COTD - Four of Wands

Golden Tarot, Kat Black 

Domestic bliss today. I can see that. I know I have to go to work to earn my living, but I do so love being at home, and I love it even more now that I finally have my own house. I see this as the opening to my weekend, and also a review of the last week. I'm going to be home all weekend, enjoying the newly decorated dining room and just being comfortable and happy here.

Also, we have started going to a board game group on Wednesday nights at a local pub and it turns out two of the members of the group live on the very same street as me! So perhaps this points to fun and games as well.

I'm also looking at the fruit draped across the top of the card, which of course symbolises bounty, but I'm taking literally. I see fruit and water in this image. Last week when it was so very hot, we didn't feel like eating much and we ate salads and fruits and drank lots of water, but this week, I've had a rebound effect with the chocolate, and it's not a good thing. So I'm reminded to eat better today and over the weekend as well.

Have a great Friday!

COTD - Queen of Wands

My first card of the day in ages and I pull the Queen of Wands from Golden Tarot by Kat Black. It has been a bit fiery around here lately, not because of anything volatile but because I've had the dining room painted yellow and orange! It isn't quite finished yet, but it's pale yellow walls, white gloss trim and the chimney breast is a deep orange called 'spicy sandalwood 3'. There are two doors in the room that I'm staining with a translucent stain to a Wedgwood jasper ware green, or a kind of sage green.  I bought a 1930s mirror, one of those kind that have scalloped edges and hang from a chain, and that's going over the mantel. And over the weekend, we found a Nathan teak dining set at a secondhand furniture shop and it's being delivered this morning. I may post a photo when it's all in place. :) 

Other ways I can be the Queen of Wands today is to get through my to-do list with gusto (which might not be easy as I seem to have left my diaries at my other work base, but one must soldier on!) 

Tarot Games -- Shahrazad and Stones of Fate

So far I've bought two games that involve Tarot in some way, so I thought I'd do a little review of them. :)

Shahrazad, Osprey Games 2017

The first is Shahrazad, published by Osprey Games. This game is based on the Tarot majors, with each card assigned a thematically linked world fairy tale. In the game, you are Shahrazad, stringing together the fairy tales in order to survive another day. It was originally published as Tarot Storia in Japan, printed on cardstock. Shahrazad is the US/UK version, leaving out any mention of Tarot on the box and instead focusing on the fairy tales. In the new version, the cards have become tiles.

Cards or tiles, neither the fairy tales nor the Tarot carry a whole lot of weight, as the object of the game is to arrange the cards in columns in numerical order. You do this by drawing cards one at a time and placing them in offset columns of four cards each.  When you've finished laying all the cards, you then score based on how many contiguous cards of the same colour you have, after eliminating any cards that cannot be connected first to last column and that appear out of numerical order. This does not sound particularly challenging, but it is! This game is recommended for solo play, and it is a quiet, meditative game, particularly if you let your mind wander over the fairy tales and how those fit in with the Tarot card meaning whilst you are placing the cards. Two players can also play, taking turns and working collaboratively.

I bought this game at the UK Games Expo in Birmingham and paid £13, only to come home and find it on Amazon for £5.99. The dirty robbin' bastards. :)

Stones of Fate, Cosmic Wombat 2014

The second game I can share with you is Stones of Fate published by Cosmic Wombat Games, which was apparently formed in order to publish this particular game.  I don't think they've done anything else.

Stones of Fate contains the 78-card Tarot deck, art work by Ciro Marchetti. Tarot plays a stronger role in this game, with each card even getting a few lines of text explaining the card meaning. However, game play does not really involve Tarot meanings. It turns out this is a memory game!

Each player is given a set of 4 coloured tokens and the object of the game is to collect cards by placing the stones in the proper places above, below and/or left and right of the face down cards. Here's how it works:

Cards are laid out face down in 3 or 4 columns of 3 rows. (To its credit, the rules book calls this a 'spread'.) The cards are turned over so that players can examine the card placement in the spread. On each card, there are markings at top, bottom and sides indicating how many stones must be placed there in order to claim the card. Then all the cards are turned face down again. On your turn, you can either peek at a card, place a stone, or try to claim a card by turning it over. When you turn it over, if you have the proper number of stones on each side, you can claim it. If you don't, it goes into the discard pile and is replaced. This carries on for 78 cards. You keep all the cards you've claimed and at the end of the game, points are added up to see who wins. Some cards have special powers based on their Tarot meaning, such as Queen of Coins, 'This card represents the 'motherly' aspect, the desire to care for and nurture your family. Choose a card from your collection and give it to another player.' Or The Fool, 'The Fool represents a new journey into the complete unknown. Each player must remove all of their fate stones from the spread.' Or The Tower, 'The Tower represents a time of great turmoil and insecurity, shaking foundations built on naivety. Each player must discard at random one card from their collection.' Which is all well and good, but it's the memory aspect that is the big challenge here for me. I found myself getting so confused and grumpy that we decided we should play it with a timer set and then count up points after 15, 20, 30 minutes. When we played it recently, I found myself getting very upset with myself for not being able to remember where to place the stones! Funnily enough, improving my memory is one of the main reasons we started gaming. But memory games! Oy!

I think either of these games would make a nice addition for a Tarot group that might want to try something a bit different.