope you all have a great time and, may the best person win :)

Our Family Fluxx marathon has been a great success.

We started the evening with Fluxx v1 and have progressed through Zombie Fluxx, Family Fluxx, Fluxx v3 (plus extras), Monty Python Fluxx, Star Fluxx and Cthulhu Fluxx.

We even had enough time left for a couple of games of Ice Dice. :)

Hope everyone else has as much fun as we've had.

Happy TableTop Day.

Here's a picture of the proud winner, with a copy of his certificate of 'awsomeness' from Geek & Sundry;

Hey Feenix!  Looks like  a great time!  Did you take any breaks between games??   Interested to know what Fluxx game you like the best!  Are you ready for the Fluxx Board game in July?  Give us some more info on the games results and who won!

Congrats to the young lad on a what Ill bet was a very fun day!

Drew

Hi Drew, yeah, I could have gone into a little more detail I guess so here it is blow by blow;

We started out playing one game of each of the Fluxx card games we currently have, and then played a second game of Star Fluxx (our joint favourite). Having played the first six games, Jack (the proud owner of the TableTop Day certificate) had missed out on every game, but with two games left he still felt he could make a come-back. And he did!

We had expected, having played eight games straight  that there would be a clear winner, or maybe a joint winner, but no. We were all on 2 wins each! You can't have four winners after four hours of earnest gaming! We need winners!

Having foreseen this possible outcome, and having only printed off the single winners certificate, I'd cannily agreed beforehand that in the event of a draw we'd play a sudden death game of Ice Dice (fantastic deciding game by the way), and thats what we went on to do.

Following Jacks victory dance around the table, and my own name change to 'looooser', I presented him with his certificate, which now has pride of place in his bedroom. But he'd better watch out next year, I'm going to be honing my skills. :)

Yes, I'm looking forward to the Fluxx BoardGame. Shame it's not likely to be at the UK Games Expo as we're attending that this year for the first time, (I assume it's not likely to be there as it takes place at the end of may and I've not seen any news on the game) and it would have been great to see or maybe trial it while I'm there. I guess I'll have to learn patience. Mind you, I'm only a few games into the Pyramid system yet, so I have plenty to keep us busy for a while at least.

Done :)

I am not an official voice of any kind of authority.  But may I be honest with you?  I would very much prefer not to have sales allowed.  I get enough ads fFrom people wanting my money elsewhere.  And, you know, the Looneys are trying to make a living and all.

That said, I guess if you had some component that would totally enrich my life, and complimented the pyramids in some way that the Looneys can't do ... like, how else would I learn about it?  Like if you were promoting some kind of chessboards or something.  But that better be awesome, man.

See, no authoritative answers fFrom me, just ambiguous arm waving.  This is why I'm not a boss.

Well, I discovered I owned a second chessboard bandana, and it seems a popular item.

A chessboard bandana is a perfect example of something it would be ok to post about - but in general, what Scott said - trying to sell something that isn't Looney Labs related would not be well received by anyone.

I got it too.  I'm pretty sure it's something simple like allowing public access to that page. 

It's fixed now.

Thanks, Looneys.

I've had the same problem.

Hi Karin,

Like I'm a grad student in chemistry, let say that I understand your love for math...
I'm from Quebec City and I my favorite Lonney's game is Zombie Fluxx.
I buy games at the L'Imaginaire in Qubec City or on the web.

For the sideline, I prefer talking about : «la séparation du Québec». Just kidding.

Hi,

I'm from Montreal and I get my games at Tour de Jeux.  Though I have bought some in the states as well.  My favourite is probably Oz Fluxx.  But that's a hard choice to make.  I've only tried the Fluxx games, none of the other Looney Lab games.

Hey there. Thanks for the invite. I am currently living in the flatlands of Saskatchewan.

I am mostly a fan of the the Pyramid games but did get a play of Chrononauts in recently. Fluxx is a game I take to our annual Folk Festival.
 Have a look at my BGG Profile for a more complete BIO...

http://boardgamegeek.com/user/Bixby

From Vancouver myself. There aren't many games I don't try. DnD is my specialty, I have over 35 books and know more that anyone else I know. With looney Labs it started with Fluxx, then Zombie and Month Pyton Fluxx, now its Back to The Future. I also have Seven Dragons on the way. I collect comics and  transformer figures(large collection of both).I like older video games, PS2 era and before. I find newer games are more flashy effects and less game play and story.

Other hobbies i have are making Origami and plastic models .

P.S. anyone know how many DEAD men understand hexadecimal?

From Ottawa/Gatineau. I started playing Zombie Fluxx when I found it in a Value Village.

Still too early to teach board games to my 2 boys so I play with friends.

Quebec will not separate so why bother talking about it.

So who use kickstarter ?

My childhood was spent in the Detroit area, and so on TV we'd hear frequently about things going on in Canada, especially Windsor ON just across the river.  Also, my Scottish-born dad had a couple of aunts and uncles living in Ontario (and another set in Alberta), so I have fond memories of visiting them, as well of special treats like Cadbury chocolate, Smarties, Lyle's Golden Syrup and french fries with vinegar!  (And HP Sauce, which I hated as a kid but like now.) 

> I would think of separation for Ontario but then we'd just be another American state :)

But it would be about the 6th most populous state!  Just think, you too could be a presidential battleground. :) 

Located in Cape Breton , Nova Scotia. Sadly there has never been a gaming shop for a while and one opened a year ago and they managed to get in some fluxx games.

Big fan of Monty Python ,and so, fav game is the Fluxx version :).

Lard tunderin' jeesus, another Maritimer! I lived for 20+ years. What part of Cape Breton are you from?

Just outside North Sydney on Johnson Road.

*money OR id

I got the same thing on the 12th never contacted the person though it just smelled of scam .... But I am sure she is just a Nigerian princess or something that needs help wiring millions of dollars to the U.S. ... Or she wanted to tell me I won the British lotto right?  lol.  Her name was minus the Weah though.  The email I received said it was a comment on my page, I looked and there was none there now. 

We all miss you this year at Origins.  It's really strange seeing people I'm used to seeing in the Lab, but no Lab.  I'm wearing a Big Experiment ribbon for one more year, though.  Last year, I got an extra ribbon by mistake, so I dug out the extra and I'm wearing it this year.  That's all for now, until after Origins.

Here are some of my memories of the Big Experiment, in no particular order...

Playing Werewolf in the hall outside the Lab, back before it outgrew the space ... Playing Andy v. Everybody and getting an "I beat Andy" ribbon each year--even the year in which I was time-committed for all but one session and didn't think I'd be able to make it to that one, either ... Booth bug-out ... Beating Andy one year in the Black Ice tournament by bluffing him ... Playing Volcano with Kristin ... Running the first Zark City tournament (not all those memories are good, but we got it done) ... Muffins ... Getting beaten soundly by Andy in Homeworlds during Andy-v-E; he was playing about 4 simultaneous Homeworlds games at the time ... Learning Icehouse ... Playing the various Fluxx prototypes over the years ... Giant Zendo ... Playing Pink Hijinks with Kristin ... The year Andy-v-E was in a room off in the middle of nowhere ... Busting out in Martian Hold-em with A-A vs. A-Q when my opponent rivered a straight ... The ICE Awards ... When they made the Giant World War 5 board ... The "What's New" sessions with Andy

What does email have to do with it? The "browse" upload should let you find the file to upload directly from your hard drive.

Log into your fanclub account at your desktop computer, click on 'My Page' in the upper left hand corner next to "Main".  You should now be looking at your profile/bio page.  Hover your mouse over where your picture should be...  do you see a 'Change Photo' link?  Click on that link.  You can get to the same edit page by clicking on the EDIT button on the upper left corner of the Profile Information header.  

Once you get to that Edit Profile page, just click on the Choose File button and select the photo you want to upload.  I hope this helps!

Yeah, I've honestly got no idea what the site would look like on an iPod. If it's an option, you might try going in through the "Edit Profile" button on your profile page, because that should give you a place to add your profile pic too.

I think this is for uploading a photo into the library of photo's, not for uploading your profile pic - to do that you want to get yourself to that Edit Profile page... 

I have no real piecenik experience, but I'm an interested observer. Most of the piecenik info I've seen online has been at the personal websites of the various pieceniks.

It doesn't seem like it would be difficult or inappropriate to add things like pieceniking designs to the existing IcehouseOrg wiki. And for more conversational interaction, you could add a forum here, or even make a group.

I found this page from Eric Zuckerman via the Geocities preservation project. As far as I know, this is not available elsewhere. There are some really good gems here, from the heyday of piecniking.

For those interested, I suggest checking out the entries under the "Medallion contest" and all of the links under "The Piecenik Pages." These are some really pretty icehouse pieces. Enjoy.

http://www.oocities.org/timessquare/maze/9346/Icehouse/

I would suggest anything that doesn't require a specific board would be good.  Here's some that come to mind:

• Icehouse - The classic!!  Andy's new rules write up makes the game very understandable.  Players place their pieces in an open area, with no turns or board, as such.  Seems perfect fFor camping!
  
  
• Icetowers - The most intuitive game I've ever played.  Except I'm awful at it, so maybe I should try using something other than intuition.  This also has no turns or board, and relies on stacking pieces to claim the best sets of things.
  
  
• Homeworlds - Binary Homeworlds requires no particular board, and new stars are discovered in space ad hoc, as you go along.  And then after conquering the stars, you can lie back in the grass and do some star gazing.  =)
  
  
• Zendo - This plays better with more than just the 3 of you, but it simply requires some stones, which you might have in abundance.  =)
  
  
• Mandala - I haven't played this, but it looks really cool, and requires only some space to lay out the pieces.

Thanks, there will be more than three.  There is actually a group of friends that are going to go camping.  Not sure just how many families will be there.  (It's been a pain finding a weekend that everyone can make it to.)

IceTowers is a great idea, I want to try to do up some cards with the actions that a person can do.  Then see if the wife will translate them to Chinese.

Zendo is another great idea.  I've got the starter cards, again, I can ask my wife to translate to make Chinese versions as a starter set.

Not sure about Icehouse.  Might be a bit complicated to lay out for people who are not native speakers and not gamers.  But I'll try.  I do have the current IceSheets printed and laminated, so that should help somewhat.  Also, homeworlds may be a bit complex to translate, but I'll see if I can round up some interest.

Might have to try Drip (very simple rules and easy to understand.) along with CrackeD Ice, Thin Ice (maybe try the IceDice varient I mentioned before, Thin dIce?)

Any other suggestions?  I've got a month to plan and get ready, we're going at the begining of July, but I might want to get my wife familiar with the games before taking them out.

I tried out Plutonian Poker recently, and it's a nice pyramids-only game that doesn't need a board or precise positioning.

I'm having the same problem, and I do think it's a technical issue. An alternative navigation tactic would be to click the (n requests) next to Friends in the control panel in the upper right of the screen, but that too only navigates to the My Friends display.

The invite I was trying to see/answer is gone now. Perhaps it was a phantom? If not, it's been deleted as part of a fix, I guess.

Mine appear to be gone now as well.

We will see what we can do Scott!  

Thanks for letting us know.  I will look into this tonight and reply when I have it fixed.

Something's definitely amiss with the app. Mine currently says "An error occurred" without displaying the list, which I haven't edited for some days. It was possible to put dozens of items on the list, as long as you added them one at a time, in my experience. 

I have fixed the Starship Captains List App.  An upgrade earlier this week broke it.  Sorry about that.

Thanks very much, it seems to be working fine now.:)

A lot of pyramid games are print and play (after you buy some pyramids, of course).

There's a very nice page, linking to a lot of games available on the "Looney Pyramids" site, here: http://www.looneylabs.com/looney-pyramids

Andy Looney just (re-)released Lunar Invaders, which is sort of Cosmic Coasters with variations.  You can get the rules and stuff here:  http://www.looneylabs.com/rules/lunar-invaders

There's somewhere around 500 games on the Icehouse wiki (of varying quality, I'm sure...) You can see the recently-much-improved list of completed games to play here http://www.icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=What_Can_I_Play?

You posted a picture of your collection, which seems to show you have 1 set of treehouse on hand.  That's cool.  Here's a category on the wiki with all one-set games: http://www.icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Treehouse_set

Last week, I got the chance to play Evacuate, with the game's creator.  It's a nifty new game requiring one treehouse set, which you can get here:  http://www.icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Evacuate

If you are a starship captain, there's a variety of games which are in various forms of development or re-editing on the fForums, including the seminal Pikemen which should be in every Captain's repertoire http://looneylabs.ning.com/group/starshipcaptains/forum/topics/game-pikemen-icesheet-discussion

Cheers!

Okay, thanks for those suggestions.

Are you familiar with any nice P&P games outside of the Looney Labs family of games?

It feels strange to recommend non-Looney Labs games on the Looney Labs fan site, which is why I haven't done it.

I can see your point. Alternately, I think topics like this can give the folks at Looney Labs some insight into other gaming desires of ours that they could possibly capitalize on in future projects.

Thanks for recommending Evacuate. It was a blast playing it with you. I should note that it's more of a four house game for two players (although someone might get away with playing it with three sets with the latest rule changes in effect).

The World War 5 related games are also popular print and play pyramid games, although I haven't been motivated to try them myself.

Cards against humanity is a fun printable game. its like apples to apples but a lot more adult.

Hiya!

Yes, we used to be Lab Rabbits; we're now Lab Techs; some of us still prefer the Lab Rabbit identity ... it's not terribly important what we're called, I think.

Mostly, getting someone to come to your event is a matter of getting some person in your area who has some enthusiasm fFor the games.  If I were closer, I'd come, you bet.  But we're all basically volunteers.

I just did a quick search of our registered people, here, and it looks like there are several people in Georgia who you might be able to invite to your event to run games.  We're usually a nice nice of people, so drop some of them a line and see if anyone is available!

Unless you were hoping to get Andy Looney himself to come to your event?  That's a bit more involved.  I would suggest emailing him directly.

Cheers!

--Scott

Thanks for replying, Scott. Does the company provide prize support to the lab technicians so that prizes can be awarded to winners of demo games?

At present, there's a bunch of promo cards and fFreebies which we can give out.  The Looneys make a fFew promo cards every year, so there's quite a pool to draw fFrom.

A year or two ago, they started printing posters, which look super cool.  The IceDice Playmat is pretty sweet, fFor example, and the 7 dragons game poster looks really nice.

The Looneys have been talking recently about other prize systems that we can use, but that's not really up and going yet, unless whoever comes to your convention decides to do it on their own (and it's a nice thing if they do).

And, if you were thinking of bigger prizes, like copies of games ... well, all I can say is, ask nicely.  The Looneys are really cool people, so they might send some swag your way, but no promises can be made here.  Whomever you get to run events at your convention might come with their own prizes that they are willing to give away.  Personally, I have about 4 copies of fFluxx, fFor example.

So I guess the short answer is:  yes there are prizes which can be given, but the quality and quantity of prizes may vary.

Cheers!

Thank you Scott for jumping in and trying to answer Ted's questions... and for the kind words! 

Yes we used to have an awesome demo program.
Yes we are working on bringing it back.
Yes I wish we had more time and resources...

                   ... did I mention we are working on it?   

And we will have some cool new things in place before next years convention season...

For now...   OUR DEMO TEAM

 "We don't currently have a formal demo program (with a reward system, organized convention support, the ability to hook stores/cons/fans together, etc.) but we do have a fan club again!  The Demo Team is a private group within the fan club that let's us communicate with our biggest fans about ways they can help us promote our games. We have a variety of promotional items at very cheap prices that only members of this group can purchase, details available once you join."

So... we don't have systems in place to hook fans and stores and conventions together - but if you or someone else from your convention joins the Demo Team you will gain access to various resources. More will come... your convention is not until next summer - please check back after the new year! 

Thanks playing Looney Labs games at your convention!

Okay, it's after the new year so I'm checking back. Any news?

I did check that list that Scott included in his post. They either would not respond or said they were not on the Demo Team. I did not try Tony Cade because he owns a comics and games store and thus is highly unlikely to be able to do demos at a con.

Hi Kristin,

The WW event will continue as normal last year. Currently we have a full boat of volunteers for next year, made up primarily of volunteers from last year. I'll be happy to add you to my contact list though. Nothing is likely to change as far as WW goes until December or so when Origins begins registering events and we can determine how many volunteer hours we'll have to staff with.

Whether we can add you as an official event volunteer or not, we are always happy to have more people stepping up to moderate games and help out in little ways. Feel free to message me here, or on Facebook if you have any more specific questions.

Peter Charnley

Hi Peter,

I would also be interested. Could you please add me to the mailing list as well?

Thanks,
Meg

Hi Peter,

Thank you for the feedback, and given that its a bit early, i understand. I be happy to help how I can, but if there is a need for some volunteers I would be happy to help. Look forward to AYAW in 2012 :)

Thanks

Kristin

Thanks for cooking that spam, Russ!

Brian, if you're reading this, I think it's time to have admins approve new user accounts.  I'm reverting over a dozen spam entries every day, and blocking just as many spammer "new user" dummy accounts, while actual legit new user accounts are less than once a month.  I'm spending more time undoing spam than I would be approving new users.

Holy crap, I just noticed a huge number of spam pages are being created at the icehouse wiki.

http://www.icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Recentchanges

An admin needs to delete many pages and spammer accounts.

Is there still no email confirmation to create a new account? Some kind of setting like that looks extremely necessary.

I am no longer able to keep up with policing spam.  Please flag spam articles for deletion, and I'll get to them when I have time again.

Only Brian Campbell can activate email confirmation.

Is he still in contact with anyone? I noticed him in the chat box a month or so ago, but I haven't seen him post anything in ages. The spam really is ridiculous now.

What is the best way to flag them? Edit it and replace all the text with {{admin}} or what? That's a nontrivial amount of busy-work, but I see no other obvious way to do it.

If you are comfortable and able to give me deletion privilege, I'd be happy to just go through and directly delete a bunch of them.

I just put a note on his Comment Wall, directing him to this thread.

Gah, over fifty new spam user accounts so far today.

I sent a geekmail to his user account at BGG. But he's not logged in there for the past couple of weeks.

The Rabbit wiki is in even worse shape. For a solid year, nearly all new content has been spam (aside from new Fluxx Q&A). We definitely need the Rabbit wiki admin to do some serious junk removal.

Yeah... Besides being a pain to navigate through, a wiki full of spam gives a really bad impression to people new to the games or curious about the games that the community is dead and abandoned.

Does anyone know how to reach Brian Campbell? I got no reply to the BGG geekmail I him sent a week ago.

And again, if anyone has the admin rights to give me deletion rights, my offer still stands to go through and delete a bunch of the spam pages and accounts on the icehouse wiki.

He did log in to BGG last Thursday, so he apparently hasn't abandoned that site altogether.  I'd give it some more time and maybe ping him again.

Martian chess doesn't depend on color at all, so it could work by feel alone. Gyges is another (not designed as a pyramid game, but works excellently with pyramids.)

Tic-tac-doh is another since it uses only a single monochrome stash (but would require the blind person to remember inner pyramids in a nest or lift pyramids to examine under them or simply ask the opponent).

At boardgamegeek.com there have been various geeklists over the years on this subject of games playable by blind or vision-impaired people (search geeklists for "blind" - some are also about color-blindness).

Most people classified as blind have some degree of vision.  For those not totally blind, I would think they would be fine with the colors and shapes of the pyramids.

Even with total blindness, there are several games that would seem to work.  Treehouse, for example.  With a pipped or etched die and a conversion chart, they wouldn't even need assistance.

With Numbers

Without Numbers

This was my idea :-p

The TRA is the Time Repair Agency.

Speaking of which, I just gave that logo a makeover:

http://andrewlooney.tumblr.com/post/9128126328/

We made custom Icehouse watches with the original Icehouse logo in the very early days of Icehouse...  they were really cool!  I wonder if we still have any of those anywhere...

Shane: is this something where the price drops drastically when you make a dozen+ of them? How many others wish they could get a Starship Captain watch?

Would one be enough?  I know I would definitely want one! ;-)  Would make great prizes for tournaments too!

I know of someone who may be able to do some patches. He makes lots of other custom patches, but usually only single items, so there should be a discount for more. He's based in the US, and if I have permission to do so, I can get a quote for different numbers. If someone higher up would please let me know, I will contact him.

It isn't a question of finding a place to have them made...  it's time / money / logistics...  figuring out the details of what we are going to do with them once we have them. Do we sell them?  Do we give them away? Do we make all six designs that Andy has created all at once? or do just one or two of them at first? but then which ones? 

This morning I was thinking about putting off the patches and instead making a Challenge Coin with the Starship Captain logo on it...  which would be AWESOME!  But should I wait to do them until I can make the membership cards I want to make happen?  

      ...so I just get back to work on everything else that really is more important that I need to get done first. Sorry. I need to ask you to continue to be patient. We will do awesome things with these logos as soon as I can make it happen. 

Look -  OVER HERE  -  we will be making an announcement about our Holiday Gift in the next few days...  please sign up for the demo team and get ready to help us promote IceDice and Looney Pyramids! 

That all makes sense, and probably explains why I'm not in the gaming business: There's lots of things I just don't think about. I'm intrigued by the idea of the coins and / or Membership cards, I must admit.

If I were to contact the person who makes patches, would it be okay for me to have one created to show that I'm a Looney Labs Game Technician, either using the logo or something I come up with on my own? I'm planning on a lab coat for demoing games and would like to have patches for the different companies and things I demo for. If it's not okay, I understand, but I'd rather ask first before getting too into it.

I also wouldn't mind getting patches, tokens or even the watch. 

I also have another question.  Thanks to themed parties that friends hosted, my current lab coat is decidedly Hawaiian/surfer in flavor (the party was Mad Scientist Luau).  Do the demo team only wear white lab coats or anything?  I want to determine what fabric to buy next (yes, I own a pattern for lab coats...)

New to the team,

Serina

Where did you find the lab coat pattern? I'm looking at the pricing and wondering if I can get away with having one made for me instead.

You have a pattern?   Sweet!!!

I think individuality among lab coats is allowed -- and encouraged, really.  People put a lot of character into their coats.  I don't think there's been a comprehensive gallery of lab coats, but there certainly could be!

Simplicity Pattern 5443 - it has scrubs and one lab coat.  It uses up to 4 3/4 yards of material, so that is where most of the cost will be.  I made it for the first time in about 3 hours - that includes cutting out the pattern and everything.  I did mess up and made my coat way too big, so I'm looking at making a new one or three. 

I'll add my voice to the chorus affirming desire for a Starship Captain patch.

Any chance of a higher resolution version? I'd love to have the pocket watch made up that Shane posted on page 1, but they're requiring 600 x 600 pixels in order to do that.

I love the redesign!

Ok, I know that this is a bit late (ok, a lot late) but I'm going to chip in my voice to the chorus clamoring for patches.  I'm even going to go a bit further and elaborate on what patches to make and how to wear them (beyond decorating yourself).  You'll have to excuse me a bit, I'm an old Boy Scout.:)

First, the Looney Labs Game Technician patch.  I feel that it should be produced and available through the online store, probably through the Game Tech Supplies portion.  However, for persons demoing at an official Looney Labs event can be given an initial patch to be worn on their lab coat (I would suggest on the right breast pocket).  For each Looney Lab event (i.e. Origins) a segment can be made that can be placed around the Lab Tech patch.  Our Scout Camp did this with year segments that were stiched around the camp patch.  You would recieve a new year strip each year you attended camp.  These could even be made available to any game tech who attends (although I don't know how feasible that would actually be).

Second, a rectangular Demo Team patch could be made available to be worn over the right breast pocket (or in that relative area) for anyone who is actively working as a demo team member.  It could easily be set up with a velcro backing for removal when you aren't demoing, but I believe that most people simply remove their Lab Coats in that case.:)

Third, I think a Starship captain shoulder patch could be done to wear on the right shoulder.  (I like the right shoulder, you tell me if it should be somewhere else).  After looking at the spoof merit badges, it makes me wonder if something like that could be done for official Looney Labs pyramid games.  A Starship Captain could add those to his sleeve to show which games he is able and willing to teach or at least proficient in.

I have some other ideas for Fluxx and Chrononauts as well but we can hold it at this for the moment.

I know that a lot of this may seem outlandish or a bit extravagant, and it is. :)  However, such items can help attract more attention to different areas that people would otherwise may not think to ask about.  It also creates a visual display of some of the knowledge what a lab tech can help someone with.  So, you look for Captains to learn about/play Icehouse, you look for TRA patches for Chrononauts, etc...

Mayday Games has a sleeve guide which lists several versions of Fluxx: link (PDF).  They recommend "Std USA (Purple)", which corresponds to 56x87mm cards.  Purple seems to be the color Mayday uses for their packaging of those sleeves.  See: link.

I looked this up for someone today, and was delighted to find that you'd already done this research.  Thanks Jeff.

However, the link was broken, so here is the updated link for the Standard USA sleeves from Mayday:

http://maydaygames.com/card-sleeves-56-87-mm-100-pack-std-usa.html

Hi Eric,

There is a group here for Origins volunteers which will answer almost all your questions:

http://looneylabs.ning.com/page/origins-volunteers

Please sign up and join us!

and on this page there is info on how many hours you need to volunteer to earn various things:

http://looneylabs.ning.com/page/how-to-sign-up-big-experiment

You need:

8 hours to get a Big Experiment Ribbon

16 hours to get an Origins Badge

24 hours for both

Here is the event schedule:

http://www.looneylabs.com/events/schedule/schedule.html?event=Origins2011

anywhere you see "[... Needed] that is an open slot that someone can volunteer for. We still have several [Demo Tech Needed] and [Booth Tech Needed] slots available.

As for learning the games, we have times each morning for volunteers to swing by the Lab and get training. The main focus this year is demo'ing 5 new games: Pirate Fluxx, Back to the Future, Seven Dragons, IceDice, and Launchpad 23. As most of these are new games most people won't know them and will need to learn them when they arrive at the show.

We would love for you to sign up for a few hours and help out! We still need help demo'ing either in the Lab (our game room) or in the booth. If you are interested in signing up for enough hours to earn an Origins Badge I need to know this week as I'm about to submit names to GAMA.

Robin

Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to this - I too would love to be notified via email about these things.  

It is on the list of NING things to try to figure out how to do...  

Seems like someone on the back end is deleting these.  I see in my inbox, and even have a "Approve Comment" link, but when I click it (so I can delete it), there is nothing there.

I would imagine it is dependent on how approvals are done that might dictate how much of this we see.

BOL!

(Burst Out Laughing)

I just got one from a different person:

Interesting,How is everything with you, I picked interest on you after going through your short profile. I really want to have a good friendship with you. Beside i have something very vital to disclose to you, but I found it difficult to express myself here, since it's a public site. Please i will like you to contact  me, through my private e-mail via: (augustinaharuni@yahoo.co.uk) So we can get to know each other better,and i well give you my pictures and also tell you more about me OK.Yours Friend,Augustin.

I got the same problem, from a girl. (and I see she left messages like that on everybody's profile)

name is Annan Bineta

please delete her account and tell us how to delete her comment

thank you

Go to "My Page/My Settings/Privacy".  You will see many options covering who can see or comment on certain things of yours, and whether comments are posted immediately or wait for your approval.  I reckon that if you change the default settings for many of these, the problem should go away in the future.  I don't know how to delete old comments, though.

Depends on what the "admiring" consists of...

E.g. see the comic at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/09/02/women-and-street-harassment/

Daniel,

The simple answer is that I've had way too many random spam "I want to get to know you please email me" comments randomly from strangers since I started using the interwebz many years ago.

If the email perhaps specifically noted something about me that they liked, I wouldn't find it as creepy, but I don't like getting comments that are just someone obviously trolling for someone to reply.  

(and I say that it wouldn't be as creepy, but my old wunderland.com address used to produce horribly detailed creepy email from a guy who liked my long hair and gave long detailed descriptions of the sexual acts that he wanted to perform with me, so I don't like the specific ones either *grin*)

The message was simple spam designed to get people to click the links.  I deleted the user and the comments as soon as I heard of it.

The user sent messages to many members of the fan club there was nothing personal about it.

And now some other spammer "Jenifer Hagge" has appeared...

http://looneylabs.ning.com/forum/topics/search-our-data-base-for-free

I hope ning.com is not going to get overrun by spammers.

As a workaround until it's fixed, one can always do a google search with the site option, like:

fluxx site:http://looneylabs.ning.com

e.g.

http://www.google.com/search?q=fluxx+site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Flooneylabs.ning.com

Re: search. I have submitted ticket with Ning.

As Kristin said use the Building Our NING Community forum for problems with the site and I would prefer a separate topic for each distinct problem or issue.

Thanks for the feedback.

1)  I'll look into this this seems like something we can do.

2) I'm guessing we can't change this but I will check.

3) This is a limitation of the Ning platform. I too wish there was better email notification capabilities.

If you follow RSS feeds you could follow the Forums RSS feed -- it is updated whenever a new topic is created.

Hi Craig,

Any results from your checking on these questions?

I'd buy some of the $1 IceDice playmet for my store, to pass along to buyers of the game.

I'd like a rubberized one for myself, though!

Dave

I am a fan of high quality components and as such I have a dislike for paper mats. I transport games frequenctly and paper playmats are problematic as they invariably become tattered, wrinkled, or otherwise damaged. I am probably in the minority here, but that takes away from my enjoyment of a game. I would buy an IceDive playmat, (even though I have not tried the game yet).

If you have followed the rise of Summoner Wars on BoardGameGeek, the people who bought the game made their voices heard and Colby Dauch (Designer) ended up releasing premium Summoner Wars boards to replace the paper playmats that came with the original set. I really think quality components increases the "play" appeal of a game.

I'm hoping there is a demand for the rubberized mats, because I would love some myself! I've probably played IceDice over seventy times since receiving my upgrade kit, during my trip to Vegas I even demoed on the plane! Not to mention how often the game comes out of my bag at bars, coffee shops, and when customers come into my store. 

The IceDice mats would obviously be unnecessary, but I'm sure many of us would use them, especially if they are the nice quality rubberized ones you suggest. As is with a Volcano or Homeworlds board, the board isn't necessary, but we all have them because they're so freaking sweet and stylish!

Maybe consider releasing both, but the rubberized mats can be a limited item?

I can't see myself buying a $12 IceDice playmat.  Of the 7 times I've played IceDice so far, I've played with only two players twice.  Even if that wasn't the case, I think the expensive mat would be a "probably not" for me.

I can't say I'd really be interested in a $12 playmat. I haven't seen them in person, but in teaching/playing IceDIce, I've started using a Martian Coaster for the 'counter', which helps, but otherwise it just works.

Icedice as such doesn't scream to me to be a game that really even needs a playmat.  I've never had any trouble with anyone not understanding the "counter" vs. "banked" areas or anything.  

On the other hand, a high quality rubberized board for Launchpad 23, with all the options, a player guide, and the board printed so it's all visible on one nice rubberized board?  I probably would pay $12 for something like that.

Heck, I'd probably pay $12 for a rubberized, roll uppable, WW5 board.  

Just saw this.  Semi-random responeses:

- I like the idea of the mats in general.  It's fun, and adds extra value for many folks.

- I don't know how many games I'd get rubberized mats for, but I definitely would like laminated mats. If they are not provided, I will laminate my own. 

- None of the games shown in the picture really needs a mat.  But I would use one for Pirate Fluxx (or other Fluxx games), and form Ice Dice.  Seven Dragons/Aquarius can't really use a mat except for the draw/discard piles, and rules summary; there's a lot of unnecessary space. 

- IMO, the Fluxx mat could use:

   -- A labeled space for a 4th player along the unused side.

   -- The words "and Creepers" right after "Player X Keepers" along each side.

   -- Perhaps more space for "Rules".  (That's the right label, since it could include the Basic Rules, Meta Rules and New Rules all together.)

   -- An Action Stack space, so that e.g. someone could play Draw 3 Play 2 onto it, and then play Use What You Take on top of that, etc., which helps enforce the order in which nested Actions are resolved and discarded.  (This may be too complex for beginners, but on the other hand it makes complex nested Actions easier to understand.)

- For the Ice Dice mat, you may want to consider adding a Vault for an optional 3rd player.  Other areas can be shrunk and rearranged to accommodate that.  Then 2 mats would easily accommodate up to 6 players. 

- You may want to put a Launch 23 mat on the reverse side of the Ice Dice mat. 

This gives me an idea big enough that I'll make a separate response about that.

PS.  How big are the mats?  11" x 17"?

I have a big idea: I would like to see a playing mat for each of the games listed in the Looney Pyramids booklet.   

For a while now I've had the impression that Pyramid games with their own boards tend to do better in appeal and comprehension with the general public.  Having an explicit board for a game makes it feel more like a legitimate separate entity in the world of games. 

This idea really excites me.  At Origins -- and after -- we could sell sets of Looney Pyramid Playing Mats, which would help push the idea of the Looney Pyramids, as well as making it more likely that people will try out the different games.  They could be printed either single- or double-sided, and folded and shrinkwrapped together in whatever was is deemed best. 

Each mat would have a rules summary of course, but also marked playing areas, according to the nature of the game:

Treehouse: An area for each player and for the House, each of which has 3 marked spots (say, dotted-line ovals) on which the pieces may go.  This would help enforce the fact that the trios must all be aligned along parallel axes.

Pharoah: The Pharaoh board.

IceDice: The areas as already used on the existing mat.

Launchpad 23: The Launchpad 23 board.

Martian Coasters: Marked spaces on which the coasters may be placed

Martian Chess: A chessboard, thematically altered -- e.g. heavier lines between areas of different ownership.  (2-, 3-, and 5- player boards may also be on separate sides or mats, or the Eeyore boards that may be cut out.)

Zark City: A board would not be useful here, just as for Seven Dragons.

World War 5: The WW5 board, with side areas for players to keep undeployed pieces.

Black ICE: Marked spaces for system and player pieces.

Homeworlds: A 3x4 space for the bank, at least. 

Icehouse: I'm not sure: is a large area on a mat big enough to be the playing area for Icehouse?

IceTowers: Ditto

Caldera: A Volcano board

And perhaps other playing mats could be done for other games like Zendo, RAMBots, PikeMen, etc., as appropriate. 

(Which reminds me: last year I devised personal playmats for RAMBots that I find enormously helpful.  I need to find them and upload them.)

I recently created a mat that many Looney Pyramid games can be played on. After your post, I've decided to incorporate a Launchpad 23 board into it, so I should have a revised version within the next few days. You can check it out here!

http://looneylabs.ning.com/photo/starship-captains-mat?context=latest

It seems like you should be able to let people order the mat of their choice through Artscow. It would cost you nearly nothing (since you already have the art) and people could order bar mats or door mats to their hearts' content and you'd never have to worry about whether enough people bought one, much less keeping inventory in the first place. I know I would probably pick up an IceDice mat that way. It'll probably cost a few bucks more but the mats are almost always on sale, it seems.

http://www.artscow.com/photo-gifts/mat

These come out nicely, too. I had a custom Chase board printed on one of the placemats and it looks and works great. Not sure it makes much sense for a Looney initiated product, but maybe we the fans could make up mats for our favourite games and share the galleries, a la the card decks on BGG.

That said, I personally prefer what I like to call "pure" Icehouse games: No board, no dice, nothing but 'mids. IceTowers, Volcano, Homeworlds, Icehouse, etc. I enjoy many pyramid games played with extra components, but in my mind if you need extra components for the majority of games, the system fails as a self-inclosed game system.

Did you just say that Volcano has no board? *Awkward...*

That said, I personally prefer what I like to call "pure" Icehouse games: No board, no dice, nothing but 'mids. IceTowers, Volcano, Homeworlds, Icehouse, etc. I enjoy many pyramid games played with extra components, but in my mind if you need extra components for the majority of games, the system fails as a self-inclosed game system.

I understand, and I believe many, perhaps most experienced pyramid-game players would agree -- at least that they prefer playing without a board if one isn't necessary.   

But I also believe that many more new game players will be more attracted to a perceived "complete package", which has both cool pieces and an attractive board.  If that's what it takes, then more power to it; the more fans the better. 

I agree, at least for teaching games, unless the target audience is somewhat hip to gaming already. I would love to see (official or unofficial) sheets that fit onto an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper that I can laminate at home for either Quick References / FAQS. For example:

1) A card laying out what the action cards do in Aquarius and the FAQs around them, with a big note saying "First to 7 wins!"

2) A sheet for laying out where on the table the Rules, Goals, Deck, and Discard go in a game of Fluxx, maybe individual Keeper / Creeper playmats as well

At the same time, I think that once taught, these play aids quickly lose their purpose. I know that the rules all sorta go together in the middle of the table and if they're not all perfectly laid out, it won't have an effect on the game, but when teaching or showing off the game, maybe it'd be a nice optional feature.

For me, the biggest purpose of the playmat is for DEMOs. And for that I'd love a laminated copy for all the major games.

That being said, I played Ice Dice on the play mat, and it add a pleasurable element to the game. I don't need a rubber mat, but a laminated mat would be cool.

I could see pyramids becoming the kind of game you find at a bar or a cracker barrel, already on the table with a playmat explaing how to play the game.

My group isn't big on mats. I personally dislike them because being familiar with the game makes them superfluous, and they often take more space than they should.

I can see it being useful as a learning aid, but one of the stronger aspects of pyramids (in my humble opinion) is that many games work very well without boards.

Glad Im not alone in this thought process.

I really wish LL would re-publish the chessboard bandanna. I had one heckuva time finding one from a dealer's dusty back room.

I'd like to put my vote in for the laminate fold up mats for durability, cost and ease of carry.  Though I have to admit, the 'pharaoh' board looks pretty neat.  Where could we get one of these?

Ultra Pro makes playmats for magic the gathering. They're of a very nice quality, and if you could get playmats made by them, I'd encourage pet people to get them. I think for pyramids its useful to have a surface they won't get knocked off as easily as a table surface.

Although I would like a rubberized playmat for IceDice and other games, I probably couldn't justify paying $12 for it. (I'm cheap, you see...) But I would gladly pay $1 for a paper one if it is available!

First of all, thanks to Daniel Nelon for his Starship Captain's playmat.  I will be getting one of those printed and laminated (maybe two or three actually).

I can see both sides of the argument and I would, personally, buy a nice placemat if they were made, eventually. (I still haven't gotten my volcano board but I keep thinking I want to make my own.)

I used to play with some co-workers. They were avid gamers as well.  We might have used the play mats while learning a game but wouldn't have bothered after that.

Now, I teach young children.  Everywhere from age 2 to 15.  I've also got two young boys of my own. The Playmats would be great for them.  It would make it much easier to teach them new games (They already play Aquarius and WW5). And it would help them understand easier because English is not their first language.  However, the shipping for me is prohibitive so I would personally like to see some printable playmats.  I already have teaching materials professionally printed so adding a few more sheets wouldn't be much trouble and the printer will laminate things for me that are A3 size.  I can laminate A4 size myself.

Where can i get the Paper playmat(s)?  Thnks!  Just got my Rainbow and Xeno stashes, still waiting for my IceDice set, and looking forward to the green bag Treehouse set when it comes across the pond!

I want a good mid-quality Fluxx playmat (themed or generic) for around $5 - $7

By the way - I have the means to get them made at that price range.

Kimberly,

The Edu mailing list is here:

http://lists.looneylabs.com/mailman/listinfo/edu

and the link to the Edu archives is here:

http://lists.looneylabs.com/pipermail/edu/

I think the email you want is from July 16, 2006 subject "new NANOfictionary Game":

http://lists.looneylabs.com/pipermail/edu/2006-July/000156.html

- Robin

I live 5 miles from Boston, but I've yet to go to my this con. Arisia was great this year, but next year I'm going to both.

Try to leave some fun for us to have next year. :)

This will not be mass produced or sold in any way. Unless someone didn't have anyway to print it and they really wanted a set then i might be able to work something out to print it myself for them for the cost of materials only. I will be uploading all the pictures of the cards to share with everyone. I print all my cards on photo paper.

Actually...    while it is ok to make your own custom deck for yourself, and it's totally fine to make another one or two for someone who helps you with the artwork, it is not ok to post an entire custom Fluxx deck online and encourage people to print and make their own copy.  A card list and a few sample cards is ok, but please don't post an entire playable custom deck online for easy printing.

I don't have any desire to work on a project like this at this time (the cost of printer ink alone is enough to put me off), but this did make me think of a couple of points of clarification that may help the OP or anyone wishing to take on a project like this in the future.

If a person were to design a custom set of Keepers, Creepers, and the related (Un)Goals for a custom set, would it be okay to post the newly designed cards for easy printing while leaving out the basic rules, new rules, actions etc. In essence, posting an incomplete deck that would require any would-be players to have an existing copy of Fluxx in order to meaningfully use the new cards?

Second, would encouraging players to print cards out and affix them to Fluxx Blanxx, or some other Looney Labs promotion (links to Blanxx product page, etc) help a would-be set designer to be able to share their creation(s) with the world?

Just trying to find a happy medium between non-infringing content and the DIY fan creativity which, quite honestly, is a major selling point of this fan community for me. :)

Nothing I'm aware of other than Dice Box and Dice Roller, which can... well, guess. :)

I've already made an Android app using Google App Inventor (beta), which was a simple randomizer for generating Oracles to play the In A Wicked Age RPG. I'm sure I could use the same code to build a Zendo rule randomizer, either by converting the Excel spreadsheet one that's out there or by making it "build" the rule out of component sub-rules and conjunctions (hat would... actually be a bit of a challenge, now that i think about it more than a second).

Other than that, I can't really think of an Android app for demoing any games. Perhaps one could make an app that spoke to he (eventual) Captains database. Or, obviously, it's just about trivial to make an app to display rules for popular games (just a bunch of text entry)... but it's just as easy o just use the wiki/web to get rules online. (Something one quickly realizes, thinking of Android apps: most could be done as web sites easier, then accessed with a mere browser; only something that MUST be able to run offline or that demands every ounce of a phones' memory and processing power even really warrants an app, seems to me.)

Can anyone even think of WHAT they'd want for an app, never mind if anything is actually out there or in development?

Thanks for the suggestions Andre!  (I moved this message over to the Building Our Ning Community forum)

I love the sort by country idea - anyone want to help me figure out how to do this?  We are looking for Ning Geeks among our community to join our Ning Architects group to help with this sort of thing... 

As for consolidating pyramid info...  Yes!  I agree!   On the Looney Labs front, as we relaunch the system (with new products coming out in June) we are working on new pages for our marketing that will tie together with the new Guide to Looney Pyramids that will be included in the products we sell - this will live at our new domain LooneyPyramids.com and will include links to other pyramid related content that is out there. As part of this process, we will track down all the various pages around our two web sites (wunderland.com & looneylabs.com) and figure out where that content should live...  but we are NOT planning to change/move the community run IcehouseGames.org over to this new domain.  This is a fan run wiki, and anyone in the community can get involved in building/improving these pages.  Maybe someone could build a page on the wiki that points to all pyramid related content that currently exists - so we can then work towards reducing the number of locations found on that list...   it will all take time, but we are actively working on it!  

Here is a link directly to the  'Advanced Search' page.

I'm curious; given the rebranding of Icehouse pieces as Looney Pyramids, are we still going to call them "Icehouse games," or would "pyramid games" work better?

If the latter is the case, would it make sense to move icehousegames.org to pyramidgames.org? I've registered pyramidgames.org in case we want it, though it now just redirects to icehousegames.org.

I agree; there should be two main sources of information for pyramid games; the official Looney Labs site, and the fan-run wiki; each of them should link to the other, as well as any other relevant pages. If anyone feels that the wiki can be improved, they should feel free to do so. A compilation of all of the sources of information on pyramid games would be a good thing to add.

I think Random Stuff is perfectly fine.  What started me wondering was 1. I see a lot of  great ideas around the net and wondered if there was enough traffic to justify a dedicated forum and 2. It feels like playing with the games and extending them is really well encouraged by the nature of the pyramids as well as by the various kinds of blanks and it might be nice to see that encouragement out front instead of as "other stuff"  I'm not heavily committed to the idea, but it seemed like an interesting one to talk about

Geez... no love for the pyramids at all, huh?

I'll try to remember to post my current Looney Box, although it's a bit out of date (I haven't rejiggered everything for the 14th color).

My card games are all in long boxes, so there's not much to see other than the edges of 1000 cards (give or take) and some dividers and rules pamphlets.

I'd have to take several shots and stitch them into a panorama, to show my entire card/board/RPG game collection! ;)

What's the 14th color? I've only the 12.

I should take some shots of mine, but it's der Spielenrucksack: it's huge.

Re: color, I wonder -

1) Pink

2) Red

3) Orange

4) Yellow

5) Electric Yellow

6) Green

7) Cyan

8) Blue

9) Purple

10) Clear

11) White

12 ) Black

13) Gray (I personally am looking for)

14) Root Beer (I heard there was only one set - could it be David Artman who has the Root Beer stash or am I missing a color?)

I'm interested, to be sure.  I've never developed fFor ning, but I'm quite willing!

To add a little complexity to the matter: I imagine you, Kristin, are interested in developing an iPhone app, and I have a droid phone.  So I mean, this means we can build cross-platform apps, but it also means I can't help debug iPhone problems, fFor example.

A couple of light considerations:

Are we okay with letting anyone install and use the Captain's App, or do we prefer to keep it somewhat limited to people who are registered as Starship Captains?  No idea what sorts of restrictions (or promotions) are available here.

Are we able to use some server space somewhere, if the apps we build need some?  I have no idea what will be needed, but if, fFor example, we need to run a database somewhere, what will be possible?

I think I see what you want to accomplish, and I like the idea  =)

Well, I have been looking at what is available fFor app building.  I've never written a Ning app, but I fFigure it's just a matter of fFiguring out what is available, and how to make it work.

One hurdle I see right away is the apparent limitations of what bits Ning will let us fFiddle with.  The API is intended to be able to write comments, upload pictures, that sort of thing.  We are basically interested in writing an entry to a database, and viewing that database.  Simple enough really, but it's nothing like a comment or photo submission =)  So I am still looking fFor that sort of ability.

It might be the preferred way to write a "comment" in an area which only the application can write to, and then parse those comments as needed.  I'm not sure, but that might be the case.

Anyway, I'm in the trenches.

I started playing with building a Ning Starship Captain profile app.

A Ning App is an OpenSocial app which is basically some html and javascript that is included in the page.

The javascript has access to a number of APIs provided by Ning including a method to pull data from a remote server.

If you go to my profile you will see an Box called "Testmodule" that is my current test app.  It basically pulls a JSON list of games (just a static list now) and turns the list into an html ordered list.

Off the top of my head I think the app will consist of a number of parts:

• The html to display the list
• The javascript to pull the list from the Looney Labs server.
• Some way to edit and submit the changes back to the Looney Labs server.  (more html and javascript)
• An web service on the Looney Labs server that handles the get/edit requests from the Ning App.

Obviously the Ning side is locked into Javascript/html for development. The webservice would need to use a mysql database as the data store because we are already running mysql.   The web service could be written in python, ruby or php (myself favoring python and php).

Thanks Craig - this sounds like a great start!  Let me know when there is something I can help test on my own profile page! 

Scott: Craig is 'the guy' to work on this with - since he has access to all the API back end server stuff that will be needed to make this all work! 

Beyond the technical side of this, that Scott and Craig have started working on, we also need to work on speccing out exactly what we want this new ap to actually do.

How many games should you be allowed to list, and what about ties? Only 10 games will be printed on the badge I'm going to print for The Big Experiment at Origins, but looking at various peoples lists I notice a lot of folks doing interesting numbering schemes when they couldn't decide what order to put them in, and listing a lot more than 10 games. Should the ap just force you to put them in order, or allow ties?    

Also, there is the idea Dennis posted about, the Never Played But Want To list - which would help two Captains pick a game that one of them knows and the other has been wanting to learn. Very cool idea...  does our new Starship Captains ap track this list for people too?

Do we have any database designers among us? Who wants to help spec out this ap? 

To the extent that I'm a designer/architect, I want to put all the games in the database once, and have people select their games from a pick list. That way, we can minimize the number of times we have people with things like "Zedno" on their lists. With that kind of architecture, it would be easy to support links to icehousegames.org and boardgamegeek.com for people who see a link on someone else's list and want more information (well it would be easier on the back end, at least).

Even with a pick list-based front-end, you would need a way for people to add obscure games that aren't on any lists yet. So, I would think, let people add what they want, but have an admin go in later to clean it up (make sure it's not really a duplicate) and provide links and stuff. And it might be helpful to think about whether/how we want to support variants such as Caldera and Speed Zendo.

There are a few ways you could go on organizing the lists, with creative numbering possibly being a part of that. The big thing is that there must be exactly 10 games in a person's Top 10. Fewer, and the person doesn't qualify as a Starship Captain; more, and they won't all print on the badge. If you let people use creative numbering, you have to figure out how to deal with two games being tied for 10th place (or 3 games tied for 9th, etc.) From a database perspective, it doesn't much matter; from a software perspective, it could be a pain to support a more complicated scheme.

Oh, and I have some experience with MySQL and PHP, so that would be my preference if I were involved.  I don't remember volunteering, but it can be hard to tell sometimes.  Don't pick a platform on my account, but, you know, if it comes down to an "it doesn't matter" choice, you have that information.

I haven't done any more work after my initial tests.

My expectation is that version 1.0 will have an ordered list with no limit to the number of games.

It will not handle ties.

It will not handle "wish lists".

Perhaps a "Notes" field where people could comment on the list could be added in version 1.1

Pyramids: Zendo

Other: Fluxx (any English-language version)

Pyramids: Martian Coasters

Other: Fluxx

Pyramids: Zendo (and Ikkozendo)

Other: Chrononauts

Any Fluxx game in general...although Zombie still tends to be my favorite. That may change when I get to play Cthuhlu...

There was quite a bit of useful information there.  I'd like to see it preserved.  I think wiki is a good way to organize some of it, so I'd like to see a wiki somewhere, somehow for that information.  Obviously, the name would need to be changed because we're not using the "r" word any more.

The domain name for the old wiki now points here, so I don't know how to get there.  I have some stuff on my user page that I'd especially like to recover.

The wiki is still there -  try this link:  http://rabbits.continuation.org/wiki/Main_Page

Brian must have put in that redirect for the top level, which is probably good, since we do want most people to end up over at this new NING site, not at the old wiki...   

I don't yet have concrete answers on what to do about the old wiki - clearly there is lots of great content there that wants to get moved or renamed... but where and how?  Along with this new NING fan club site, we are also working on a new DRUPAL site, which is not a wiki that anyone could edit, but does have the ability to give any number of people an account and permission to help build/maintain pages. I'm thinking much of the wiki content can move there, but we don't have a concrete plan in place for this yet.

The first task on this new Drupal site is the web pages that go with the new Guide to Looney Pyramids, which should go live soon, then we tackle a bunch of Origins Big Experiment pages that also need to go live soon!  

I will post here when there are concrete things that you guys can help with...  I put a note on the top of the old rabbit wiki pointing back to this new ning fan club - can someone please make it much bigger and bolder at the top of that first page? 

Indeed, the wiki is still there and contains everything it always has. In fact, I haven't changed anything with the redirect; the top-level URL always redirected to http://www.looneylabs.com/Rabbits/index.html which now redirects to Ning.

What would you like me to do with the Rabbit wiki? There is a lot of good information there, but as you mention, we're trying to move away from the term "rabbit." Changing the domain should be easy (either whatever.continuation.org or if we'd like we could get a more appropriate domain for it). I'm not a graphic artist, so I'd need someone else to change the logo.

If we decide that the wiki isn't useful enough when we have the Ning site and Drupal, that is fair; the wiki format has always been an awkward fit for some of what it's used for (event planning), though it works reasonably well for things like the FAQs and and How Tos. Migrating content from the wiki into another system might be a good deal of work.

Anyhow, let me know your thoughts on what we should do with the wiki. Just rebranding it should be fairly easy, if someone else does a logo (and icon) for it.

I agree, there are definitely some things that Ning handles better, and we should use it for what it does well. Profiles, events, conversations, etc. should be on Ning, and we should move information over here if necessary. In particular, I think we should get rid of the Events section on the wiki (after migrating any content over if necessary), and use Ning to handle events.

As far as the rest goes, I think that the wiki provides a lot of value since anyone can edit it. The branding will need to be fixed now that we're moving away from the "Rabbit" name. I'm happy to change the domain and other branding if people are willing to contribute the necessary graphics and suggest a new name.