Silverton

Silverton is one of those games that refuses to be squeezed onto a spare corner of the table or into a foul mood. It wants room, time, and a group willing to let the evening get a little unruly; not quite the cure for a Tuesday after work, but it has an awkward charm of its own.

The job is to build lines linking mines of doubtful quality, in the hope that the whole enterprise might eventually produce some money. It is an unusual take on claim jumping, with everyone watching the connections they can make and wondering whether those neglected holes in the ground have any value left in them.

That progress runs through an awful lot of dice, so strategy is certainly present but you rarely feel that you alone have hold of the wheel. A good roll lifts you up, a bad one can bring a tear to the eye, and after enough of those the table stops resisting and starts laughing at the spectacle; it has something of the monstrous instability of Stellar Frontiers.

At an unhurried pace, with no clock breathing down our necks, Silverton produced plenty of laughter and the lively business that turns a long game into an occasion rather than a duty. I could easily sour on it at a more tired hour, but I would like to see it again; quietly, it is better than the grumbling it inspires suggests.