Mary Prasad

I’ve been playing board games for as long as I can remember, from classics such as checkers and chess to other typical board/card games of that time: Parcheesi, Mille Bornes, Life, Monopoly, Risk, Sorry, Uno, Pinochle, etc. While in college I discovered some of the more interesting board games, e.g. Titan, Civilization, Talisman. My husband (Ravindra Prasad, aka Snoozefest) and I stumbled upon Spellfire, eventually leading us to Magic (which we still play to this day, although we no longer collect it... believe me when I say, we know first hand of Magic: the Addiction!). At some point we discovered Settlers and other "Euro-style" board games – likely at the hobby shop where we bought Magic. Our collection has grown quite a bit since then! If you are interested, I believe my husband has them all cataloged on Board Game Geek (as well as on his iPhone, with statistics galore). We really enjoy attending Origins, BGG.Con, and other gaming conventions (even made it to Essen a couple of times!). It's great to meet so many wonderful people who love games as much as we do.

I like a lot of different games, but tend to stay away from direct confrontation games (e.g. most war games). Some examples of games I enjoy: RPG-style board games (Middle Earth Quest, Runebound, Descent, Magic Realm), abstract strategy (Pueblo, Gipf games, Ingenious, Ys), dexterity (Crokinole, Carabande, Pitch Car Mini - it's just sooo cute!), crayon rail (pretty much the entire Mayfair line, Lunar Rails is my current favorite), CCG (Magic, Middle Earth, Buffy, Netrunner, On the Edge, Harry Potter), tile laying (most Carcassonne games), card (Tichu, Circus Flocatti, Bohnanza, Gang of Four, Mystery Rummy games, Battle Line), and a bunch of other stuff classified under one or more of economic/auction/civ/political/strategic/bluffing/racing/pickup & delivery (Notre Dame, Goa, Turf Master, Formula D, Merchant of Venus, Liar's Dice, Industrial Waste, Amen Re, Indonesia, Galaxy Trucker, Civilization/Adv Civ).

I'm a full time photographer, with my own business, Acanthus Productions. My background is actually in computer science and math, (B.A. Math, B.S. Computer Science, M.S. Computer Science, specifically artificial intelligence and machine vision). Ironically, I went to school with Tom Knoll, the creator of Photoshop, and even had a copy of the beta C code (written on a Mac!). Sadly I did not keep in touch and now I have to pay full price for Photoshop. :-(

Outside of board gaming, I practice karate, enjoy reading (mostly sci-fi/fantasy), doing crafts, and watching movies (especially sci-fi/fantasy, comedy, and chick-flicks... OK, I admit I'm a cliché when it comes to the last). My favorite books include Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Ender’s Game, and a two-parter by Donaldson, Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through. I have somewhat eclectic taste in music, ranging anywhere from Def Leppard, Queen, and Smash Mouth to Venus Hum, Enya, and Prince. My favorite TV/Movies include Lord of the Rings trilogy, Iron Man, Star Trek (2009), Modern Family, Castle, Stargate Universe, V, Lost (although not crazy about the ending), Glee, and anything by Joss Whedon: Buffy, Firefly, Serenity.

In addition to The Dice Tower, I currently contribute to BGG News and Opinionated Gamers. I also run a game library for local conventions.