When Is It Okay To Shoot Your Kids ?

It's not often you can find a board or card game that can easily accommodate an odd number of players.  It is also not easy to find a game that can accommodate 6 or 7 players - at least not one that I have the patience for.

I forget exactly who we learned about the game "Bang" from, but as soon as they remind me I will thank them.  It's been a great game to play with our family of 9 - yes, those keeping track will realize that the youngest two (ages 2 and 4 at the moment) can't really comprehend the game ... but I also mentioned in the first paragraph that I was referring to game for 6 to 7 players so do the math.

The concept of the game is fairly straightforward: try to be the last person alive.
The Sheriff may have a deputy (in games with 6 or more players).
The Outlaws (at least 2 are in play with games of 4 or more) just want the Sheriff dead.
The Renegade can only win if the Outlaws are dead before the Sheriff.

The twist is that no one knows for sure who anyone is - except everyone knows who the Sheriff is ... but he gets an extra life (bullet) as compensation.

Best of all, there's no rhyme or reason to winning every time.  It is equally difficult to win regardless of which role you draw.  There are certainly strategies that are more effective, but there's a decent amount of luck involved ... and the games play pretty quickly (30-45 minutes at most).


Song Of The Day:
You might be thinking I'd use the song "I Shot The Sheriff" by Eric Clapton, but I'm actually featuring the recent pop hit "Bang Bang" by Nicki Minaj, Jessie J, and Ariana Grande - for two reasons: the song is quite catchy and the title just works with this post.  Please refrain from pointing out the obvious non-family nature of the lyrics in that song.  I never said I listened to it while playing games with my kids!

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Best Laid Plans?

Some days, nothing goes right despite your best planning efforts.  As with anything else in life, your reaction to the situation you find yourself in is more important than the circumstances.  Those who can roll with the punches are able to enjoy life more, even if some of them are quite heavy blows.

All this rain we have been having lately led to the basement flooding tonight at my brother's townhome.  Truly this is nothing compared to the loss of homes and lives that has happened as a result of these storms, but it is a big deal for him as this is the first home he has ever owned.  It also interrupted our plans for a family game night (to celebrate my birthday) this evening, which is even less important in the grand scheme of things.

Now reflecting back on my statement above about a person's reaction to these kinds of situations, I found it very interesting how certain people reacted and what it told me about their personalities.  Some reacted with anger; anger at anyone and anything.  Some dropped everything else to immediately help.  Some seemed to want to pretend nothing was going on and wanted others to do the same.  And others just smiled and went to work.

I believe we all lose our sense of priority sometimes, and we allow little things to seem much bigger and more important than they actually are.  But then life is made up of hundreds of those little things so it is important also to remember to look for patterns so you can reasonably plan for the future.


Song Of The Day:
I was inspired by the efforts of some of my family members who were quick to offer help when this situation arose.  In their honor, reflect on the words in the song "Umbrella" by Rihanna.  It is nice to know that there are always those who will share their umbrella with us when life is raining.

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