Geek Out

Meet the man behind the old jewish comedians. Drew Friedman, the accomplished illustrator best known for his bestselling 2006 compilation Old Jewish Comedians (and the creator of that Bush/Dr. Strangelove portrait above), will appear at Rocketship (208 Smith St., Brooklyn) tonight at 8:00 p.m. The event is one part art opening—Friedman will have a “special exhibition of original art and objects” on display at Rocketship through June 4—and one part signing, in conjunction with the release of More Old Jewish Comedians.

Lord it over your dumber peers. I’ve been going to a regular pub trivia night with some friends recently, the first time I’ve done something like that since college, and it reminded me what a rush it is to be smarter than everybody else in the room. We haven’t come in first place yet, but that’s just because everybody else keeps winning on stupid questions that shouldn’t count. Obviously.

MurphGuide has a nice directory of pub quizzes in the city. Tuesday appears to be the most popular day, but there are a few on the weekend, including one presented by the National Trivia Association, whatever that is.

Geek In

The outsourcing of GONY continues this week with a Traders of Genoa recommendation from Johnny Dale. Johnny is a GONY reader (naturally), board game lover, and the author of young-adult novel The Darling Budds. He also sometimes drives a cab in New Orleans to relax. Pretty interesting dude. Anyway, here’s why Johnny thinks you should play Traders this weekend:

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Traders Of Genoa, part of the Alea “Big Box” line which also gave us Princes Of Florence and Puerto Rico, is a negotiation game of the purest sort: nearly everything on the board can be bought, sold, traded, or bartered.  

In the game, you play a Renaissance power broker. You scurry around Genoa delivering messages, buying and selling goods, securing privileges, and bribing other players. The right combination of purchases and bribes can pay off big…but make sure that you’re not paying out more than you’re going to bring in. On the other hand, accepting bribes can be a good source of income, but are you actually helping your opponents defeat you?

If your gaming group likes the trading aspect of Settlers Of Catan, they’ll love Traders of Genoa. In Settlers, there are, what, five things you can trade? In Traders, that list is at least twice as long, and the trades are more opaque. In Settlers, you pretty much know why your opponent wants Brick and Wood; in Traders, you can never be sure what the motive is behind any transaction.

Like a lot of Eurogames, the game looks daunting at first but feels simple once it’s set in motion. After a couple of turns, the rhythm of the gameplay becomes natural. With the right group of players, Traders resembles a night of poker or even a party game…a party game that requires charisma, business savvy, and treachery. If your gaming group is full of charming amoral backstabbers—mine is!—you just found your new Cranium.

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Thanks, Johnny!