‘Twas the Night Before RickFest…

…and you don’t need to worry. I’m not gonna bother trying to do up a whole RickFest version of the poem.

Tomorrow is RickFest, the Eleventh ((Though I’m doing a poll this year to see if we need to adjust the wonderfulness number up or down.)) Most Wonderful Time of the Year. RickFest is a day between Christmas and the new year when I gather all my friends together to play games. It started as a very small event, just a few of us, but last year saw it grow large enough that I rented a community centre hall to host it, and this year looks to be even bigger.

What happens at RickFest ((Should probably stay at RickFest, but it doesn’t.))? I haul down a whole bunch of games, make a pot of vegetarian chili ((I’m not vegetarian, but I like this chili recipe better than pretty much any meat-based chili I’ve made. Plus, several of my friends ARE vegetarian.)), put out some other snacks, and people come and play games. It’s a drop-in, come-and-go affair, lasting from noon to midnight. Really, it’s an excuse for me and my friends to hang out, play games, nibble, play games, catch up, eat, and play some more games.

This is the sixth annual RickFest, and I’m planning on keeping it going until I run out of friends or die.

I’ve finished packing the three large dufflebags full of games. Here’s the final list:

  1. Atomic Robo Roleplaying Game
  2. Battlestar Galactica
  3. B-Movie Card Games
  4. Beowulf
  5. Betrayal at House on the Hill
  6. Carcassonne
  7. Cards Against Humanity
  8. Castle Ravenloft
  9. Concept
  10. D&D Starter Set
  11. Discworld: Ankh-Morpork
  12. Dixit
  13. Dungeon World
  14. Durance
  15. Elder Sign
  16. Eldritch Horror
  17. Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space
  18. Fiasco
  19. Firefly Boardgame
  20. Forbidden Desert
  21. Forbidden Island
  22. Fortune and Glory
  23. Fury of Dracula
  24. Infiltration
  25. King of New York
  26. King of Tokyo
  27. Legendary
  28. Letters from Whitechapel
  29. Lords of Waterdeep
  30. Machine of Death
  31. Mad Scientist University
  32. Monster of the Week
  33. Pandemic
  34. Pieces of Eight
  35. The Quiet Year
  36. Race to Adventure
  37. Rampage
  38. The Resistance
  39. Sentinels of the Multiverse
  40. Shadows over Camelot
  41. Shinobi Wa-taah!
  42. Star Fluxx
  43. The Stars are Right
  44. Tokaido
  45. tremulus
  46. Tsuro of the Seas
  47. Ultimate Werewolf
  48. Zeppelin Attack
  49. Zombie Dice

So, yeah. That’s a lot of games. I’m looking forward to it.

Happy RickFest, everyone!

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2 Responses to ‘Twas the Night Before RickFest…

  1. Guillaume JAY says:

    Can we get the recipe for the chili ?

  2. Rick Neal says:

    Sure! Here you go:

    1 large onion, chopped
    1 green pepper, chopped
    2 celery sticks, chopped
    1 large can of kidney beans
    1 large can of black beans
    2 packets of Mexican flavoured fake ground beef (I usually get this at Safeway. It’s with the tofu.)
    1 small can of chopped green chilis
    1 small can of tomato paste
    1 large can of diced tomatoes, chili-flavoured
    1 small can of tomato sauce
    3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
    1 tbsp of salt
    1 tbsp of chili powder
    1 tbsp of cumin
    1 tsp of chipotle chili powder
    1 tsp of cayenne pepper

    Throw everything in a slow cooker, mix it up, and let it cook on low for 6-8 hours. Taste it at that point, and make adjustments – more spice, some water to thin it, some tomato paste to thicken it, whatever it needs to suit your taste. Continue to cook it another couple of hours, tasting and adjusting every so often, until it’s the kind of chili you like. This will net you about a gallon (maybe a little less) of chili. You probably don’t need to cook it that long, really, because there’s no meat to cook through, but the long cooking time brings out the flavours of the spices and the aromatics and lets them blend nicely.

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