Prescription Painkiller Use Epidemic in Women: Why the Increase?
Blog » Addiction Articles » Prescription Painkiller Use Epidemic in Women: Why the Increase?
The number of deaths from prescription drug overdoses has risen for more than a decade, and those numbers continue to alarm, no matter what subset you look at. One subset that has drawn attention is the number of women who died from opioid overdoses. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) focused on the fact that this number increased five times from 1999 to 2010. The same report showed that emergency room visits by women for opioid misuse or abuse doubled between 2004 and 2010. The deaths among women by overdose are greater than deaths for cervical cancer.
Certain factors combined to make prescription overdoses more likely and seemingly inevitable for women. They are more likely to get these prescriptions, more likely to use them in a way that puts them at risk of overdose and more likely to downplay the danger linked to them.
Behaviors around prescription painkillers contribute to the rise in their addiction numbers. Some people would say that painkiller addiction 'doesn't count' or seems more acceptable because prescriptions start out legitimately. Painkiller addiction does not necessarily start from other recreational drug use or hard-partying teen years. It can start with a bad knee or wisdom tooth removal. The ease of access to prescription painkillers opens the door to addiction for many people who never would have considered themselves potential addicts.
Some of the ways opioids are prescribed may contribute to the increase in mortality among women.
Chronic pain conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis are much more likely to occur in women than men. Studies show that women get addicted to drugs faster than men do (possibly because of smaller size and weight). But on the flip side, they are slower to seek help for that addiction, which just increases their risk for overdose.
The greater rise in deaths for women may be attributed to the fact that many opioid overdoses occur in combination with other drugs—drugs that women are more likely to have. The drugs most commonly found taken in combination with opioid overdoses are benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety meds like Xanax), which were seen in 30 percent of opioid overdoses, and antidepressants, which were part of 13.4 percent of opioid overdoses. Both of those classes of drugs are more likely to be prescribed to women than men.
Most of the overdoses were accidental. Of all prescription overdose deaths in 2010, only 17 percent were identified as suicides and nearly three-quarters of the overdoses were completely accidental. That fits with women taking opioids, anti-anxiety pills and antidepressants, and maybe throwing in a sleeping pill or having a drink. Just a slight change to a safe combination or one extra dose can mean the difference between life and death.


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Posted on October 31, 2018 October 31, 2018 by hhumiston in 40 Weeks of PLEN, Mount Saint Mary's University
As a senior at Mount Saint Mary's University in Los Angeles, Jessica Lopez held leadership positions in numerous clubs and organizations on campus. She understood the importance of being a role model, and she knew that she wanted to make a difference in the world, but she didn't know exactly how.
When her friend Felicia recommended PLEN to her, Jessica brushed it off, thinking that she wouldn't learn anything from a policy seminar as a business management major. However, when she learned about the Women Unlocking Nonprofits seminar, she knew she had to apply. Even though she wasn't a political science major, she knew this seminar would help her figure out how to combine her interests in organizational management and social responsibility. She had no idea she would leave with a passion for politics and policy.
Jessica's friend Felicia not only encouraged Jessica to apply to PLEN, but also helped her prepare for the interview with PLEN Member Representative Rosalyn Kempf, who is the Director of Women's Leadership at Mount Saint Mary's University and on the PLEN Board of Directors. "It was the hardest interview I've ever done," Jessica said as one the first business majors from MSMU to attend a PLEN seminar. "Because I took a drama class in high school, I looked calm, but I was not!" Jessica remembers. She left knowing that even if she didn't get the scholarship, she had given it her all.
Jessica's passion, motivation, and eagerness to learn impressed Rosalyn, who awarded her with a full scholarship to attend the Women Unlocking Nonprofits seminar in 2016.
As a business major, Jessica was already familiar with organizational structure and networking, but attending PLEN opened up a whole new world for her. "PLEN was the beginning for me," she says. "It really was the catalyst for where I am now." At the PLEN seminar, her interest and work in business and social responsibility manifested in a new dream: running a nonprofit. Additionally, PLEN empowered Jessica to be an even better mentor to others in her community.
One of Jessica's biggest takeaways from PLEN was this question that she is constantly asking herself: what information am I learning, and how am I sharing it with the people around me? As a first-generation college student, she is grateful for the people around her who encouraged her to take advantage of opportunities like PLEN. Now, Jessica strives to be that person for younger students. With PLEN, she learned what being successful looks like in different parts of the country, in different industries, and for different people, and left knowing that she needed to share this information with others.
After returning to MSMU, Jessica continued to get involved and connect with others, which led to an opportunity to volunteer on a local political campaign. Campaign work has become one of her favorite ways to get involved, and she sees it as the perfect opportunity to encourage others to get involved, too. She became the volunteer coordinator for a candidate running for Assembly in California, which allowed her to recruit, train, and mentor campaign volunteers. This experience was life-changing for her, and not only led to other professional opportunities on her own career path, but allowed her to empower others in her community to get involved in the political process.
"I came back from PLEN knowing that I can be an agent of change. We all came back empowered." Now, as an agent of change, Jessica focuses on helping those around her. In her free time, she continues to volunteer on campaigns and uses it as an opportunity to engage the next generation of leaders. Earlier this year, she mentored a 14-year-old and invited her to join her on a campaign to introduce her mentee to different types of careers and how important it is to be civically engaged. Just as her friends and mentors helped open her eyes to different opportunities in the world, she is reaching out to the next generation to inspire and empower.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR 40TH ANNIVERSARY
Hayley Humiston is the Programs and Communications Manager for PLEN, where her main focus is to plan the logistics of each seminar. She is also responsible for marketing, communications, and social media outreach.
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Tag Archives: PitchCar Extension 7: The Loop
Pine was the first to arrive and, as a result, was landed with the task of setting up the "Feature Game", the gorgeous, dexterity car-racing game, PitchCar. Black, Purple and Lemon arrived soon after to give him a hand, while Pink got drinks and Blue carried on messing about in the kitchen. Once an annual event, there has been a bit of a hiatus in the New Year PitchCar game over the last couple of years, and it turned out the lack of practice meant everyone had forgotten how to set up the bridge from the first extension. Blue was summoned from the kitchen to explain, and then the track-builders continued their construction work.
Aside from the bridge and a few chicanes, the track was kept to a simple figure-of-eight, eschewing the multi-level tracks, jumps, potholes, crossroads and loop of the more recent extensions. Before long, the track was complete, and then Lime arrived. Starting order was decided by arrival time, so the first to flick-off was Pine. The game is very simple: starting with the car at the front of the pack, players take it in turns to flick (not push) their puck along the track. Cars can jump as long as they don't cut corners, land on the track "rubber-side down", and don't knock anyone else off the track in the process.
There were the usual ooos, ahhhhs, howls of delight, and cheers, as there were near misses, total misses, bumps and amazing somersaults. First to cross the line was Lime after some amazingly spectacular long distance flicks, followed by Pink and then Lemon taking a podium spot on her debut. Before we started, Pine had commented that he wondered how his skills would have deteriorated over the three years since we'd last played, so he was initially surprised to find that he'd improved. That feeling didn't last however, as he eventually followed everyone else over the line.
Supper wasn't quite ready, so Pink suggested a shortened course running the length of the table, replacing one of the straights with a second finishing line and ignoring the return under the bridge. This time, pole was decided as the reverse order that players crossed the line in the first race, so Pine went first. Unfortunately, he repeatedly rolled his car going over the bridge and it took some dozen or more attempts to cross it. With the shortened course, he didn't have time to make his way back up the field (indeed the race was over before he crossed the bridge), though he did improve his final position slightly compared to the first race.
With the short course, it was always likely to come down to who got a good start and made it over the bridge first. Black got a storming start and led the field down the track before running out of gas as he approached the chequered flag. That was OK though, as Lemon rear-ended him at speed and shot him across the line. Lemon followed him onto the podium with Pink taking bronze. With that, supper was pretty much ready, so it was all hands to the deck to dismantle the track in time for the arrival of home-made pie with veg.
There was much chatter over supper, then, while everyone else pondered what game to play, Lime gave Pink a hand with the washing-up. Eventually, Pine went upstairs and returned with Las Vegas and a panda, and with only snacks remaining on the table, he began setting up while Blue and Black explained the game to Lemon. This is an old favourite that we've not played for a long time. It truth, it is a simple enough game, albeit one that is quite clever. The idea is that each player bets in the six numbered casinos using their dice.
On their turn, each player rolls all their dice and must choose a number and place all the dice with that face value in the casino of that number. The player with the most dice in that casino at the end of the round wins the money. There are a couple of catches, however. Firstly, all the dice of the chosen number must be placed, even if this is not to the player's advantage. Secondly, and this is why the first catch is so critical, if two players tie, neither gets any money and the winner is the next inline (who is not involved in a tie).
Finally, at the start of each round, money cards are dealt at random to each casino giving them a set value; the winner only takes one of these with the others going to the players in the lower placings. This means that some casinos might have several small denomination cards up for grabs, while others might have only one high value card to fight over. The combination of these features make this a great little game. We also tend to add some components from the Boulevard expansion. There are lots of modules, but we usually only use "The Bigun", the extra high value money cards, The Slot Machine, and extra dice for additional players.
"The Biggun" replaces one die for each player with a bigger one that is worth two smaller dice. The Slot Machine is a bit different though. Like the casinos, players can add dice on several turns, however, unlike the casinos, each number can only be added to the Slot Machine once. Then, although the winner is still the player with the most dice, ties are broken by the number of pips on all the dice placed. The game is played over three rounds and the wealthiest player at the end of the game is the winner.
Black went first and started the dice rolling fest. Everyone took some money in the first round, but the beginnings of the rivalries began, between Purple and Pine, between Pine and Lime and between Lime and Purple. The second round was filled with high-value cards which entrenched the rivalries and ensured a few new ones were started with Pink, Black and Blue encouraging everyone else's misbehaviour leaving Lime coming out of the second round without any winnings.
After a brief sojourn to view the midnight fireworks in the village and to toast absent friends and the New Year, we started the final round. This was very cut-throat: Blue and Pine got into a very silly battle for the Four casino which Blue was winning with seven dice until the final roll by Pine which gave a tie knocking them both out leaving $100,000 to Lime with his lone die. If Pine had won, that would have given him victory, but as it was, it was close between Black and Pink, with Pink taking victory by $10,000 with his total of $340,000.
By this time it was 1am, and although everyone was tired, people lingered, first to talk about the robustness of Ikea furniture and then the status of the Jockey. With Monday being the last day for the current Managers/Chefs it is unclear what the situation will be in ten days time when we are next due to meet. We talked over other options, but all that really did was highlight how lucky we have been with The Jockey. And with that, everyone drifted home leaving Blue and Pink to find their beds.
Learning Outcome: Parties are great fun.
This entry was posted in Games Night and tagged Las Vegas, Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas: The Slot Machine, PitchCar, PitchCar Extension, PitchCar Extension 4: Stunt Race, PitchCar Extension 5: The Cross, PitchCar Extension 6: No Limit, PitchCar Extension 7: The Loop on January 1, 2023 by nannyGOAT.
Next Meeting – 31st December 2022
Although there has been a bit of a hiatus, this year, on Sunday 31st December, we will once again be holding a party for New Year's Eve. As the pub will have their own event, we will be meeting at a private house in Stanford with people arriving from 7.30pm with food served sometime around 8pm. Please get in touch if you would like to come along so we know how much food will be needed.
The plan is to start off with the "Feature Game", which, as has become traditional at these events, will be the gorgeous, dexterity car-racing game, PitchCar. After that, we will be eating, popping party poppers, playing games and admiring the village's fireworks at midnight.
And talking of cars…
A policeman sees an elderly woman driving incredibly slowly on the motorway, so he pulls along side and notices her knitting in the driver's seat. She remains focused on the road and keeps knitting and driving.
He beeps his horn to get her attention, but she is oblivious and carries on.
Getting more frustrated, the policeman turns his siren on and, as she finally notices him, he signals for her to wind the window down.
After a time she finds the button and down goes the window.
Incensed, the cop yells, "PULL OVER!"
"Oh, no sweetie," she replies. "It's a scarf, see?"
This entry was posted in News, Next Meeting and tagged PitchCar, PitchCar Extension 7: The Loop on December 30, 2022 by nannyGOAT.
Burgundy was the first to arrive and he was quickly joined by Purple, Black and Lime. As the first to arrive, together, they began to set up the "Feature Game", the now traditional, car-racing game, PitchCar. When Pine joined the party, discussion turned to the "Monster Games" session which featured Bus, Ecos: First Continent and the very silly Happy Salmon, all of which had been very enjoyable in their own way and most of which will come out again soon. Before long, an exciting-looking racing track was set up around an obstacle course of snacks and drinks.
As we've done a few times recently, instead of a circuit, we set up a single section track with separate start and finish lines. This year we included the new Loop (which got it's first outing at Pink's sPecial Party in October) and Upsilon expansions as well as the bridge from the first expansion. As usual, much fun was had by all concerned, especially with the new challenge that the Loop added. There is clearly a knack with this: it is essential to hit the puck hard and in the middle, but some have the skill naturally, while others apparently just don't. Lime is one who clearly does, and as a result, his car traveled the furthest in the "flick-off", so started at the front of the grid and finished way out in front too.
Pine, Pink and Purple, clearly don't have the knack, and we never really found out about Burgundy either, as someone helped him largely avoid it, resulting in him to taking second place. Elsewhere, having successfully escaped from the Loop, Black shot round the chicane and made the bridge look easy, inspiring Pink to comment that we always used to get stuck at the bridge, but now we have the Loop, the bridge is easy! That said, stopping over the line without falling off the end of the track proved to be quite challenging. So much so, that after half a dozen mini-flicks, Black was in danger of getting caught by Pine, who eventually made it round in fourth place.
That just left Pink and Purple, taking it in turns to try to get round the Loop. Eventually, Purple hit the sweet spot and started off towards the finish. Unfortunately, after a superb single shot that took her round the ring, she ended up pointing in the wrong direction and tried to go round the Loop backwards. Pink meanwhile was still stuck and thanks to the way the track looped back on itself creating an intersection, managed to very effectively obstruct Purple in her quest to get to the end.
As Purple's and Pine's antics entertained, everyone else consumed crudites, Devils on horsebacks, stuffed mini peppers, and large quantities of pigs in blankets (Lime commented that he now knew why JD Wetherspoon had a shortage). When Purple and Pink finally crossed the line, it was time for supper – spicy vegetable chili, beef chili, rice and corn on the cob. As people finished dinner we realised we'd forgotten the crackers and Christmas pressies. Unusually, this year there was desert too, so Black was given a special rolling-pin shaped knife to "cut" it, leaving everyone to wonder, before Pink delivered a Christmas pudding-shaped chocolate piñata.
The "Pud" resisted all Black's initial blows, until he decided a side-swipe might have more effect. Eventually a dent became a crack and the crack became a hole revealing the sweets inside. As everyone picked at the chocolate, we decided to start another game, Ca$h 'n Guns, because there's nothing better at Christmas than pointing foam guns at each other. This is a very simple, but very fun party game where players are gangsters dividing up their loot by a sort of controlled Russian Roulette.
Each player starts the round by loading their gun with one bullet from their deck of eight bullet cards, or "clip". Each bullet can be used only once during the game, and three are live, while the other five are blanks. Once everyone has chosen their bullet card, the Godfather counts to three and everyone points their weapon at someone. The Godfather can then use his privilege to ask one player to point their gun away from him (there was some discussion as to whether a real gangster would use "please"), then there is a second count of three. This time, players can back out, which means they won't get shot, but they also won't get any loot.
All the remaining players then reveal their bullet cards and anyone who is shot picks up a plaster and also won't get any loot at the end of the round. This leaves a hard-core of gangsters to take it in turns to collect cards from the loot pool that was revealed at the start of the round. In each round, all the loot cards are taken, so when it is a particularly brutal round, players can take several cards. The loot includes diamonds, artworks and cash, as well as the occasional medipack or additional bullet and the opportunity to become the Godfather. Unusually, this final option was taken several times so the Godfather changed hands quite frequently, with Burgundy, Pink, Lime, Blue, and Pine all taking the role at some point.
Blue was Boris, so Pink suggested that she should be the target. This is fairly usual in this game, so Blue rarely wins. However, it seems people didn't like being told what to do by Pink, even if he was the Godfather, so remarkably, she survived the first round. After a couple more rounds she'd still only picked up one plaster, while Pine, had acquired two so a third would put him out of the game. As he had pointed out at the start, an injury tends to make you a target, but somehow, Pine managed to get himself a medipack. Burgundy and Purple, however, were not so lucky and bought it in round six.
Going into the final round, Black commented on how many painting cards Blue had picked up—the first is worth $4,000, but these score an ever increasing amount so a player with ten scores $500,000. At that point, Blue didn't feel she had enough, but as Pine's final bullet proved to be a blank, she was able to stay in for the final round and pick up a couple more. It surprised even her when she counted up and found she had seven paintings giving a total of $250,000 when her cash was added in. Black took the $60,000 bonus for the most diamonds and with it, second place with $133,000, and not a scratch, just ahead of Pink ($110,000) who was also unharmed.
With midnight fast approaching, we replaced the guns with glasses to toast the New Year and watch the fireworks (in both London and the village). And then we had the very important decision to make: what to play for the first game of 2020. In the end, we decided to go for our old favourite, 6 Nimmt!. Everyone knows how to play this by now: players simultaneously choose a card from their hand and then, starting with the player that revealed the lowest value card, players add their cards to one of the four rows. The player who adds the sixth card to a row, instead takes the first five into his scoring pile, where the number of bulls' heads indicates the score. The winner is the player with the fewest "nimmts".
We played with our usual variant where a game takes two rounds, each played with one half of the deck. In the first round, Pine top-scored with twenty-two closely followed by Lime with eighteen, while Pink kept a clean sheet and Purple remarkably (especially for her), had only the one card with just a single "nimmt". So, going into the second half, it was all to play for. As is usually the case, those that do well in the first round typically do badly in the second. That was exactly the way it panned out for Pink who picked up the most "nimmts" in the second round with twenty-five, almost catching up with Pine and Lime. Purple, however, managed to buck the trend, and pulled out a clear round giving her a final total of just one and with it, clear victory—the first of the new year.
Lime suggested a second game, and as the only other game being suggested was Bohnanza, apathy from everyone else meant we played 6 Nimmt! again. Again, Pink ended the first round with "zip", followed by Black and Burgundy with five; again Pine had the highest score of twenty-four. Also again, Pink failed in the second round, taking more than anyone else and finishing with a total of twenty. Blue managed a zero in the second round, but had picked up too many points in the first to do better than second place. It was consistency that won the game though, and Burgundy, the only one to say in single figures for both rounds, finished with thirteen and took first place.
By this time was well gone 1am, and there was some chatter before Lime decided that it was past his bedtime and left everyone else to it. With six, there were slightly more options, and when Pink appeared with For Sale, nobody objected. This is an older game, that we haven't played in the group since it was the "Feature Game" nearly seven years ago, but it is a bit of an "ever-green" game that still pops up on recommendation lists from time to time.
The game is very simple: players buy properties in the first part of the game and then sell them in the second half, and the player who has the most money at the end wins. Buying properties is through auction. Players start with $14,000 to last the whole game and take it in turns to bid for one of the property cards available on the table. These have a nominal rating of one to thirty with fantastic pictures that reflect their value. In each round, the bidding is continuous with players either increasing the bid by at least $1,000 or passing. When a player passes, they take the lowest value property card and pay half their bid. Thus, the winning player gets the highest value card, but has to pay the full amount bid.
In the second part of the game, cheque cards with a value of $2,000 to $15,000 (or void) are revealed and players simultaneously select a card to play and then reveal. The property card with the lowest numerical value takes the cheque with the smallest value. This time, the property cards came out in bunches so it was mostly a case of players trying to avoid getting the real rubbish, and some inevitably failing. It was such a long time since we had played the game, that it took a couple of rounds for players to really get the feel of valuing the properties and the best way to bid, by which time, in some cases, the damage had already been done.
It also took a round or two to get the hang of selling properties as we weren't sure exactly how the money on the cheques was distributed. In addition, the cheques came out with low values first, then high values and finally, both voids in the last round. This meant that although Blue took the maximum return for her Space Station, she didn't take out any of the other high value buildings. It also meant that Burgundy and Pink got saddled with the voids in the final round.
Despite this, it was a very close game. In the final accounting, Black won with a total of $50,000, just ahead of Burgundy in second with $47,000, the void possibly making all the difference. By this time, it was gone 2am and although nobody was keen to leave, it was definitely pumpkin-o'clock. So everyone headed home to bed for the first time in 2020.
Learning Outcome: Thick chocolate is surprisingly hard to break.
This entry was posted in Games Night and tagged 6 Nimmt!, Bohnanza, Bus, Ca$h 'n Guns, Ecos: First Continent, For Sale, Happy Salmon, PitchCar, PitchCar Extension, PitchCar Extension 7: The Loop, PitchCar Extension 8: The Upsilon, Russian Roulette on January 5, 2020 by nannyGOAT.
Pink's sPecial Party
It being a very special day for Pink, he decided he wanted to spend it playing games with friends and family at the Jockey. The early arrivals set up PitchCar, including the new "Loop" expansion and others played Loopin' Louis, Patchwork Express, Dobble and the surprise hit, Boom Boom Balloon. Little-Lime won PitchCar (perhaps flicking talent runs in the family as Lime himself managed to complete the loop at least three times), and almost everyone managed to lose Boom Boom Balloon at least once. Late in the afternoon, a game of Scotland Yard was started with Pink as the fugitive, and finished almost before it was begun when he was quickly captured. It was then restarted with Mrs. Lime as the fugitive and turned into an epic game that went on for a couple of hours with a brief break as people tucked into the buffet supper and amazing sticky-toffee pudding cake-desert provided by the Jockey Kitchen.
The evening continued with more games including No Thanks!, Finstere Flure (a.k.a. Fearsome Floors), Saboteur, …Aber Bitte mit Sahne (a.k.a. Piece o' Cake) and Ice Cool. The team of five eventually managed to corner Mrs. Lime, freeing up Pink to play his special request, Captain Sonar, which his team fittingly won, twice. This was followed by a game of Ca$h 'n Guns (it is always fun entertaining the bar staff by waving foam pistols about and threatening to shoot each other), before finishing with 6 Nimmt!, a game to match Pink's socks. It was a great day, and we all went home tired, but very happy, with Pink and Blue keen to thank everyone for sharing Pink's sPecial day.
This entry was posted in Other Events and tagged 6 Nimmt!, …aber bitte mit Sahne, Boom Boom Balloon, Ca$h 'n Guns, Captain Sonar, Dobble, Finstere Flure, ICECOOL, Loopin' Louie, No Thanks!, Patchwork Express, PitchCar, PitchCar Extension 7: The Loop, Saboteur, Scotland Yard on October 15, 2019 by nannyGOAT.
The evening began with Pine's arrival, and he helped Pink rearrange the furniture for PitchCar while Blue added the finishing touches to supper. PitchCar is a brilliantly simple, dexterity car racing game—players take it in turns to flick their wooden cars, and the first one to get round the track three times is the winner. Before long Burgundy, Purple and Black had arrived and pieces from the base game and five of the first six expansions were all over the place and everyone was diving in trying to make an interesting looking track. There was a problem though, the problem we always have, which is a shortage of straight sections. It was then that Blue produced another expansion from under the sofa: the "Long Straights". These are exactly what they sound like, two, very long, plank-like, straight sections that are a pain to store and difficult to transport, so rarely get used. They have the potential to add a very fast section to the track though, so this time we used both with a tight hairpin in between them to add interest.
Like last year, instead of making a circuit, we made a single long race track weaving around plates of crudites, mugs of tea, and trays of "pigs in blankets". There was a big debate whether to use The Cross as a cross-roads or back-to-back corners. In the end, the double corners won, the track was complete and we had a push off to see who would start at the front of the grid. Black won with a magnificent flick, followed closely by Purple. Blue stalled on the grid and the only one to come off worst was Burgundy who came off the track and defaulted to the back of the grid. The race began: Black and Purple continued strongly and everyone else shuffled about in the middle order with Burgundy bringing up the rear. Then Burgundy adjusted is driving style slightly and gradually began to work his way through the field. Meanwhile the wheels dropped off for Purple who had briefly taken the lead, but suddenly seemed to lose the knack of flicking, and gradually, the rest of the pack overtook her one by one.
Almost everyone had trouble going over the bridge, but particularly Blue, Pink and Purple. Eventually they made it over though and shot down the rail to the hairpin some failed to make the corner, but the long straights added a bit of speed and excitement. The tunnel ended up being a relay race with Black getting stuck under the bridge, only to be pushed out by Blue, who in turn also got stuck and was freed by Pink. Similarly, he was freed by Burgundy and Burgundy was liberated by Pine. And that order was maintained all the way to the finishing line, despite Blue needing several shots at crossing it without overshooting. Green and his lady-friend, Lilac, had been held up though were expected any second; food wasn't quite ready either so we ran the race in reverse starting with Purple, the last player to cross the line in the first race.
Inevitably, we'd only just started when Green and Lilac arrived, so they just joined in. In fact by this time, Blue had actually managed to go backwards and was further behind the line than others were in front of it. With the larger pack, this time round the race was even more eventful with Black managing to park his car in a plate of crudites just missing a bowl of salsa and Pink repeatedly bouncing off the edge of the mouth of the tunnel obstructing everyone else behind him. Bizarrely, although the tunnel caused mayhem, the bridge was much less of a problem this time though with Pine leading the way by deftly bunny-hopping over it and almost everyone else just following his example. Leading over the bridge was a huge advantage, and though Blue threatened to catch him, he maintained his position to the finish. With food ready and waiting, the track was progressively dismantled as those bringing up the rear made their way to the finish line. Although it only gets an outing two or three times a year, PitchCar is always great fun and the seventh expansion, "The Loop" which is due in the new year, looks like it will add even more madness to the game.
With PitchCar over and the track in a heap in the corner, food swiftly appeared in the guise of enchiladas with corn on the cob, nachos and some strange yellow, habanero salsa that reminded Pine of wallpaper paste. Supper was accompanied by more special crackers, little parcels, Herb Alpert and the Tujuana Brass, and finished with ice cream, and then it was on with the games; after a little debate first up was Ca$h 'n Guns. This is push your luck game with a gangster theme played over a series of eight multi-player duels over their ill-gotten spoils. The player with the largest haul after eight rounds is the winner, as long as they are still alive of course. Each player has a character standee, a foam gun, and a clip of three bullet cards and eight blank cards.
At the start of each round, everyone simultaneously chooses a whether to "load" their gun with a bullet or a blank, and on the count of three, points it at one of the other players. On a second count of three, they choose whether to remain in, or withdraw taking their shot with them. Anyone whose target is still standing reveals whether their gun was loaded with a live bullet or a blank. Anyone who received a shot takes a plaster signifying their wound and is out of the rest of the round; three wounds and they are eliminated from the game. All players remaining then take it in turns to take a loot card from the centre of the table—there are eight cards, so the number of cards each player gets depends on how many players have survived the "duel".
The game can be quite brutal, and this was no exception, indeed, Black was out in the second round and Green quickly followed. Pine pointed out that everyone on his side of the table had been injured while Blue, Pink and Burgundy were all uninjured. Purple decided to fix that and faced off with Burgundy, both ending up injured as a result. Lilac proved a dangerous adversary as she collected extra bullets from the loot and ended up with a full set going into the final rounds. Blue injured Burgundy and coped a bullet in return. After Black's and Green's dismissal, everyone was more circumspect and didn't gamble as readily with their lives, so all the other players survived to the end of the game. That just left the small matter of the scores.
Pine and Purple had both been collecting gems, but had finished up with the same number so neither picked up the $60,000 bonus for having the most. Blue had started out collecting artwork, but there wasn't much available. It became clear why, when the loot for the final round was revealed: almost all of it was art. It was tough in the final round; Blue was taken out by Burgundy, which effectively removed her from the running. Pink had been doing well as the Godfather, but had taken a couple of hits in the latter stages and was also taken out of the final round. Pink finished with $110,000 and second place. The final round was attritional and there were few people left to share the swag. Most of the artwork ended up going to Pine and with it first place overall thanks to a final total of $123,000 worth of loot.
There was still time till midnight, and it was a toss-up between two of our favourite light games, 6 Nimmt! and Las Vegas, in the end we went for dice over cards and played Las Vegas. This is a very simple game, but a lot of fun. The play area is made up of six casinos, each numbered one to six with a jackpot drawn at random from a deck of money cards. With eight players, each jackpot totals at least $90,000 and comprises one or more notes. On their turn, players must use all the dice of one number to bet on the casino of that number by placing them on that casino tile. Once everyone has placed all their dice the player who placed the most dice on a casino takes the highest value currency card. The player with the most money after four rounds is the winner. The snag is that before any money is handed out, any dice leading to a draw are removed. It is this rule that makes the game interesting, raising the decisions above the trivial.
We usually play with a few "House Rules": we replace one of each player's dice with a big, "double weight" die from the Las Vegas Boulevard expansion; we include the Slot Machine, and only play three rounds. The Slot Machine is a little different to the Casinos as players place all their dice of one number on the tile, but each number can only be placed once. Unlike the Casinos, if there is a draw, then the player with the total number of pips wins, and if it's still a tie, then the player with the highest value die wins. The game is very robust to interruptions which is just as well as we took a break at midnight for toasts to the new year and to Ivory's new arrival (we are looking forward to his return in March). Prosecco and sparkling apple juice were accompanied by the village fireworks, an exceptional panettone and mince pies and eventually everyone made it back to the table and the game resumed.
Perhaps it was the interruptions, but Black's game went almost as badly as it had in Ca$h 'n Guns, and he won nothing at all in the first two rounds and not much in the third. It turned out that Purple and Burgundy didn't do any better as all three finished with just $100,000. That was better than Green however, who made a paltry $20,000. Pink started off really well, but at the start of the second round we realised he was using one more die than anyone else. After paying a $10,000 penalty, he finished with $240,000, $10,000 more than Blue. Lilac, on the other hand, took more in the first round than Blue or Pink took in the whole game and finished with $410,000.
Normally $410,000 would be more than enough to guarantee a win, but Pine, who took three $70,000 notes in the final round alone finished with a massive $510,000, a personal and probably group record. With the game over, Green took Lilac home to nurse her sore throat and everyone else finished their drinks and chatted for a while, watching Pink and Pine demolish a bottle of Bavarian whisky picked up in Essen during the Spiel. Everyone who had been there commented how much they had enjoyed The Gallerist at the ninth "Monster Game" session a few days earlier. Although it had taken ages and was very complex, it wasn't a real brain-burner and everything had been done well. The rule book was good, the board was clearly laid out, the player-aids were helpful, the pieces were great and the box was really top quality—in fact, it was almost the complete opposite of Agra, which struggled through at the previous "Monster Games" event. The second game, Reef, had also gone down well, but everyone was particularly keen to give The Gallerist another go.
Learning Outcome: GOATS enjoy a good party just as much as the next ruminant.
This entry was posted in Games Night and tagged 6 Nimmt!, Agra, Ca$h 'n Guns, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas: The Slot Machine, PitchCar, PitchCar Extension, PitchCar Extension 2: More Speed More Fun, PitchCar Extension 3: Long Straights, PitchCar Extension 4: Stunt Race, PitchCar Extension 5: The Cross, PitchCar Extension 6: No Limit, PitchCar Extension 7: The Loop, Reef, The Gallerist on January 3, 2019 by nannyGOAT.