All the Games on Our Shelves

 I'm on sabbatical this semester, studying the lives and works of three mathematicians whom I call "The Sorcerer Mathematicians of the Renaissance."  One of these mathematicians was deeply involved in alchemy, so I decided to visit the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California today.  I had heard that they have an alchemy wing, and if I'm going to understand John Dee's life and work I need to know more about alchemy than I currently do!  But what does this have to do with gaming?  Well  .  .  .  as I was walking the grounds I came across a large outdoor game board for the ancient Eyptian game of Senet .  I always get very excited when I stumble across a game when I am least expecting it!  We do have this game (smaller version!) "on our shelves," but it is one we haven't gotten to yet in our "count."  After walking the grounds - including their labyrinth (this is quite a cool place!) - I went back inside to ...

  This was a recent Christmas gift to me.  Our friends the Kirks introduced us to this game months ago, and it's been on my gift list ever since.  Barenpark is a rather compelling and addictive game, or at least I and my family members are finding it to be such so far.  There are various elements to try to balance as you move toward your goal of most victory points, and the timing of the choices you make impacts your score as well, so it's definitely and engaging game.  The idea is that you are constructing a zoo of bears - polar bears, panda bears, kodiak bears, koala bears (not really bears, but OK) - a bear park or "barenpark."  Actually, each card represents a different country/language, which you can see from the titles in the last few pictures on this post.  There's a bit of set-up involved each time as the pieces are placed on the central board.  Each player will be taking one or more pieces from this board each turn based on certai...