Gen Con damage assessment

[thormagni]

Well, I had a pretty good Gen Con, except I never caught up to any of you guys (except Bob, briefly) at the show. I raked in a lot of loot, including purchases, review copies and a Guardians of Order contest I won.

I went into Gen Con with a few "must buy" items that I did in fact purchase there:
"The Authority" by Guardians of Order, a Silver Age Sentinels sourcebook for Wildstorm Comics' dark, galactic power-level superhero world (which also includes Stormwatch.) I actually got to head into the exhibit hall an hour before opening for the press tour and snagged this before the official start of the show. They were giving away raffle tickets to every purchaser and I was given tickets 1-5. Yay me.
"Castles and Crusades nostalgia set" by Troll Lord Games, a super-condensed set of D20 rules, made up to look like the original D&D boxed set from back in 1974. It even included old-fashioned dice and an actual crayon for coloring the dice faces.
"Legends of Excalibur" by RPG Objects, a really well done take on the Arthurian milieu including period art and tons of goodies.
"Aberrant D20" by Sword and Sorcery another dark super-hero world that translates White Wolf's Storyteller game into D20.
The only thing I really wanted to buy but didn't have the money to pickup was Road of Kings, which I plan to get soon.

I also picked up six of the Deadlands D20 splat books from Pinnacle. They had a deal where if you bought $50 worth of stuff, you got a free copy of the City of Heroes video game. Well, we were planning on buying another copy of the game this week anyway, so I kind of look at it as if I got those books for free. So, I have "Way of the Righteous," "Way of the Dead," "Way of the Huckster," "Way of the Brave," "Way of the Gun" and "Way of the New Science."

And remember those Guardians of Order raffle tickets? I came in either second or third in the raffle on Sunday, winning a slew of GOO products including a complete line of their Silver Age Sentinels miniatures, another copy of The Authority rule book, a copy of the D20 Silver Age Sentinels Stingy Gamers Edition and the Big Eyes Small Mouth D20 3.5 book. So, should we decided to play Silver Age Sentinels again, I am all ready to go with that.

I also ended up getting two CCG starter sets for my son, Duel Masters and GI Joe and a Mega Man board game. The Panda Head Productions booth was selling copies of a new, introductory role-playing game for young kids called "Meddling Kids," that I grabbed a copy of. My wife got a Gamers Bag dice bag, I snagged a couple of T-shirts (not including the two I got for volunteering) and a few other odds and ends.

Altogether, a great time and I am SOOO ready to go to bed again. When are we playing next? Wake me up in a couple of days and I am ready to go

I am absolutely wiped out. Good night everybody.

 

[BobProbst]

I had a great time as well -- played lots of great games and created an impressive shopping list for myself.

Highlights:
Clans
Ra
Paris Paris
Memoir '44
New England
Balloon Cup

I was surprised to find that my most anticipated game, Robo-rally, while fun was not as exciting as I had hoped. A great game for people who enjoy working out spacial relations puzzles in their heads -- a nightmare for those who can't! But stuff blows up and successfully out manuvering your opponents in board full of surprises almost makes the 3hr play time worth it.

Formula De and Zombies!!! both met expectations but would have been more entertaining with beer and loud music. Not much brain-drain with either -- nice casual play.

Java and Entdecker (another game by Teuber) -- both required an immense amount of attention (ala Tigris and Euphrates) and considering the late hour, I was not up to the task! Worth playing again but not for the timid! They offered good tactical play but I think there are too many variable for effective strategies to be established.

Clans, Paris Paris and New England all had qualities that I love. Quick play and simple mechanics with frequent opportunities for rewarding insights!

Clans is an abstract strategy game with the only chance being the initial setup -- after that all players have all the information they would need to mount an effective strategy. There are ample opportunies for bluffs, feints and surprise moves.

Paris Paris (only slightly less abstract) revolves around setting up shops near Paris bus stops and them profiting from the frequent bus tours. Every turn requires tricky decisions from all players with each action affecting the outcome of the turn. Points are scored each round but the final round's Grand Tour can thrust a trailing player into the lead if his development has been even.

New England is an interesting tile placement game that simulates the puritans developing New England. It has the typical set of resources that a player must balance for a successful game. Players have money which they must use to buy their actions (and an interesting auction system which lets players "buy" their way into playing first each round). Agriculture tiles must be bought and placed on a increasingly crowded board and then converted to victory points. Special units like barns, ships and Pilgrims let you extend your resources as well. Well woth the praise it has received!

Chris and I played Balloon Cup. A simple card game filled with agonizing decisions as you play numbered cards to raise or lower either your balloon or your opponents in order to claim trophies. Lots of enjoyable play!

Memoir '44 is a wargame for those pressed for time. While setting up a scenario might take 15-20 minutes, playing it might only last 30-40! Yet with all the fast action nothing is lost from more traditional war games. You still use good unit tactics and positional strategy to achive battlefield superiority -- only compressed into a shorter time span. With such a short turn around, scenarios can be played and replayed to try multiple strategies all in short afternoon or evening. The only downside is that it's a 2 player game (with options for team play).

Ra was perhaps the biggest surprise of the Con. A unique auctioning system for buying a variety of tiles that are slowly revealed makes this a great interactive experience. Very simple to learn and play once you understand the scoring method.

As with last year, every day ended in blissful exhaustion and I'm gleefully looking forward to next year!

 

[Fyrestryke]

Well, I had a pretty good Gen Con, except I never caught up to any of you guys (except Bob, briefly) at the show. I raked in a lot of loot, including purchases, review copies and a Guardians of Order contest I won.

I also picked up six of the Deadlands D20 splat books from Pinnacle. They had a deal where if you bought $50 worth of stuff, you got a free copy of the City of Heroes video game. Well, we were planning on buying another copy of the game this week anyway, so I kind of look at it as if I got those books for free. So, I have "Way of the Righteous," "Way of the Dead," "Way of the Huckster," "Way of the Brave," "Way of the Gun" and "Way of the New Science."

I also ended up getting two CCG starter sets for my son, Duel Masters and GI Joe and a Mega Man board game. The Panda Head Productions booth was selling copies of a new, introductory role-playing game for young kids called "Meddling Kids," that I grabbed a copy of. My wife got a Gamers Bag dice bag, I snagged a couple of T-shirts (not including the two I got for volunteering) and a few other odds and ends.

Altogether, a great time and I am SOOO ready to go to bed again. When are we playing next? Wake me up in a couple of days and I am ready to go

I am absolutely wiped out. Good night everybody.

I managed to keep in good contact with Bob on Friday and Saturday. He's pretty easy to find at GenCon.

I unfortunately, never got together with James, John, Vince or Allen. I ended up having to come back home early and never made it back...

I did manage to meet up with two of the S3D (www.s3dconnector.net) guys. Jason (the author of the game) and Justin (Falcon).

I also picked up the G.I. Joe CCG starter pack! We need to play sometime.

Friday night was a bit of a disappointment, but fun none-the-less. I got my times screwed up for the Settlers of Cataan World Qualifiers and instead of the possibility of having two entry chances Friday night, I only had 1. I thought they were 8pm and 10pm, but they were 7pm and 9pm. I played in the 9pm game and came in 3rd place of 4 people. Not enough to continue. But it was fun. The late game caused me to miss the ENnies. Conan d20 didn't win tho.

Saturday was fun. I spent a LOT of time wandering around the vendor hall. I scored a BUNCH of free posters. I managed to snag two sets of the WOTC miniatures. I picked up my copy of Conan The Role Playing Game: Atlantean Edition (2nd printing) for $20 at the Mongoose booth. As far as purchases, my cash was limited. Had I had $1000 to spend, I would have. I picked up the starter set for G.I. Joe CCG as stated above, and two really sweet miniatures from a new mini company called Magnificent Egos. These are the sweetest minis I've seen in awhile. I wish I could have bought more than two. I got an archer mini that's perfect for Phaidon and a Half-Dragon mini that's perfect for Issic. I need to paint them. Did anyone else get minis? Perhaps a painting party on Saturday?

The new computer games (especially the DND themed ones) on the horizon are looking SWEET! I stood in on a bit of the live demo from the guys working on DND Online. It's going to be pretty spectacular.

If we want to get back on schedule for the local, live games, we need to startup again on Saturday. Who wants to host? I am able to host once again, but not until 4:30pm. What shall we play?

 

[Fyrestryke]

I had a great time as well -- played lots of great games and created an impressive shopping list for myself.

Highlights:
Clans
Ra
Paris Paris
Memoir '44
New England
Balloon Cup

Man! Balloon Cup was a sweet little game. I'd like to see a 4 player version of that, but I don't know how they'd do it.

Which games are you planning on picking up? I wanted to try out Domaine, but never had the time. I came really close to picking up Cthulhu 500. A card based game (not CCG) that involves motorsports racing and the Cthulhu mythos.

 

[BobProbst]

I would like to buy them all but will have to wait and see how the spirit moves me. Domaine seems to be a good game and worth looking into further. I watched a demo of Cthulhu 500 and once the novelty and humor wears out it's just a racing game - and an average one at that.

Considering that the Balloon Cup tiles have 4 sides, I could see playing with 3 or 4. Of course there'd be a chance of a tie -- likely, in fact, since it would be simple to gang up on the dominant player. Ties could be broken though by counting the number of unused prizes. for a 4 player it would be advantageous to have a 6th color as well to lengthen the game.

 

[thormagni]

If we want to get back on schedule for the local, live games, we need to startup again on Saturday. Who wants to host? I am able to host once again, but not until 4:30pm. What shall we play?

I'm in for Saturday and up for any RPG.

 

[Fyrestryke]

I'm in for Saturday and up for any RPG.

Ditto here. Where shall we play?

Hey Bob! Wanna run a "He who shall not be named" game?

 

[InzeladunMaster]

I had a great time. I arrived at 7 am on Saturday, and left the building at 7 pm, then had a 4 hour dinner with Rich Neale, the line developer from Mongoose, and Jason Durell, one of Conan's best playtesters, to talk over the Conan line. I mostly stayed in the Dealer's room and wandered around there, although I popped out now and then to watch free anime. Mongoose gave me a free copy of everything Conan, including the Conan AE updated rules, Pirate Isles, and the Games Master Screen. Met a few fans. Shook hands with Marc Singer (Beastmaster). All in all, a good time, but was surprised I didn't find anyone there other than James Auton (my old roommate from college) and Allen.

 

[XanthorDrathos]

Was there all 4 days. Met with Vince on Sat and got a good primer on Conan. Talked to Chris via phone albeit too late to catch him (ended up driving back late Sunday night). Everyone else must have been hiding or I really botched my spot.

Didn't buy much as there wasn't much discounted prices this time, but did a lot of looking to order stuff from a local store who's owner is in my local group. Took in the few freebies.

RPGA events were good, Spades could have been better (suicidal partner in one game killed my chances to qualify), Yugioh was fun even though I got robbed of getting some free stuff. Didn't get a chance to play in Inzeladun.

Marc Singer was also a funny highlight for me as he came shook hands and started talking like he knew me then realized I wasn't whoever it was that he knew.

 

[Odovacar's Ghost]

Well, perhaps I will go next year. Though, I believe I said the same last year.

As for games. I've been eyeing Ra and Java for quite some time. Those and Game of Thrones and Age of Mythology.