Was digging through old #boardgame design projects and stumbled upon an absolute class: "Escape From Horrible Mountain 2: The Second Escape." Here it is, free of charge. I'm so sorry.

If you and a friend (or, better, an enemy) have half a deck of cards, some bits, and 20 minutes with literally nothing better to do, stare at the wall. Or play this. Whatevs.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1zyfp6657itv042/escape_from_horrible_mountain_2_RULES.pdf

I'm so, so sorry.

Played Cascadia for the first time yesterday. I enjoyed almost every aspect of the game individually, i.e. "this part's great!" and "so's this part!"

A fine tile-layer, though I found myself a bit troubled by the disconnect between its tactical gameplay and strategic scoring. This is probably me looking for depth in a gateway game. Bad Nick, bad.

I know I *should* be troubled more by the pasted-on theme and multi-player solitaire, but I don't mind either. Definitely will play again.

Played Flamecraft for the first time tonight. #BoardGames

In other news, anyone want a near-new copy of Flamecraft? $40 local pickup only Northern Virginia.

Played some Glück Auf (Coal Baron in the U.S.) with @jennie. This saw a lot of table time years ago, and we finally cracked open our own copy today.

A master class in worker placement design. Two workers on a spot you want? Place three to repeat it. Elegant flow. Easy to learn but chock full of deep strategy. Probably best at 3 but degrades elegantly to 2.

Someone please reprint for solar or wind kthx. #BoardGames

Last weekend, @jennie and I and about a dozen other folks went out to Clermont Farm in Berryville, Virginia to help the Piedmont Environmental Council plant several hundred trees along a riparian zone of the Potomac River watershed. PEC and its volunteers will just *do this* for you. For free. Trees for free.

I was asked to photograph the event. I also helped plant a couple trees. For the record, Jennie was a planting powerhouse and did about a *hundred*.