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9| W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,M arch 15,2018 w aterloochronicle.ca In the fantasy world of Gloomhaven, I am a scav- enging Vermling Mindthief with powerful psychic abil- ities who feeds off the flesh of the dead. "Gloomhaven is what we call a dungeon-delver, which means it's a game that kind of streamlines the role-playing Dungeons & Dragons-style of game but into a board game," said Marc Quaglia, game spe- cialist at J&J Cards and Collectibles in Waterloo. Through a co-worker, my wife Sylvia had recent- ly heard about Gloom- haven, currently ranked No. 1 at BoardGameGeek- .com, a giant database and online forum for gaming hobbyists that includes more than 95,000 board games. "It's one of the bigger boxes that has ever been re- leased as a board game and it's enormous at about 20 pounds and packed with content," Quaglia said when we picked up our re- served copy of Gloomhaven this past week. "The basic premise is that you and a group of he- roes are going into a dun- geon to kill horrible mon- sters, steal all their trea- sure, then spend it on beer and new equipment, and in the process have a really good time," Quaglia said with a laugh. Somewhat like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, my family had a great time exploring the steampunk- like, forgotten ruins of Gloomhaven on the out- skirts of civilization, while working collaboratively to accomplish our missions. "The game works really well with two, three, or four players, but you can also play single-player, as it's a really clever mental puzzle and very engaging and col- ourful," said Quaglia, who had already played the new game 12 times with his partner and friends. "Gloomhaven is a big, chunky, heavy game," he added. "And I mean that both in the metaphorical and in the physical sense. It took about three hours to get through the first missi- on and afterwards we set up a weekly event where we'll play a couple missions of Gloomhaven and it's just a fantastic experience the whole time." Though my family had never played a role-playing style of game before, my wife was able to guide us through our first scenarios after studying the 50-page rule book and watching on- line tutorials. "It's a spectacular de- sign, and the creators have done some really clever things to streamline a lot of the more inelegant aspects of these styles of games," said Quaglia. Playing Gloomhaven, I especially enjoyed the beautiful artwork and reading about all the un- usual fantasy races of hu- mans and animal species. "Gloomhaven is at the far edge of the far edge of humanity, and designer Isaac Childres decided to not go with the standard Tolkienian fantasy," said Quaglia, "So there are no dwarves or elves, but rath- er Inox who are kind of trib- al and brutish, and the more delicate Orchids." Then there are the uni- versally shunned Verm- lings like me, forced to feed off scraps and live in the dark alleys of Gloomhaven. I wouldn't have it any other way. ... - Marshall Ward is a free- lance writer and artist. Email is welcome at mar- shall_ward@hotmail.com. Heading into the bowels of Gloomhaven You can explore whole new worlds through role-playing games says Marshall Ward MARSHALL WARD Column p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Hel- vetica} span.s1 {font-kern- ing: none} It's been brought to my at- tention that you've printed a "cartoon" in your paper sug- gesting that Melissa Durrell is "frivolously decorating" while working to change the face of our city. While I may or may not agree with her decisions, this is an embarrassment for not only the creator of this image, but also an em- barrassment for your paper and our city. This is the kind of thing I'd expect to see in a sexist Trump America, not in K-W. She is one of a number of councillors working on this same project and yet she was the only one targeted - and not with a thought out analy- sis but one that undermines not only her but all of the women in politics and gener- ally living in our communi- ty. People often say that we are small town, and things like this are certainly push- ing that notion forward. Sad- ly this is not just a one-per- son mistake, many of you saw and agreed to this before printing. I'm not sure how you can fix this, but I hope to see some sort of acknowl- edgement of your error and a change for the better. Lindsay Coulter Waterloo Cartoon was a bit of small-town thinking Metroland Media publi- cizing Mr. Larkin's rein- venting of himself as his contract with the region comes up for renewal is fooling no one. Kelly Donovan, a female police officer who has started her own consulting firm, Fit4Duty, made a pre- sentation to the police ser- vices board to offer her in- sight and program as a for- mer WRPS officer to the service. Board chair Tom Galloway declined. Larkin stands for the old guard - the citizens of Wa- terloo Region required someone not working be- yond his skill level. Two consulting firms huh? It's actually pretty easy to fix what's wrong. Stop shooting people, stop sexually harassing and as- saulting women, and stop behaving in a racist man- ner. It is the people you are hiring and promoting that are the problem. It is a closed loop. A "consulting firm" will have no teeth. It is an ex- pensive and completely un- necessary effort unless it is someone like Donovan who has a working knowledge of the issues here. Jennifer Adams Kitchener Police need a culture change not more consultants So, let's talk about those ball diamonds in Waterloo Park. The reaction to the plan to move these diamonds - to an as-yet undetermined spot - and build the festival area has been significantly loud and largely negative. A decade ago, the city council conversations be- gan about revitalizing Wa- terloo Park for the long term. For years, budgets had been cut and park in- frastructure - the band- shell, the playgrounds, the zoo, the lake, the every- thing else - had started to disintegrate and the city was in a park planning pre- dicament. The question was asked: What could Wa- terloo Park be, in the fu- ture? A citizen committee was struck to do the heavy lifting, which resulted in a vision and a master plan for a new and improved Waterloo Park, with all sorts of additions and up- grades, designed to create a modern park for a grow- ing and changing citizen- ry. New gathering spaces were proposed - we already see the skate park, the nat- uralized playground, and the community tables along Father David Bauer Drive - along with the pro- posed "festival heart" and the currently-under-con- struction promenade. The thing about master plans is that they are for the long term, often span- ning several council terms. They also come with the assumption - at least in my mind - that ev- ery element will be fully assessed and voted on, by the council of the day. One thing master plans are not: Carved in stone. Elements must be evaluat- ed in the context of current times and circumstances. So, let's talk about those ball diamonds in Waterloo Park. Right now, there is a grey cloud full of skepti- cism and distrust hanging over this project, and it is making it difficult to see the vision. Steps need to be taken to remove that cloud. How? It's time to press pause on this decision, un- til after the next election, when a full slate of options is identified and offered to the citizens of Waterloo for fresh scrutiny and evalua- tion. We need to see a ful- some comparison of the planned festival heart and the existing bandshell ar- ea. What are the pros and cons of the possible op- tions? What does the pro- posed budget get us, in each option? Are there oth- er options available? This comparison must include an honest effort to keep the baseball diamonds where they are. I would argue that enough dramatic change has happened since 2008 - including the renewed popularity of baseball in Waterloo, the volume of new highrise residents in the neighbourhood, and the swish new ION stop at the other end of the park - that a check-in is required on this project. OPINION The talks on Waterloo Park diamonds need a time out Decisions on Waterloo Park ball diamonds should be deferred until after election, says Karen Scian KAREN SCIAN Column