I GOT TO PLAY DOMINION WITH THE CREATOR OF DOMINION!!!! Excuse me while I go hyperventilate in the corner.

So first off my Santa was amazing and reached out to me right away. He asked me what expansions I had for Dominion since I noted in my profile that it was my favorite game (and I have a pretty extensive board game collection.) Unfortunately for my Santa, I had all of the expansions already because I am a HUGE FAN of the game. Ever since getting it many years back, it has been a regular in my board game group. When my boyfriend and I started dating, I made him play it with me multiple times a week (often everyday) for over a year. In fact, it is still the game we play the most and there have been a lot of great times (and rage moments over the game... poor bf has to put up with a lot sometimes.)

So then I got another letter from my Santa and he was like... well I don't know much about Dominion but I messaged a bunch of people to ask what I should get you and they didn't know... so I messaged Donald X. Vaccarino (THE CREATOR OF DOMINION) to ask him what I should get you (WHO DOES THAT?! THAT IS AMAZING) and Donald said he could play a few rounds with you at Victory Point Cafe (WHAT?!)

So I immediately agreed and went home and told the bf. The bf was like... wouldn't it be funny if we show up and no one was there, I would laugh just from the troll. Wouldn't it be funny if we showed up and some random dude pretended to be Donald and we didn't know? (He was clearly amusing himself too much about how this could be the ultimate troll and I would look like a fool.)

REGARDLESS of whether this was the ultimate troll, on the slight chance that it was real life, I was not about to pass up an opportunity to play with the creator of Dominion! So I told Santa we wold love to go and he arranged everything. He even made me a personalized card to commemorate the event and sent it to me before the scheduled date. On the day of, I left work early and my bf and I went to Victory Point Cafe, not knowing what to expect.

DONALD WAS THERE AND WAS REAL AND WAS NOT AN IMPOSTOR! Not only that but he brought with him cards from the upcoming set and also other cards he recently came up with and was testing!!!! I had told my bf that I had hoped he would bring the new set so we could try it out before it comes out in October/November... my bf was like, I hope he brings the super complicated sets! Both of us got what we wanted and so much more! We got to try out new mechanics which were really interesting and changed the game a lot. We played two games. Each game had new and different cards, which had a lot of interesting interactions. The cards felt fresh but were still distinctly Dominion. Even after playing with some of these new cards, I can tell that both my bf and I really haven't even begun to understand how to optimize these new mechanics and cards.

During the game Donald entertained us with his musings, which my bf and I found very delightful. We also had two other regulars join us and they were extremely good players. In fact, they ended up winning the games! Everyone was really friendly and really loved the game. Also, it was great watching everyone's decision making processes and learning from their strategies. My bf and I later felt a bit bad because we were so into the game that we were weren't being very social! I hope we didn't come off as rude! I ended up doing not bad the first game but getting slaughtered the second game. My bf had the reverse experience.

Donald offered to play a third game with us but unfortunately, I had an early day at work the next day so we didn't get a chance to play that third game. It was even harder to say no as he was laying out new cards we had never seen before. We definitely would have liked to play! Donald graciously agreed to take a photo with us and sign some provinces. I had promised friends I would give them one so he signed multiple, which was so nice!

On our way home, I realized that we were so taken back by the whole situation we forgot to ask him all the things we were planning to ask! (Like if two players should have four more provinces in the stack -- obviously no but my bf always complains that if the game were longer he would have won, sure.) Over the course of the evening, Donald had mentioned that out of all of the expansions, Empires really rewards the more skillful player. During the car ride back my bf WOULD NOT LET THAT GO (he has a SLIGHTLY better win ratio than I do in Empires.) Even though the bf makes fun of me for participating in these exchanges, he is now totally in love with his ability to mooch off of the generous gifts I get. This was really one of the best experiences and definitely the best experience I had as a gamer.

Thank you Santa and thank you Donald for being absolutely amazing!!!