I'm undone by the kindness of strangers

I'm a sucker for random acts of kindness. As reported in this earlier post, Boardgamegeek.com took the Secret Santa program initiated by Tom Vasel in 2005 and has institutionalized it. More than 500 people participated this year, including myself. Here's how it works: BGG has always had a "wish list" of boardgames that a registered user can maintain as a sort of note to yoursel about things you are looking for. OTHER BGG users can see that list as well-- it facilitates trading, which is a key element of BGG. This year, Aldie added in some code that allowed Secret Santa volunteers to view your wish list, select something from it (or choose your own thing) and send it to the address provided.

I got notice that I had a "sectet santa victim" and sent one of her wish list choices to her right away. I chose something midrange in price and easy to get. Well, today, I got MY Thought Hammer box from MY secret santa. Inside was a sumptious gift. MY santa sent me not one but two things-- either one of which would have been generous.

First off is THE DUNWICH HORROR EXPANSION to ARKHAM HORROR.



Arkham Horror is a complex, theme-rich boardgame set in the H.P. Lovecraft universe. I own FFG's version which is a vast improvement over the original game published by Chaosium. Dunwich Horror adds the Wilbur Whately element to the original game-- basically the village of Dunwich from the DUNWICH HORROR, with tons of new monsters and a few new great old ones.

Next up is expansion set for DESCENT called Well of Souls. This adds more dungeon tiles, and more monsters and treasures to the basic game.



I've been thinking about getting these for a long time, I'm stunned that my Secret Santa was so generous.