One of the hardest parts of doing game reviews is finding the time to play. With a full-time job, family responsibilities and other factors, time is often at a premium. Add in the schedules of other players, and it is a miracle we ever manage to have a gaming night.

This Saturday my wife and I plan to sit down with another couple and throw some dice. A small group, but four people is enough to play most of the games sitting in my queue. At best we may be able to get in 2-3 games in an evening, since these will be ones we are all just learning. But still, that will at least get me started on reviews for those products.

So what do I do with my games when I'm not playing? Well, for starters I usually spend a fair amount of time going through the pieces and components, reading the rules and sometimes even looking at other players' session reports online. I also look for errata online and do research on product cost and expansions, if any. I try to get a feel for the game before I play it, and sometimes, depending on the game, I may run through some practice sessions by myself. One night in October, shortly before Halloween, my family took a trip without me, and on the one night I had the house completely to myself, not a single member of my gaming group was available to play. So I spent the night fighting hoards of undead in a solo game of Zombies!!! by Twilight Creations. Though I'm pretty sure the game never was intended for solo play, I learned alot about the mechanics and how tough it is to actually fight the shambling hoard, and I was able to later use that information when playing with a group. Plus, it was a fun way to spend a spooky October evening.

But nothing beats playing with other people. It is, after all, why I love this hobby. I want to have those shared moments, the conversation in-between turns, the bragging rights from a perfectly executed move or the head-slapping groan of agony when I screw something up. I want to talk about the games, analyze them and lovingly take them apart and put them back together again.

In other words, I want to play.

Sunday's review, which hasn't been written yet, likely will be on Atlas Games' wonderful storytelling card game "Once Upon A Time." Atlas Games was one of the first companies to start sending me products to review, and I have had a soft spot in my heart ever since. I had the opportunity to interview one of Atlas Games' designers, Jeff Tidball, at Origins last year. Jeff has created such games as "Cthulhu 500," a card game about a stock car race to the end of the world,  and "Pieces of Eight," a very clever and fun coin combat game where your stack of doubloons represents your pirate ship and all its abilities. Though I didn't get the chance to use the interview in a story like I wanted, I hope to type up my notes and write a mini-story about my talk to post here on my blog. I actually have several interviews from last year's convention that I hope to post online in the coming month.

So keep reading and in the meantime check out some of my old reviews posted on BoardGameGeek.com under the handle merb101. Comments and feedback, as always, are welcome.

ME