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GenCon 2010 What I did and some game reviews too.
Thursday
I played Battle Stations (http://www.battlestations.info) and then a variation of Battle Stations for fleet level battles. My overall impression of Battlestations is a thumbs up.
My team had to cooperate in order to win and thus there was enjoyable table talk to make the plans work. The game was hosted by the author and that was a neat treat. Speaking as a professional teacher now, the game creator should have brought some sort of learning aid crib sheet for us noobs. A flow chart showing the turn sequence would have been helpful. Also there was some wasted time in the beginning when the pregenerated character sheets couldn’t be found.
The very next game session was BattleStations again but the Fleet level version. The game creator told us that this was a play test and that there’s still some things being worked out. I didn’t mind that. (The crazy part though is I saw it for sale at his booth but now don’t see it for sale on his website.) In my opinion this was not quantitatively different from the original game and the original was better. By Fleet we only had 2 or 3 ships each, that’s not a fleet. Also the game mechanics were such that I don’t think a person could have more than 6 or so and still have a game be resolved in a reasonable amount of time. I’ll repeat the same criticism of new players needing cheat sheet guides and flow charts. How to play was certainly in the author’s head but it wasn’t in my hands.
Thursday evening
I played Catan Histories Settlers of America. I’m going to criticize Mayfair games. I went to the main HQ showed them my ticket and said I’m here for the event. I was more or less told to wonder the room until I found it. The front desk didn’t know what table it was on. I eventually found it, opened the box and started to look at the pieces and rulebooks. Eventually more people showed up and they kept thinking I was the GM. There were two games each with 4 players and no-one had ever played it before. We self organized to set up the board in the new player-easy starting positions but after that we just kinda looked at each other “What do we do now?” One guy was a speed reader and started into the rules another group of friends became our official delegation to the front desk asking for help.
Now a referee came by and stood in the middle of our two games and began to tell us how to play. Mere minutes into that a third group of 4 players came up and had tickets for the same time slot. They all wanted to play together and had never played it before. That’s 12 new players at 3 games with only one GM running between us all and his volunteer shift was going to be over in about 30 minutes.
Alright enough of that onto the game itself. It was fun, I enjoyed it. I would say it was equal to the original Settlers of Catan in playability. Seeing as I’ve not worn out my Settlers and I’m not burnt out from playing it I’ll simply keep playing my original Settlers. If I’m given it as a Christmas present I won’t return the game but I don’t see myself buying it either. So it’s a thumbs up.
Thursday in the Dealer room.
That room was amazing! I saw so many products and got some great deals. But here’s the highlight of Thurday’s shopping. I went to see Tracy Hickman’s booth and buy a new module he has out “The quest for the Tavern”. Tracy Hickman is the co-author of the DragonLance Chronicles and I’ve been a fan since the 80’s. While there at the booth I had the module double autographed; first by the illustrator then Tracy himself. I shook his hand and introduced myself. Summarizing the conversation it went something like this. Me: “I’m Cliff Holm. I’m on the discussion board.”
Tracy: “On the Eventide board. Are you one of our subscribers?”
(wrong board and I’m not a subscriber. I’m feeling a little awkward)
Me: “No, on the extreme dungeon mastery website”
Tracy: “Oh, yes you do have a presence there…. “
(Some idle chit-chat about the benefits of the discussion board)
Tracy: “I’m planning a little lunch get together tomorrow. If that actually happens you’re invited to come along.”
(Wow oh wow! I’ve just been invited to an event that maybe- might happen.)
(A little bit more idle chit-chat and a thank you, then I leave.)
Some links http://www.xtremedungeonmaster.com/
Friday
Most of Friday was the dealer room this time stopping for demo games and actual buying not just window shopping.
Demo game of Flames of War.
Easy straight forward and fun. In the demo game we did have to know some stats but didn’t need a cross reference chart/table to resolve the combat. I don’t know the rules but I liked not having to be tethered to a grid or matrix of some sort. (Maybe the demo guy had memorized the chart, I don’t know.) I love historical miniatures and have been inspired to get “open fire”… eventually.
Demo game of telestrations.
http://www.amazon.com/Telestrations-Telephone-Game-Sketched-Out/dp/B001SN8GF4 It’s a family friendly good party, mixer game. I give it a thumbs up and in fact I bought it.
I saw Geek Chic’s tables (http://www.geekchichq.com/ )and they are amazing! I’d drooled over these before but had concerns about the table being too thick such as depth of the table that’s perfect for covering miniatures would be unusable as a regular table. My unfounded fear was your knees would hit or your elbows would be too high. Well I can say I’ve pulled up a chair and sat at one, no problem at all. They had a couple new products that they don’t have on their website.
Ironically these are things I’ve mentally conceptualized but never actually constructed. So this was a dream come true! (and just like a dream I’ll probably never have the real thing.)
There was a Dungeon Master’s Hutch that was a DM screen on steroids. It was a small desk on wheels that had a more vertical instead of horizontal alignment to it. Thus making it tall and thin and easy to park next to a regular table. It was still thick enough to hold a library of source books and a file cabinet for character sheets.
Next was a coffee table. The main example being for video games. It was a way to hide the game console and joy sticks. Another version had a dropped surface for miniature games.
The last thing to mention from Geek chic might be the most impressive. They had a coffee table with an LCD screen laid on its back. They then had a clear touch sensitive screen over that. You could move the miniatures on top of the projected map image. But the miniature and the program actually interacted. There was a little electronic thingy in the base of the mini that let the computer know which mini was which. And the next part here simply amazed me. When it was a particular miniatures “turn” it would be activated and the lighting and shadows altered such that the mini could only “see” certain areas. LOS was calculated and known! Wow! Admittedly there were some software glitches such that the guy had to restart the program a couple times, but those glitches will be worked out.
Next on the list is Exillis http://www.ex-illis.com/
Again this is combining miniature combat with Computers. The battle field is not touch sensitive but this is more than just an automatic dice roller. The battle field is divided into sections and the diorama art can be done up as fancy as one likes.
On the computer screen a corresponding battle field exists reminiscent of a checker board. How combat is resolved is first you move the miniatures on the real diorama then you move the avatar/ clip art on the computer.
You select which type of attacks the unit will do and the computer then resolves the combat for you. When combat is over you are told how many of each force to remove.
So I’m sold and I start to ask about prices.
Answer: The software is free. I’m in denial or not understanding.
I re-ask my question “Is it a monthly subscription?”
Answer: No its not.
So then I’m blunt. “So how to you make any money off of this?”
Answer: From the miniatures.
Me: “but I already have a fantasy army painted up. I’d just use that. It would become proxies for your models. I just want to use the combat resolution software.”
Answer: (paraphrased) each box of minis has a serial number and you have to enter that serial number to unlock the unit in the computer program.
Conclusion: It’s impossible to have proxies with this game. Well you could buy the box just for the code and never paint the minis. I’m just going to wait this one out.
Eventually there will be some sort of open source –third party –hack / copy cat that will convert Warhammer and War of the Ring to this format. Much like Army Builder has done for constructing the army. Maybe it will even be LoneWolf (who makes army builder and Hero lab) who puts out … Army fighter… I’ll just buy that software.
And if it already exists someone please tell me about it.
That’s all for now. More to come later.
My Gencon review part II Still Friday.
By far the dealer room was the most amazing place. I’d wander around, turn a corner and it would be as though I’d just entered the place as everything would once again be new and unexplored.
I found an artist who drew a sketch of my character for only $5. (I’d noticed that on Saturday when I went to pick up the sketch he’d upped his price to $15) there were LARP costumes and both real and foam weapons.
I had a short conversation with Bruce Hirst of http://www.hirstarts.com/
and I also met Margaret Weis http://www.margaretweis.com/
we had a short conversation about the Firefly/Serenity show and movie.
I think I sat through3 or 4 demo games (really just rules walk throughs) of small independent role playing games. One that is worth mentioning is Burning wheel. http://www.burningwheel.org/
what I like about them is when there is an encounter a player has to pre-script 3 actions. They have a special reference recording sheet for this and if it’s in a protective cover a dry erase marker will work. I like how you’re commented to an action and can’t simply stop with no consequences. Also I liked how, take combat for example, some of the pre-scripted actions you assign yourself are Independent of the antagonist while others are in conflict. If I’m defending and you’re attacking then we roll some dice to determine who’s action did happen and regardless of the result I could still have one more pre-scripted action to resolve before I get to decide my actions again. The matrix of which actions are independent and which are opposed would be a good tool for any Game Master of any game system to keep in mind.
Lunch Time:
I wondered back to Tracy Hickman’s booth to see if I’m still invited to lunch or not. He wasn’t there and so I’m talking with a regular booth worker.
“Hi, I’ve been invited to lunch but when the offer was extended it wasn’t known for sure if lunch was going to happen or not… do you know anything about this?”
Well I was able to go and it was only me and four other fans at this exclusive lunch. It was really amazing. A highlight. I’ve been a fan of his since the middle school in the 80s having read the Dragonlance chronicles and having played the modules. He told us about why he writes, how he writes. He answered any question we had. He even showed us a handwritten journal for rough drafts of his current story. That was a precious artifact to see and turn the pages of.
Here’s a link http://www.dragonsbard.com/
if you look at the picture that’s me on the right hand side.
The restaurant was the “Red Dragon Inn” which is really the Westin hotel’s regular one redone just for GenCon. They did a pretty good job of redecorating just for the convention.
In the afternoon I played a 15mm sail boat game. It was the War of 1812 with extra pirates thrown in too. It was homemade rules which along with the ships are for sale on the website.
Here’s a link http://blog.sailpowergame.com/?page_id=793
Game Review: I don’t think I played enough of the game to give a review.
Problems: There were way too many people at the table. There wasn’t enough space for everyone’s chairs. Also the game had a long delay in the beginning because some important pieces of paper were still being printed in the hotel room. A GM being ill prepared for a game that I paid money to attend annoys me.
In the 3 hour time slot all I did was: Move (with a minor action), Move and Shoot, Not Move but did shoot. I guess that comes to 1 turn an hour.
The group had 3 Game Masters but the two subordinate GMs kept interrupting and asking questions of the main GM such that the additional help ironically made the game so slower. My advice to that gaming group would be that we should have been split into thirds with each GM having their own mini game.
Saturday Killer Breakfast.
This by far is one of the most hilarious and entertaining events of GenCon. Here’s a link but the clips are from last year’s http://www.dragonhearthproductions.com/killerbreakfast.html
My four favorite events.
1. Tracy was about to kill a player and asks “What do you do?” the player then says “I summon Pikachu to fight for me and to be a distraction so he dies instead of me.” The player then pulls a Pikachu mask out of his pocket and puts it on the player next to him.
2. Tracy sets the stage by saying all the players are hanging from chains being dangled over a pit. An evil wizard is laughing at the edge of the pit. “What do you do?” The player in a black wizard costume says “I continue to laugh at the other players because I’m that wizard.”
3. A person with hand puppets is on stage and Tracy kills “the one on the right”. The player pulls out another puppet. It was like a Hydra that wouldn’t die.
4. A final favorite that you’ve just got to love. A player is killed and another says “don’t kill her. Kill me instead.” Tracy then brings them to the front and center of the stage. This all builds up to a marriage proposal. It was well played and memorable event.
Saturday Afternoon
More dealer room, more just plan wondering looking at all the games in the various rooms and hallways. Kilts: To wear one or not. I actually do own a kilt. I was extremely tempted to wear mine. What held me back was the lack of pockets. I knew I’d have to carry everything with me all day long. My hotel was across the city. At the dealer room was Utilikilts. http://www.utilikilts.com/
I tried on one and I recommend them. You have all the pockets you’d want. The style with the detachable cargo pockets was really well designed. The kilt I own , the fabric is a specific clan tartan. I now wish knew about utilikilts designs. Perhaps I would have got a custom order made or something.
Extreme Dungeon Mastery seminar.
Some real good advice given about what makes a good story. Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth was explained here’s a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth
Costumes
There were lots and lots of neat costumes. People have put a lot of time and effort into those. That’s what makes going to a convention so fun. One worthy of note that I didn’t get a picture of was one person remade their wheelchair to look like a gyrocopter.
Well done.
There’s a trend in the fantasy realm that I must have missed. Many people were wearing top hats with goggles. The closest genre I could think of was Steam Punk or Space 1889. But what TV show, movie or set of books has popularized this so much? I think there were as many of this style as there were Star Wars costumes.
Anime
I’m not into this and don’t get it. But there sure was a lot of it. This genre seemed to pull more young women into the convention than any other feature. So I guess if DnD is male dominated then Anime is … well… has more of a female presence than anything else at the convention.
Charity auction
This was a good filler for me. Twice I wondering in when other things hadn’t opened yet or had shut down. The high light was Gary Gygax’s brief case. It went for $1,300.
I did not attend Sunday and that concludes my personal account.