Hanging Gardens nominated for Best Downloadable Board Game, 2006

Piecepack art and contest news

First, I wanted to tell people I've had all rulesets in anonymised
HTML format for some time now, and am engaged in playing and judging
them.

Second, I added a new page to the wiki for piecepack-related arts and
crafts. Mostly what's there right now are actual-size scans of some
ceramic piecepack tiles Meredith "The Eradicator" Hale made me for
Christmas.

http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki/PiecepackArt

Oh, and if you've ever wondered where the name "The Eradicator" for
the current contest's administrator comes from, wonder nae more:

http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki/TheEradicator

Ron

-- 
    Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... ... http://ron.ludism.org/
Mind Performance Hacks book: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/
	   Center for Ludic Synergy: http://www.ludism.org/
(revilous life proving aye the death of ronaldses when winpower wine has
		   bucked the kick on poor won man)

 
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Giant piecepacks

Hey, the Icehouse folks build giant Icehouse sets to play with, right?

http://icehousegames.org/wiki/?title=Giant_pieces

Why not giant piecepacks?

Let's assume we want to build them to the same scale in case we want
to play a giant game of Alien City or something. Giant Icehouse pieces
are 8x. The Piecepack Anatomy page
<http://www.piecepack.org/Anatomy.html> reads,

"As a point of reference, (not a requirement), the Mesomorph piecepack
pieces are the following dimensions: tiles are 2" x 2" x 1/4", coins
are 3/4" diameter x 1/8", dice are 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/2", and pawns are
5/8" diameter x 1-1/8" tall."

That means a Giant Piecepack would have the following dimensions:

Tiles: 16" x 16" x 2"
Coins: 6" x 1"
Dice: 4" x 4" x 4"
Pawns: 5" diam x 9" tall

I'm planning to attend Penguicon <http://penguicon.org/> in April.
Clark, do you think one of these sets would interest other attendees?

Ron

-- 
    Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... ... http://ron.ludism.org/
Mind Performance Hacks book: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/
	   Center for Ludic Synergy: http://www.ludism.org/
(revilous life proving aye the death of ronaldses when winpower wine has
		   bucked the kick on poor won man)

 
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Re: Giant piecepacks

Good idea :)

What materials would you use to build it? For the coins box cardboard  
might me ok, but the tiles would neet to be more resistant (You want  
to be able to walk on the board for some games). Maybe the vinyl used  
for street signs would be ok, but that may be too expensive... Or  
wood... Or maybe that foamy plastic that comes in big squares and is  
used to cover the floor and make it softer (for martial arts, or gym  
classes). That could work!

-Jorge

On Jan 10, 2007, at 10:58 AM, Ron Hale-Evans wrote:

> Hey, the Icehouse folks build giant Icehouse sets to play with, right?
>
> http://icehousegames.org/wiki/?title=Giant_pieces
>
> Why not giant piecepacks?
>
> Let's assume we want to build them to the same scale in case we want
> to play a giant game of Alien City or something. Giant Icehouse pieces
> are 8x. The Piecepack Anatomy page
> <http://www.piecepack.org/Anatomy.html> reads,
>
> "As a point of reference, (not a requirement), the Mesomorph piecepack
> pieces are the following dimensions: tiles are 2" x 2" x 1/4", coins
> are 3/4" diameter x 1/8", dice are 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/2", and pawns are
> 5/8" diameter x 1-1/8" tall."
>
> That means a Giant Piecepack would have the following dimensions:
>
> Tiles: 16" x 16" x 2"
> Coins: 6" x 1"
> Dice: 4" x 4" x 4"
> Pawns: 5" diam x 9" tall
>
> I'm planning to attend Penguicon <http://penguicon.org/> in April.
> Clark, do you think one of these sets would interest other attendees?
>
> Ron
>
> -- 
>     Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... ... http://ron.ludism.org/
> Mind Performance Hacks book: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/ 
> mindperfhks/
> 	   Center for Ludic Synergy: http://www.ludism.org/
> (revilous life proving aye the death of ronaldses when winpower  
> wine has
> 		   bucked the kick on poor won man)
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

 
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Re: Giant piecepacks

--- In piecepack@..., "Ron Hale-Evans" <rwhe <at> ...> wrote:
> Hey, the Icehouse folks build giant Icehouse sets to play with, right?
> 
> http://icehousegames.org/wiki/?title=Giant_pieces
> 
> Why not giant piecepacks?
[...]
> I'm planning to attend Penguicon <http://penguicon.org/> in April.
> Clark, do you think one of these sets would interest other attendees?

Ron, this would be outstanding! I don't know how you'd get all the
bits here, but the con has a storage locker for safe keeping.
Construction materials are another good question. My first hunch would
be to use poster board and stencils / spray paint for the tiles and coins.

The folks at Mesomorph have been to Penguicon at least a couple of
times in the past to run a sales table and demos, but I don't know if
they have plans for this year or not. The dealer room (if there is one
this year) isn't my area of operations. Are any other southeast
Michigan / northwest Ohio / southwest Ontario piecepack enthusiasts
coming to Penguicon?

Clark

 
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Re: Re: Giant piecepacks

On 1/10/07, Clark D. Rodeffer <clark@...> wrote:
> --- In piecepack@..., "Ron Hale-Evans" <rwhe <at> ...> wrote:
> > Hey, the Icehouse folks build giant Icehouse sets to play with, right?
> >
> > http://icehousegames.org/wiki/?title=Giant_pieces
> >
> > Why not giant piecepacks?
> [...]
> > I'm planning to attend Penguicon <http://penguicon.org/> in April.
> > Clark, do you think one of these sets would interest other attendees?
>
> Ron, this would be outstanding!

Great! :)

> I don't know how you'd get all the
> bits here, but the con has a storage locker for safe keeping.

If I have time to make them, I'd probably ship them separately. I
wouldn't want to have to take them on the plane.

> Construction materials are another good question. My first hunch would
> be to use poster board and stencils / spray paint for the tiles and coins.

I don't think that would be durable enough. As Jorge pointed out, one
might want to stand on them. I like his idea of the stuff they make
mats out of for gyms, but I don't know if you can get it cut to custom
sizes. Plywood is another possibility.

They are currently wrestling with this problem on the Icehouse list
for components called Martian Coasters. I'll keep an eye out for
plausible materials there.

Ron

-- 
    Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... ... http://ron.ludism.org/
Mind Performance Hacks book: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/
	   Center for Ludic Synergy: http://www.ludism.org/
(revilous life proving aye the death of ronaldses when winpower wine has
		   bucked the kick on poor won man)

 
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Re: Re: Giant piecepacks

On 1/10/07, Ron Hale-Evans <rwhe@...> wrote:

> > Construction materials are another good question. My first hunch would
> > be to use poster board and stencils / spray paint for the tiles and coins.
>
> I don't think that would be durable enough. As Jorge pointed out, one
> might want to stand on them. I like his idea of the stuff they make
> mats out of for gyms, but I don't know if you can get it cut to custom
> sizes. Plywood is another possibility.

Vinyl Floor tiles are often sold in 8"x8" sizes with adhesive backs...
4 of those in a square glued to plywood or some type of foam may work
well for the tiles, and have the bonus of giving you (very small)
lines dividing the tile into quarters.

Coins... I would bet that a circular wood piece designed for making a
clock with would work well. These can be found at Michaels or other
craft stores and are often just a few dollars each.

Dice... I have seen large foam dice at my FLGS, but not as big as 4x4"
(more like 2x2"). Don't know who makes them...

Pawns... Perhaps paper covered Styrofoam columns would work? Same
craft store as the coins...

-- 
Thanks,
Dave
-- 
David Fair     dafair@...
Director of Advertising & Promotions, Games Club of Maryland
     "Gaming isn't about rolling dice and moving your piece around a
track. Gaming is about interaction, decisions, and social skills."  --
Alan R. Moon

 
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Re: Re: Giant piecepacks

Unless you plan to play games like Everest where stacking tile into 3D shapes matters, I suggest that a thick
cloth like canvus for the tiles.  They would be both walk-on-able, and also (assuming you used hte right
paints) washable as well as roll up for easy transport and storage.  For dice note that the Post Office maked
6'x6'x6' mailling boxes, they would make a good die base.  Also you may not need need pawns as the player can
stand in for those themselves.  What about thick paper plates for coins?

--
Mark Biggar
mark@...
mark.a.biggar@...
mbiggar@...

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Ron Hale-Evans" <rwhe@...>
> On 1/10/07, Clark D. Rodeffer <clark@...> wrote:
> > --- In piecepack@..., "Ron Hale-Evans" <rwhe <at> ...> wrote:
> > > Hey, the Icehouse folks build giant Icehouse sets to play with, right?
> > >
> > > http://icehousegames.org/wiki/?title=Giant_pieces
> > >
> > > Why not giant piecepacks?
> > [...]
> > > I'm planning to attend Penguicon <http://penguicon.org/> in April.
> > > Clark, do you think one of these sets would interest other attendees?
> >
> > Ron, this would be outstanding!
> 
> Great! :)
> 
> > I don't know how you'd get all the
> > bits here, but the con has a storage locker for safe keeping.
> 
> If I have time to make them, I'd probably ship them separately. I
> wouldn't want to have to take them on the plane.
> 
> > Construction materials are another good question. My first hunch would
> > be to use poster board and stencils / spray paint for the tiles and coins.
> 
> I don't think that would be durable enough. As Jorge pointed out, one
> might want to stand on them. I like his idea of the stuff they make
> mats out of for gyms, but I don't know if you can get it cut to custom
> sizes. Plywood is another possibility.
> 
> They are currently wrestling with this problem on the Icehouse list
> for components called Martian Coasters. I'll keep an eye out for
> plausible materials there.
> 
> Ron
> 
> -- 
>     Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... ... http://ron.ludism.org/
> Mind Performance Hacks book: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/
> 	   Center for Ludic Synergy: http://www.ludism.org/
> (revilous life proving aye the death of ronaldses when winpower wine has
> 		   bucked the kick on poor won man)

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

 
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Re: Re: Giant piecepacks

I'm still not committed to making a giant piecepack for Penguicon, but
I'm really happy people are showing such interest.

So far, I like plywood best (for the tiles, at least). A 4'x8' piece
of plywood that you might buy at Home Depot can be cut up into
_exactly_ 3 x 6 = 18 piecepack tiles, or 3 suits. Someone remarked
that the store where you buy it will often cut it up for you for free
or a nominal charge.

Other advantages:

 * Tiles look like wood because they _are_ wood
 * Stackable
 * Nice feel, unlike floppy cloth

Disadvantages:

 * Somewhat fragile (edges may chip unless protected)
 * Heavy! (consider shipping)

A Piecepack Letterbox board would be 9' square. Alien City would be
9'x6'. A game that used a 5x5 board with a hole in the middle would be
7.5' square. If you had to move a pawn on a board 9' square, the
farthest you would have to reach would be 4 1/2 feet, so maybe you
wouldn't need to walk on the tiles after all.

Ron

-- 
    Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... ... http://ron.ludism.org/
Mind Performance Hacks book: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/
	   Center for Ludic Synergy: http://www.ludism.org/
(revilous life proving aye the death of ronaldses when winpower wine has
		   bucked the kick on poor won man)

 
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Piecepacks from Blue Panther?

Hi all, 

  It just occurred to me that the piecepack would lend itself well to
production on a cnc laser cutting machine, such as that used by Steve
Jones of Blue Panther LLC. http://www.bluepantherllc.com/index.htm

  I talked to Steve at Protospiel last summer and he seemed open to
the idea of doing custom jobs. I think all he'd need is a image file
of some sort (I guess you'd need to talk to him directly) and his
machine will laser cut and engrave the pieces.  For Piecepacks, I'd
probably suggest painting the engraved areas and then clear coating.
His machine produces some pretty decent results - the games he had
with him at Protospiel looked pretty good and I know he has fun making
them.  Anyway, just something that popped into my head.

Brett

 
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