Saturday 26 November 2011

Drumroll please...

Cannon tribute to GoG




And now, the end is here
And so we face the final curtain







The Moneybags seem confused about how to navigate traffic lights - they see the amber and let it go! they speed ahead, leaving a book about the history of a cinema in that very same cinema as they whizz past. Not to be outdone, Team Racecar released The Book of Lost Things in the hollow of a tree, hoping it will get picked up in fairyland. Team Boot, on the other hand are unfazed by all this speed - they go mellow yellow with a chilled out beatnik realease. They continue to avoid the rat-race with a Hobo style railroad release, though The Grapes of Wrath is not liable to fit with GoG's 'poor but free' glamorisation of the lifestyle!
Boots walkin' the lines
Team Cannon, to cheer up GoG (who is sad at the ending of the game), threw A Series of Unfortunate Events at David Cameron (or at least his picture) before releasing it. They then pay tribute to GoG by lying books at her feet. GoG accepts these tributes, and in return she has used her omni-potency (she is, after all, a goddess) to ensure that both books got caught and one AF signed up!

Team Tophat are all prepared for the festive season, they know how to survive christmas. GoG is opting for running As Far As You Can Go With[out] a Passport!
Team Battle ship are clearly feeling morbid rather than festive, their releases this turn started with Death At La Fenice. Fortunately (well, not for animal lovers) only the eagles were dead in their brown release. By the end of the turn they had completely done an about face, or rather About Grace, and were in a much better mood.

The Thimbles go underwater with a yellow submarine release, then head underground to visit the gnomes and leave some litreature with them. Team Iron thought so far out of it that they left the box behind, but opted to stick inside a square. They dedicate their yellow release to Yellowstar - a gone but not forgotten bookcrosser. In Glasgow, the Wolves failed to find the meaning of life but did manage to lose a book...

Team Train headed to the rainbow's end theme park where they observed that they were standing in the rainbow. Unfortunately, having specified their location they are now unable to measure their speed  (in accordance with Heisenberg's uncertainty principle) ... so we stopped looking at where they were and used a speedometer to see that they were whizzing about at a million miles an hour - going so fast they were unable to stop before they hit and shattered my kitchen window.


And, so, onto the all important envelope opening....
The winner of our Monopoly game, with 40 points (that's 23 releases, 8 catches, 3 AF sign ups, and 6 bonus points) is Team Cannon! Well done guys!
More accurately, though, well done all of you for making it this far, and a host of awesome releases. Thank you all so much for playing, I hope you had fun! I'll be starting up another game in the first couple of months of next year and it'd be great to have some of you play again if you can face it :)

Thursday 17 November 2011

Go Us!

Monopoly 2011 is nearly over - there have been some awesome releases and lots of books gone wild. Thank you all so much for playing (or just watching, if there are any lurkers out there). I already have some ideas for next time and will hopefully start a new game near the beginning of next year, keep an eye on the forums. In the meantime, here's a few numbers to try to take stock of what we've achieved!
* 36 players releasing books across 14 countries (and living in 13 of those countries...)
* 211 wild releases, of which 25 have been caught so far (an 11.8% catch rate), and 5 of them have been re-released. Our most adventuresome books seems to be this one from Team Wolf, which was caught, re-released, caught again (with AF sign up) and re-re-released! (And we are due to release a further 23 books for our final turn too)
* 11 AF sign-ups
* 11 Controlled releases between players, and (hopefully) a fair few BC-buddies made

Here are a few of my personal  Top 5 favourite releases form the game, in no particular order;
Thimbles serve up Bally Rolls
*Team Iron used the face on the front of The Great Gatsby to complete a headless statue
* Team Wheelbarrow followed a trail of Stardust to find a fallen star
* Team Iron landed on the OBCZ square, so headed off to the Organized Bleached Clothing Zone to make a release
* Team Racecar buried some treasure in hope that a passing pirate may sniff it out
* Team Thimble made book sushi - check out how on Azuki's blog

All that's very well and good, but I must admit I'm still a little bit disappointed that no one threw anything at David Cameron.

Sunday 13 November 2011

Turn Fifteen

Final Turn!

Submit the details of your teams completed challenge - including a link to the book's page (and pictures if you want) - to Vekiki's email (Don't PM please).
Submissions deadline: 21.00 GMT (that's 9 PM, London time) on FRIDAY 25th November (Slightly shortened turn)
Refresh on how to play here (Don't you know by now??)
chatter about the turn in the forum

Battleship (9)
Give praise in the church of GoG, for now you may collect the browns! And you passed Go, so that's 3 releases this turn for you

Cannon (12)
The Final turns sees you on the final square - why not stay awhile and collect the dark blues while you're there?

Boot (6) & Wolf (12)
turn Bally into a work of art
Team boot - Collect the yellows too

Iron (8)
Think outside the box but inside the square... and collect the yellows while you're there

Moneybags (8)
O is for Orange and OBCZ, both are your challenges this week

Racecar (9)
Can racecars climb trees?

Scottie-Dog (7)
Walkies! Let's go play ball in the park. And Let's collect the dark blues too

Thimbles (10)
Chance card: Buried treasure challenge - leave a book underground. And celebrate passing Go while you're there

Tophat (10)
Penny a pound? Head to the market and make some sense of modern economics. And you just slipped past go too!

Train (2)
Rainbow Bright, Rainbow Light.... rainbow's may not include pink, but your release sure should

Wheelbarrows (6)
You've worked hard all game - have a cup of tea on a bench, and put your feet up on some pinks too

Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases...

Team Wheelbarrow
A super speed turn was completed still achieved in double time by the Scottie Dogs, who had only 4 days to plan and execute their release. Team "Wheelbarrow are on the run, but hope someone will catch the book they left behind.

Team battleship left The Monster of Florence at the Portland Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Remembrance Sunday (In the UK). Team Train managed to find a shopping centre next to Rainbow's End theme park, so of course they released a book there.

Team Iron dropped off a book at the local OBCZ (That's the Organized Bleached Clothing Zone, or Laundromat). They then got all autumnal with an orange release as crisp and clean as both the November air and all their clothes.
 
Team Racecar, it has transpired, are fickle friends indeed - they visited poor sick Team Boot, to let them know that and, while no one was looking, made off with a point!
Racecars going no where
Team Moneybag, however, are having none of that; they prevent the Racecars getting away with the points by turning all the Tarmac of the rad surface into books! They then celebrate a job well done by releasing The Third Man in one of it's settings, The Hotel Sacher. 

Team Top Hat have also been somewhat light-fingered this turn , they stole all of Poseidon's Gold and hid it the the Castle of Good Hope - which turned out to be an excellent spot as it is a fort, so easily defensible when the king of the sea comes to reclaim his treasure. 
Yellow!
All this playing in the sea has left Team Boot very worried that their game-mates will catch a chill, and so they turn the tables on them (after negotiations over the medicine card last turn were unsuccessful) by sending them all care packages, with health books and flu remedies in them (including a packet of condoms marked"prevention is better than cure.") This earns a bonus point for being creative and hilarious!

Team Thimble have decided that they are having none of this - they will avoid winter colds by heading off to Thailand for the Turn. Of course they take some holiday reading for whilst they are away; Mansfield Park and Inheritance of Loss.
 
Team Cannon hope that one of the anatomy students will be able to help The Murderer Without a Face with a little plastic surgery. But their colour release already looks beautiful dressed up in her new yellow outfit.
 

Monday 7 November 2011

Turn Fourteen

Submit the details of your teams completed challenge - including a link to the book's page (and pictures if you want) - to Vekiki's email (Don't PM please).
Submissions deadline: 21.00 GMT (that's 9 PM, London time) on Sunday 13th November (One week turn as discussed!)
Next turn will be announced on Monday 14th November
Refresh on how to play  here
chatter about the turn in the forum


Battleships (10)
You'll need calm waters to stand as still as a statue

Cannon (8)
Black, red, or green? Many kinds of teas in different cafes - and you can add to the collection by making a yellow one too!

Boot (9)
Shoes upon the table? Terrible!

Iron (10)
Flat out at the OBCZ - and make a colour release to collect the oranges

Moneybags (11) & Racecar (2)
Double trouble this week as two teams go visiting...

Scottie-Dogs (9)
A double time release on a one week turn? That give you just 3.5 days... GoG will call it 4, be sure to have your turn submitted by 9PM on Thursday 10th


Thimbles (3)
You're in the park - don't sing the (dark) blues!

TopHat (5)
Keeping the right sort of company, visiting palaces and castles

Train (2)
Don't lend Bally your credit card...

Wheelbarrow (5)
Celebrate the silver screen, then the light blue theme

Wolf (4)
Grant a wishlist request for a fellow player (and your bound to get another catch)

(Un)lucky for Some?

Team Cannon teach Pumpkin to read!
Money bags went on blue adventures; they tried to stay in a hotel but were quickly caught and taken away :)
Team Iron took a lighter, more poetic adventure, incorporating a theatrical visit. Racecars also went to the there, and managed to get up on stage and sing - the cast let them join in  with the performance of 13, in celebration of turn thirteen. Racecars then celebrate the end of their second time around the board by hitching a ride on a carousel. After all this celebrating they need to chill out, so they take a tip from Manny and make some Little Book of Calm soup. 

Team Boot are back up and running after last weeks flu, raising breast cancer awareness. Mission duly accomplished, they found a sofa to put their feet up and watch the telly. Team Top Hat came to join them, watching The Simpsons - but not until they managed to hammer a round book into a square hole.

The Centre of the Universe. Obviously.
Team Train manage to find the centre not only of a city, but of the whole universe (GoG would like to direct Team Train to this youtube video - as you will see, the centre of the universe is in Manhattan, not Calgary) and left a book there. They then went on to scare the pants off a priest at their local church by reminding him that Death Comes for the Archbishop.

Team Wheelbarrow also visited the church,  but the book they take has rather a different sort of Genesis
This release didn't hang about for long!
Team Thimble are owed a favour by the gods after recent misdemeanours, so Hercules offers to hold up The Pillars of The Earth for them, so that they can go to the irish pub and practice for next years Dublin convention. The other side of Irish life is shown in Team Wheelbarrow's second release, the biography of a man who deplored Father Ted, Jazz Music and Contemporary Dance. GoG agrees with him about the Contemporary Dance!

Team Battleship released a burning book on bonfire night.

Team Cannon are not very good at maths - they have made 3 releases and think that adds up to Five Quarters of the Orange - good job this isn't a geometry game! They also released a book in a tree which was caught and got an AF sign up right away - so  we start and end out write up by disproving all theories that Turn Thirteen is unlucky.

Bonus Points...
Team Racecar, simply because all three releases made me chuckle
Team Iron win a local poetry competition
Team Top hat are awarded a certificate of technical accomplishment
Team Train because GoG loves scaring members of the clergy too