tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29436797329929737762024-03-05T04:39:14.435-08:00Ad AstraA blog about boardgaming and perhaps a few other topics...Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-34951938601885511732015-07-20T19:28:00.003-07:002015-07-20T19:28:40.080-07:00Elf Names<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaNBWLIqOdq1YR6T2Zh-Seew74SXjPJS3hPwaYFwKxobYTGk6geALoZmEDx6GRnrny5BJZecrYa-DgXqhgvBxK05GqoJSyw9N1Dby9fHisBqcqCblYnPaNXGojIbms7RhoYiLR-8PXFA4S8lH/s400/hermey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaNBWLIqOdq1YR6T2Zh-Seew74SXjPJS3hPwaYFwKxobYTGk6geALoZmEDx6GRnrny5BJZecrYa-DgXqhgvBxK05GqoJSyw9N1Dby9fHisBqcqCblYnPaNXGojIbms7RhoYiLR-8PXFA4S8lH/s400/hermey.jpg" height="200" width="137" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The start player token</td></tr>
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Let's talk about elf names! The elves that build the toys are a long established tradition in the Santa mythos - but you never really hear then given names. A quick search of the web reveals a few popular names - there's a certain collection of six names that keeps popping up - Alabaster Snowball, Bushy Evergreen, Sugarplum Mary, Shinny Upatree, Wunorse Openslae and Pepper Minstix. Meh - the only one in there that I like is Pepper Minstix. There's Hermey from the old Rudolph cartoon - and in fact that's the POP figure I use for the first player token in Santa's Workshop. And then there's "Buddy" from the Will Ferrell movie "Elf" (as an aside...that movie came out in 2003. 2003! 12 years ago!).<br />
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Why the interest in elf names? Well, in Santa's Workshop, each player leads a team of elves, and these elves can be trained over the course of the game...so each player ends up with a unique set of workers. Right now, the elves are represented by generic meeples, which are numbered. That's not terribly exciting, and even though I explain before every game that you don't have to play the elves in numerical order...inevitably someone thinks that they have to do just that. So, moving forward, we're going to do two things - the elves will get uniquely shaped meeples, and instead of being numbered, they will get names. With 5 players, each having a possible 4 elves, that's 20 names that I need. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfAQCPxmTuJO45aiZTAQLF1y6sa96lUdA5sFSlRnBpoe7wzxYtMeWO1IayrzIvqAIgJ1-FCK2dV4usBlBvFd-p4YBqRKMiYJfQb9W49-uuFGHIqQMqUgCAYChdXEDLSloK4HoIa3j7SrY/s1600/Player_Card_current.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfAQCPxmTuJO45aiZTAQLF1y6sa96lUdA5sFSlRnBpoe7wzxYtMeWO1IayrzIvqAIgJ1-FCK2dV4usBlBvFd-p4YBqRKMiYJfQb9W49-uuFGHIqQMqUgCAYChdXEDLSloK4HoIa3j7SrY/s400/Player_Card_current.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Current player card..."Elf#1" doesn't sound as good as "Hermey", does it?</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Here's the thing...coming up with elf names seems like it might be easy...but I seem to be having a case of elf block. So, any suggestions are appreciated. Below is what I've come up with. I have sort of separated them by theme, which is sort of vaguely related to the color (and sometimes that's VERY vague...or even non-existant). Each team will have two male and two female elves. Of course, who knows what a male or female elf name really is...<br />
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Anyway, without further ado...here's what I have so far (them in parenthesis)...<br />
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Green (nature, plants)<br />
Ivy, Holly, Mistle, Evhar, Sprucey<br />
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Blue (weather, cold)<br />
Twinkle, Snowflake, Zephyr<br />
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Red (Bells)<br />
Jingles, Sylvar, Tahko, Rusty, Ding Dong<br />
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Pink (candy)<br />
Pepper Minstix, Bubbles, Sugarplum<br />
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Yellow (miscellaneous)<br />
Reginald Van Pippington, Gullygawk*, Buzzlewitz*, Tumbleflump <br />
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* These are names from a couple different traditions I found in Europe and the U.S.<br />
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I actually have some more, but I think I left that sheet at work...I'll update this post when any others. But if you have any suggestions, please chime in! Should I do away with the whole theme by color thing? I'm wide open here...<br />
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<br />Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-31514931573397935722015-04-23T20:19:00.002-07:002015-04-23T20:20:06.297-07:00The Power Grid problem.<a href="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic173153_md.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic173153_md.jpg" width="234" /></a>Since I first played it maybe 7 or 8 years ago, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2651/power-grid">Power Grid</a> has been one of my favorite games. I have all the expansion maps, the alternate power plant deck, and even the new deluxe version. We played just this past Tuesday at our weekly game night - this time using the India map, the first time I've played on that map. It was a nice tight 4 player game...however the fashion in which it ended is something I've seen on multiple occasions, and it leads me to wonder if Power Grid is ultimately a flawed game. <br />
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Here was the situation - my friend Brian and I were each at a power plan capacity of 14 cities. He had built up to 14, I had previously built up to 15. The other 2 players were behind us at 12ish cities. We had recently turned to Step 3, so all 6 plants in the market were available. The other 2 players had already purchased plants, so it was down to Brian and I, and since he was one city behind me, I had to nominate first. The 36 plant came up (3 coal to power 7 houses). This would push both Brian and to 18 capacity. We basically knew that whoever got the plant stood a good chance of winning? We bid it up to 73 euros, at which point Brian relented, and I won the plant. We promptly flipped up the 38 plant, which takes 3 garbage to power 7 cities. Brian, of course, was able to buy it for face value, and have enough cash to actually build up to 18 cities, while I only had enough cash to build to 17.<br />
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I have seen this on several occasions, where there's a tight bidding war...and the "loser" really ends up winning by getting a lucky draw on the replacement plant. Now, perhaps in our situation, "better" players would have remembered all the plants that had been previously placed under the Step 3 card, and knew there was a decent chance to flip up another 7 plant. (We looked at the remaining cards...there was less than a 50% chance - counting the plant Brian got, there was 2 "7" plants out of the remaining 6 or 7 cards (I don't remember the exact count). So, he did get a bit lucky. It should be noted, that most of the remaining plants were "6" values, so he likely could have won anyway, since that would have put him at a capacity of 17 vice my 18, but I couldn't build the 18th house...so he would likely have won on tie-breaker with more cash.<br />
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Of course, I have seen the opposite, where someone gives up on a bid, and then a terrible plant is flipped, and the loser is set back to the point where he can't get back into the game. In fact, when I really think about it, I think someone gets screwed one or the other by the plant flip in every game. Perhaps with the exception of the China map, where they come out in numerical order.<br />
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Folks who have the entire deck memorized have and advantage, I think (especially on the China map). I don't like that, primarily because I'll likely never have the deck memorized, but perhaps that sour grapes on my part. So, I dunno...is this a flaw in the game, or should you account for this in your strategy somehow?<br />
<br />Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-73908136084376123982015-04-15T21:09:00.000-07:002015-04-15T21:09:06.470-07:00Designing My First Game - Part 5Well, I fear that I will never be a prolific blog author. I was a little shocked to see that my last post was in February. Here we are in April already - how does that happen?!?! With this post, I want to finish up my series on how it's been so far as a first time designer. Well, "finish up" is maybe not exactly correct, since I'm not <i>done</i> with <i>Santa's Workshop</i>, but I want to at least bring things up to where they currently stand. Since my last blog entry, I want to cover the two further events where I tested <i>Santa's Workshop</i>, and the highs and lows that came with that. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtD2FTUKDaih51Fh4PZyuvLuHF75A0JOEDi7noIAk5B5RGgJOhutXfgDcacbqTWh4P1vzycliz4e_SJVf7z6Q_qB76acDVfJcrn9wzlF7stAZJ0QBefVY9YbikdGZ-rFHNWw_Vlk0s3Is/s1600/Unpub_Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtD2FTUKDaih51Fh4PZyuvLuHF75A0JOEDi7noIAk5B5RGgJOhutXfgDcacbqTWh4P1vzycliz4e_SJVf7z6Q_qB76acDVfJcrn9wzlF7stAZJ0QBefVY9YbikdGZ-rFHNWw_Vlk0s3Is/s1600/Unpub_Logo.jpg" height="173" width="320" /></a>The first event - and the biggie - was <a href="http://unpub.net/">Unpub 5</a>. Wow, do things change....my first Unpub was last <a href="http://keithferguson.blogspot.com/2014/01/unpub-4-day-1.html">earlier series of blog posts</a>. This year, Unpub moved from the sleepy countryside of Delaware to the Baltimore Convention Center - and it's not hyperbole to say it was an incredible success. Many other people have covered it already, and I'll point you to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChZ6fyNVEII">fantastic video</a> that was made about the event. By way of comparison - at Unpub 4, I had a grand total of 4 plays of <i>Santa's Workshop</i>. At Unpub 5, I had 9 plays. Or was it 10? I lost track! On Saturday, especially, it was nonstop - in fact, I had to turn people away that evening, just because I had no voice, and I needed to actually eat something! That's a good problem to have!<br />
year, at Unpub 4, which I covered in an <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOvlge1oHHeXIQoDHwO3VJyV73jRCrLMN38yB0nq1gTEnMU4DMYsEPNmWgZjP2bjlBAjfFg4MZe5oX97bKXj1K0IkybM1WhAHKm0DJp9oYaw4mLVB0ymrEe0ZWhTYAaUSQ10MU6ZdYlSg/s1600/Unpub5_bagging.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOvlge1oHHeXIQoDHwO3VJyV73jRCrLMN38yB0nq1gTEnMU4DMYsEPNmWgZjP2bjlBAjfFg4MZe5oX97bKXj1K0IkybM1WhAHKm0DJp9oYaw4mLVB0ymrEe0ZWhTYAaUSQ10MU6ZdYlSg/s1600/Unpub5_bagging.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prepping the goodie bags</td></tr>
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But what about <i>Santa's Workshop</i>? The first playtest was on Friday night, with my good friend <a href="http://paulowengames.blogspot.com/">Paul Owen</a>, and Peter Gousis from <a href="https://twitter.com/mvpboardgames">MVP Games</a>. There was another fellow that joined us, and once again I am remiss that I did not write down names (it also doesn't help that I'm writing this 2 months after the fact). We played in between some of the guest lectures that were held on Friday (Friday was designers-only, and not open to the general public). Everyone at the table seemed to really enjoy the game, and I got some great feedback, especially about cleaning up some unneeded fiddliness - the markers I was using to track who delivered coal, and who fed reindeer were taken out - and the scoring for coal and reindeer was adjusted to account for removing those markers. Essentially, I got rid of bonuses for the most coal and reindeer on every 4th day, and just worked those bonuses into the immediate scoring for those areas.<br />
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Saturday, as I mentioned above was crazy. It was wall to wall people, and I was demoing <i>Santa's Workshop</i> non-stop. I was blown away - I got nothing by positive feedback from all the playtesters. There was little to no push back on any of the mechanics. Game length at most was about 1:15 - 1:20, and I reasoned that the same players, if they immediately played again, would probably be close to an hour, which is where I would like the game to be.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Playtesting Santa's Workshop</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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However, there was a little dose of reality. One of the Guests of Honor of the convention was <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/4819/richard-launius">Richard Launius</a> designer of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15987/arkham-horror">Arkham Horror</a>, among many other games. He stopped by my table while a group was playing, and watched for 5 or 10 minutes - and then was kind enough to talk to me about the game for another 10 or 15 minutes. To paraphrase, he basically told me that as far as he could tell, the mechanics of the game looked good, there definitely appeared to be a solid game there...but he did not think it would ever sell due to the theme. He thought at best, a small publisher might take a chance, sell maybe a few hundred, and then it would done. <br />
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This, of course, is not exactly what I wanted to hear, and was reminiscent of what I heard from Game Salute at Unpub 4. But, Richard told me - and reiterated in a later conversation - that he thought it looked like a solid game, and he thought re-theming it would make it much more approachable for publishers.<br />
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On Sunday, I had a chance to demo the game for a publisher. I had reached out to this publisher prior to the con, as their website indicated that they were looking for non-violent, family friendly games that would also appeal to gamers. This is exactly how I was trying to design Santa's Workshop. For the demo, I enlisted <a href="https://twitter.com/its_anna_r">Anna Rutledge</a> to play as well, as she had played at Unpub 4, and I was eager to get her feedback on how she liked the changes. <br />
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The demo went very well, I thought, and the publisher gave me great feedback. First - he said that he really enjoyed the game - which is nice to hear! However, he thought that it was maybe a bit complicated for the intended market (i.e. families). In my opinion, the game is on the light end of euro-style worker placements, but as a gamer, I tend to forget that even games I consider "light" are still much more complex than games that non-gamers are used to. He opined that this is a common issue for first time game designers, but he also thought that some of the mechanics, like the plastic and the training room added some depth that is not often seen in first time designs. He also game me some recommendations on how he thought I could simplify the game. So, even though he didn't offer me a contract on the spot, it was still a positive experience, and I much appreciated his insight. <br />
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So, overall, Unpub 5 was a great success, with very positive feedback, mixed with a sobering reminder that the theme may be an issue. However, you may recall from previous posts, that another "industry insider" - Geoff Englestein - opined that he thought there would be a market for the game. So, still no clear path forward for me...but I had one more event before I really wanted to make the hard decisions.<br />
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That event was my annual trip to <a href="http://www.prezcon.com/">Prezcon</a>. Now, I got to Prezcon to play games, not necessarily playtest, but I was hoping to get in a test or two. Specifically, I had pre-arranged to demo to another publisher, and other game industry folks - they had specifically told me at Unpub that they wanted to try the game. So, the first bad news came when they had to cancel their trip, due to some bad weather and other deadlines they had. That was no fault on them, but I was still a little bummed about that. However, I did get a chance to get one playtest in, with some folks that have become part of our regular gaming crowd. The Senzig family - 3 generations of them - showed up again, and they all played with my friend Brian, and also Mike Crescenzi, who'd I met last year with his brother Mark.<br />
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Now, Unpub was great - but I don't know how many of the people that played were really <i>gamers</i>. Among the Senzigs, Mike Sr. has been playing Acquire since it was published, Mike Jr. has won a few plaques, and even teenage Luke has gone toe to toe with the likes of Bill Crenshaw in Agricola. Mike Crescenzi won <i>Lords of Waterdeep</i> last year, and in the few games I've played with him...I've seen enough to know that he knows games. In short, these guys are all really good gamers. So, I thought I would get great feedback.<br />
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Unfortunately - everything that went so good at Unpub...seemed to go bad here. The game took 2+ hours. Mike C. used a plastic strategy to win by 100+ points. Some of the random event cards had really negative effects that caused more havoc than my intention. Now...I did get good feedback. Mike Jr. gave me some specific feedback on a few things he would change. But I wasn't sure what to take away from that playtest - was the game broken due to the runaway leader? It's hard to say - everyone was tired, there was a lot of distractions, no one was trying to<i> stop </i>the plastic strategy. But that uncertainty - is the game broken, or was this an anomalous game - is very frustrating.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjIsUwYgC6gCa8wMhKkxiyGDKWp-X3VGOz0U5THOEef04Ik4cbfbtjniHpU4H0LS1QU1xrzIoTcCP2MFXEi-xsbLiBn8YeCewUZfWBO5WFLBJvL6qv-KcVrmNgQ2hIsHf0_krulSvqQuQ/s1600/Prezcon_SW_Playtest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjIsUwYgC6gCa8wMhKkxiyGDKWp-X3VGOz0U5THOEef04Ik4cbfbtjniHpU4H0LS1QU1xrzIoTcCP2MFXEi-xsbLiBn8YeCewUZfWBO5WFLBJvL6qv-KcVrmNgQ2hIsHf0_krulSvqQuQ/s1600/Prezcon_SW_Playtest.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Did they break Santa's Workshop???</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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So, I came away from Prezcon with almost the opposite feelings I had after Unpub - a lot of uncertainty and doubt. It also didn't help that I had another very quick conversation with a publisher who had previously reviewed the rules - and he again brought up the theme issue.<br />
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I had wanted to come away from Prezcon with enough data to make a decision on where to take the game. But I came away with enough uncertainty and doubt, that I've just ended up putting the game on the shelf and not thinking about it for the last 6 weeks. I had very seriously thought about taking it to Origins this year and trying to show it to publishers. But since that's about 2 months away, that's looking unlikely. <br />
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Lastly, I'll mention that while I've had a few other ideas for games, I've not yet had a vision that was as clear to me as the first time I thought about <i>Santa's Workshop</i>. So, as an aspiring game designer, that's been frustrating. They say that if you're a writer, you need to write...and I know that's the same for game design - I just need to sit down and work on things. But that's easier said than done. <br />
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So, that's where I'm at now. I will update when I can. There may be an Unpub Mini happening in May that I'll take the game to, we'll see. I don't typically get a lot of comments on my blog (not blogging regularly doesn't lead to regular commenters) - but any ideas are welcome! Thanks for reading. Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-39377161607164638622015-02-22T13:47:00.000-08:002015-02-22T13:47:03.870-08:00Designing My First Game - Part 4Alright, when I left off I had gone through the spring and summer making tweaks based on feedback at Unpub 4, and at our Mini-Unpub. The fall brought two more events for me to showcase the game. First was the "World Boardgaming Championships" (WBC) - which I've been attending the last several years. In actuality, I hadn't really intended to promote Santa's Workshop here - but after our Unpub Mini, I was contacted out of the blue by a publisher, inquiring about my publishing plans for SW.<br />
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I sent him the information, and as it turns out, we were both planning on being at WBC. So, I brought the game. As it turned out, we never got it to the table, and based on the rulebook, the publisher decided it wasn't a good fit for his line. We did talk about it a bit at WBC, and there was some concern about the theme and how well it would appeal to gamers. <br />
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The next event that I did sign up for, was the Unpub room at Congress of Gamers in October. I brought the game, and got in 3 or 4 playtests. I got some great feedback from folks like Alf Shadowsong and <a href="https://twitter.com/PuppyShogun">TC Petty III</a>. I incorporated a few more changes, such as giving elves a bonus if they became fully trained - they could use less coal in the material rooms. On the 2nd day I playtested again with <a href="https://twitter.com/CartrunkEnt">John Moller</a> his wife Katherine. They seemed to like the game...but one thing was becoming obvious...game length was an issue. An average game was running close to 2 hours...about double what I wanted. <br />
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At this point, I was sort of stuck as to where I wanted to take the game. I decided to plunk some cash down and bid in the Jack Vassel memorial fund on BoardGameGeek. For those that don't know - the fund was set up by podcasting guru Tom Vassel, in memory of his late son, Jack. The fund is used to help gamers that are in some kind of need. Literally hundreds of games - and other items - are put for auction. So...how did this help me? I decided to bid on the chance of having <a href="https://twitter.com/gengelstein">Geoff Englestein</a> review my game. Geoff hosts the "GameTek" segment on the Dice Tower, as well as having his own podcast - Ludology - with Ryan Sturm. Geoff has also designed several games, inlcuding <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65534/ares-project">The Ares Project</a>, <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/123096/space-cadets">Space Cadets</a> and <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/142079/space-cadets-dice-duel">Space Cadets:Dice Duel</a> (along with his children). <br />
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I was lucky enough to win the auction, and was very excited to have Geoff look at the game. True to his word, Geoff really went back and forth with me on the game, and gave me great advice. Some major changes that resulted from Geoff's advice were getting rid of dice nearly altogether (the coal mine still uses dice), and changing the reindeer area. I had heard from other folks that the reindeer track was "boring". Geoff thought it would be great to see the individual reindeer named - so I did just that. Now, each of the eight reindeer (yes, only eight - the legal issues of who "owns" Rudolph are a bit cloudy) get a point token at the start of each round (kind of like the buildings in builders hall in Lords of Waterdeep). When you go to the reindeer stable, you choose which reindeer to feed - and you get the points for that reindeer, plus a bonus - for example, Dasher may give you fabric. This really made the reindeer stable a much more interesting location.<br />
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Geoff helped point out a few other areas he thought were fiddly as well - I got rid of the requirement that on some gifts portions of the materials all had to be made out of either the "prime" material, or plastic. I also undid a lot of the "extras" that I had added after Congress of Gamers - just too fiddly. I also finally cut ties with the idea of "spells" altogether - the functions of those were largely taken over by the reindeer bonuses. For giving coal to naughty kids, I just made that an option in the Assembly Hall. One thing that Geoff mentioned is that he thought I had an idea that a publisher would be interested in - the mechanics just needed some streamlining. I think I was able to do a lot of that with Geoff's input. It took me a while to let go of all those dice - but I think it's a better game for it. We talked about maybe having one die in the game, and different modifiers depending on which room you were using...but that adds to "cognitive load" - and for a game that I want to be able to pitch towards families...the less of that, the better.<br />
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The last thing for this particular blog entry I want to touch on is the problem of game length that I mentioned earlier. It was becoming apparent that 12 game turns was too long. I was enamored with keeping the "12 Days of Christmas" theme, but it really seemed that 9 turns was pretty optimal. I also made other changes, such as giving players in a 4 or 5 player game only 3 elves vice 4. Little things can build up. One of the reindeer spots would give the player 2 untrained elves to use later that turn. In a 9 turn game, that's 18 more worker placements - so I cut that back to 1 "super trained" elf. As it stands now, the game plays in about an hour - maybe 1:15 for 4+ players - but I'm confident that if those folks played a 2nd time, it would speed up. I was also able to keep the "12 Days of Christmas" theme by making days 4, 8 and 12 just "Santa's Inspection days" - i.e. not actual rounds where players placed elves (that was another great suggestion from Geoff).<br />
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Alright...that brings us almost to the current time... The next big event was Unpub 5, and I'm going to detail that in a separate blog post. Apologies for the wall of text in this particular post...Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-85069032247549832532015-02-21T19:07:00.002-08:002015-02-21T19:07:18.520-08:00Designing My First Game - Part 3Holy Smokes - the last entry was almost 2 months ago?!?! Ok, I admit...I'm terrible at this blogging thing. I had planned this out as a whole series...but I'm way behind - I want to write something about Unpub 5, which is already 2 weeks in the past...and Prezcon starts this week...so, I'm going to try and wrap up all of 2014 in this one post.<br />
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When I left off in <a href="http://keithferguson.blogspot.com/2014/12/designing-my-first-game-part-2.html">Part 2</a>, I was getting ready for Unpub 4, which was held in Delaware in January of 2014. I previously had a 2 part blog on that - <a href="http://keithferguson.blogspot.com/2014/01/unpub-4-day-1.html">Part 1</a> & <a href="http://keithferguson.blogspot.com/2014/01/unpub-4-day-2.html">Part 2</a>. The long and short of it was that I got 4 playtests in that weekend, and learned some valuable lessons from my playtesters. There were some unneeded complications in the game - primarily the players didn't like the "coal cards", in which they could cast spells - or rather, they didn't like the "mean" cards - which you could use to screw up other players. They didn't really feel that was in the spirit of the theme - and there were some horribly unbalanced cards in there.<br />
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More sobering, however, was my 10 minute pitch to Game Salute. This was something that they were offering every designer there - and though I didn't really feel the game was publisher-ready, I decided to take advantage, to at least get my feet wet talking to a publisher. I spent about 3 or 4 minutes describing the game...and when I was done, I got compliments on one or two of the mechanics, but the rest of the talk focused on the theme. They thought that the theme was sort of a Catch-22 - "gamers" would overlook the game, thinking it would be too light, and families would balk at spending a typical eurogame price (~$40), and if they did...they would probably be overwhelmed thinking they were getting a game their 5 year old could play.<br />
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So...while I was a bit disappointed in that, I decided that I would stick with the Santa's Workshop theme for at least the rest of the year as I further refined the game. The first thing I did was take out all the "mean" coal cards. That left just a deck of "positive cards". That still seemed to fiddly, so eventually I get rid of the coal cards altogether. I replaced the cards with a die roll at the coal mine which gave you certain number of coal. Instead of cards that allowed you to cast spells, I had 6 specific spells that all the elves could cast - adding an extra seat, improving your material rolls, improving your assembly roll, improving your coal roll, adjusting the reindeer track, and allowing you to pick more gifts. At first I allowed each spell to be cast once per game, but that changed to being able to cast each once per round - if you had the coal to spend on it. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT5TGnOqGvvX-eERqj_pGdvQf76-7URdMLiZZC8aKE0Zu3k0EmvbHMKvAtsJbH1mH89SCsM2_NgnGrkZY7vHYsiGHBOz7diD7KGo-BRClWzx0MBv8jhuByMNCCT6Sx_LVycDwXSOYPgVo/s1600/Mid+TAbleu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT5TGnOqGvvX-eERqj_pGdvQf76-7URdMLiZZC8aKE0Zu3k0EmvbHMKvAtsJbH1mH89SCsM2_NgnGrkZY7vHYsiGHBOz7diD7KGo-BRClWzx0MBv8jhuByMNCCT6Sx_LVycDwXSOYPgVo/s1600/Mid+TAbleu.png" height="163" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The players tableau...about Version 9.0 or so....</td></tr>
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<br />But how to model turning the coal in for naughty kids? With the coal cards, you had the choice of using the spell, or turning it in for points. I went through a number of iterations here. For a while, you just turned in all of you coal on the inspection rounds. Then I played with having people sort of "blind bid" with coal on the inspection rounds - whoever turned in the most got a bonus. Talk about fiddly! Then I hit upon the idea of having some of the gifts be for naughty kids...and instead of building the gift, you had to place coal on that gift. I had slots at the bottom of the tableaus, 7 Wonders style for those gifts. I thought that would be the answer for a long time...ultimately it was not.<br />
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In July, we had an "Unpub Mini" at our local game store - the Game Parlor. I got SW to the table 2 or 3 times and got some more good feedback. One fellow pointed out that the training, as I had it then, was sort of pointless - it took too long to train in materials for it to be worth much. In other words, the turns wasted going to the training room, would be better spent just collecting the material. So, I came out of that, having to adjust the training levels. I also found that people hated the "0" spot on all the material dice. They did not want to waste one of their precious actions on the chance of a 0 roll.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnCxtgtl7r3Yu-6pRyL7qLAUb0ecobBaC4x3CmJY-MTswTSYJAbkNEvxlLdnWLhIorozPyyJb0P4gQ_oog1zTHQWWECNN7J72oEZu7wuy9V6tNHWJXaJz0KH2rWmwTj-cRp50UDdDiAwQ/s1600/SantasWorkshop2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnCxtgtl7r3Yu-6pRyL7qLAUb0ecobBaC4x3CmJY-MTswTSYJAbkNEvxlLdnWLhIorozPyyJb0P4gQ_oog1zTHQWWECNN7J72oEZu7wuy9V6tNHWJXaJz0KH2rWmwTj-cRp50UDdDiAwQ/s1600/SantasWorkshop2.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Santa's Workshop at the "Unpub Mini"</td></tr>
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A couple of problems kept plaguing me. I never felt I was able to get the "tension" right in the game. As a worker placement game, there has to be some tough choices to be made in where you take your action each turn. My problem was - it was either too light on tension...or too high - just by taking away or adding an additional space, really swung the tension levels. I couldn't find a middle ground.<br />
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The other problem was with the gift scoring. In the basic calculations of the gifts scores, fabric was worth 2, wood 3 and metal 4. But this wasn't working balance-wise. I eventually upped metal to 6 points, and adjusted the metal die accordingly - so all the dice would average about 3.5 points worth of material per roll. And, as a side note - with 5 custom dice in the game (fabric, wood, metal, assembly, coal) - I found that people kept having a hard time finding the right die when they needed it.<br />
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So, I made a couple of drastic changes (or so I thought). To fix the "tension" problem, I tried a few things. At one point, I tried a "Power Grid" style mechanic of filling each room only so much per turn - so players would have to fight over the resources. That was short lived. I finally hit upon the idea of having coal also be used as "currency" in the materials rooms - the elves had to fire the furnace to power the tools. In each room, I had different spots that cost different amounts of coal - but the more coal you spent, the more material you would typically get. Part of this change, was making fabric, wood and coal all equivalent points-wise. This meant I had to rework all the gifts and point structure. That was a bit of work, but I think it was worth it. This also meant that I reduced 3 dice to 1 - just a "material die". <br />
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Ok...on second thought I'm going to end this blog entry here to avoid it rambling on for too long... I will attempt to follow with Part 4 tomorrow. My apologies for the lack of pictures, and not proofreading it too well... <br />
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<br />Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-55661349026666385832014-12-28T20:30:00.000-08:002014-12-28T20:30:00.357-08:00Designing My First Game - Part 2Alright then...back in <a href="http://keithferguson.blogspot.com/2014/12/designing-my-first-game-part-1.html">Part 1</a> of this series of blogs, I described my motivations and interests in getting into the game design process. Now what I want to do is retrace the specific design process, including various decisions I've made along the way. <br />
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So...let me start giving a brief overview of the game. Santa's Workshop is a worker placement style game, where your "workers" are a team of elves. The elves can be placed in various locations around the workshop, and earn points primarily by crafting and assembling toys, but also by turning in coal for the naughty kids, and taking care of the reindeer. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJKrCNVDE8BPBvH3c_Xqh-I2OmBoF9bCtk-BfT9LCJf2w34ZJdBZpx4_aBfpUmw2rnJyXETLD2GgpAXIUqoxjlePCpqS3zDRUmix90aykZ6RxOMtWWIVK5tpUPbxieqFEBC9zN4ird3EI/s1600/Gift+Cards+V1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJKrCNVDE8BPBvH3c_Xqh-I2OmBoF9bCtk-BfT9LCJf2w34ZJdBZpx4_aBfpUmw2rnJyXETLD2GgpAXIUqoxjlePCpqS3zDRUmix90aykZ6RxOMtWWIVK5tpUPbxieqFEBC9zN4ird3EI/s1600/Gift+Cards+V1.jpg" height="293" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The first gift cards. Complicated with various colored letters & borders.</i></td></tr>
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Gifts are built out of primarily 3 different resources - Fabric, Wood and Metal - each with a separate room to collect the material. In the original incarnation of the game, players placed their elves in the material room and rolled a die for that material. The game was designed so that fabric was the easiest resource to gather, wood a bit harder, and metal the hardest of them all. This was reflected in how the scoring was calculated as well - in the formula I originally used, fabric was worth 2 pts, wood 3, and metal 4 points. However, you can replace some of the materials with plastic (worth only 1 point), to more quickly build gifts. The concept of being able to replace some materials with plastic was a key element from the beginning of the game. I "borrowed" that a bit from the game <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27746/colosseum"><i>Colosseum</i></a>, in which you can put on Roman shows, but can accept a lower score for using less "resources" (in this case, gladiators, chariots, actors, etc.) I wanted the player to have to make a decision on whether to try and churn through gifts rapidly or try and score as much per gift as possible. Also, in the original versions of the game, there were completely optional components...for example, the player could choose to put metal on the electric train (for extra track). So, not only was there components that could be replaced by plastic...but components that you could not build altogether. <br />
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In addition to the materials, when players had all the pieces of their gift, they had to go to the assembly room and roll another die to see how many assembly points they would get. Larger gifts required more assembly points. Originally, the assembly room was the only room on the board that a player could place multiple elves in one action.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcXipYBlpgSuLq7TkHMuBB0vUHn2pnXM2Bfy4DTaaRWubw3CMKt-Iv6S_7KDhFnkrZedblzkTd32j2m4cIg7Pxom12iZtYR4B5Um3xemhtPL6ngZt3KQBcZD3X1vXLxu2Ibs8swaUqaSg/s1600/Tableau+V1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcXipYBlpgSuLq7TkHMuBB0vUHn2pnXM2Bfy4DTaaRWubw3CMKt-Iv6S_7KDhFnkrZedblzkTd32j2m4cIg7Pxom12iZtYR4B5Um3xemhtPL6ngZt3KQBcZD3X1vXLxu2Ibs8swaUqaSg/s1600/Tableau+V1.jpg" height="105" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The original tableaus - just for elf training.</i></td></tr>
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Another key aspect of the game from the very beginning was the ability to train the individual elves. This meant that over the course of the game, the individual elves would become unique as they trained in fabric, wood, metal and assembly - and so the elves were numbered. It took an action to train an elf, so again the player is left with the choice of whether to use his actions to train or to just keep plowing ahead by gathering resources.<br />
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The reindeer stable was an outlet for the player to get points by different means. Originally, it was just a scoring track, and every time you sent an elf to the stable, your marker would move up that track, which was added to your overall score at the end of the game. The first player to the reindeer stable could also claim the first player token.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdP4htdFcVVDlpMDh8oAkRm89G8kburkTNnAe-877NTjzblb5EzrTQybx3rn6pC8KogzLL2JDml-o_z1YLDdSlPj7GR_uTM_dnZ3eo-tFnUDYhJpgmINIez08EOWYlMl66RzEYHa7cO-Q/s1600/Reindeer_V2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdP4htdFcVVDlpMDh8oAkRm89G8kburkTNnAe-877NTjzblb5EzrTQybx3rn6pC8KogzLL2JDml-o_z1YLDdSlPj7GR_uTM_dnZ3eo-tFnUDYhJpgmINIez08EOWYlMl66RzEYHa7cO-Q/s1600/Reindeer_V2.jpg" height="320" width="235" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Stable in V2.0. Diminishing returns as it was used</i></td></tr>
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Lastly, was the coal mine. In my original vision of Santa's Workshop, I envisioned the players trying to create finish their gifts, as they wreaked havoc with other players. One issue with some euro games, is that it often feels like multi-player solitaire. I wanted to have plenty of player interaction. My inspiration here was the game <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/589/wiz-war"><i>Wiz-War</i></a>. So, at the "coal mine", I had a separate deck of cards. Every time the player went to the coal mine, they could draw cards, and turn them in for coal points (i.e. supplying Santa for the naughty kids) or use the "spell" printed on that card. Better spells were worth more coal points if turned in. I had spells that would help you, mess with the other player, and even "shields" and "mirrors" that could block and/or redirect spells that were targeting you.<br />
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That first playtest down in Blacksburg went well. It was a 3 player game, with myself, my wife and my friend Tom. I certainly learned some lessons about how to phrase rules, and some text on the coal cards that didn't make sense. And my wife and I brainstormed a lot on the ride back. But by and large, it played pretty well for the first time.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHF9ElsGRfvm2M8f4c2Wh4tvMdflR3wWzmeFCXEyEO5I23VoTlqV6yjP43DM3LMn_iFuPTC1mjVrxCSqd6veEhYmOrzm-g5un-1QGcaBn5W58kN5FSHbM05uKWEK36fTsPfL_js04fggA/s1600/Coal_Cards_V2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHF9ElsGRfvm2M8f4c2Wh4tvMdflR3wWzmeFCXEyEO5I23VoTlqV6yjP43DM3LMn_iFuPTC1mjVrxCSqd6veEhYmOrzm-g5un-1QGcaBn5W58kN5FSHbM05uKWEK36fTsPfL_js04fggA/s1600/Coal_Cards_V2.png" height="230" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The coal cards. Lots of complex symbols on what could be blocked or "reflected".</i></td></tr>
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My next playtest was over Thanksgiving with my family. One thing I noticed was that the plastic option was not being used. In one of the earliest "why didn't I think of that before", I added in the concept of "Santa's Inspection" - at the end of each 3 rounds, the player that had completed the most gifts in the preceding rounds would get a 12 point bonus. That made it more worthwhile to complete gifts quickly. I also tied in the reindeer stable to these days, and the reindeer points would be scored at this point as well. Note that the first few locations on the reindeer track were negative, indicating Santa's unhappiness if you were ignoring the reindeer.<br />
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I playtested it with my regular Tuesday night gaming group, and got more positive feedback. One woman, Tracy, who is normally pretty quiet and reserved, later wrote me a very nice email telling me how much she liked the game and that she would definitely buy a copy. I was very flattered.<br />
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So here I was, barely 3 months into my first foray in game design, and I'm thinking I have a huge hit on my hands. And then I went to Unpub 4, where a dose of realism set in. More on that in the next installment....Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-50647629880234593802014-12-21T07:51:00.003-08:002014-12-21T07:54:43.312-08:00Designing My First Game - Part 1Well, first things first...I have not abandoned this blog. I'm not sure I ever had a lot of readers, mostly some family and friends, but that's ok...and sometimes life just gets in the way. Between work, and kids activities and vacations and actually doing fun things like playing games...sitting down and blogging tends to keep getting pushed to the back burner.<br />
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But I want to reinvigorate the blog with something I've been meaning to write about for quite some time. I want to talk about what it's like to be a first time game designer, and what I've gone through and the lessons I've learned as I've attempted this endeavor. This will likely take me a few parts to get through things...and will also be a continuing topic, as I'm still in the midst of designing my first game! So, here we go...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXMe-5TCcca8DyNzLcACbLriRaZ9e306XZmpxINGBiBhAVmiu2QC5kEQjfd-2xOw9LDaSMa2H-wwEB90QkTCyXVNksFaZ_FxxoZJNHdMKRaXr5LCK28W9ut_lCP9F5y5LCZ80xLAXU1DY/s1600/Mastermind.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXMe-5TCcca8DyNzLcACbLriRaZ9e306XZmpxINGBiBhAVmiu2QC5kEQjfd-2xOw9LDaSMa2H-wwEB90QkTCyXVNksFaZ_FxxoZJNHdMKRaXr5LCK28W9ut_lCP9F5y5LCZ80xLAXU1DY/s1600/Mastermind.jpg" height="200" width="93" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So mysterious</td></tr>
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The first thing I want to do is give some background as to my relationship with gaming. I can remember enjoying boardgames even as a young child. I remember begging my parents to play <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5048/candy-land"><i>Candyland</i></a> (yeah, I know...that was revisited upon me when my own kids went through the <i>Candyland</i> phase...). I also recall <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2407/sorry"><i>Sorry</i></a> being a favorite of mine. (Wow...<i>Sorry</i> was first published in 1929...I had no idea!). <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2392/mastermind"><i>Mastermind</i></a> was another one that I recall spending plenty of time with - I always wondered what the story was with the man in a suit and the Asian woman standing behind him. <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1293/boggle"><i>Boggle</i></a> and <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2243/yahtzee"><i>Yahtzee</i></a> were perennial favorites at our annual Memorial Day camping trip.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLwLe9TXwMHKK7TW3B5Nfd-yoC6a6rqbuaD_7eUCeYQkvzQSlzUtc2mE2olqiRlXCx3KMf2iHUJKYrz9SnNiirbVJzx9k-Pdvb9NZLVg8Z-437YVCrMQUysd2oJle-6Nlf0j1EBzzQhxk/s1600/dndredbox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLwLe9TXwMHKK7TW3B5Nfd-yoC6a6rqbuaD_7eUCeYQkvzQSlzUtc2mE2olqiRlXCx3KMf2iHUJKYrz9SnNiirbVJzx9k-Pdvb9NZLVg8Z-437YVCrMQUysd2oJle-6Nlf0j1EBzzQhxk/s1600/dndredbox.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh yeah...I had the red box!</td></tr>
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About the time I was maybe 12 years old, my friends and I discovered <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17804/dungeons-dragons-basic-game"><i>Dungeons and Dragons</i></a>. That dominated our gaming for years, although we did play some more "advanced" board games like <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/181/risk"><i>Risk</i></a>, and then <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98/axis-allies"><i>Axis & Allies</i></a>, and my friend <a href="https://twitter.com/ts_hokie">Tom</a> even got his hands on a copy of the old Avalon Hill <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/71/civilization"><i>Civilization</i></a>. In college, I continued role playing, with D&D we moved to the <i>Ravenloft</i> campaign, and from there into <a href="http://rpggeek.com/rpg/421/vampire-masquerade"><i>Vampire:The Masquerade</i></a>. We even ran a <a href="http://rpggeek.com/rpg/251/star-wars-weg-original-edition"><i>Star Wars</i></a> campaign or two. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqd3LEjviBb2MV-aDT-CPNWO7ahwBsqO9zWdL8IZXvqSG0to1vA9lf_b9-oqkJD1kNVkKSZVxx70QrCc39b6EEmkdZyaX3WUC1JyzVH5UiOFPTntaw0oQFUyEKGZ-lGIzjbrcMNJhfpHE/s1600/puertorico.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqd3LEjviBb2MV-aDT-CPNWO7ahwBsqO9zWdL8IZXvqSG0to1vA9lf_b9-oqkJD1kNVkKSZVxx70QrCc39b6EEmkdZyaX3WUC1JyzVH5UiOFPTntaw0oQFUyEKGZ-lGIzjbrcMNJhfpHE/s1600/puertorico.jpg" height="200" width="141" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wait..what kind game is this?!</td></tr>
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After college, my gaming tapered off for a while as I sort of did the "normal" things that single guys in their 20's did. But a couple of colleagues from work - Grant Greffey and <a href="http://paulowengames.blogspot.com/">Paul Owen</a> - drew me back into the world of gaming. I think at my first "game night" at Grant's house, we played <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18100/china"><i>China</i></a>, followed by <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3076/puerto-rico"><i>Puerto Rico</i></a>. <i>Puerto Rico</i>, specifically, just blew my mind. After that, I would game every so often with these guys, and they would introduce me to more and more games - some miniatures games as well. At one point, they were discussing a convention that they attended - <a href="http://www.prezcon.com/">Prezcon</a>. My friend <a href="https://twitter.com/Awesome_Drax">Brian</a> and I decided to take the plunge and find out what this gaming convention was all about. We had an absolute blast - got crushed when we sat down and played <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/240/britannia"><i>Britannia</i></a>, but the whole event was great, and we've been going back every year since. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPnrtipXHDplOYiGooqzxDyjApaWKd9DTGBSPd7U2SyIt1U6EUL5x7Q8zDNy0wXWpIFhY2eI2uBfqPEjI4BY7Q-HF1O5iVIu_wcwzHMoFB6aFUjJQS3ObPAdCKDvm6hSa49xRxBAT2_1k/s1600/PlanesTrains100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPnrtipXHDplOYiGooqzxDyjApaWKd9DTGBSPd7U2SyIt1U6EUL5x7Q8zDNy0wXWpIFhY2eI2uBfqPEjI4BY7Q-HF1O5iVIu_wcwzHMoFB6aFUjJQS3ObPAdCKDvm6hSa49xRxBAT2_1k/s1600/PlanesTrains100.jpg" /></a>I think it was my 2nd year at Prezcon, and Paul O. surprised us - or at least me - with the fact that he brought a prototype he had designed to pitch to some of the publishers that had booths at Prezcon. Defying most advice I've heard since, he was successful by just walking up "cold" at the convention and pitching his game. <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/105130/trains-planes-automobiles"><i>Trains Planes and Automobiles</i></a> was picked up by Blue Square Games (a subsidiary of <a href="http://worthingtonpublishing.com/">Worthington Games</a>). After Paul had his game published, he was tending to meet other game designers and publishers at conventions - often at the <a href="http://www.boardgamers.org/">World Boardgaming Championships</a> in Lancaster, PA. As a consequence of hanging out with Paul at the Cons, I also met many of these people, and started to get a peek into the inner workings of boardgame design. And that, I think, is what caused me to get the bug to design my own game. I was caught up in the creativity and exchange of ideas that I was witnessing amongst these various designers.<br />
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So, finally, that brings me to the point where I had decided I wanted to try my hand at this whole game design business. Where to begin? Well, I decided that the best thing to do would probably be to emulate Paul a little bit - make a game that was family friendly, and not overly complex. The fact that I have 2 younger kids also played into this. I can't pinpoint exactly when or what triggered my idea for the theme...but at some point I hit upon the idea of "Santa's Workshop", where players would control teams of elves building gifts for gifts. In the debate of starting with theme vs. mechanics, I'm pretty sure I fall squarely on the side of theme first. Now, once I had the theme, I knew it was going to be a worker placement game of some sort. That's probably my favorite game mechanic, and it just seemed to fit with the idea of controlling a bunch of elves in their flurry of activity around Santa's workshop.<br />
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So...I had a basic idea for theme, and roughly an idea of the main mechanic - worker (elf) placement to collect materials and build gifts. This was probably early 2013 or so. I spent a lot of time just "percolating" on the idea in the back of my head. At one point I started a Word document where I just entered a bunch of ideas for the game. I think I even described the game to a few folks, including Paul to see what they thought of the idea. But...and I think this is probably the biggest initial hurdle for a new game design - <i>especially if it's your first design</i> - I hadn't actually made a prototype. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEV5l4PXGEeQkyUx6SkUOhIlOppdruywcX_oybfXA93a3XsqTc3dxyzTEuYLvlsqPjTk7WDrGc-L1TpoyzPznPrz8hOAJq71YYyJIgSntIyWHAQSRfjMClm83WL-jBX3bjmKYHwZeOYjc/s1600/SW_First_prototype.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEV5l4PXGEeQkyUx6SkUOhIlOppdruywcX_oybfXA93a3XsqTc3dxyzTEuYLvlsqPjTk7WDrGc-L1TpoyzPznPrz8hOAJq71YYyJIgSntIyWHAQSRfjMClm83WL-jBX3bjmKYHwZeOYjc/s1600/SW_First_prototype.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first prototype...I didn't even use card stock! *gasp*</td></tr>
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What actually kicked me in the pants to finally make a prototype is that I wanted to attend <a href="http://unpub.net/">Unpub 4</a>, and I needed to have an actual game to do that! As it turns, out, looking back over old blog posts, I already did a <a href="http://keithferguson.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-first-playtest.html">rather thorough post</a> on the motivation for making a game, making that first prototype, and the initial playtest I had. I'll refer you there for some more detailed info. What I really want to get across here, though, is sitting down and making that very first prototype is a huge hurdle to clear. It's one thing to have it all sketched out in your head, or even on scrap paper, but sitting down and trying to make something that actually resembles a board game is, I think, that moment when you're committing yourself. Then you really have to figure out how you're going to lay things out, what you're going to use for components (if you're like me, you have plenty of games to "borrow" from, initially), and things like what computer program(s) you're going to use. It's all a bit daunting, but once you've done it, I really think that gets the ball rolling on the meat of the design process.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfGFbuvx_yZgz9QFrndDB-53hexoicousOrCXXl1RDicZdCLhjMOXI4qk-25hCckJBs15h-BJD5_7CBfvqMq8ZdeZkwb704JNzD5MR8q5WJoE-s9TlUd4U_-4Rcw9KSBkJym37jXUnBLY/s1600/Cards_Powerpoint.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfGFbuvx_yZgz9QFrndDB-53hexoicousOrCXXl1RDicZdCLhjMOXI4qk-25hCckJBs15h-BJD5_7CBfvqMq8ZdeZkwb704JNzD5MR8q5WJoE-s9TlUd4U_-4Rcw9KSBkJym37jXUnBLY/s1600/Cards_Powerpoint.jpg" height="188" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PowerPoint...my old <strike>nemesis</strike> friend...</td></tr>
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In my case, I just went with what I knew. I used Microsoft PowerPoint for almost all the "paper" components - the board and the cards. PowerPoint works well for cards, I think...I can fit 8 standard sized cards per PowerPoint slide. Here's a tip for cards, by the way, which I didn't really figure out until...oh...about 8 months after the fact. I have a bunch of "slides" with the faces of all the different cards. There's one slide with the back of the cards. I'll print the faces, take the paper, put it back in the printer upside down, and then print the back side, however many times I need. That's all well and good...what I had been doing is delineating the cards on each slide with black lines...one "horizontal", and 5 "vertical"...those would the lines where you cut after the sheets were printed out. I had the "cut lines" on both on the face sheets, and the back. Since, inevitably the two sides won't line up perfectly...there was always a little bit of a black line one side or the other. It <i></i>*finally* occurred to me that <i>I don't n</i><i>eed the cut lines on both sides</i>! <HeadDesk> In any case...PowerPoint works less well for the board, as you have to try and line things up across slides. It's a bit of a pain. I know a lot of folks use Photoshop or the like...I haven't really settled on anything different. Since I started Santa's Workshop in PowerPoint, that's what I'm still using.<br />
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Alright, I think that's enough for this post. I didn't really get into any of the specifics for <i>Santa's Workshop</i> yet, I'll start hitting on that in the next installment. I want to cover what my original vision was for the game, how those initial playtests went, and the various changes I've made (and un-made) in the last year since I first got it to the table. Please stay tuned...Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-27461482810131922372014-09-06T07:19:00.000-07:002014-09-06T07:19:00.418-07:00Top 20 BoardgamesOnce again, I'm going to take inspiration from my friend Paul Owen - <a href="http://paulowengames.blogspot.com/2014/09/my-candidates-for-2014-dice-tower-top.html">who listed his Top 20 games</a> as part of the Dice Tower's "<a href="http://www.dicetower.com/top_100/peoples-choice-vote.html">People's Choice Top 100</a>" initiative. As you might suspect, this was a tough exercise, and I'm left with the nagging feeling that I've left off something obvious. At the bottom of the list I'll talk about a few games that didn't make the list, and a few that I think will probably be on there in the next year. My list isn't in any particular order (it's hard enough to come up with the Top 20, let alone rank them!) However, I'll start with a game that's been a favorite of mine for a few years now...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIDCcpT9YtRA9_rflmoxD1wTb5qcw3W99pt2VJxr3UaFw8dnlh-hG5BGlNx9Y9w2HMtlT6_rlk5cQWPnYzw2IRXO0XVLkFKCOqH0BFA0DqTYKkgLnc8BHuZI1-hq9WupWVnjJfI2L7ueo/s1600/CoP_Closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIDCcpT9YtRA9_rflmoxD1wTb5qcw3W99pt2VJxr3UaFw8dnlh-hG5BGlNx9Y9w2HMtlT6_rlk5cQWPnYzw2IRXO0XVLkFKCOqH0BFA0DqTYKkgLnc8BHuZI1-hq9WupWVnjJfI2L7ueo/s1600/CoP_Closeup.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can you hear the war drums?</td></tr>
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1) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15954/conquest-paradise"><i>Conquest of Paradise</i></a> - When I first played this at Prezcon 5 years ago, the theme immediately grabbed me. There are a million games about medieval Europe, or "trading in the Mediterranean", or WWII - how many are there about the Polynesian expansion across the South Pacific. Well, to my knowledge, exactly one. There is a large luck element to the game based on tile drawing...which normally would drive me nuts, but it fits the theme so perfectly here that it works great. I'm looking forward to the <a href="http://www.gmtgames.com/p-443-conquest-of-paradise-2nd-ed.aspx">deluxe reprint coming from GMT games</a>. <br />
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2) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98/axis-allies"><i>Axis & Allies</i></a> - A mainstay of my youth, this is a game I still love. It doesn't get to the table much anymore, but I would love to pull it out soon. I've linked to the original here, but I'd love to play the giant combined game of the newest <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/61692/axis-allies-europe-1940">Europe</a> and <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/55829/axis-allies-pacific-1940">Pacific</a> versions. <br />
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3) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9209/ticket-ride"><i>Ticket to Ride</i></a> - The classic gateway game, great to teach to non-gamers, and interesting for veteran players alike. I always look forward to a new map, and am eager to break in my copy of the <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/160069/ticket-ride-10th-anniversary">Anniversary Edition</a>.<br />
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4) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34635/stone-age"><i>Stone Age</i></a> - This is a great example of the worker placement genre. If it's not a gateway game, it's the next step up, and this is another I've introduced to many non-gamer.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1sH35sGKeVUbys3xfPYr6OadQVlWqHEyBP8mOLMzdLk3bogzKuvk1VfN4GT8g1hQLrXKzpD64SVyiLNeuGFB5Ycp4RWLXtUVSbsmJNvnmAxCOXvbBwmTb2fsQALV46ketjDvzT1ShBNk/s1600/PowerGrid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1sH35sGKeVUbys3xfPYr6OadQVlWqHEyBP8mOLMzdLk3bogzKuvk1VfN4GT8g1hQLrXKzpD64SVyiLNeuGFB5Ycp4RWLXtUVSbsmJNvnmAxCOXvbBwmTb2fsQALV46ketjDvzT1ShBNk/s1600/PowerGrid.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>5) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2651/power-grid"><i>Power Grid</i></a> - In my opinion, this is one of the absolute best games to be found. Great player<br />
interaction via the bidding mechanic, and a fantastic market mechanic, which drives other decisions in the game, such as playing for turn order. I keep buying all the new maps...haven't played them all yet, but I keep buying them!<br />
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6) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/43015/hansa-teutonica"><i>Hansa Teutonica</i></a> - This game is a favorite of my group, and is always a fallback option if we can't decide on something else. Maybe the best example of direct player interaction in any euro game.<br />
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7) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/129622/love-letter"><i>Love Letter</i></a> - My group, like many others has been caught up in the social/hidden role deduction craze. This was a tough choice for me, because there are a couple of other good ones (see below), but I chose Lover Letter due to it's simplicity...and the fact that I have the Japanese-themed version, which lends itself to terrible accents when we play.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNX9LWZ0yx6X0VYK8uVylqdUEz3EockXbqj-oLU83wX65zcQoD_al5ETaP6FR3U0wT6hjiIjzT1CvqRrQnLaqeGTjZwGdkxlmT8clHxFOPa7-7XeuPJU1U4WUeaKdamqLBcVGtx2STzH8/s1600/Waterdeep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNX9LWZ0yx6X0VYK8uVylqdUEz3EockXbqj-oLU83wX65zcQoD_al5ETaP6FR3U0wT6hjiIjzT1CvqRrQnLaqeGTjZwGdkxlmT8clHxFOPa7-7XeuPJU1U4WUeaKdamqLBcVGtx2STzH8/s1600/Waterdeep.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alright, who's got the builder lord?!?!</td></tr>
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8) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/110327/lords-waterdeep"><i>Lords of Waterdeep</i></a> - Perhaps the best entry-level worker placement game on the market. Once you get over the slight hesitation from non-gamers on the D&D theme, it always goes over great. Replacing those cubes with "DnDeeples" is nearly a must, though. Also, the <i><a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/134342/lords-waterdeep-scoundrels-skullport">Scoundrels of Skullport</a> </i>expansion provides deeper gameplay for experienced gamers.<br />
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9) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128671/spartacus-game-blood-treachery"><i>Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery</i></a> - A smash hit from Gale Force 9! The combat is very simplified, but the game shines as a social backstabbing experience. I won't forget one of our first games when Paul asked me to lend him influence for a scheme, and I declined. He immediately followed with "How about you loan me that influence or else I'll direct this scheme against you!" Wait-what?!?!<br />
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10) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68448/7-wonders"><i>7 Wonders</i></a> - Great game with it's card drafting mechanic. The first run-through with non-gamers can be confusing, but they soon get the hang of it. Also a good pick for a larger group, as it holds up to 7 players.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHVhQgB6SwtuOQxRqifoajGJfMg-QqMDnPj95QnMre782u301F6sUm42rSz0sKAvfwS7tbrUm8TaIBI34wfSFqP_GYsWXCfD8FyRYCLoDb4ZPaHFjTO3F4s6VuPgLm-YXdT1kOtNlNI5Y/s1600/Village.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHVhQgB6SwtuOQxRqifoajGJfMg-QqMDnPj95QnMre782u301F6sUm42rSz0sKAvfwS7tbrUm8TaIBI34wfSFqP_GYsWXCfD8FyRYCLoDb4ZPaHFjTO3F4s6VuPgLm-YXdT1kOtNlNI5Y/s1600/Village.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It was a good death. A tactical death.</td></tr>
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11) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18602/caylus"><i>Caylus</i></a> - Another worker placement, but decidedly NOT for beginning gamers. With the house-building mechanic that inspired <i>Lords of Waterdeep</i>, <i>Caylus</i> can be decidedly more cutthroat. <br />
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12) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/104006/village"><i>Village</i></a> - Another worker placement game, with the novel idea that your meeples grow old and die - where there deeds land them, in the Book of Record, or the unmarked graves, determines who wins and loses.<br />
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13) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/103660/vivajava-coffee-game"><i>VivaJava:The Coffee Game</i></a> - This game about making the best coffee blend has several fantastic elements. First, it can hold up to 8 players...it's very rare to have a game that can hold that many and still play relatively quickly. But the main thing I enjoy about this game is the semi-cooperative aspect, while still being a competitive game. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj93ClvlP_4bdCIiEDukub4VZE86AbcooAIiMYa1BcmkyZNvuHjBLJoQQtLvwe4yr3Tf3W9EsbEC8voyaGJBR0n84VbXoKzSu7DdngAaf8hPxxVZBBtNkinbLLR4iyMx-_6HH8kMtzm8Mw/s1600/X-wing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj93ClvlP_4bdCIiEDukub4VZE86AbcooAIiMYa1BcmkyZNvuHjBLJoQQtLvwe4yr3Tf3W9EsbEC8voyaGJBR0n84VbXoKzSu7DdngAaf8hPxxVZBBtNkinbLLR4iyMx-_6HH8kMtzm8Mw/s1600/X-wing.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I can hear the Imperial March</td></tr>
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14) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/103885/star-wars-x-wing-miniatures-game"><i>X-Wing Miniatures Game</i></a> - I'm a child of the '70s, I grew up with Star Wars posters on my wall, and collected all the Kenner action figures. This is a no-brainer for me, for nostalgia's sake. But, beyond that, it's a great game. Pre-painted ships (and good pre-paint at that), relatively simple rules - this is a winner. It just needs to get to the table more often. I haven't used many of the ships I've bought. Yet I still keep buying them.<br />
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15) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/114667/new-science"><i>The New Science</i></a> - I love the theme in this game, and mechanism where you publish for points...but allow your opponents to then build off your work, is fantastic.<br />
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16) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42487/lost-cities-board-game"><i>Lost Cities: The Board Game</i></a> - This is probably my shakiest entry on the list. I felt I needed a 2-player, and was going to the list the original <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/50/lost-cities"><i>Lost Cities</i></a>, but this board game version expands the same mechanic to 4 players, while also being good for 2 players. Still...I can see this being knocked off fairly easily.<br />
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17) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37358/founding-fathers"><i>Founding Fathers</i></a> - A "euro" game about the drafting of the United State constitution. What's not to love?! This is my favorite among the "play a card one of several different ways" games - I love the theme, and once again this is an excuse for my group to use terrible accents.<br />
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18) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/109125/wallenstein-second-edition"><i>Wallenstein</i></a>/<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20551/shogun"><i>Shogun</i></a> - These are the same game...do you prefer medieval Germany or medieval Japan? The cube tower used to resolve battles makes this game, but the basic euro mechanics are solid. For <i>Wallenstein</i>, I prefer the 2nd edition which incorporates some of the changes introduced in <i>Shogun</i>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhElC6aASuyz98eWnQhPHRrvngAGAh1hdmzqAwXvhoie9njD0Py6NfEITLr_76XA3jniJWUNOWxWcNlDafxuQjK5ujnQBJ7GTfO1lI75UJabBfy6JVMZPMSTADNGpAFqqbvCMZCbijuII8/s1600/Nedstark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhElC6aASuyz98eWnQhPHRrvngAGAh1hdmzqAwXvhoie9njD0Py6NfEITLr_76XA3jniJWUNOWxWcNlDafxuQjK5ujnQBJ7GTfO1lI75UJabBfy6JVMZPMSTADNGpAFqqbvCMZCbijuII8/s1600/Nedstark.jpg" height="178" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the Game of Thrones (2nd Edition), you win or you die.</td></tr>
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19) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/478/citadels"><i>Citadels</i></a> - I've literally had people throw their cards at me after I've assassinated them. Enough said.<br />
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20) <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/103343/game-thrones-board-game-second-edition"><i>Game of Thrones 2nd Edition</i></a> - Fantastic source material, fantastic "dudes on a map" backstabbing gloriousness. Winter is coming.<br />
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<h4>
Others in Consideration</h4>
So, what didn't end up on the Top 20, that may be a bit of surprise...and what did I seriously consider putting on there, that may be there next year (or next week).<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31260/agricola"><i>Agricola</i></a> - I like Agricola quite a bit. But I still don't know the minor improvement or occupation cards that well. Also the tight worker placement sometimes breaks the theme for me. If Paul is plowing his field, why does that stop me from plowing mine?<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3076/puerto-rico"><i>Puerto Rico</i></a> - Another absolute classic, which I still enjoy playing. I feel like this game has a little bit of "you should know exactly what to do based on what happens before you, and if you don't do that, you've screwed up the entire flow of the game" thing going on. <br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10630/memoir-44"><i>Memoir '44 </i></a>- Great game that I learned to enjoy once I got past the "you can only move certain troops if you have the right card" aspect. Just doesn't make it to the table enough right now.<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic"><i>Pandemic</i></a> - I wanted to include a cooperative, and my wife and kids love this game. Truth be told, I've gotten a little burned out on it. And if I'm going to pick a coop, it's likely to be...<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/121921/robinson-crusoe-adventure-cursed-island"><i>Robinson Crusoe</i></a> - I've only played a handful of times, and the only reason it's not on the list is because I need to play it more. But I can tell you that I already think it's the best coop I've ever played - with the different scenarios significantly altering game play, it doesn't have that "sameness" after repeated plays.<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/139898/brew-crafters"><i>Brew Crafters</i></a> - I'm highly anticipating receiving this game when the kickstarter delivers. This is my Agricola-killer. Unless I'm completely wrong, I would expect this in my Top 20 by this time next year.<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/144733/russian-railroads"><i>Russian Railroads</i></a> - Heavy euro worker placement. The theme is a bit pasted on, but there's a lot going on here, and I like it!<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/131287/panamax"><i>Panamax</i></a> - I have all of one play, but I really liked that one play. Definitely need to get this to the table more before I render a final verdict. There's some concern about some of the hidden goals being overpowered, but overall I'm really liking what I've seen.<br />
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I think that's about it...I could keep listing game after game. As I sit here, I realize I didn't think about coop w/ trailer like <i>Shadows Over Camelot</i> or <i>Battlestar Galactica</i>. Aaargh...too many tough choices! There's only one thing to do...play more games so I have more experience to draw from!Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-28650317040985390022014-08-29T04:28:00.000-07:002014-08-29T04:28:13.757-07:00WBC 2014 Recap - Part 2<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUmvo_HhWVdxJPF-E7v1fPadWVyC6UWyy-XwOkpPBin2qiA2ROPaZMZzW9XTdR9Vbin66FEpG1PZ6J-Mq-1xnjKW8ptRdcRmAuCQN6_0Tda7qw-p9lAv0CqfROXWfebdv5xIK987C2aBE/s1600/COP_Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUmvo_HhWVdxJPF-E7v1fPadWVyC6UWyy-XwOkpPBin2qiA2ROPaZMZzW9XTdR9Vbin66FEpG1PZ6J-Mq-1xnjKW8ptRdcRmAuCQN6_0Tda7qw-p9lAv0CqfROXWfebdv5xIK987C2aBE/s1600/COP_Cover.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a>Well, I'll just pick right up from where Part 1 left off. After another night of not enough sleep, Saturday morning was upon us. Saturday is typically "Conquest of Paradise Day" for me, and this was no exception - sort of. The 4th and final heat was at 9:00 am that morning. Since Brian had arrived late, this was his 1st chance at CoP. Due to my victory in Heat 2, I was in the semis, but I always like to play, so I joined in Heat 4 as well. Randomly drawing Samoa again, I had fortunate tile draws. The random effects took their toll a little bit, and the Hiva and Raitea players used them against the Tonga player and myself. The only unfortunate part of the game was that the Tonga player misinterpreted some rules, and got a little perturbed about that, as well as thinking that the rest of the table was picking on him even when he was down. I don't think that was true, but he had a little bit of a sore spot with the game, and that made things a bit tense. In the end I pulled out the victory after conquering some of the native inhabited islands to the west. This got me the #1 seed in the semi-finals. I had my choice of homelands, so I picked Samoa, which had treated me so well in the tournament. The semis consisted of 3 4-player games. The 3 winners and the "best" 2nd place would advance to the finals. I was a bit chagrined when the gentleman from the previous game was assigned to my table again, but he seemed to have gotten over the earlier game, and had a find attitude this time around. Brian was assigned to my table, and our 4th was a young lady who's name I don't remember (I wish I hadn't lost my notes). I thought I had another good game going, with several good island pulls. The Tonga player and I were clearly in the lead, and Brian tried his best to convince the young woman that they should focus on us, but she was intent on attacking Brian. That effectively took the two of them out of the game. I was preparing to attack Tonga, but I waited too long. By virtue of good island pulls and Arts&Culture cards, he declared victory. I was 4 or so points behind. One of the other games had to go to a tie-breaker, so that meant I wouldn't get in the final. My reign as defending WBC CoP champion had come to an end.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPkJwy2tYlTaX9O6qe3I8GcmdtyMPUxvSySBZa_74mc9hA5HbKUHDXHaEKEQCoBbMSDe6_AMfy7IcuDNXLECFisE9vERoPCCPGKrVAl46M-y8R7LoYEoNUN73UIeUuRbNiMsF_3BPPXB8/s1600/concordia_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPkJwy2tYlTaX9O6qe3I8GcmdtyMPUxvSySBZa_74mc9hA5HbKUHDXHaEKEQCoBbMSDe6_AMfy7IcuDNXLECFisE9vERoPCCPGKrVAl46M-y8R7LoYEoNUN73UIeUuRbNiMsF_3BPPXB8/s1600/concordia_cover.jpg" height="320" width="227" /></a>Saturday tends to be full of semi-finals and finals, so getting into new games becomes somewhat of a challenge. I decided to go to the demo for <i>Concordia</i>, a game which Paul had picked up in the vendor area based on reputation. While waiting for the demo, we watched a bit of the Memoir '44 mega-Overlord game, which was simulating the entirety of the D-Day landing. There must have been 16 or so players, presided over by designer Richard Borg. I had the pleasure of chatting with him for a few minutes - he was very nice, and opined that the mega-Overlord scenario was probably a "bit much", but fun for a convention.<br />
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I had some trouble keeping my attention during the Concordia demo...lack of sleep was catching up to me, but I decided to jump in the heat after the demo anyway. My opponents were all more experienced, but I think the most experienced had played maybe 5 or 6 games. My big problem is that I really didn't understand how scoring would work - and scoring doesn't happen until the game is over. Like many euros, you can score for a variety of things. I just didn't have a coherent plan on what to focus on, but even though I finished 4th, my broad approach didn't land me too far behind the leaders. I don't know what to think of this game...I didn't love it, but I would be interested in trying it again.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkCwZv9bL5-W7mbe1MQe7W9scw-VKOYjVoMXyGuhrbt3X2xqHMQqO3eLNharWay_iL60cZb98KCW_8Qhv4n1CzE136kFENEaDoQc_L2yOJrk5e3Jn4VSGQhq4nKqRsjPBGICB8xhwhZgE/s1600/confusion_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkCwZv9bL5-W7mbe1MQe7W9scw-VKOYjVoMXyGuhrbt3X2xqHMQqO3eLNharWay_iL60cZb98KCW_8Qhv4n1CzE136kFENEaDoQc_L2yOJrk5e3Jn4VSGQhq4nKqRsjPBGICB8xhwhZgE/s1600/confusion_cover.jpg" height="166" width="200" /></a>Brian had gotten himself into the Tigris & Euphrates semi-finals, so Paul and I met in open gaming for a few rounds of <i>Confusion:Espionage and Deception in the Cold War</i>. This is a great 2-player game that doesn't get to the table often enough, where you don't know how your own pieces can move...thus your opponent has to say "yes" or "no" when you attempt to make a move. The objective is to get the briefcase, and carry it off your opponents edge of the board. Our first game was quick, with Paul essentially bum rushing the briefcase off my side for the victory. Our 2nd game was much more "tactical", though Paul still won in the end.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqwXyORwkJo6lFVydJ7MclslyFvk_FqD2-xOB8vnz1CRturYP50NdrDh4RfUTJUN9Jfy2hDV0WZngVTRulhzDBPUq4KuLa6hWjARM-3p2FpkgqOS2aOJWIRKKGa0PUtw9attGk-3Wz4_I/s1600/thunder_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqwXyORwkJo6lFVydJ7MclslyFvk_FqD2-xOB8vnz1CRturYP50NdrDh4RfUTJUN9Jfy2hDV0WZngVTRulhzDBPUq4KuLa6hWjARM-3p2FpkgqOS2aOJWIRKKGa0PUtw9attGk-3Wz4_I/s1600/thunder_cover.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a>Brian re-emerged, his dreams of glory in Tigris & Euphrates smashed, and then we were joined by Bryan Fischer and John Sizemore of <a href="http://nevermoregames.com/">Nevermore Games</a>. We broke out <i>Thunder Alley</i>, a NASCAR inspired racing game. In Thunder Alley, you play a team of cars, and you use cards to move either your single card, or the entire row of cars that your car may be linked with. As you play cards, damage will build up on your cars, eventually forcing a pit stop. The winner isn't necessarily who finishes first, but who accumulate the most points among his cars for things like leading laps. I liked the game, but I didn't love it. It was a bit more fiddly than I hoped for, and there was a certain luck of the cards element. Someone made the comparison to <i>Formula Motor Racing</i>, and I think that was apt. I would play it again, but I think <i>Formula D</i> remains my car racing game of choice.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaodcj9p8vd83hXgEc-GYOj5O71zUbq9HvwAB1aVxbUGP9VIZGThrY9WusENWnI5y3kX8OW4_ocPoNtWwlldzJHgoIdJy1B2PAyXxZrKFdq12Uvk1nXte8E-JxFA9vdmUxT7qxo1jTnLw/s1600/pergamon_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaodcj9p8vd83hXgEc-GYOj5O71zUbq9HvwAB1aVxbUGP9VIZGThrY9WusENWnI5y3kX8OW4_ocPoNtWwlldzJHgoIdJy1B2PAyXxZrKFdq12Uvk1nXte8E-JxFA9vdmUxT7qxo1jTnLw/s1600/pergamon_cover.jpg" height="200" width="138" /></a>Bryan and John took their leave, and Paul taught us <i>Pergamon</i>, a game about digging for archaeological treasures, and then displaying them in a museum. By this time, lack of sleep was really catching up to me. I liked the game well enough, better than Brian did...but would certainly like to try it again when I'm more awake.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUBvb795GnBzp45gmIyxEuG6uI48pE3E_iLHzcxQdxzSwDIaZkryL7FVCiAueftbAr49pcMJp90jp2W8U77NFeTQc_imiHngMamamrkFM_0pTBhhRSamOkR5orCJwZdi9F5i-tkuC4pb0/s1600/magblast_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUBvb795GnBzp45gmIyxEuG6uI48pE3E_iLHzcxQdxzSwDIaZkryL7FVCiAueftbAr49pcMJp90jp2W8U77NFeTQc_imiHngMamamrkFM_0pTBhhRSamOkR5orCJwZdi9F5i-tkuC4pb0/s1600/magblast_cover.jpg" height="200" width="108" /></a></div>
Sunday morning we got in a couple more games in open gaming. Brian Goodman and Dave (gah!, what's Dave's last name) joined us for a game of <i>Mag Blast</i>. This is a sort of tongue-in-cheek game about battling each other's space fleets. The unfortunate part is that like <i>Bang!</i>, there is player elimination, and I was eliminated early. After that, we got in one more 3-player game of Villainous Vikings, and then called it a trip.<br />
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So, another WBC in the books. But what does the future hold? The big announcement was that starting in 2016, the WBC is moving a little bit west, to Seven Springs Ski resort. As you might expect with gamers, there is no shortage of opinions on this...many negative, and many positive. There are some legitimate complaints, and some not so legitimate ("It's no longer an east coast convention!" Really...it's moving an hour or so west...it's still east of Pittsburgh for crying out loud). <br />
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The key for me is that the Lancaster Host is simply a dump at this point. The management doesn't seem to care about the place...my favorite this year was the sign on a table in the foyer advertising "Sign up now for low 2013 membership rates!" The food...never great quality...seemed a notch below this year. And the surrounding area isn't much better. I've stayed in 3 different hotels now - the "Rodehouse Inn", the Continental across the street, and this year, the Ramada just down the street. All 3 of them are marginal quality at best. I'm happy to try out Seven Springs...I think the drive will be a little longer, but an hour more at most. But to be honest, I have limited time and money for gaming conventions. Prezcon is a must for me every year, but I'm starting to hear the siren calls of Origins and GenCon. I would like to experience both of those. I may have to make a decision in the next year or two on whether to skip WBC or not. A lot of that may depend on where I am in further development with Santa's Workshop, and a couple other game ideas I have. We'll see...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkE0NWcXkPxe7cQ4FOcbuOZyyjs1j4BIvdKHos4EqFM6xZlJgXAegH7hHRn6LuwxifJ7mM6Hab8qHVXqPgh15M0REoN2PexIJPb4Eczg1lZzGbRQ58zXaViXTgPPt6Up1JgwRl4lT1HvU/s1600/host_pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkE0NWcXkPxe7cQ4FOcbuOZyyjs1j4BIvdKHos4EqFM6xZlJgXAegH7hHRn6LuwxifJ7mM6Hab8qHVXqPgh15M0REoN2PexIJPb4Eczg1lZzGbRQ58zXaViXTgPPt6Up1JgwRl4lT1HvU/s1600/host_pic.jpg" height="208" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One more year...</td></tr>
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<br />Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-7141567043491613812014-08-28T18:20:00.003-07:002014-08-28T18:20:39.182-07:00WBC 2014 Recap - Part 1Unfortunately, real life has gotten a little bit in the way the last month or two, so I've not picked my blogging back up at the pace I would like. However, things are getting back to normal, so I hope to do this a little more regularly. I did manage to squeeze in time to make the annual pilgrimage to Lancaster, PA for the World Boardgaming Championships from Thurs-Sunday, though. I took some notes - but have since lost those, and I didn't do a good job with picture-taking this year (I will be glad to see Summer 2014 come to a close...it's been challenging, and I've been off my game). So, I'm going to do my best to give a brief recap, with some thoughts on WBC in general. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxEbalJahrqai0S0DJiS3DDEcGKrK6XanUP30bIi28O0YBMr74kC0eGkjN9Y_uAz9fV_jaFQUaqPd3HwfmRRx_VZ_iMCnEfZVGm-JXW3sq14OrFy3yfNEtgksy2fteItuu0hGUTWQcR00/s1600/bpalogor.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxEbalJahrqai0S0DJiS3DDEcGKrK6XanUP30bIi28O0YBMr74kC0eGkjN9Y_uAz9fV_jaFQUaqPd3HwfmRRx_VZ_iMCnEfZVGm-JXW3sq14OrFy3yfNEtgksy2fteItuu0hGUTWQcR00/s1600/bpalogor.gif" height="150" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisB1IKrOzpn7rwQ9ItbG3HnVB5gSHpj-0MjskBqU5f4NMeTf2rI-0ZXzwQkAdNLdw7WBhrWVSEiIgz_CUQhp8U9GHVrZ1TDM772YjA8XE3p2nFQTIvscpvC7bDEB_OhZCBCQPLT8oaqzU/s1600/ThurnTaxis_Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisB1IKrOzpn7rwQ9ItbG3HnVB5gSHpj-0MjskBqU5f4NMeTf2rI-0ZXzwQkAdNLdw7WBhrWVSEiIgz_CUQhp8U9GHVrZ1TDM772YjA8XE3p2nFQTIvscpvC7bDEB_OhZCBCQPLT8oaqzU/s1600/ThurnTaxis_Cover.jpg" height="200" width="142" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSEYuwK6I-BpIe5vKqNxDNFV37Mqv7InLEU5ot2m7FIxMh6NENXZ2IhkBz5YXGRSeoq5r0R-zptfdCMaiwOZHXMPGC_CNXv1mjEc72WOh8fQ98it-5DMEV7tg7zIn5Sj5nC-IzDs7IbGo/s1600/7Wonders_Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSEYuwK6I-BpIe5vKqNxDNFV37Mqv7InLEU5ot2m7FIxMh6NENXZ2IhkBz5YXGRSeoq5r0R-zptfdCMaiwOZHXMPGC_CNXv1mjEc72WOh8fQ98it-5DMEV7tg7zIn5Sj5nC-IzDs7IbGo/s1600/7Wonders_Cover.jpg" height="198" width="200" /></a>My friend Paul Owen and I headed up early Thursday morning. We got there around 10ish, and headed in to the Lancaster Host. I thought about playing <i>Stone Age</i>, however I decided to play <i>Thurn & Taxis</i>, which I don't get to pay often...in fact my last play was last year at WBC. I was seated with 3 veterans, and had to ask for a quick rehash of the rules, which they provided. The game went fairly quickly...it ended about a turn or two before I was ready and I finished in last place...however it was very close with a 5 or 6 point spread from first to last. I was pleased with how I fared against 3 players who obviously were much more familiar with the game than I was. Next up for me was a round of <i>7 Wonders</i>. GM Nick Ferris has a great randomizing method to seat people with unique cards he hands out to everyone, calls a row and column and everyone had their table and seat assignment. My three opponents consisted of 1 fellow who was pretty experienced and 2 other folks who were fairly new to the game. We played 2 games in an hour, and I finished 3rd in both, for an overall 3rd place. In both games, I was hampered with lack of certain resources. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz8oF9gA-EIHCFuQMJJTsFJEMhc4JixVDZh-DS_ZUmthE5si94kFnjcL2DDw8519IuXTOVesfXKCdA7qeKpwRR9oIvtPY7avvTnmUxqXvHd5eJ4Y18idAoCwE_Bl4JtkfJFjmnvaKDJRY/s1600/COP_Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz8oF9gA-EIHCFuQMJJTsFJEMhc4JixVDZh-DS_ZUmthE5si94kFnjcL2DDw8519IuXTOVesfXKCdA7qeKpwRR9oIvtPY7avvTnmUxqXvHd5eJ4Y18idAoCwE_Bl4JtkfJFjmnvaKDJRY/s1600/COP_Cover.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYlDvY6pzzb7bN8qF6rx1yLRft4Dli0JVoylOOovsxX3NL7Cbi_-hKczCdsGjhqmt3IwxRh3-T5-3oUMyA0VD-SjTgqgngk1CdurdtTmLjSnurmxxD7phBcYEUirXuFYqarMJt4bGyj0/s1600/Navegador_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYlDvY6pzzb7bN8qF6rx1yLRft4Dli0JVoylOOovsxX3NL7Cbi_-hKczCdsGjhqmt3IwxRh3-T5-3oUMyA0VD-SjTgqgngk1CdurdtTmLjSnurmxxD7phBcYEUirXuFYqarMJt4bGyj0/s1600/Navegador_cover.jpg" height="200" width="141" /></a>Paul didn't advance either and I tagged along with him to the Lampeter room where he was going to engage in some <i>Wooden Ships & Iron Men</i>. I took the opportunity to relearn this game, and played against one of the experienced hands in a frigate duel. As expected my experienced foe got the upper hand, I didn't adjust to the wind very well...but his hot dice luck didn't help any. Next up I took part in a heat of <i>Navegador</i>...another game I don't get to play often enough. I concentrated on building churches, but my lack of investing in any kind of ships in the 2nd half of the game caught up to me in the end. Still, I finished in 2nd, about 8 or so points behind the winner. At 9:00 that night I participated in my first heat of Conquest of Paradise, which had been expanded to 4 heats this year. As at Prezcon, we were playing with the advanced rules and random events. My game went very quickly...we were done in under an hour. As Samoa I started last, and my 3 opponents each found 2 or more islands on their first turn. I only found found one, but I consistently found islands over the next several rounds, and was able to expand my Polynesian empire for a quick and bloodless win (there was no combat in the entire game). <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEOSfFlGsB5TXLJDmdA49-79XPLBWp4uNVkBm152CDxPqyaLyGvwAel30qpPNsON9uP1PuHv9P5yTYGQ-5KZFPWfWkGxQbugmWp4IohtZq7BCd8e4KfW-PYhgOCPKU8MPXbCBy7fA-6_o/s1600/Tobago_Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEOSfFlGsB5TXLJDmdA49-79XPLBWp4uNVkBm152CDxPqyaLyGvwAel30qpPNsON9uP1PuHv9P5yTYGQ-5KZFPWfWkGxQbugmWp4IohtZq7BCd8e4KfW-PYhgOCPKU8MPXbCBy7fA-6_o/s1600/Tobago_Cover.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdNQvNhoKSohvo7CpjLCe1eWRkLB60ig4hF6CSdsL9AfdTeN_T8QaVWRKJXQEK9xu41dA8fXt1OPpaap6AhiEAtUnYnWSwKeGDm2kDjxp3614_fSJlliGHXHTgH3pMU-cpNbWDzkIREo/s1600/POWS_Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdNQvNhoKSohvo7CpjLCe1eWRkLB60ig4hF6CSdsL9AfdTeN_T8QaVWRKJXQEK9xu41dA8fXt1OPpaap6AhiEAtUnYnWSwKeGDm2kDjxp3614_fSJlliGHXHTgH3pMU-cpNbWDzkIREo/s1600/POWS_Cover.jpg" height="200" width="177" /></a>After that, Paul and I wen to the open gaming area where we found Peter Gousis and his friend Jerry and played a game of <i>Tobago</i>, a clever little game about finding treasure, where the location of the treasures is narrowed down in a sort of logical card progression by the players. Peter had come to our Unpub Mini and I was glad to catch up with him. After that we all joined several other players, including T.C. Petty III for some Coup, followed by Panic on Wall Street. With Coup, we played with the Reformation expansion, where players are assigned to the Catholic or Protestant faction, and can't act against someone in their faction...although you can change someone else's faction. It adds another twist to an already fun hidden role/deduction game. We had played Panic on Wall Street last year, and I was kind of "meh" on the game, though as I recall I was very tired at the time. This time we also started late, but I got into the game more...and manged to eek out a win as a manager by riding the high-risk shares. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX0arTj7AGkgMUPzeUXTrwSgfFAs-geNYm3wFNNN7AajdfHUt6NbNexYxZv4cu6wVgJENa3_8c-VOhTaJiXL5ZuAnez7-9qNX2xYbFjsmE4VrMGFN1UbC2zhvedXRVYFrAZDOSPoK2HpY/s1600/TTR_Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX0arTj7AGkgMUPzeUXTrwSgfFAs-geNYm3wFNNN7AajdfHUt6NbNexYxZv4cu6wVgJENa3_8c-VOhTaJiXL5ZuAnez7-9qNX2xYbFjsmE4VrMGFN1UbC2zhvedXRVYFrAZDOSPoK2HpY/s1600/TTR_Cover.jpg" height="199" width="200" /></a>Friday morning came too early (all the mornings seem to come too early at these conventions...) I briefly toyed with the idea of playing in the <i>Circus Maximus</i> heat, but decided to wait for the vendors to open at 10:00. I made a beeline to the Stronghold Games booth in order to pick up the <i>Die Fighter</i> expansion for <i>Space Cadets:Dice Duel</i>. (About a week later I had a package arrive at home...the copy of Die Fighter that I had forgotten I had pre-ordered...DOH). I picked up a few other things as well - a copy of <i>Caylus Magna Carta</i> (the card game version of <i>Caylus</i>), <i>Freedom:The Underground Railroad</i>, of which I had heard many good things, and game called <i>Quilt Show</i> to use as a gift for a friend that is really into quilting. I didn't actually sit down for a game until 1:00, when I decided to try my hand at a heat of <i>Ticket to Ride</i>. I enjoy TTR but I haven't played in a tournament in years because it's so popular, and it tends to conflict with other things. One player ran away with it at our table - I finished 4th...I might have finished higher but I knew I wasn't winning so went for the Hail Mary on the last turn and drew more tickets...none of them I had complete. But I did get a set of translucent trains just for playing. <br />
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There was another heat of Conquest of Paradise at 3:00, but instead I decided to help Paul with a demo of <i>East India Company</i> he was giving to a publisher. Now, I hadn't played EIC in a quite some time, and was eager to see the changes Paul had made. He had streamlined it by removing the dividend track, taking out the Caribbean, removing the tariffs, and eliminating the option of using wood to build new ships. The demo went well, I thought, although afterwards, on the drive home in particular, we brainstormed some about the game. I thought Paul had actually removed too much, and we talked specifically about a way to add the tariffs back in, and possible some changes to how the pirates work. Now, I will also admit that I had an ulterior motive. This same publisher had contacted me after our Mini Unpub, specifically about Santa's Workshop. I had sent him rulebook, but he had contacted me right after we got to WBC to tell me that it wasn't what they were looking for. Which is fine, I'm happy he looked at it...and did take the opportunity to get his advice for 5 minutes or so after the EIC demo was done. I specifically wanted to get his feedback on the theme...which had really gotten a negative reaction from a publisher at Unpub back in January. This particular publisher thought the theme may be a bit of a tough sell, but he didn't think it was necessarily a deal breaker. So, I was happy to get some feedback.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAACipaMa0To2KYpn5oYgg1aodyEMFlPLOM-I_8wzsSkbcOnHr5C6rSmkowYV8rv3AEVajTN1qRAOy6hnCc27Mgldogv_qzgvpsFhH8JhfnFnkK9s061SNMryydWvQlAplwdV4bSRHlog/s1600/spurs_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAACipaMa0To2KYpn5oYgg1aodyEMFlPLOM-I_8wzsSkbcOnHr5C6rSmkowYV8rv3AEVajTN1qRAOy6hnCc27Mgldogv_qzgvpsFhH8JhfnFnkK9s061SNMryydWvQlAplwdV4bSRHlog/s1600/spurs_cover.jpg" height="199" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaCTm30oYOIyIJF3M65V1CUCewHkya7UZkHWOZF2iaCeIBvVGrVoLVXfjmNpeCSxUPk8_EKcfR6pnYOHFvVhyphenhyphen74IXcxaVdINi5ZJj_LV_XPbnwdx2O4z_vC_nuMv1wNg_fwiCSNC6Tw0Q/s1600/VVikings_Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaCTm30oYOIyIJF3M65V1CUCewHkya7UZkHWOZF2iaCeIBvVGrVoLVXfjmNpeCSxUPk8_EKcfR6pnYOHFvVhyphenhyphen74IXcxaVdINi5ZJj_LV_XPbnwdx2O4z_vC_nuMv1wNg_fwiCSNC6Tw0Q/s1600/VVikings_Cover.jpg" height="200" width="128" /></a>About this time, Brian made his WBC appearance, and we just decided to hit open gaming. Paul sat down to re-teach us <i>St. Petersberg</i>, and we were joined by a 4th player...who also wanted to teach the game. Once we got started, it came back quick enough. Our 4th player won, but I made a strong showing with a building heavy strategy. Brian and I hit the vendors for a while, and I picked up a copy of <i>Villainous Vikings</i>. We had seen a demo of this game last year at WBC when designer Jeremy Stoltzfus had brought his prototype to demo. Victory Point games had picked it up, and I decided to get a copy, including a promo captain. Brian and I sat down in open gaming to give a 2-player game a try. Fortunately, Jeremy was a few tables over teaching some other folk, so we were able to get quick answers to some rules questions. We had a fun game, but were thinking it would bet better with more than 2 players. After our game, Paul joined us along with Bill and Laurie from Nomad games. Brian had purchased a copy of Spurs from them earlier, and we broke it out. Set in the Old West, with just about every trope you can imagine packed into the game, this was probably the purchase of the con. The best part was watching Paul and Brian "gunfight" by drawing bullets out of their bags. Brian pulled out the victory, I was a few points behind in 2nd place. The last game of the night was another round of Villainous Vikings, with Paul joining in for a 3-player game. Paul ended up running away with the game, but I did think it was better with more players.<br />
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Well, I had intended to do one short recap of WBC, but I think it's probably better to break it up into two sections....so next up, Saturday & Sunday, plus general thoughts on WBC.Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-65773687465284336482014-06-24T20:52:00.003-07:002014-06-25T20:28:39.236-07:00Unpub Mini After-Action report<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzOd5YWDMXEBqhKkU551nH90Hbc9C-iU0xITzo9Ry6I_avQzVUjoGi9EwQxzQUb4uiArH7AQeRKcuz4mgaVO8hVmzFs4nVsQRzAM8iVSU4hdzBxzgM9pZP3O9c8DXiiChTdRPUv6h5hGI/s1600/Unpub_Mini_Logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzOd5YWDMXEBqhKkU551nH90Hbc9C-iU0xITzo9Ry6I_avQzVUjoGi9EwQxzQUb4uiArH7AQeRKcuz4mgaVO8hVmzFs4nVsQRzAM8iVSU4hdzBxzgM9pZP3O9c8DXiiChTdRPUv6h5hGI/s1600/Unpub_Mini_Logo.png" height="146" width="320" /></a></div>
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Well, we had our Unpub Mini at the Game Parlor in Chantilly, VA this past Saturday - and I'm confident in saying it was a smashing success! In fact, it really exceeded my expectations. Now that it's over, I can say that I had some trepidation leading up to it. First, I was nervous about getting enough designers to show up. Well, we had 5 sign up within the first few days, and I think we had 10 slots filled after a week or two. In fact, we pulled a Spinal Tap and went to 11 when there was some sort of glitch on the Unpub website that allowed an 11th designer to sign up. Furthermore, I had a 12th designer, Andre Chautard, contact me a few days prior to see if he could bring his game. I told him that he should come...I didn't know if he'd get his game out, but it was at least a good networking experience. Andre did come, and got in a few plays of his game, so it worked out great.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJrJJ495vAE_YRA6GibumpU-5Tjge7obsA0E7BCkx2ljdTYYR1E5O0E7t2uFstY6g_hRNKQpLkZExxfLDv8xhPqQZ7Kxsmhpf3cxxcf1YiAs0atNB-OVx6A3EEKOZlADrmGhak4QhDT-8/s1600/GameParlor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJrJJ495vAE_YRA6GibumpU-5Tjge7obsA0E7BCkx2ljdTYYR1E5O0E7t2uFstY6g_hRNKQpLkZExxfLDv8xhPqQZ7Kxsmhpf3cxxcf1YiAs0atNB-OVx6A3EEKOZlADrmGhak4QhDT-8/s1600/GameParlor.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A couple of early designers await the opening...</td></tr>
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My next trepidation was our location. The Game Parlor is the normal haunt for our group, because it's close to many of our offices. I like the Game Parlor, and I've been going there for 20ish years, but they don't exactly have their finger on the pulse of the gaming industry as much as, for example, Labyrinth Games in D.C. And Chantilly, while in the D.C. metro area, is a bit out of the way. But, they do have lots of tables, and room for playing.<br />
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Finally, and this was my biggest worry - was getting playtesters. I feared that the 12 of us would just have to split up and play each others games all day. I printed flyers, sent emails to several local gaming groups, and tried to spread the word in the Game Parlor itself. More often than not I was met with a blank stare that read "why are you interrupting my game?!" However, my fears were unfounded, as we had over 30 folks playing games at our event! I had 30 on the sign up sheet, but I know there was a few I missed. Every designer got multiple plays of their game(s) in, as far as I know. So, huzzah!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVmEzsae2U9d5G922cP4v-ffCTg4EWDkpbI2R-HKzMw5-SczNfw9D6nNJTlI23WGJlD0tikqiriXAqvTH9epWuGmIQMfAnoVzbSmFu-fLyB-6YXG8gL1xXEFkGs4rocXjxjUznxPziE2U/s1600/Overall2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVmEzsae2U9d5G922cP4v-ffCTg4EWDkpbI2R-HKzMw5-SczNfw9D6nNJTlI23WGJlD0tikqiriXAqvTH9epWuGmIQMfAnoVzbSmFu-fLyB-6YXG8gL1xXEFkGs4rocXjxjUznxPziE2U/s1600/Overall2.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not a bad turnout...this is just about all Unpubbers!</td></tr>
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Now, let me talk a little about the designers and their games. I'll start with the ones I played.<br />
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Escape Velocity - Shadowsong Industries</h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqJbPrRLYKoYECTHoSyZBoa4g-hexIJi_i54HgVjzKDQ9Zk1-sTh1NS7-rlT4IAef3AEUZrijwEwxo1HL3qqDhuYMrZiJlT8a2vcxReahDKYxvMFT4pHRSoaQi_zF-pRG4b_ue34-4-dE/s1600/EscapeVelocity2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqJbPrRLYKoYECTHoSyZBoa4g-hexIJi_i54HgVjzKDQ9Zk1-sTh1NS7-rlT4IAef3AEUZrijwEwxo1HL3qqDhuYMrZiJlT8a2vcxReahDKYxvMFT4pHRSoaQi_zF-pRG4b_ue34-4-dE/s1600/EscapeVelocity2.JPG" height="320" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The endless track of Escape Velocity</td></tr>
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Escape Velocity is a spaceship racing game by the duo of Alf Shadowsong and Kiva Fecteau. The game is asymmetric in the sense that the different ships have different abilities and stats. At the beginning of the game, players have a chance to choose their "sponsor", which will give them additional abilities, depending on how many laps the race lasts. Movement on the racetrack is achieved by playing cards, and spending points to use different actions on the cards. The "track" is continuous...by means of a clever mechanic where the front board is transferred to the rear as racers approach the end.<br />
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I like the theme here, and this game has some things definitely going for it. I like the asymmetric ships, and I like the board swapping mechanic. I think some of the cards and some of the powers need further refinement and balancing - one card in particular killed me as Alf switched places with me when I was nearly a lap ahead of him - a killer in a 3 lap race. The person who went first each turn was the person in last place, and it was not always clear to me who that was - you sort of had to look at the board...and at each player's ship tableau to figure that out. The cards are also very text heavy - which means a lot of reading, particularly when you're dealt your initial hand. I think if Alf and Kiva can get a little more balance in some of the card effects, and streamline things a bit for quicker play, they'll really be on to something here. <br />
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<h4>
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<h4>
Knot Dice - Black Oak Games</h4>
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This is a very interesting dice game by Matthew O'Malley. The game consists of 36 identical dice, each face having a portion of a Celtic Knot inscribed on it. One of the great things about this, is that Matthew actually has several games designed using the dice. There's a speed game, a puzzle game, a co-op game, and a "team" game where you are teaming (sort of) with the players on either side of you. I sat down with Matthew and had a chance to play each of the iterations except for the "team" game.<br />
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The "speed game" (rolling your dice until you have no loose ends - whether it's one knot or several) and the "puzzle game" (where you can pass dice to your neighbor as you try to build a know) are pretty fleshed out games, and need little to no tweaking at this point. In the co-op game, where we work together to build the highest score possible (scoring a point per die intersection - meaning a 6x6 grid would be the highest) - it was interesting but lacked a bit of tension. Matthew and I spent the most time talking about this particular variant, and we eventually hit on the idea of being able to limit the amount of dice you could "throw out" of the game. This was a little bit inspired by the "fuse" mechanism of Hanabi. We played again, and the game definitely seemed more tense, and enjoyable. I don't know if that's the final answer, but I think it was a step in the right direction.<br />
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I very much look forward to Matthew getting this published, as I think Knot Dice would make the perfect game to carry around and play at dinner, or in between other games or activities. And for me, I am particularly drawn to the Celtic Knot theme (maybe I should have worn my kilt to the event).<br />
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<h4>
Salvation Road - Michael Kelley</h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ_qCklglswITRKONgrgZy3gSOyPMD1IwU9jAE0ct6XX5A7mdl31FoH1jQA48GtISF3krDgjUjtbJFTvXemfpnArICmdQuH8PPTpTjVCT1p43FeWXkWG15cZCJ-qtnmjvIO0v1u-oGLHk/s1600/Salvation_Road.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ_qCklglswITRKONgrgZy3gSOyPMD1IwU9jAE0ct6XX5A7mdl31FoH1jQA48GtISF3krDgjUjtbJFTvXemfpnArICmdQuH8PPTpTjVCT1p43FeWXkWG15cZCJ-qtnmjvIO0v1u-oGLHk/s1600/Salvation_Road.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waiting for Master Blaster to show up....</td></tr>
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In this co-op game due to be published by Van Ryder games, players take on the roles of heroes or survivors in a Mad Max-style setting. They must escape their fast deteriorating compound, and drive their truck to the town of "Salvation". Players send their characters out to search locations of food, fuel and ammo, all the while trying to avoid marauders and battling hunger and other disasters. Finally, when they get on the road, they must have collected enough supplies to make it through the journey.<br />
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I enjoyed this game, as much as for the setting as for the game play. Thank god it wasn't another zombie game! The game was tense, as we searched for supplies in an increasingly dangerous environment. I enjoyed the asymmetric play of each character having different attributes (the "survivors" tend to have hindrances). I look forward to playing this game with final artwork, as I think that will add to the overall theme.<br />
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<h4>
Horrible Hex - Stone Circle Games</h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU1gq0xZcE11OrudmFBzhYs06HaVxuBX81oXh9AVT-UhM_qEVGHW7upN6hmG6bGwhIkxh-YkUqYyEX-dFLDosyxmwuzpgic7Z8q2sVODEb6KUKud_swFON_kJRXDKxhoh5GqGiv7vEBkE/s1600/HorribleHex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU1gq0xZcE11OrudmFBzhYs06HaVxuBX81oXh9AVT-UhM_qEVGHW7upN6hmG6bGwhIkxh-YkUqYyEX-dFLDosyxmwuzpgic7Z8q2sVODEb6KUKud_swFON_kJRXDKxhoh5GqGiv7vEBkE/s1600/HorribleHex.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not so horrible, really...in fact it's quite good!</td></tr>
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I have to admit, this abstract game by Jon Moffat was not originally high on my list of games to try during the Unpub Mini, but I got a chance to sit down with Paul Owen and play a game, and I am certainly glad I did. In this game, reminiscent of Hive, players are playing hex tiles in an ever building configuration. The tiles are marked with either a circle or a star in the middle, and on different edges, there are arrows indicating how that tile can move in that direction - sliding, pushing, jumping, etc. Each player is dealt two cards that show a winning formation of hexes, based on the circles and stars. So, you are trying to manipulate the formation to complete one of your patterns, while avoiding completing your opponents. This is easier said than done. On two occasions, both Paul and I completed our own pattern..while simultaneously completing the opponents. This game is the definition of simple mechanics, but deep strategy. I had somewhat of a concern that it was too similar to Hive, but Paul convinced me that it was significantly different to stand on it's own - in particular, the different winning patterns for each player make it a different game.<br />
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<h4>
Aesop's Gambit - Michael Karg</h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik030mDhwU-Cbid1mNpmWF6KRmfObeQBJQgn_10O_oDBifmxhDB4PMpnG6JvAXTXbzBeeXC_W0STxsbKbxX9kOwEtXs2dhu9QKYhWD-FPejEsRsu8ahoAKnxFkLctKMD8Soks4TA6CWRY/s1600/AesopsGambit2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik030mDhwU-Cbid1mNpmWF6KRmfObeQBJQgn_10O_oDBifmxhDB4PMpnG6JvAXTXbzBeeXC_W0STxsbKbxX9kOwEtXs2dhu9QKYhWD-FPejEsRsu8ahoAKnxFkLctKMD8Soks4TA6CWRY/s1600/AesopsGambit2.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A "Fabled" variant of Poker</td></tr>
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A few of us played this poker variant by Michael Karg, in which the cards represent different animals out of Aesop's Fables. Each round, a situation is revealed, which requires different aspects to solve. Players bet on the card that they will lay down, and if it will have the highest attributes for that particular event. My feeling is that this game is still in the beginning design stages. I think that there is probably a place for a poker variant, especially one with an interesting theme...and Michael obviously did his research into Aesop. But the card play fell just a bit flat for me - if you had a "6" in the attribute needed that round, you bet...if not, you didn't. I think the cards need some balancing so that you can win without having a "6". Or maybe, I'm just a bad bluffer. But, I look forward to seeing where Michael takes this game.<br />
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Other games I did not have a chance to play -<br />
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<h4>
East India Company - Paul Owen</h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX4DFC0_wnTr6fF80pfyltqg3xTqYGSZWtbx_76HRQNux5BRFHax5hKesuwbSn8IJ6sLtfZdTBhvhixeMMNgETU501yzjNFXtJgpr6fnwmXRpfCV0c8UBovrQgaeES2JQsCjSUYhX7oqA/s1600/EIC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX4DFC0_wnTr6fF80pfyltqg3xTqYGSZWtbx_76HRQNux5BRFHax5hKesuwbSn8IJ6sLtfZdTBhvhixeMMNgETU501yzjNFXtJgpr6fnwmXRpfCV0c8UBovrQgaeES2JQsCjSUYhX7oqA/s1600/EIC.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">East India Company in action</td></tr>
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In his blog, Paul details how he wanted to trim down EIC. I cautioned him against throwing out too much, but he still streamlined it somewhat, and got in a playtest at our Unpub Mini. The reaction was generally favorable, and Paul feels like he's moving in the right direction.<br />
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<h4>
Reactor Scram - Paul Owen</h4>
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A game very much still in progress, Paul reported that in the two plays at the Unpub Mini, one went very short (which was his main concern) - the but the second went very long, which was a surprise. But I believe he got some good feedback from all of this.<br />
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<h4>
Trove - David Somerville</h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNcgJZAxATvmXG5zRfMRORGszgsPh4vigqSxyhKpIFpfM0o3F9-TD-6hjbclHqC9BFaXK2UADMCGMG9JlnnZQ3oUTYPDyYAkmeHIbW8xAM5Gl28UhX3I9QOjLFDDWToP9Y5Gv2b8Xz3LU/s1600/Trove.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNcgJZAxATvmXG5zRfMRORGszgsPh4vigqSxyhKpIFpfM0o3F9-TD-6hjbclHqC9BFaXK2UADMCGMG9JlnnZQ3oUTYPDyYAkmeHIbW8xAM5Gl28UhX3I9QOjLFDDWToP9Y5Gv2b8Xz3LU/s1600/Trove.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The very popular Trove in action...</td></tr>
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This game was most definitely hit, as I saw David continuously demoing it during the day, and everyone I talked to had good things to say about it. I consistently heard that some tweaking needed to be done, but this asymmetric (someone gets to play the cave!) dungeon game seems destined for good things. This is may be at the top of my list to play at the next Unpub event.<br />
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Lords of Baseball - Max Jamelli</h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEzvC3_3XOZOzXjTWmAvZj-KcQMACyapEkTrTpC_vH5o4Gv5iXCyzyM5MEjuiIuDI-Ls4W_RQwjTqVxM75aO9Qr06ew9hrxUFbunGnDfMpr5zVw3oURf-DhiFPHRtkk90tqljgHfadksE/s1600/Baseball2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEzvC3_3XOZOzXjTWmAvZj-KcQMACyapEkTrTpC_vH5o4Gv5iXCyzyM5MEjuiIuDI-Ls4W_RQwjTqVxM75aO9Qr06ew9hrxUFbunGnDfMpr5zVw3oURf-DhiFPHRtkk90tqljgHfadksE/s1600/Baseball2.JPG" height="133" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baseball junkies...take note!</td></tr>
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This is a game I really wanted to try, given the description, but I never had a chance to play. This appeared to be the "thinkiest" game at our event, and likely the longest. As the organizer, I was a bit loathe to commit to a multi-hour game, but this is another one I'm eager to try. I heard very good things from those who did play.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNWaoCbOOPGah7T2eDRuuQ0eb-SYPRAjUHYqWgfSgbS4ooiPchQWgAurxhf489hUZLkJN7bQEMCsWJ5gCja60Rh9b007lD4C7vwcAa546HsaNrhxs9VBhPkZItI_l1dCHCDg_eQdfxnGc/s1600/PostPosition.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNWaoCbOOPGah7T2eDRuuQ0eb-SYPRAjUHYqWgfSgbS4ooiPchQWgAurxhf489hUZLkJN7bQEMCsWJ5gCja60Rh9b007lD4C7vwcAa546HsaNrhxs9VBhPkZItI_l1dCHCDg_eQdfxnGc/s1600/PostPosition.JPG" height="200" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And they're off!</td></tr>
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<h4>
Post Position - Dr. Witcz</h4>
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Another one I meant to play but didn't get a chance. Paul had been talking this one up since last Unpub. If there's one thing that I feel bad about, it's that I think I let down Austin <span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">Smokowicz </span>a bit. He was wanting to get a large player count in (the game holds up to 12), but we were only able to get him a 6 player game.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin6j38kfBuL1GgsEYHhDH5b3ikdGGy18ZeKyla4mdY-1kMriM0-1hlqHQbO1MmH5SyxTMHhxhi-11w5iU4GRwRECvreWU-B4wE2CwlTxymWeUWU6ZMlv7n77KZDVNxJUwb1NyYMSmcbHc/s1600/Street_Racing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin6j38kfBuL1GgsEYHhDH5b3ikdGGy18ZeKyla4mdY-1kMriM0-1hlqHQbO1MmH5SyxTMHhxhi-11w5iU4GRwRECvreWU-B4wE2CwlTxymWeUWU6ZMlv7n77KZDVNxJUwb1NyYMSmcbHc/s1600/Street_Racing.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Is this legal?!</td></tr>
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<h4>
Underground Street Racing - Dr. Witcz</h4>
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Austin was able to get in a few playtests of their new game. I watched Paul play a few rounds, but I had trouble following the action. I look forward to see how this is developed prior to Unpub 5<br />
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<h4>
Boondoggle - Michael Karg</h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdYpGx73HadyMuiufOMBIBVJ6F5DkfYugsHCwzx-qbrIIENcbFXqk0B0h0K5-4JAOkl9Xrr972vQFchUE86Q_q2mBHAc5lPzeLOAABXROCoxa4x-gvjDFUertIf_9vqx08IneoDZJznA/s1600/Boondoggle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdYpGx73HadyMuiufOMBIBVJ6F5DkfYugsHCwzx-qbrIIENcbFXqk0B0h0K5-4JAOkl9Xrr972vQFchUE86Q_q2mBHAc5lPzeLOAABXROCoxa4x-gvjDFUertIf_9vqx08IneoDZJznA/s1600/Boondoggle.JPG" height="133" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There's the "Bridge to Nowhere" </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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This was Mike's main game to bring, and I believe he got in 1 playtest. I'm not sure how the game went, but from the discussion I saw afterward, I think he got plenty of feedback.<br />
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<h4>
Movie Links - Andre Chautard</h4>
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Thanks to Matthew O'Malley for getting me the correct title of this game by Andre. I think he got in at least 2 playtests, and I heard positive reviews. This is a party game where you have cards with movie titles, and then are disks with things like "racy" or "adventure" on them, and you have to connect the movie cards with these disks somehow...I didn't get the full explanation...but I will tell you that I think it was neat that we had a "party game" mixed in with our allotment of euro and strategy games.<br />
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<h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Last Bastion - <span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">Peter Gousis</span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">Several people expressed interest in this game based on the description, and I know they got in one play...I myself didn't hear the feedback, but I hope the designers got good feedback.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">Hey...what about Santa's Workshop?!?!</span></span></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJpwjwi_QT_TI0Odva5jgeRGycIqnlH8ygAsTmT2umKPluQVjX18mqahdGLH9ZR5PDJPU4vISMx9oFhvvyKlI7jZPOKHohOmQKiy5QiGH0GlwTwgP8juosqBXcCCpUGZFZr8dvRf6Qccg/s1600/SantasWorkshop2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJpwjwi_QT_TI0Odva5jgeRGycIqnlH8ygAsTmT2umKPluQVjX18mqahdGLH9ZR5PDJPU4vISMx9oFhvvyKlI7jZPOKHohOmQKiy5QiGH0GlwTwgP8juosqBXcCCpUGZFZr8dvRf6Qccg/s1600/SantasWorkshop2.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Who's naughty and who's nice here?</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">Oh yeah, I had a game there! Well, I plan on dedicating a whole blog post to not only what came out of the Unpub Mini, but what I've been doing on the game since Unpub 4. I had snuck in a playtest the previous Tuesday, and made some tweaks before our event. At the Unpub Mini, I got in 2 playtests, and got some valuable feedback. I think I'm headed in the right direction after a few months flailing since Unpub 4 - but there are still some tweaks to be made. In the 2nd playtest on Saturday in particular, one flaw became much more clear, and I think I have a better grasp on fixing that. Stay tuned to the next blog post!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">So, that wrap things up - I'm sorry if I missed a game or two in my recap. I'm definitely looking forward to the next Unpub event - I even have a devious plan to maybe do another "Mini" prior to Unpub 5, in order to do some tweaks prior to the big event. We'll see. In any case, I would like to thank the designer that came out, and all of the playtesters, and I look forward to seeing you folks at future events! </span></span><br />
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Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-90837105762332235542014-06-02T19:55:00.000-07:002014-06-02T19:56:48.094-07:00Unpub Mini - Chantilly, VA June 21st 2014I seem to have been a little lax in my blogging lately, and I will make up for that in the near future. First thing to do, however is to announce the "Unpub Mini" that <a href="http://paulowengames.blogspot.com/">Paul Owen</a> and I are hosting on June 21st.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUh6Xrldsia281qcF27w2NjwvHYf9KGVN-arpenGdsaP71n6yh3Eqn8M9FGH0P_yepTEfJSCX5gDk8Eu09MBnatkOWGpTEdak-OnQSXL6I_zsec0giwkwmcvwvp02nvEMR6bVGtII1OAU/s1600/Unpub_Mini_Logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUh6Xrldsia281qcF27w2NjwvHYf9KGVN-arpenGdsaP71n6yh3Eqn8M9FGH0P_yepTEfJSCX5gDk8Eu09MBnatkOWGpTEdak-OnQSXL6I_zsec0giwkwmcvwvp02nvEMR6bVGtII1OAU/s1600/Unpub_Mini_Logo.png" height="146" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Ever wanted to give feedback directly to game designers?</b><br />
<b>Interested in trying the latest board game concepts before they hit store shelves?</b><br />
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<b>If so, participation in an "Unpub" event may be just what you're looking for!</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11pt;">Founded in 2010, The Unpublished Games Network, called <a href="http://unpub.net/">Unpub</a>, is a
growing community of game designers, publishers, players, retailers and
artists working towards the creation of new and unique table top games that
will keep people entertained for generations to come! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11pt;">The latest main Unpub convention in January 2014 featured over 50
designers with their latest concepts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An
Unpub “Mini” is chance to bring the Unpub experience to local venues and reach
out to gamers, giving them a chance to provide valuable feedback and
participate in the game design process. On June 21st, an Unpub Mini will be held at:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.gameparlor.com/"><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11pt;">Game Parlor</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/13936+Metrotech+Dr/@38.896678,-77.424753,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89b64687f3367117:0x388206d095688876">13936 Metrotech Drive</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/13936+Metrotech+Dr/@38.896678,-77.424753,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89b64687f3367117:0x388206d095688876">Chantilly, VA 20151</a></div>
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The event will run the duration of the store hours, from 11AM - 10PM.<br />
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Note that Game Parlor typically charges a $2 "table fee" that's good for all day to play in the store. <b><span style="color: red;">However, if you participate in at least one playtest, the Unpub Mini designers will pay for your ticket!</span></b><br />
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Here are some of the games that will be featured at the Unpub Mini:<br />
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Boondoggle </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">- </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">Boondoggle used to be just nice folks and dirt roads. Then, the
money pours in. Small-time schemers and crooked dreamers bring their dirty
machines and dirtier deals. There’s room for you in this town. Designer - Mike Karg</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">East India Company</span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;"> - </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">In the days of sail, </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">opportunities </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">emerged to bring exotic
goods from around the known world to domestic markets. </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">Players </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">preside over European
investment companies in 18th century global colonization and trade. Designer - Paul Owen</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Escape Velocity </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">- Forget the US and USSR -
this is the real space race and you're in the cockpit, trying to maneuver your
space ship to victory! Designer - Kiva Fecteau</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Horrible Hex </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">-</span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">A</span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">n </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">abstract tile laying and
shifting game that pits opponents against one another in an arena of foresight
and spatial geometry</span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">. Designer - Jonathan Moffat</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Lords </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">of </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Baseball - </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">An </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">economic simulation </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">owning a franchise, not playing 9 </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">innings. Designer - Max Jamelli</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Knot </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Dice - </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">Games</span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">, puzzles, and art using 44
custom dice that connect edge-to-edge creating Celtic knot </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">designs. </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">Included is a cooperative
game, a real-time game, and several competitive dice-laying and dice-building
games</span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">. Designer - Matthew O'Malley</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Post Position </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">- An </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">exciting horse racing game </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">where you </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">are literally invested in
the horses. At the end of the race horses will payout only to players who own
shares of those horses. Designer - Austin Smokowicz</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Reactor Scram </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">- </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">In this co-op game, players work in a neglected reactor plant.
Some days are worse than others. But they all know that the
really bad day will </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">come - when </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">too many things break down at once. </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">Players must try </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">to survive </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">that </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">really bad day and get the
reactor plant in a safe condition before everything goes out of control... Designer - Paul Owen</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Salvation Road – </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">Cooperative game in which
the players try to survive in a post-apocalyptic world to reach “Salvation”. </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">Players must survive the Marauders hunting them down at every turn
and the environment </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Due to be published by Van Ryder Games in
late 2014. Designer - Michael Kelley</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Santa’s Workshop – </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">With the big night fast
approaching, which team of elves will best help Santa prepare?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Build toys, collect coal for those on the
naughty list…and don’t forget to feed the reindeer! Designer - Keith Ferguson</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">The Last Bastion - </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With your garrison slaughtered, you and your
fellow citizens must defend your home of Bastion against the Barbarians</span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">. You aren't a trained soldier so you have to balance your time
between training and fighting. </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">Designer - Peter Gousis</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Trove </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">- </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">An asymmetrical </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">fantasy adventure </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">where players </span><span style="font-family: Rockwell; font-size: 11.5pt;">take on the roles of the
Knight, the Goblin Horde, the Cave, and the Dragon — each with unique pieces,
powers, and paths to victory! Designer - David Somerville</span></div>
<br />Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-49291054663764943912014-03-22T13:00:00.000-07:002014-03-22T13:00:45.673-07:002014 Prezcon - Part 3Time to wrap up this year's Prezcon coverage. Saturday at Prezcon is always interesting tournament-wise...there's a few heats left, but mostly you're getting down to semi-finals and finals...so your day may be packed...or you may have lots of time for open gaming. My day started by bringing my extra games down to register for the auction - or rather, the auction store. I wasn't sure whether to register for the regular auction or the "store", but I didn't think I had anything that would start a big bidding war, so I just went with the store. One of the games I put in was <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5824/the-kids-of-catan"><i>Kids of Catan</i></a>, which is a beautiful game, but the mechanics are little more than roll and move, and my kids outgrew it a few years ago. I was gratified to later in the ballroom to see that a young mother has purchased it, and was playing it with her young children. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitR6TlE41yJHE2lINklasyUvNKoXdS5aT0056DF0ul306J4HAA3_sbJktHUk1Gw0CXqSHJkZWmHLBla64Em5KDiBrP4r3Ps3amSdNfcY40amaB-RBotpF3C9tnglw3VLxLX7MnKvJjrh8/s1600/Chicago_Express.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitR6TlE41yJHE2lINklasyUvNKoXdS5aT0056DF0ul306J4HAA3_sbJktHUk1Gw0CXqSHJkZWmHLBla64Em5KDiBrP4r3Ps3amSdNfcY40amaB-RBotpF3C9tnglw3VLxLX7MnKvJjrh8/s1600/Chicago_Express.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture courtesy of boardgamegeek.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Game-wise, first up for me was a 9:00 heat of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31730/chicago-express"><i>Chicago Express</i></a> - I was eager to see if I could put to use any of the lessons I had learned the previous day. For a little while, it looked like it would just be a two player game between myself and another fellow - but Mike Senzig Jr. walked up at the last minute and joined us. Mike is an excellent player, particularly at these types of economic games. In the end, Mike beat me by about $10 or so...although I did the same thing to the 3rd player that had <br />
been done to me the day before - diverting the red train just before it reached Chicago. We finished in about 45 minutes or so, and we started a 2nd game "just for fun", and to try out some different theories, but we didn't get to finish as we had to run to other things. If I'd only been in a 2-player game, I likely would have won and reached the finals cheaply...but I'm not too upset, as I'm sure I would have been far outclassed there.<br />
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Next up was the semi-finals for <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822/carcassonne"><i>Carcassone</i></a>. My luck didn't quite hold up this year, and finished 3rd out of 4 players, failing to make the finals. Which wasn't too bad, as that saved me from the dilemma of playing while running <i>Lords of Waterdeep</i>. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXINUKjKgL8QGQgso_Elqxnpu-SJx5QmREXKYfJD0on7GW9vN3jfMMfhAWXwR7cvsGDElHwlmqHpWD4sORSIAiPStZTvujatw5fhqNsE73OqWaSw8V5yxaBhH1mFFTh1deLoChTwus5vM/s1600/Waterdeep_Heat2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXINUKjKgL8QGQgso_Elqxnpu-SJx5QmREXKYfJD0on7GW9vN3jfMMfhAWXwR7cvsGDElHwlmqHpWD4sORSIAiPStZTvujatw5fhqNsE73OqWaSw8V5yxaBhH1mFFTh1deLoChTwus5vM/s1600/Waterdeep_Heat2.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2 games during the 2nd heat</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
At 1:00 I had my 2nd heat of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/110327/lords-of-waterdeep"><i>Lords of Waterdeep</i></a>. I didn't play in this round, but just kind of hung out and waited for questions (there weren't very many), and did some browsing at the vendors. I had 6 games of 4 players in the 2nd heat, and all the games went fairly quick. After the heat, I did a quick tally<br />
to get 16 finalists - I had 11 individual winners, and took the closest 5 2nd place finishers for the semis. This in theory would set me up with 4 4-player semis, from which the winners would advance to the finals. <br />
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I had some time before the semis, so I wandered to open gaming, and Paul joined me for a game of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68448/7-wonders"><i>7 Wonders</i></a> with a group. Again, names are escaping me, but there was one young guy there with his father and his future father-in-law, and Mark Crescenzi joined us as well. I hadn't played 7 Wonders in a while, and I'd forgotten how much I like it. The expansions are nice, but a simple game of the basic game is still a lot of fun. We also had time to get in a game of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41114/the-resistance"><i>The Resistance</i></a>, although we aborted halfway through when the traitors became obvious.<br />
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At the <i>Waterdeep</i> semis, I ended up short on players, as some folks elected to play in <i>Ra</i>. That turned into a little bit of an issue on Saturday night, as I was conflicting with both <i>Ra</i> and later <i>Stone Age</i>, which appeal to the same type of players. For the semis, I ended up with 11 players, so we played 2 4-player games and 1 3-player game. I was in the 3-player game against John Gaebler (who I had narrowly beat in Heat 1) and Jonathan Bartholomew. I drew the building lords, Larissa, and I did a decent job building buildings without raising suspicion, and scoring 2 25 point quests in the final turns, but John Gaebler got the lieutenant early on, and then just got his euro-engine running, finishing with 198 points. In the other games, Mahmooda Sultana and Tim Gleeson won, with John Emery being the highest 2-place finisher. Again, however, we were conflicting with the final for <i>Stone Age</i>, which Mahmooda was in. She begged me to move the final later, but I was looking to avoid what happened last year, when the Waterdeep final went until midnight. So I told her she had to choose - she went with Stone Age, which put Mike Crescenzi in the final.<br />
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After a quick bio-break, we got the final started. I drifted in and out, just making sure there were no questions. John Gaebler was in the lead heading into the final round, but in a stunning play, Mike Crescenzi managed to used intrigue cards and build a building which allowed him to collect 4<br />
wizards over the course of the turn to complete the 25 point wizard quest, and emerge with the victory. It was a very dramatic ending to the game. Overall the <i>Waterdeep</i> tournament went well again this year - although we were down to 41
players from 60-something last year. At this point though, I'm 99% sure
I'm going to turn over the GMing duties to someone else. I enjoy
helping out the con, but GMing <i>Waterdeep</i> caused me to miss some other opportunities I would have liked to take advantage of. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMCkik-ghvCA37w_6CBzpc4b5d1oHzvfHaDW5prpGXZQYkFUuAQqjJJGv714OdGLEkv4NhNqzaIbM6AxEbyaVgaDWgoeIkTwYBLIxlTX7Sw2Z7qao38NFd0akqM0ZGFiftUg3NIAN8DGk/s1600/Waterdeep_Final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMCkik-ghvCA37w_6CBzpc4b5d1oHzvfHaDW5prpGXZQYkFUuAQqjJJGv714OdGLEkv4NhNqzaIbM6AxEbyaVgaDWgoeIkTwYBLIxlTX7Sw2Z7qao38NFd0akqM0ZGFiftUg3NIAN8DGk/s1600/Waterdeep_Final.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The final - from L to R, Tim Gleeson, John Gaebler, John Emery, Mike Crescenzi</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr>
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Next up was Saturday night gaming. I found the rest of the gang downstairs playing <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19237/cash-n-guns"><i>Cash N Guns</i></a>, and joined in for the 2nd round. I'd seen this one played, but had yet to play it myself. It's a quick fun social game, and I think distills the essence of <i>Bang!</i> down into something more steamlined. After that, we played <i>The Resistance</i>, and then pulled out our old favorite <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/478/citadels"><i>Citadels</i></a>. I love <i>Citadels</i>, but 2:00 AM after 5 days of Prezcon may not have had me at my best....<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF4sXKNXwl9D6hRa-0UkOnySu_px8_bMxlxD5804kS9tnZgyqO4o8P6fNfk0DKQIC68lCiv70KHoWT4CvvKh0vogh6WgLHTL5Rkt4HiVekuPFGVl5dyRd35uP_ku4ctGFdnUvnOvsMIZU/s1600/Rampage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF4sXKNXwl9D6hRa-0UkOnySu_px8_bMxlxD5804kS9tnZgyqO4o8P6fNfk0DKQIC68lCiv70KHoWT4CvvKh0vogh6WgLHTL5Rkt4HiVekuPFGVl5dyRd35uP_ku4ctGFdnUvnOvsMIZU/s1600/Rampage.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meeple City being terrorized</td></tr>
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Sunday morning there were still heats of <i>7 Wonders</i> and <i>Settlers of Catan</i> happening, but I headed to open gaming, hoping to get <i>Santa's Workshop</i> in front of Chris Kirkman and Darrell Louder. I found Ben Rosset and Josh Tempkin down there, and looking at the game library, we chose to play <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/97903/rampage"><i>Rampage</i></a>. I'd played a few times with my kids, but I'd been wanting to play with adults. We had a blast, but Ben and I could not overcome Josh's sticky tongue (I'll leave it at that). Brian joined us after that, and gave one of Josh's prototypes a try. Entitled <i>Lesser Evil</i> at Unpub, he had rethemed it with a police motif, where you had to clean up the streets of your district in order to become the new commissioner. The new name is completely escaping me...it might be <i>Commissioner</i>. When I figure it out, I'll update the blog. I very much liked the game, with a sort of dice-as-worker placement mechanic, as you tried to get rid of the "felonies" in front of you - and the use of cards to help you manipulate your dice. However some actions may require you to increase the number of misdemeanors in your district, which, while not as bad as felonies, are still not good. The objective is to be the player with the least amount of points in front of you by the end of the game. I'd heard good things at Unpub about <i>Lesser Evil</i>, but I did hear complaints about lack of theme...Josh now has a theme...but I'm not 100% sure it's carried out that well yet...but he just has basic game pieces, I think some artwork on the various cards could help alleviate that quite a bit. Mechanically, I very much liked it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ52m9VxSI5JYT4heBpBbnz4A0XDZG1-xShbVi2XNnsY2hLtfkxBq9hUV5MsjADteEwV_Co3XM26Cvs9xEOp3-gI5GRHeRuNvH2y7qEzJPFR-RmLPiKCqHzNXC8HVTZo_-jDGgJpbU7Kk/s1600/20140225_143646.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ52m9VxSI5JYT4heBpBbnz4A0XDZG1-xShbVi2XNnsY2hLtfkxBq9hUV5MsjADteEwV_Co3XM26Cvs9xEOp3-gI5GRHeRuNvH2y7qEzJPFR-RmLPiKCqHzNXC8HVTZo_-jDGgJpbU7Kk/s1600/20140225_143646.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>With threats of another snowstorm hitting the mid-Atlantic, that was about it for Prezcon 2014. Overall, I had yet another great experience, though I think I learned a few lessons this year. I was trying to stretch myself a bit thin. I wanted to play in a bunch of tournaments of course, but I also enjoy the open gaming with our group. The GMing cost me some opportunities to do some other things, and I was also trying to get <i>Santa's Workshop</i> in front of folks. Unfortunately that only happened once, and I wasn't able to get it in front of Chris, Darrell and TC, but I did great feedback from the one play. I don't know the attendance numbers, but it felt a bit down this year - I don't think they met their goal of 700. I was very disappointed in the vendors this year - they seem to be getting fewer and fewer. The most shocking thing may be that I only went home with 1 new game - <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/100901/flash-point-fire-rescue"><i>Flash Point</i></a>, which I picked up in the auction store. In fact I actually made money on games this year, with my lot going for a little over $97 in the auction store. There was also a bit of a stomach bug going around Prezcon this year - Mike Sr. fell prey to it on Wednesday, and Paul had a rough Sunday morning. I understand a few people went the ER. In the course of writing these blog entries, I will remind myself to once again try to remember to write peoples names down and take more pictures. Next up is likely Historicon in the summer, and then WBC in August, but I look forward to next year's Prezcon.<br />
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<br />Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-36729105572203063352014-03-20T19:45:00.000-07:002014-03-20T19:45:56.445-07:002014 Prezcon - Part 2Let's see...where was I...oh, that's right...up way too late playing Game of Thrones. Thursday morning I had to be up by 9:00 for my demo of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/110327/lords-of-waterdeep"><i>Lords of Waterdeep</i></a>. I had a few people come by - 3 or 4 - not quite as many as showed up for the demo last year. Waterdeep has been out for a year and a half now, and is quite popular...most euro enthusiasts have probably played it by now.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilbxs9wY8M2cCA3YxDhJRTlMWCW_AXFD7ZDauaKJM0GR37strLy8Wrs7N5CDM_eCE16Otv2P_6BbMZFyFYgj0MKhtGjs_0ef8PZVJU1mvogJpy8THgCWMPR6iN-BJvvn2dExjPCRWnzcE/s1600/Pillars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilbxs9wY8M2cCA3YxDhJRTlMWCW_AXFD7ZDauaKJM0GR37strLy8Wrs7N5CDM_eCE16Otv2P_6BbMZFyFYgj0MKhtGjs_0ef8PZVJU1mvogJpy8THgCWMPR6iN-BJvvn2dExjPCRWnzcE/s1600/Pillars.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture courtesy of Boardgamegeek.com</td></tr>
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After my demo, I headed straight for a heat of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24480/the-pillars-of-the-earth"><i>Pillars of the Earth</i></a>, again being GM'd by my buddy <a href="http://paulowengames.blogspot.com/">Paul Owen</a>. I was in a 3 player game with Mark Beckman and another gentleman who's name escapes me. I'm very much a novice at <i>Pillars</i>, and I know that Mark is an excellent euro game player, But I played a very good game...right until the last turn. Truth be told, I thought the game was coming down to me or Mark, and I had discounted our 3rd player...and so did Mark. In the penultimate turn, I used a pawn to take the first player for the last turn, setting myself up to hopefully take the glassblower...which would have given me a lot of points. Unfortunately, the glass blower ended up on the board, vice in the area where he could be bought immediately. As I drew pawns from the bag, I of course drew Mark's pawn first. He hemmed and hawed, but ultimately decided to go for the defensive move of paying to get the glassblower (blocking me from getting it). I drew about half the rest of the pawns before I realized, that as the player drawing the pawns, it had been my right to take one "mulligan" and redraw. We discussed it at the table, if I could go back, and brought in Paul who ruled (correctly, IMO) that I had forgotten it...so tough luck. In the end that likely cost me the game...but to my and Mark's surprise our 3rd opponent came out of nowhere to claim the victory. Which is a lesson in never underestimating anyone.<br />
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At noon, I got in a heat of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822/carcassonne"><i>Carcassonne</i></a>, and managed to win. For whatever reason, I've been doing well at Carcassonne the last few years at Prezcon - 2nd overall 2 years ago, and 3rd last year. With my win, I was on my way to the semi-finals again. Directly after that, I played in a heat of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34635/stone-age"><i>Stone Age</i></a>, where I was promptly trounced by a Stone Age afficianado named Rodney. I made the mistake of not collecting very many cards - I was in the lead, and then promptly got lapped when the card points were counted.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj5oKMYIAsXW6TYfWBwannuunLOv3KxIfs6eFLTiZE0Ztyk7-cdUbKscbHxd3-oxdWy_NWCwAvQVyOiuLY-oTvLvC61-Ck7_VPQBKmtzWttNbLQrBl07PsdvxDw2bGxStuBXhlvaqmecQ/s1600/Chicago_Express.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj5oKMYIAsXW6TYfWBwannuunLOv3KxIfs6eFLTiZE0Ztyk7-cdUbKscbHxd3-oxdWy_NWCwAvQVyOiuLY-oTvLvC61-Ck7_VPQBKmtzWttNbLQrBl07PsdvxDw2bGxStuBXhlvaqmecQ/s1600/Chicago_Express.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture courtesy of Boardgamegeek.com</td></tr>
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Next up, at 3:00 was a heat of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31730/chicago-express"><i>Chicago Express</i></a>. I'm not a huge fan of stock market type games...and despite it's train theme, that's really what <i>Chicago Express</i> is. However, I find this game growing on me. In fact, I like it more and more every time I play. My heat didn't go so well - we had a 3 player game, one lady was brand new to the game...but the other fellow was clearly a veteran player. I did learn a hard lesson, as I took 2 of the shares for the red railroad, he took the remaining 1 share, and just as I had the red railroad approaching Chicago, he veered it off in a different direction. The veteran won by a significant amount. I would also like to give kudos to Lee Sensabaugh, the GM - <br />
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who in my opinion is one of the friendliest GMs - or person, in general - at Prezcon. <br />
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We had time late that afternoon to get our gang (Brian, Tom, myself, Paul and the Senzig clan) together in open gaming and get in a game of Viva Java. We had to cut short due to some pressing tournaments coming up, but I was likely on the way to victory, thanks to playing the "going rogue" card, and investing in other players brews. Halfway through the game, we did have designer T.C. Petty III show up!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz5_hxkJGkzF7nKlyV-Uh4cHjXn9yuBbHuTdiVjs3LO_pyRFz-ESN8c3OWB8sQmka_b-roc0NjDQV0ZC_37EJwQWhjNrDibtDeq-pQDLN6acVUbdj0Sip2ngb3MDLxY6csHJEJmoB0UlQ/s1600/NewZealand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz5_hxkJGkzF7nKlyV-Uh4cHjXn9yuBbHuTdiVjs3LO_pyRFz-ESN8c3OWB8sQmka_b-roc0NjDQV0ZC_37EJwQWhjNrDibtDeq-pQDLN6acVUbdj0Sip2ngb3MDLxY6csHJEJmoB0UlQ/s1600/NewZealand.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The South Island!</td></tr>
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Next up was one of the highlights for me - my old favorite <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15954/conquest-of-paradise"><i>Conquest of Paradise</i></a>, once again GM'd by designer Kevin McPartland. This year, Kevin decided to mix it up by adding in almost all the optional rules, plus the expansion random event cards. I was excited about this, as I was ready for things to be changed up a bit. In my first game, as Raiatea, I discovered New Zealand early on - which, with the optional rules gave me both the north and south island. However, the player playing Samoa used the random event of Fijian Raid to completely decimate his Tongan neighbor, paving the way for him to move in for the kill. He was able to ride that to victory. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpU1WAAXnroNzN6JoRuTAc4-QIkMxJNjuFl8ncBkzl870zwY5sVsAwqbidUBHqEqkO0aPbgkuNgjkSIrrNGNG00agXBdALvVNKP1d1-bCJObjZOrT7OXQScwOLohTmC0D32GhqUNA-ELs/s1600/DiceDuel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpU1WAAXnroNzN6JoRuTAc4-QIkMxJNjuFl8ncBkzl870zwY5sVsAwqbidUBHqEqkO0aPbgkuNgjkSIrrNGNG00agXBdALvVNKP1d1-bCJObjZOrT7OXQScwOLohTmC0D32GhqUNA-ELs/s1600/DiceDuel.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture courtesy of Boardgamegeek.com</td></tr>
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After Conquest, our "gang" got together for some late night gaming, bringing out <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/142079/space-cadets-dice-duel"><i>Space Cadets: Dice Duel</i></a>, and following with a favorite from last year, <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3955/bang"><i>Bang! </i></a>Dice Duel was a blast, although I was surprised we didn't go more attention from others in the room. It was somewhat awkward with uneven players, but we made it work. With <i>Bang!</i>, I threw in one of the expansions, and that only served to confuse things - some of the cards were odd, and the new characters didn't seem that balanced - Mike Sr. had a guy that could hold 10 cards, for example. The one drawback to Bang! is that it can drag a little long, and with player elimination, that can be no fun...in the end, we called it quits with Tom's sherriff and Mike Sr.'s outlaw in a virtual standoff.<br />
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The mornings always seem to come early at Prezcon, and Friday was no exception - even though the first thing on my docket was the 10:00 heat of <i>Lords of Waterdeep</i>. I had about 20ish folks show up for the first heat, and I managed to play this year as well. I was determined to keep it to 4 player games this year, and in my first heat I think I only had to go to 5 with one game. I only had one group go long, but they were able to find me over at the 2nd heat of <i>Conquest of Paradise</i>. <br />
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Friday afternoon and evening ended up being a <i>Conquest of Paradise</i> marathon. In the 2nd heat, I was once again Raiatea. In an interesting twist, New Zealand was discovered directly between Raiatea and Hiva. The Hiva player and I decided on a truce - he would take the North Island, I would take the South. I also made a run for sweet potatoes, though I was unsuccessful. My memory is failing me here a little...as everything from that day is a bit jumbled together, but I did not win, and then Kevin had to decide on how to run the semis/final game. <br />
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The final was scheduled at 4:00, but Kevin wanted to run 2 semis starting at 3:00, as he had 5 individual heat winners, and would fill in with 3 2nd place finishers - of which I was one. In one moment that made me ornery, one young player that was a heat winner complained because that would conflict with a heat of <i>Leaping Lemmings</i>. Kevin was hemming and hawing, especially since <br />
not all the winners showed up. The young fellow went so far as to get the tournament director, Justin, to come over and arbitrate (at which point Justin said "Kevin is one of our best GM's...whatever he decides goes"). In the end, Kevin ran the two semis, and I made it in. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzAACuNV1qmGm2tRHwbQvEBmkLwtQivXWwhCWmGOH246__V_EJbuOkbXJVaYb5mYyAD27JQi0Od8HvFbWOXmhHly8-FKUL0bzX9GAizHQ9Lxk4uP6-kSD2644OQsHYuDwhBDlrjteZaes/s1600/Conquest_of_Paradise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzAACuNV1qmGm2tRHwbQvEBmkLwtQivXWwhCWmGOH246__V_EJbuOkbXJVaYb5mYyAD27JQi0Od8HvFbWOXmhHly8-FKUL0bzX9GAizHQ9Lxk4uP6-kSD2644OQsHYuDwhBDlrjteZaes/s1600/Conquest_of_Paradise.jpg" height="241" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture courtesy of Boardgamegeek.com</td></tr>
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In our semi, I was with Brian, and Steve Bondra, and another fellow. I had a decent game, but again finished 2nd to Steve. As it turns out, in the other semi, Steve Cameron ran away with the victory in such a dominating fashion that both I and Brian (our 3rd place finisher) made it to the finals.<br />
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The final game started out terribly for me. I found no islands for the first 3 turns. That was drawing various remarks of pity from the other players...and they were completely discounting me. I should mention that I was Hiva, and Brian was playing Raiatea. At one point he essentially offered me a small island as a way to appease me and stop military aggression. It sort of worked, as I then went on a tear and found a bunch of islands in a row. I also successfully discovered sweet potatoes. I was gearing up to land colonists on 4 islands at once, for an 8 point jump, when Steve Bondra declared victory. As Samoa, he found a bunch of islands and was able to isolate himself. One more turn, and I think I would have been able to make a run at it - but isn't that always the way of things? I was still able to squeak out a 3rd place finish. In general, I liked playing with the advanced rules, though Malaria never came into play, and Sweet Potatoes are had to get to. New Zealand factored in several of my games, and the random events change the strategy significantly, in my mind. The rule is that the player in last place gets to draw and implement the random events - this leads to a tactic of intentionally lagging behind. In the finals, I was drawing the majority of the time, but I never got any of the "super" cards. Twice Steve Cameron managed to lag behind me, and he got two cards that would have helped me significantly. Oh well...lesson learned for WBC....<br />
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After almost 8 hours of <i>Conquest of Paradise</i>, it was off to open gaming. Some other familiar faces were showing up, including Ben Rosset, Nick Ferris and Josh Tempkin. I got in a game of <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/131357/coup"><i>Coup</i></a> with Ben, Nick and several other fellows, and managed to pull off the win. Although I still don't think I caught Ben lying. After that, Ben, Nick, Josh and Brian were gracious enough to give <i>Santa's Workshop</i> a try. They only ended up getting through about half a game, but I got quite a bit of good feedback. I loved Unpub, but with 3 game designers playing, I think I got more valuable feedback during that playtest than during Unpub. This led to significant changes, which I will detail in an upcoming blog post. After closing that up, Brian, Tom and I sat down with Ben to playtest his <i>Homebrewers</i> - the "prequel" to <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/139898/brew-crafters"><i>Brewcrafters</i></a>. I think Ben has another solid idea here, although it's certainly in a more "rough" stage than when I playtested either <i>Brewcrafters</i> or <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/154905/brew-crafters-the-travel-card-game"><i>Brewcrafters:The Travel Card Game.</i></a> Combining dice rolling, negotiation, and card management, I look forward to playing the next iteration the next time I see Ben. <br />
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Well that was enough for that night, and that's enough for this blog entry. Next up in Part 3, I'll wrap up with Saturday and Sunday, and some overall thoughts about Prezcon 2014.<br />
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<br />Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-24076941796260376312014-03-10T08:48:00.000-07:002014-03-10T08:48:41.485-07:002014 Prezcon - Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLJ7Iuqvg8PD_b3sLVJ7Itl0WmciEuzOr_Czc4ssZlRrEZ1eE0-AwYAqu0kA-vvtzx7uUaLs5A6ah062rMGIOn_GMOyyO7F_cGCOiuzNR80nQciQ8oIZiZoW8GsQavKz9Q-qevvvzxA5Y/s1600/Prezcon_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLJ7Iuqvg8PD_b3sLVJ7Itl0WmciEuzOr_Czc4ssZlRrEZ1eE0-AwYAqu0kA-vvtzx7uUaLs5A6ah062rMGIOn_GMOyyO7F_cGCOiuzNR80nQciQ8oIZiZoW8GsQavKz9Q-qevvvzxA5Y/s1600/Prezcon_logo.jpg" height="145" width="200" /></a></div>
Well, another year has come and gone for my annual pilgrimage to Charlottesville, VA - home of <a href="http://prezcon.com/">Prezcon</a>. Prezcon is the first game convention I attended, way back in 2009. Hard to believe this was my 6th year attending. In 2009 my buddy Brian and I started on Thursday..in the last few years that migrated to Wednesday. This year, our friend <a href="https://twitter.com/ts_hokie">Tom</a> had business meetings in Charlottesville on Monday and Tuesday, giving Brian and I the excuse to join him at the convention on Tuesday evening. Which quickly turned to Tuesday afternoon. Incredibly, the wives bought off on this. We'll pay later, I'm sure.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIWM-mPUdh0i_N0NtZEbY-K7J1ENnKVgdApVbqwJKkvur0y5Tmsmi4O9jbwwzYFB8pi65qNPd4XBVn9BtlYO2f6E3PhNW6X-gBA4Lr14qqY8jj65gnfETmMJNunXNZgq66dnfkEXTiihA/s1600/20140225_152407.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIWM-mPUdh0i_N0NtZEbY-K7J1ENnKVgdApVbqwJKkvur0y5Tmsmi4O9jbwwzYFB8pi65qNPd4XBVn9BtlYO2f6E3PhNW6X-gBA4Lr14qqY8jj65gnfETmMJNunXNZgq66dnfkEXTiihA/s1600/20140225_152407.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a>The first game we settled down to was, like in previous years, <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244/circus-maximus"><i>Circus Maximus</i></a>. This year, GM Jake Jacoby had a surprise for us - instead of the typical oval, we were racing around a "cloverleaf" track, with a free-for-all area in the center. Unlike the last several years, I decided to try being a "rabbit" - in other words, a light, fast chariot. That was the idea, anyway - I had poor rolls on my setup, and ended up on the slower end of the lights, with not much in the way of stamina either (used for whipping to go faster). I was also chosen to start on the inside lane, which meant I was the furthest back at the start. There was not a whole lot of drama to the race as another light chariot got out in the lead and stayed there, despite the efforts of the heavies to smash him to bits. The cloverleaf made for an interesting change, but I feel that it was to the advantage of the light chariots, as once they got ahead, it was not as easy for the heavies to get to them as it is on the oval, when they can slow down and wait to be lapped. <br />
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Next up was <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2651/power-grid"><i>Power Grid</i></a>, an old favorite. I'm always a little wary of the heavier euros as Prezcon, as there are some real sharks in the water, but I consider myself competent enough at Power Grid that I won't embarrass myself, and I could even make a good showing. In this case, though, I simply played awful. Actually, I don't think I was doing too terrible, but I was letting the leaders slip away, and I made the move to catch up at the wrong time, buying up to 12 houses, when the rest of them stalled at 11, which ended up killing me in turn order the following turn. I finished in last place :(<br />
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For some reason, Brian, Tom and I decided to end our Tuesday with a game of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/45315/dungeon-lords"><i>Dungeon Lords</i></a>. This is a great game, but I hadn't played in a while, and it wasn't coming back very quickly. Tom had never played, but fortunately Brian had played recently and got us squared away. Again...a great game...but probably not one to start after midnight. We were up to 2:30...starting off Prezcon with a bang.<br />
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Next morning...since we were there for a Wednesday morning for the first time, I finally got to play in the Prezcon <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31260/agricola"><i>Agricola</i></a> tournament. See my earlier comments about the euro sharks...and unlike <i>Power Grid</i>, I don't consider myself a very good <i>Agricola</i> player. I was at a table with Tom, our friend Mike Senzig Jr., who'd arrived that morning, and Aaron Buchanan, the GM of <i>Castles of Burgundy</i>, and a very good euro player. In the card draft, I tried to set myself by taking a lot of cards that helped with wood gathering and fence building. I was doing OK at the beginning, I think, but I waited far too long to grow my family. Mike was able to build a couple of extra rooms early on, and get to 4 family members pretty quickly, and then he was off to the races. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Avast, me hearties!</td></tr>
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Following <i>Agricola</i>, I played in the <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25292/merchants-marauders"><i>Merchants and Marauders</i></a> tournament<i>. </i>This is a game that got a lot of press when it came out a few years ago, and I snatched up early...but it had been a while since I had played. In our previous plays, our group thought that the Merchants had a bit of an advantage...but what fun is that? For the tournament, the GM lowered the speed on galleons, and allowed pirates to go into port after other players. In my 3-player heat, we all went the pirate route. One player had the misfortune of running into a Spanish man-o-war, which doomed him in his sloop. I managed to upgrade to a frigate, and was doing well as a pirate, but won the game by delivering an in-demand cargo to my home port and stashing my riches. With my win, I qualified for the final, but unfortunately, that conflicted with my first <i>Lords of Waterdeep</i> heat. I enjoyed the game, but some of the nagging feelings returned - it can run a bit long, and there can be downtime while other players perform their actions - particularly in port.<br />
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Following <i>M&M</i>, it was time for my annual game of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/173/formula-de"><i>Formula De</i></a>. I like this racing game a lot, but I dread it at Prezcon a little bit, because the GM Doug Gallulo will run up to 10 players on a board. That's too many, in my opinion. Sure enough, in our race we had 9 players, although I was lucky enough to be drawn starting in 3rd position. I grabbed the lead halfway through the first lap, but miscalculated on the back stretch, as I was trying to set myself up to use the 30-sided die coming out of the next turn. I stayed in 4th when I should have gone to 5th, and was promptly passed. 2 turns later as I desperately tried to make up the difference, I spun out, and that was it. This game can be unforgiving if you make one mistake, or get one bad roll.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm trying to pay my debts...</td></tr>
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Wednesday night it was time for <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/103343/a-game-of-thrones-the-board-game-second-edition"><i>Game of Thrones</i></a>. By random draw, I ended up with the Lannisters - I should have asked to redraw, as I think in every game except for one, I've played the Lannisters, and that put me off from the get go. The game progressed fairly normally for the first 2 or 3 turns, but the player to my right, as the Tyrells was clearly coaching the younger Martell player to his advantage. The were putting a pounding on the Baratheon player, who was very young and pretty inexperienced. Instead of helping Baratheon, I sensed blood in the water and tried to take my share. I should mention that we had turned up several muster cards, but nothing had come up to adjust our supply yet. I had captured a bunch of barrels on the board, but without the supply action, I could not take advantage. The Tyrell player eventually took the land area between our capitals, and also The Reach, which contains two barrels - and he threatened to take Lannisport from me by using the Ser Loras cards which allowed him to carry his attack token with him. I had to quietly accept my losses - and THEN the supply card came. Of course. By this point, with Baratheon effectively out of the game, the Starks, Greyjoys and Lannisters had essentially an alliance against the Tyrell-Martell block. There was some baiting of the Martell player, accusing him of being a pawn for the Tyrells, which caused him to make at least one bad move, attempting to "prove" he was playing his own game. In the end, the Starks made a play to clean up the last of the Baratheon holdings, the Tyrells turned on their Martell lackey, and used that Ser Loras card to attack the Starks. In an equal battle, it came down to the draw of the "Tides of Battle" card, the Tyrell player got a +1 to Stark's "0", giving him the victory. The game didn't end until 2:30...which was WAY too late for that to go on...<br />
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Next up...part 2 of Prezcon 2014 <br />
<br />Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-70515506303778406802014-01-23T20:28:00.001-08:002014-01-23T20:28:55.056-08:00Unpub 4 - Day 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well, Day 2 of Unpub 4 started with even less sleep than the previous day. When we got to the site, we were treated a pancake breakfast and a panel discussion with a group of publishers - I won't try to name them all here because inevitably I'll forget someone...<br />
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After the panel, I headed over to try <a href="http://oakleafgames.wordpress.com/">Nate Levan's</a> <i>New Bedford</i> - I'd heard some good word of mouth about this game and wanted to give it a try. I'll give a further review below when I comment on all the games I played - but I'm certainly glad I did play it. <br />
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<h3>
Santa's Workshop Day 2 </h3>
I should mention that towards the end of the con on Saturday night - around 9:00 or so, I had a young lady named Tierna stop by my table and eye up my game. When I asked if she was interested, she nodded yes, and I gave her a quick explanation. Since it was getting a bit late, I promised her a game on Sunday. After playing <i>New Bedford</i>, I found Tierna at Daniel Solis' table, and she agreed to come over when she finished up. Not only did she come over, she brought her sister Becca and her dad Mike with her, and we got in a 4 player game of <i>Santa's Workshop</i>. Tierna was 10 years old, and I was eager to see how she did, as I originally conceived of the game as a more "family game". It took us about 1:15 to finish, and I got some good feedback. Tierna did ok - she jumped out in the lead, but faltered towards the end. I think the full game may be a bit much for the under 12 crowd. Becca, who I'm guessing was about 16 or so, had an interesting quote at the end. She told that when they decided to come to the con, she marked every game in the program on a 1 to 5 scale. She had my game marked as a "1", which meant she had no interest - and she only played because her sister begged her to. She then stated that she really enjoyed it, and had no idea that it would be such a fun game. This, of course, only served to back up Game Salute's point that the theme might drive away "serious" gamers.<br />
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After some more time at other games, I saw two folks eyeing up my table and hurried back to see if they were interested in player. I recognized the woman as long time owner of "Our Game Table", Kathy Stroh. I convinced Bill and Kathy to sit down for a 3 player game. We finished our game in under an hour, and again I received valuable feedback. We found a couple of cards that needed tweaking, and Kathy opined that she thought the game play was a little too deep for the theme. Hmmm...familiar territory here. <br />
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That was it for SW for the weekend - a grand total of 4 playtests. Between the playtests and the Game Salute session, I got great feedback. So, where do I stand with Santa's Workshop now? I feel like I have a bit of a mixed bag. I got nothing but positive feedback from playtesters. My aggregate scores on from my feedback forms were as follows: <br />
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Game Length: 3/5<br />
Learning Ease: 4/5<br />
Decisions: 4/5<br />
Downtime: 4/5<br />
Interactivity: 3/5<br />
Originality: 4/5<br />
Fun: 4/5<br />
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My lowest grades on individual feedback forms were a 2/5 on game length and 2/5 on interactivity. The game length doesn't surprise me, as I know the game is too long. I should also mention that my scores may be skewed a little high as I got one sheet that was all 5/5 (thanks, Tierna!) . But all in all, I think I got good scores for my first ever game, with only 3 playtests ever coming into the con.<br />
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In terms of mechanics, I need to tighten up the game for play length. I originally wanted a game that could hold 6 players just because I don't think there are a lot that do that well. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to scale back. I think I'm going to cap it at 4 players. Perhaps if some other tweaks bring game length down, I'll revisit that. But the other reason to go to 4 players is that makes it easy to limit # of spaces per # of players -> n-1, it's that easy. When you get to 5 and 6 players, only taking one space per room away isn't enough, and I'm having a hard time figuring out where to make that transition from n-1 to n-2. And it seems like it should differ per room, which is complicated. The other play length decision to make is to cap the game at 9 turns. I originally wanted 12 turns for the "12 Days of Christmas" theme - but that's just too long...and I'll talk about theme in a minute. As far as other mechanics...there are some coal cards that need tweaking, I need to simplify the "magic mirror" card, and I need to play with the Reindeer track - tweak the scoring, and perhaps add some more theme to that somehow.<br />
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So...now's the big question...what about the theme? Game Salute didn't really think the theme would work. Several comments and feedback I got seemed to reinforce that - "I wasn't expecting such a deep game with this theme", etc. However, some folks seemed to think with the right artwork and box presentation, that might be able to be overcome. I think I'm going to stick with the general theme for now, but with a bit of tweak. Instead of building gifts leading up to Christmas Eve, I think I'm going to set the game at the <i>South</i> Pole, with the teams of elves competing to see who gets called up to the "Big Leagues" of the North Pole. I did have a little issue, theme-wise with wondering if Santa would really let the elves get away with shenanigans as they were actually building toys for children. By making the game be about a "boot camp" of sorts, I can get away with that. I can possibly also work in more theme with the reindeer - such as teaching them to fly or somesuch. I think this could lead to more "edgy" artwork as well - maybe Santa painted as a sort of drill instructor or somesuch, and some sort of tagline "Before they made it to the North Pole, they had to claw their way up from the South". Ok...that's terrible. But you get the idea. I talked to Chris Kirkman and Darrell Louder about giving it a try at Prezcon - I'm interested to hear what they say. Maybe get it in front of some publishers at Cons later this year and get more feedback. If theme is a continuing issue, then I bite the bullet and try to retheme it later this year. Maybe competing toy factories, or something like that. I just don't want it to lose any of it's charm. So...to be continued, I guess. <br />
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<h3>
Other Games I Played</h3>
I have this terrible nagging feeling that I'm forgetting a game I played, but I'll press on. In <a href="http://keithferguson.blogspot.com/2014/01/unpub-4-day-1.html">Part 1</a> of my recap, I talked about Ben Rosset's <i>Brew Crafters Card Game</i>, so I won't repeat that here. The first game I played at Unpub was Ohalo by <a href="https://twitter.com/andy_lenox">Andrew Lenox</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/jasonkotarski">Jason Kotarski</a>. Jason is the designer of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/111417/the-great-heartland-hauling-co"><i>Great Heartland Hauling Company</i></a>, which I talked about <a href="http://keithferguson.blogspot.com/2013/05/containing-hive-trucking-through.html">here</a> and <a href="http://keithferguson.blogspot.com/2013/06/great-heartland-hauling-co-revisited.html">here</a>. <i>Ohalo</i> (named after the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohalo">archaeological site</a>) is a card game, with the unique mechanic that to start each game turn, you take the resource cards and kind of throw them up and let them land in a pile - some face up, some face down. You, as a hunter-gatherer, have a few different action you can take. You can gather various fruits & mushrooms - which entails trying to slide together resources of the same type using one finger and not disturbing the rest of the pile. You can hunt for various animals - the more of which you gather, the better your score. You can collect wood...which is then used to build various buildings - those which allow you to store resources for points, or do actions more efficiently, etc. We only got to play about a half a game, because I had to demo SW, but I must say, I really enjoyed it. The sliding of the cards in the pile was my favorite part - and a very fun mechanic.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ohalo</i> - I managed to move some berries around the entire edge of the pile!</td></tr>
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Next I'll talk about another Jason Kotarski game, <i>Sunset Shuffle</i>. This is a dice rolling game that consists of 6 turns. On each turn, that turn # is wild. In other words, on turn 1, all 1's are wild, etc. Three more card are flipped up, which will number between 1-6, and your job is to put pairs of dice on each number card (the dice matching that number). The catch is, the first two people to place dice get a "lifeguard" die, which they have to roll as well, which does things like block their numbers, although it can be passed on. This was a fun frantic dice rolling frenzy, and all through the con, if I heard lots of shouting and yelling(in a good way), it tended to be coming from that table. I like the lifeguard die mechanic, although with such a fast and furious game, it can be hard to tell who placed dice first. Maybe a lifeguard die on each card, and the first person to place on a specific card gets that die.<br />
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<i>Brew Crafters The Card Game</i> was not the only Ben Rossett creation I tried at Unpub. On Sunday I sat down for a game of <i>Building the British Royal Navy</i>. In this game, you are bidding on contracts from the British Navy to build their warships. This game is all about bidding and auctions - which I understand is a departure from how the game first started out. In addition to bidding on the warships themselves, you have to bid on materials, and then the services of the subcontractors to build the hull and armaments. Ben had the game limited to 10 bidding chits per player, all at pre-defined values. By the third epoch, in our 4 player game, we were finding the services of the sub-contractors to be in high demand - too much so, in fact. We were also a little frustrated with the specific values on our limited tokens. I think we gave Ben some valuable feedback - we talked about still limiting the number of bidding chits, but letting the players decide how much each was worth. I think there's a gem of a game in here - I like the theme, and I like the idea of a game that is exclusively auctions. But, it's a bit raw now - but that's what Unpub is for, and I expect next time I have a chance to play it, Ben will have made substantial improvements.<br />
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I mentioned <i>New Bedford</i> at the top of this blog, and this was one I heard some rave reviews about. I was happy to discover that designer Nate Levan is a fellow Hokie - Aerospace Engineering, even. Go Hokies! <i>New Bedford</i> is a game about building a coastal town around the whaling industry. Starting with a town base and docks, you send your two workers out to collect resources, build new buildings and launch your whaling vessel to hunt. Each building that is built will provide new actions, but to use them you must pay the building owner. For the whaling, how far out to sea you launch depends on how much food you pack on board. Each turn your whaling vessel draws closer to shore, and you draw chits from a bag. They will be one of three different types of whale, or open ocean. When you get back to port, you pay to have the whales processes - either $1, $2 or $3 depending on the whale type, with the more expensive being worth more VPs (I know Wright Whales are the cheapest, and Sperm Whales are the most expensive, but I'm blanking on the "middle" whale). The game lasts 12 turns, and the player with the most VPs wins (you can also get VPs from money and certain buildings). Our 3 player game lasted less than an hour, and that felt like about the right amount of time - maybe a little too quick! This is a very polished game, and it was easy to see why it was getting some buzz. I had very little in the way of suggestions - I thought maybe it would be neat to have more than 20 buildings in the game, and you could just draw 20 randomly at the start to get some variability - Nate was way ahead of me, already having more buildings in development. We talked about some of the chits drawn from the bag having "events" such as storms - I think that would be a nice addition, if not overdone. We talked a little about getting players access to a 3rd worker - but my fellow players were more interested in that than I was. So...a very impressive game, one that I feel is essentially "done", and I wouldn't be surprised to see it on store shelves this time next year.<br />
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<h3>
Final Thoughts</h3>
So, my first Unpub...with my first game...how was the overall experience? In a word - fantastic. The convention is clearly outgrowing it's roots. Next year it will be at a different location (as yet undisclosed), and Darrell tells me it will be more like a "traditional" con - the con in the hotel where everyone is staying, vendors, more traditional con hours, etc. I'm really looking forward to seeing where he takes it.<br />
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I mentioned in Part 1 that there was some raffles. Darrell had a ton of games to raffle off, dontated by companies that weren't even there in person, such as Stronghold Games. (I'm guessing more and more publishers will start showing up in person in the future.). Anyone who playtested a game could get a raffle ticket for each feedback form they turned in. Randy gave me his as he left on Saturday. I kept just missing by a few numbers. Paul won twice! There were lots of good games, and I admit I was a little jealous of the winners. Then right before we left on Sunday, Darrell called for a kid to come to the stage. As it happened, Tierna, who playtested for me went up. Darrell asked her for a number between 1 and 52 (the number of designers registered). She picked "36", and Darrell calls out "Is Keith Ferguson here?" I proceeded to the stage, thinking I had just won a game. But no...I was getting a different prize...the first official (and free) registered Game Designer for Unpub 5! Wow! I was still a little down after my Game Salute feedback, and I have to say, this really made my day! It definitely motivated me to come back next year with something even better. Maybe it will be a re-worked <i>Santa's Workshop</i>, maybe something different (I've had a flash of inspiration on a new game in the last day or two). Either way, I'll be happy to be there - one of the things I haven't really touched on is how nice it was to meet a bunch of fellow designers (I'm not sure I can really call myself that yet...). It's a great, friendly, supportive atmosphere, and I definitely look forward to meeting those that I missed this time, and playing more of their games!<br />
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<br />Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-91518419717339915932014-01-21T15:53:00.001-08:002014-01-21T15:56:36.018-08:00Unpub 4 - Day 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well, as was <a href="http://keithferguson.blogspot.com/2014/01/getting-ready-for-unpub.html">mentioned in my last post</a>, I spent this past weekend in Delaware at the <a href="http://unpub.net/">Unpub 4</a> convention. The short version is - what a fantastic event, I loved going, I'll be back next year (more on that in a bit) - but I came out of it with mixed feelings for my game, <i>Santa's Workshop</i>. One big regret is that I brought my camera...and proceeded to take very little pictures. So, I apologize for the scarcity of pictures in this post.<br />
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I drove up with my friend <a href="http://paulowengames.blogspot.com/">Paul Owen</a>, and after checking into our hotel, we headed over to the local pizza joint for the Unpub "designers dinner". This was basically a meet and greet and a chance to network with some folks, with a raffle thrown in (idiot that I am, I lost my raffle tickets within 5 minutes of getting them and had to beg for more). I sat with <a href="http://oakleafgames.wordpress.com/">Nathaniel Levan </a>and his wife <a href="https://twitter.com/aa_rutledge">Anna</a> and got to know them a little bit (although we didn't figure out until the next day that Nate and I are both Hokies).<br />
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After the dinner, we headed back to the hotel, expecting to get in some gaming with various folks. Although at some point, we heard someone talking about their "sell sheet" - which is basically a 1 page sheet that highlights your game with a basic description and pertinent information (game length, # of players, things like that). Basically, an ad for your game. Paul and I looked at each other - neither of us had thought to make up one of those. So we spent an hour or so in the hotel room furiously throwing something together...and then found that the hotel only had black and white printers. Oh well, better than nothing, I guess. After that we did head to the lobby for some gaming, and ran into Ben Rossett, who gave us his <i>Brew Crafters Card Game</i> prototype to try out. Paul and I played a 2 player game and found the game easy to pick up, and interesting to play. The gist of it is that you can play each card in one of two ways - as an ingredient in a recipe, or face up in front of you as a piece of equipment or worker that will allow you to brew future recipes more efficiently or for more points. I ended up playing 10 cards face up in front of me, though in the end Paul beat me by 2 points. We then played a 3 player game with Ben, and I claimed victory by focusing on brewing Special Reserves. Inspired by the <a href="http://dicehateme.com/2013/11/dice-hate-me-loves-card-games/">Dice Hate Me 54 Card Challenge</a>, Ben created this game with only 54 cards, 8 of which were recipe and scoring cards. My biggest concern in the end was having enough cards to support 4 players. There may be a few other tweaks, but otherwise I think it's a solid card game.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxt6IUrEQXJ5FS3Koupwz1qe0XbWHgUPttrQICSkUzr1XLcTxyTSHrhdCU6ThEbCxJIdR-uZdOvhTsC-u-taEM8dcJMlzDSuno1MNMpXoiNM5PN3P8n9l620-PbxKIaMnPXF4lYNZQOTI/s1600/IMG_1177.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxt6IUrEQXJ5FS3Koupwz1qe0XbWHgUPttrQICSkUzr1XLcTxyTSHrhdCU6ThEbCxJIdR-uZdOvhTsC-u-taEM8dcJMlzDSuno1MNMpXoiNM5PN3P8n9l620-PbxKIaMnPXF4lYNZQOTI/s1600/IMG_1177.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>After not enough sleep, on Saturday morning we headed over to the convention to get set up. My family has a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gardeners-Supply-Woodland-Advent-Calendar/dp/B00EOW56BI/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390343699&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=log+cabin+advent+calendar">log cabin advent calendar</a>, which I brought along and decorated with elf meeples in order to try and attract some attention. That may have been more trouble than it was worth to haul along, but it did get some comments. In any case, my first actual playtest of <i>Santa's Workshop</i> at Unpub ended up being with my friend Randy, who's a regular at our Tuesday night game nights at Game Parlor. He had played a few weeks ago when I brought it to GP, and had really liked it. When he learned about Unpub, he convinced his friends Kurt & Elizabeth to join him there for the day. We played a 4 player version of SW, and everyone seemed to like it. I got some feedback on a few minor things like the wording of a few cards. We talked a bit about the # of players, and how best to restrict the number of spaces in the rooms. We also only played a 9-turn game, as opposed the 12-turn games I originally envisioned (themed to the "12 Days of Christmas").<br />
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I spent some time playing some other designers games (I think I'll detail those in a separate blog post), before getting a group of players together for a 5-player test that afternoon. I had <a href="https://twitter.com/aa_rutledge">Anna Rutledge</a>, Andrew, Duane, Rob and Josh (other than lack of pictures, I also really failed on writing everyone's full name down - and getting cards from everyone). Their 5 player game took about 2 hours, with Duane winning in the end after building and scoring the swing set. This group used the coal cards the most out of any group that played all weekend. Everyone seemed to like the game, and I got a lot of good feedback. Game time was definitely an issue (2 hours, and again we only played a 9 turn game). There was the interesting suggestion to perhaps have some of the coal cards be used for positive player interaction (instead of just "screw your neighbor" cards). Anna in particular had a quote that resonated with me later - she said something to the effect of "I wasn't expecting much from this game, but it turned out to be really good."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK1UWPP9MUMpBBVN4M9aNd6FqL4p_u7RAH_bDciG4BDACvbjmSfXnTuLS20UTyr_hNzRJN5oimlutqHoMQ_zen3A1T6tiIExpR5wPxrdABOWLexl11DAnQkihvNgo6P9hAIj9nDAzmN9A/s1600/GS-Avatar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK1UWPP9MUMpBBVN4M9aNd6FqL4p_u7RAH_bDciG4BDACvbjmSfXnTuLS20UTyr_hNzRJN5oimlutqHoMQ_zen3A1T6tiIExpR5wPxrdABOWLexl11DAnQkihvNgo6P9hAIj9nDAzmN9A/s1600/GS-Avatar.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a>Shortly after that playtest, I was scheduled to give a 10 minute pitch to <a href="http://gamesalute.com/">Game Salute</a>. Paul had gone in earlier, so I knew a little of what to expect - about 3 minutes to describe the game, 3 minutes or so for questions from them, and then 3 or 4 minutes of feedback. I brought just the game board, a player tableau, and some sample gift and coal cards. I was a little nervous, but I think I did a pretty good job in getting through most of the rules and play style of the game in 3 minutes or so. The rest of the "interview" took me a little by surprise, as they almost exclusively focused on the theme I had chosen. In a nutshell, their concern is that with such a "light" theme as Santa's Elves building gifts, a family might buy this game expecting something that very young kids could play, and be shocked when they got home and found a more complex game. That is, if they bought it in the first place, because with all my pieces and such, the game would probably retail in the typical $40-$50 euro game price range. On the flip side, they thought gamers - who would likely enjoy the complexity - wouldn't pick it from the shelf because they would think it was a light family game. On the positive side, they did say they liked a couple of the mechanics of the game, and I should perhaps think about re-theming it.<br />
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So, I was understandably a little disappointed coming out of the sales pitch. My first reaction was to think that they were wrong, and there was room for a game that could satisfy both families and gamers. (I have plans to include rules for more family-friendly play). But I couldn't help but think that Anna's reaction to the game only backed up their point - she didn't think there would be much to the game, and was pleasantly surprised when it was deeper than she anticipated. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVdRjeWsbP1x_-T2rqgMJObcx_RuGSoeQ1ZXLG1ryxCdoVzcdbYezpaQGEOV7cyuUBjUHg2e7PCbyMa5lh6b-LuFmo6qkldwW2MnOahWdwNb-M_iFY7qyX8IZtEtZ-YXYUkI-hsDLP1Tk/s1600/1955WOE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVdRjeWsbP1x_-T2rqgMJObcx_RuGSoeQ1ZXLG1ryxCdoVzcdbYezpaQGEOV7cyuUBjUHg2e7PCbyMa5lh6b-LuFmo6qkldwW2MnOahWdwNb-M_iFY7qyX8IZtEtZ-YXYUkI-hsDLP1Tk/s1600/1955WOE.jpg" height="197" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2tphyphenhyphen5ZpD5dakIZycXbcmwko3XCZCo0Viy-ILbiU_LCccHcv3RDFUjwLHeEm0b4Al7lT6ku_fswNCk1G70OfHGbRc76txVWrG_fbbkYkLwvvM9wqGn1M3W-nFBN_PBD7V6xxvVj5ZKjY/s1600/MrJPocket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2tphyphenhyphen5ZpD5dakIZycXbcmwko3XCZCo0Viy-ILbiU_LCccHcv3RDFUjwLHeEm0b4Al7lT6ku_fswNCk1G70OfHGbRc76txVWrG_fbbkYkLwvvM9wqGn1M3W-nFBN_PBD7V6xxvVj5ZKjY/s1600/MrJPocket.jpg" height="192" width="200" /></a>That was it for playtesting <i>SW</i> for the day. I played some other games(more on that later), and then<br />
we headed back to the hotel for some more late night gaming that night. Paul and I got in a few 2-player games - <br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/72287/mr-jack-pocket"><i>Mr. Jack Pocket</i></a> and <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/83068/1955-the-war-of-espionage"><i>1955:The War of Espionage</i></a>. Mr. Jack Pocket has become one of my favorite games to play on my tablet or phone, and I wanted to introduce Paul to it. I've not played the original <i>Mr. Jack</i>, though Paul has, and he said it had a similar deduction feel, if much different mechanics. As for <i>1955</i>, Paul brought it because he don't get a chance to play it at home much. This is a sort of "tug of war" game as you try to gain influence in various countries. I thought it was a mildly interesting game, with some interesting card play, but ultimately too long for the type of game it is. I had picked up <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/142992/gravwell-escape-from-the-9th-dimension"><i>Gravwell </i></a>at the Unpub vendor, after hearing a bunch of rave reviews. Ben Rossett joined us, and explained the game, as well as a 4th player who's name is escaping me (must. write. down. names.) It is indeed a very elegant game, with easy to learn rules, and a depth of complexity that has you trying to get in the head of the other players at the table. For me, I think it may be a victim of it's hype - I very much liked it, but I'm not sure I would rave about it as much as others have. At the very least, it serves as a good reminder that an excellent game need not be <i>Agricola</i>-like in complexity. Lastly, we got in a couple of 5-player games of <i>Coup</i> with myself, Paul, Ben, <a href="https://twitter.com/BlackOakGames">Matthew O'Malley</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/levzilla">Doug </a>(Who's last name I can't find for the life of me). This was my first time at <i>Coup</i> - I don't know if I like it better than <i>The Resistance</i>, but it is a very fun game. And I think Ben Rossett is lying when he says he never lies during the game.<br />
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Next up- Day 2...a few more playtests of SW, and my overall thoughts on Unpub...Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-65186358787276481382014-01-13T19:53:00.004-08:002014-01-13T19:56:42.413-08:00Getting Ready for UnpubFirst...wow, what happened to December? I haven't posted a blog since November 24th, and I'm way overdue. Perhaps I'll go back in a future installment and revisit the games that were played over the holidays. But for now, I want to talk a little about the big event that's starting in just 4 days :<br />
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That's right, this Friday, January 17, is the start of <a href="http://unpub.net/">Unpub 4</a>. In a <a href="http://keithferguson.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-first-playtest.html">previous post</a>, I talked about how I thought I'd missed registration, and then got in when Darrell Louder opened up some new seats. Well, now the time is almost upon us, and I find myself frantically getting ready. I've had a few more play tests of <i>Santa's Workshop</i> since that first one back in November - my brother and sister tried it out over Thanksgiving. My buddy Tom came up for a gaming weekend in December and we got in a 3 player game with my wife. However, up until that point it had all been my family and Tom, who is one of my oldest and closest friends.<br />
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Last week at our weekly game night at The Game Parlor in Chantilly, Virginia, I had a chance to get it in front of some of the regulars there. Now, these folks aren't exactly strangers, and some of them I consider close friends, but I thought there might be a little more "honesty" than I get from my family. We only had time to get in half a game (and that does play to my game length fears a bit) - but it was a pretty good success. Everyone seemed to like it, my friend Paul Owen <a href="http://paulowengames.blogspot.com/2014/01/an-evening-after-work.html">wrote a bit about it in his blog</a>, and I received a very nice email the next day from Traci, one of our regular gamers about how much she enjoyed the game. That was all a very nice boost of confidence heading into Unpub.<br />
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I've been spending the last few days making last minute changes - updating some cards, updating the board, adding some more dice to the game, so we're not just reliant on one set, etc. I've never been one to sleeve the cards in my games - however I need to do that for <i>Santa's Workshop</i> since I'm just printing them out on card stock. I'm on my 4th or so iteration of the "Coal Cards" in the game...and let me tell you unsleeving and resleeving 50ish cards that many times is a freaking chore. Not to mention cutting the cards out.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisbNnGHdZvKknAtScxhm_ciqMVIWJIkFe3QJYiJZeuXube7oaJMfv6vrD266TuKWw92lcnNJnmWLq6Ek7NQYKceTpq_eyZ5JIeb2a46P0PUKe01g8Lqw2Zsa7iicZOEFSLGWIA_mxZbb8/s1600/20140113_213507.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisbNnGHdZvKknAtScxhm_ciqMVIWJIkFe3QJYiJZeuXube7oaJMfv6vrD266TuKWw92lcnNJnmWLq6Ek7NQYKceTpq_eyZ5JIeb2a46P0PUKe01g8Lqw2Zsa7iicZOEFSLGWIA_mxZbb8/s400/20140113_213507.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cards Cards Cards! At this point, my next design will be card-free...</td></tr>
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So, right now the major thing that I have left to do is a rules re-write to have a decent document to bring to the con, and to upload to the Unpub site. However, I've taken a few steps besides just working on the game itself. I've heard on a few different podcasts that it can be "unprofessional" to give out an obvious personal email such as "keith@gmail.com" (that's not my email address, by the way) - so I went to the effort to set up my own domain - "Fergusongames.com", and get an email address there. Then I went and had business cards printed up with all the pertinent information. I figure that the networking at Unpub will be at least as important as the actual game testing, so I thought I'd best be prepared.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyVzMfgnfrAX16ENScf8ir8uC5emL1wUH8aRTWDVUSVdqfwKfNmJMCfY4AgooEQluptWCxrhrnZ452N_PO-UHxBW8RnvdhwtPJyuSaD-ZGGgD9AsQBL09QSjvpbRrkVqRPF-isv9T9CEk/s1600/20140113_213559.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyVzMfgnfrAX16ENScf8ir8uC5emL1wUH8aRTWDVUSVdqfwKfNmJMCfY4AgooEQluptWCxrhrnZ452N_PO-UHxBW8RnvdhwtPJyuSaD-ZGGgD9AsQBL09QSjvpbRrkVqRPF-isv9T9CEk/s400/20140113_213559.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For an extra fee, I was able to add my portrait to the card. I think it turned out well.</td></tr>
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I've got a note with a list of things to bring with me - I'm living in fear that I'm going to forget something important. But really, I'm just looking forward to getting there at this point. I've talked to Paul a few times, and I think the hardest part may be balancing demoing my own game, and play testing others. The list on the Unpub site is impressive, and I want to play way more than I'll have time for. Unpub has also set up a "Speed Dating" sort of thing for designers to meet for 10 minutes with Game Salute - I'm a bit nervous about that, but I hope to get some honest feedback, good or ill. Well, that's about it for now...next post will likely come on the flip side of Unpub - if I rage quit this whole blog, you'll know things didn't go so well...Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-79807847483451314032013-11-24T07:15:00.005-08:002013-11-24T07:15:46.537-08:00The First Revision(s)I mentioned last post that I had my first playtest of <i>Santa's Workshop</i>, and I took a bunch of notes. Well, I continued to write down thoughts at the they occurred to me during the week, and for the last several days I've been working on implementing some changes. So, <i>Santa's Workshop</i> 2.0 is underway... or maybe it should be v1.1...nah, I think the first changes count as "major".<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRXi1Y4lU1A7Z9QCKxm95_PPZvQzBlaLMLPs7_eqwSehp58r5-ulZ7ec9WulybAnP7PHU_kwfCBmoRZq4OBjlN1_4RWi8hPL8bEUswfYNNdAwpUhWGR35znTS_SfNNVImg6mmCBntiOH8/s1600/IMG_1045.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRXi1Y4lU1A7Z9QCKxm95_PPZvQzBlaLMLPs7_eqwSehp58r5-ulZ7ec9WulybAnP7PHU_kwfCBmoRZq4OBjlN1_4RWi8hPL8bEUswfYNNdAwpUhWGR35znTS_SfNNVImg6mmCBntiOH8/s1600/IMG_1045.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My notes since the 1st playtest...need to type them up!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTVxoq1fx25VFUdTVp03fZRs0c0ru5fzaoGpGFiRjvWCbMe7bXIdSBLjlAhBMY2BF8d2KZMxzs2T4fbHERQpgrb50h834_5KHzbUNe6G0FS88OrgUJ9lADoCF9ewn50oB_q-h2wtjj398/s1600/20131116_202840.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTVxoq1fx25VFUdTVp03fZRs0c0ru5fzaoGpGFiRjvWCbMe7bXIdSBLjlAhBMY2BF8d2KZMxzs2T4fbHERQpgrb50h834_5KHzbUNe6G0FS88OrgUJ9lADoCF9ewn50oB_q-h2wtjj398/s1600/20131116_202840.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The old board</td></tr>
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One of the things I learned is that graphic design is really important. On my first board, I had the coal mine (and it's cards) right next to the mail room. When we took a card from the mailroom...almost every time, we flipped a card from the coal deck to fill in, instead of from the mail deck. So, change #1 for the board, was to move those two decks of cards far apart from each other. This change actually took up some space, so I went from four 8.5x11" pieces of paper to six. (Actually, since PowerPoint puts 1/2" borders all the way around, when trimmed, they're 7.5x10". Which reminds me...I have to figure out a better way to do this than in PowerPoint). I also made some changes to the Reindeer scoring track, and how the Training Room works, and reflected that on the board. Lastly, I wanted a better quality board. My first attempt, I literally just scotch taped my four sheets of paper together. The scotch tape didn't take to folding too well. So...I decided to make an honest to goodness board. I purchased some thick (0.05") chipboard, and some book binding tape, and hinged together six chipboards, and then taped my six sheets of paper on top using double sided tape. It's not professional quality - not by a longshot - but it's a vast improvement. (Word to the wise - make sure you plan out your hinges in advance!)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMq0ubJ9mxIRBWL3b4Dzqtd7pDfaTeJdH6coHiOBsCDaI03fYL0pjH0Gjat-a2ACuF8m948Bb4Fq8v6Ky1Phv2OkVHBn0EwJWICV3c9e7MiWr_UZRrkoo6H6-TmVTQ4ccl5eRcmCWxbjo/s1600/IMG_1043.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMq0ubJ9mxIRBWL3b4Dzqtd7pDfaTeJdH6coHiOBsCDaI03fYL0pjH0Gjat-a2ACuF8m948Bb4Fq8v6Ky1Phv2OkVHBn0EwJWICV3c9e7MiWr_UZRrkoo6H6-TmVTQ4ccl5eRcmCWxbjo/s1600/IMG_1043.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The New board</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj9k7XvlbLZlJ8MrQ0vEUtHs1WfuRq8anom_5c8EGFhHDZkoqOU-m1fW_6v9-LVlCFeMgSRchhaX2uQGCUQILTGY2KY0voKWAld6FCuiZ5W339pnI4PaUXckbTzOwsTMAsbze_-XNnbuI/s1600/IMG_1044.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj9k7XvlbLZlJ8MrQ0vEUtHs1WfuRq8anom_5c8EGFhHDZkoqOU-m1fW_6v9-LVlCFeMgSRchhaX2uQGCUQILTGY2KY0voKWAld6FCuiZ5W339pnI4PaUXckbTzOwsTMAsbze_-XNnbuI/s1600/IMG_1044.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It even folds properly!</td></tr>
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Another thing I tackled was making the language on the Coal Cards (which allow you to "cast spells" to help yourself or hinder your opponents) less ambiguous. It was not at all clear when some of the cards should be played. And cards that should be played in similar circumstances were sometimes worded differently "Play when in the Wood Shop" and "Play when producing wood", for example - so I went through and tried to make everything clear. There will also be a section in the rules where I detail each card, because I think some of them are tricky enough to need more explanation than can fit on the card.<br />
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Speaking of the rulebook - my previous rulebook was 2.5 pages of essentially just reminders to myself. I've now written an honest to goodness first draft of an actual rule book. I think it's at 7 pages now...but I need to add the Coal Card descriptions.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvWQ_1elaX_prT7aHHvQ7v5QCFfZIBnjS0PjgTwJWJ1xEnnTpGsKFeJnqWSJ0BgWYk5Kx8mr849nORJXSahKapD-C0pQaW3vPMRnmlXHvsBYevOykHl88jXTbl7xhqtN-ZhuNfTAgMLDc/s1600/IMG_1046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvWQ_1elaX_prT7aHHvQ7v5QCFfZIBnjS0PjgTwJWJ1xEnnTpGsKFeJnqWSJ0BgWYk5Kx8mr849nORJXSahKapD-C0pQaW3vPMRnmlXHvsBYevOykHl88jXTbl7xhqtN-ZhuNfTAgMLDc/s1600/IMG_1046.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hows that for a 1st player marker?</td></tr>
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The most recent thing I've been working on is overhauling the scoring mechanic for actually creating gifts. The idea behind making the gifts is that they would be constructed from 3 main materials - fabric, wood and metal. Now, I've borrowed an idea from the game <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27746/colosseum"><i>Colosseum</i></a>. In that game, you are staging shows in Imperial Rome, and various shows have required elements - however you can choose to be skimpy on your show (and earn less VP) by not using all the required elements. In <i>Santa's Workshop</i>, I have a mechanic that allow the player to use plastic in place of some of the materials. I want there to be a decision that the player has to make - make the toy our of quality material, and score more, or use plastic, finish faster and start working on more toys. In our playtest, no one ever opted to use plastic. And we all went for toys with lots of metal parts. That's because I was basing the score on worth of material - Fabric=1, Wood=2, Metal=3.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgEO0_p9OHWQNTuVC6wLszQW6LMlprQi2mDi0PQqoAEoAOwVu2JsGfad_ENEmdEgYbRQ4Dw_U_aAMIvoD0S0nL4OYk0A9He45ehbRZOGNIH3zxvBc59BMSlnVb26bOO_u7Elma-BLmHU/s1600/IMG_1047.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgEO0_p9OHWQNTuVC6wLszQW6LMlprQi2mDi0PQqoAEoAOwVu2JsGfad_ENEmdEgYbRQ4Dw_U_aAMIvoD0S0nL4OYk0A9He45ehbRZOGNIH3zxvBc59BMSlnVb26bOO_u7Elma-BLmHU/s1600/IMG_1047.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The turn marker...and friends</td></tr>
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I felt that I needed a new scoring formula, and Tom and Becky had some suggestions. I've now reworked the scoring formula - I've bumped up the base 3 materials by 1 pt each, and made plastic worth 1 pts (after all, even plastic toys bring joy to children). I've also added a scoring element for the number of <i>different</i> materials used (to reflect the amount of effort that goes into gathering the materials), and the amount of time it takes to assemble the gift will affect the score. So, now I have an honest to goodness <i>formula</i> that I'm using. I don't know that it's perfect, and I'm sure I'll tweak it, but I feel that I have a good basis for it now.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiVYAigoIN9qFU6lNhjPiHBTbS5ivfqZglYOk9mLX7SaeyMa46lPe-mXKyNkKEXGmFi3TTDZJvyUqPHSU6acam29taV6_Y9I3yvbT5LDbDVzUwa-Y5HbWiA00TQwhaWSNXm__b_Oom4T0/s1600/Gift_spreadsheet.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiVYAigoIN9qFU6lNhjPiHBTbS5ivfqZglYOk9mLX7SaeyMa46lPe-mXKyNkKEXGmFi3TTDZJvyUqPHSU6acam29taV6_Y9I3yvbT5LDbDVzUwa-Y5HbWiA00TQwhaWSNXm__b_Oom4T0/s1600/Gift_spreadsheet.png" height="200" width="183" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Working the spreadsheet....</td></tr>
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I will also be reworking the gifts in terms of the materials needed to make them. Like many games, my scoring track wraps around the board edge, and goes from 0-100. I had been keeping the scores fairly low on my gifts previous, in the 2-12 range mostly. But that meant I didn't have a lot of flexibility to play with the amount of material that it took to build a toy. I was trying to keep the scores around a 100 or less, and sure enough in our playtest, Tom won with 101 points. In order to get more flexibility on the components, I think scores are going to go up, which means scores will be well above 100, maybe above 200. And you know what - that's fine. I'll just add in a couple of "+100" markers for each player.<br />
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Alright...that's enough for now. Time to get back to working on formulas and graphic design....Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-11652332362327942432013-11-20T20:34:00.001-08:002013-11-21T05:08:07.611-08:00The First Playtest!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJtJDCW4DZqFopfsUU0fIkl6wVlN35UAF3b5NAziuW4kyyIpFgINTSnaIdwxMQKJqD-9hL7v9ri9b_ACbOmOkLMXC0GP01FFEakZbXSBpHBltCjYzSvRRLdpeGK9t8w0qSEELOw3fW4po/s1600/bg_Design.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJtJDCW4DZqFopfsUU0fIkl6wVlN35UAF3b5NAziuW4kyyIpFgINTSnaIdwxMQKJqD-9hL7v9ri9b_ACbOmOkLMXC0GP01FFEakZbXSBpHBltCjYzSvRRLdpeGK9t8w0qSEELOw3fW4po/s1600/bg_Design.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How's it look? (note...NOT MY GAME!)</td></tr>
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I have yet to talk about my board game design on this blog, mainly because I've taken my sweet time in getting around to working on it. I've had the idea for the theme for well over a year, and in fits and spurts I'd written several pages of notes on game play, but I'd procrastinated on actually getting around <i>and working on it</i>! As a married father of 2 young children, I'll blame the usual suspects - wife, kids, house work, etc. What I really needed was a bit of a kick in the pants. But let me back up a bit...why did I decide to throw my hat into the game design ring? After all, it seems that at every convention, half the people there are talking about designing their own game. And from listening to various podcasts, and hearing publishers, it's obvious that they're getting no shortage of submissions. Add in the <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/">Kickstarter</a> phenomenon, and I get the feeling that the market may even be a little glutted (or maybe a LOT glutted). <br />
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So why jump in the fray? Well, I'll blame my good friend <a href="http://paulowengames.blogspot.com/">Paul Owen</a> a little bit. Paul was fortunate enough to get his first game, <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/105130/trains-planes-automobiles"><i>Trains, Planes & Automobiles</i></a> published in 2011. Since I'm often hanging out with Paul at the two main board gaming conventions I attend, <a href="http://prezcon.com/">Prezcon</a> and <a href="http://www.boardgamers.org/">WBC</a>, I started seeing some of the "inner circle" as Paul would socialize with other designers, throw ideas back and forth and even playtest some new games. The enthusiasm and creativity amongst this group was contagious, and I decided that I'd like to give it a shot. As the dad of two younger children (currently aged 6 & 9), my first inclination was to create a game that they could enjoy - but also that adults would like. At some point, I hit upon the idea of having the players control teams of elves as they build presents in Santa's Workshop - and I tentatively titled the game just that - <i>Santa's Workshop</i>. As I mentioned, I would scribble down notes to myself now and then, and eventually had a bunch of papers tacked to the corkboard by my desk. But I was procrastinating on actually putting something together.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh-HTrDRIGolU3C1os-CDpe0AYuZpWKORfVcOVG0nWi6NfLnmiSGk0PuM7xN8EX6KwaujGlH4hyOb8Y2gn8hwj6REPJU1BQrXLVAA40w1-Reu-u3xFXgUbcQeWX_eZhxE7chr2T2SoFnY/s1600/Unpub_Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh-HTrDRIGolU3C1os-CDpe0AYuZpWKORfVcOVG0nWi6NfLnmiSGk0PuM7xN8EX6KwaujGlH4hyOb8Y2gn8hwj6REPJU1BQrXLVAA40w1-Reu-u3xFXgUbcQeWX_eZhxE7chr2T2SoFnY/s320/Unpub_Logo.jpg" width="320" /></a>Earlier this year, I had the vague thought of having something ready to go by the next <a href="http://unpub.net/">Unpub</a> convention. Again, I had heard Paul talk about his experiences at Unpub 3, and I thought that would be a great place to get good feedback. But I hemmed and hawed, and summer turned into fall. For some reason, I thought Unpub was in the Spring...but a few weeks ago I discovered that it was happening in the middle of January. Cursing myself for procrastinating, I asked Paul how "finished" a game should be, and he indicated that many of the games there were roughly in the middle of the design process, still needing a few tweaks, but well on their way to completion. I was a little dejected at this, because I didn't think I would have anything even "halfway" done by January. I reached out on Twitter to the guys running Unpub, and the response I got from <a href="http://tcpettyiii.tumblr.com/">T.C. Petty III</a> was that "notebook paper is fine...it's probably good if you've at least played it a time or two". With that in mind, I decided I wanted to go for it, and not regret that I had to wait another year for the next full Unpub convention...and I promptly found that they had sold out their tables. Convention director <a href="https://twitter.com/getlouder">Darrell Louder</a> gave me a ray of hope when he said that they were looking to add a few more tables.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCaJhTCTjmIkgpWqcq3WjnLHrKuyDEwxva8FiDHAx05LZjzUKzX7lUyz12WcIExrgIGnpU5JAqfgVTNmpy39LqI0DBw-5bDBLFygvpKVM8zHudL1ZG_O5yDM0kGU35d1SCshH5PpMqBzA/s1600/VT_Game.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCaJhTCTjmIkgpWqcq3WjnLHrKuyDEwxva8FiDHAx05LZjzUKzX7lUyz12WcIExrgIGnpU5JAqfgVTNmpy39LqI0DBw-5bDBLFygvpKVM8zHudL1ZG_O5yDM0kGU35d1SCshH5PpMqBzA/s1600/VT_Game.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not the view from our seats</td></tr>
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With that in mind, I set to the task of getting some kind of working prototype by the weekend of November 16-17. My wife and I were traveling to Blacksburg, and my good friend Tom was going to be there, and I thought that would be a great chance for a first playtest. So, over the course of a week or so, I put together a rough board, printed a bunch of cards, and ordered a bunch of meeples and wooden cubes. By the time came to leave on Friday, I had a prototype! Now, while in Blacksburg, I got the word that Darrell was opening 5 more tables, going on sale at 5:00 Saturday night. I was at the Virginia Tech - Maryland game...and it went into overtime...causing me to stress that I wouldn't be at a computer at the 5:00 starting time. Fortunately, the game only went one overtime - unfortunately, the Hokies lost :(. However, we made it back to our lodgings in plenty of time. When the time came to register, I promptly flailed as I forgot my Paypal password, and had to figure that out...by the time I did, and tried to register, I got a "sold out" response, and my heart sunk. Contacting Darrell via Twitter, he assured me that I had indeed registered - and apparently somewhere in the flail, I had actually registered twice. He kindly refunded me the 2nd registration fee, and refrained from mocking me. So, after all that, I was in for Unpub! But...did I have anything worth bringing? <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-2qSj7iEYqELsuc1Nf6wWsKhu-7Gp3rUltmuXtaQCv73yhFIfZp8vnInKNjmMWSX3ew37x161taNkT8rhd3HAqapBTc-hhh0kLdf4YiOYxoyFGam7T03-MCVnmUZfPz1PIk9FJjUrEgM/s1600/20131116_202904.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-2qSj7iEYqELsuc1Nf6wWsKhu-7Gp3rUltmuXtaQCv73yhFIfZp8vnInKNjmMWSX3ew37x161taNkT8rhd3HAqapBTc-hhh0kLdf4YiOYxoyFGam7T03-MCVnmUZfPz1PIk9FJjUrEgM/s320/20131116_202904.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I didn't think to take a picture until we were done!</td></tr>
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After a quick dinner, I sat down with Becky and Tom and broke out <i>Santa's Workshop</i>. A quick explanation of the rules, and we were off. The game is essentially worker placement, as you use your elves to gather resources to build gifts. There are a few other things the elves can do, such as feed the reindeer, and dig for coal (after all, there are the naughty kids to "deliver" to). Although I'm a fan of euro games, sometimes I can find them wanting for player interaction. I had long had the idea of having cards that would give players benefits, or allow them to hinder other players. However, in the week or so leading up to the playtest, I had the idea to add some "counter" cards to allow players to counter the cards of opponents. I envisioned something along the lines of "Wiz-War", with players casting spells at other players, who in turn might deflect them back at the originator, or even other players...all while doing your worker placement actions as well.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbhYSky4EelJvod3lQaKueXqLaTXVPxkixNvqVhZAEhSv-5i2RIAJmOJT57u0K_2LbMchxthIjonajhy7FFWC_idgIAk3nWCR2NGQ4O1YbNkKwZo0Etw613dSn_1CvwV-yq1srai6VbIQ/s1600/20131116_202840.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbhYSky4EelJvod3lQaKueXqLaTXVPxkixNvqVhZAEhSv-5i2RIAJmOJT57u0K_2LbMchxthIjonajhy7FFWC_idgIAk3nWCR2NGQ4O1YbNkKwZo0Etw613dSn_1CvwV-yq1srai6VbIQ/s320/20131116_202840.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A little closer view</td></tr>
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As expected, the questions about rules came fast and furious...some I was prepared to answer, others not so much. By the end of the game, I'd taken a page and a half of notes - and jotted down a bunch more on the trip home on Sunday. I learned the importance of not having vague wording on my cards. I got a lot of good feedback, and some interesting suggestions for rules changes. I have a lot of ideas on how to fix some things...and some of those ideas conflict with each other... I'm planning on getting in more playtesting prior to Unpub...but I'm at least comfortable that I have something that I won't embarrass myself with there. Will this eventually catch a publishers eye? I don't know...but I'm excited to finally be doing something with my idea, and I look forward to seeing what will happen!Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-80132804185011214412013-11-01T19:59:00.003-07:002013-11-01T20:12:21.803-07:00FireflyWell, this past Tuesday night, we had the chance to break out <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/138161/firefly-the-game"><i>Firefly</i></a> again. This was my third <i>Firefly</i> experience, after my first game (detailed <a href="http://keithferguson.blogspot.com/2013/08/two-eagerly-anticipated-games.html">here</a>) and a two player affair that my friend Tom and tried out one night. The first game was the very first for all the players, and the 2-player game was started at 10:00 at night after a long day of college football, while camped in front of the TV, so I'm not so sure that was a fair shake. I was eager to try it again, after getting some experience, and with another larger group. In fact 3 of the 4 of us were the same players as from that first play, and everyone had had the chance to get a few plays under their belt. Our 4th player was Brian, who was a rookie, but had been eager to try the game.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwOMfFK-u2P2NccWQo1rDSZjIQKamkpY6p2g_QBm_XmOzKfXP0omFTuCoTU-_MVpBNHF0rTaJIKs9auXX8GhDEog3HXJxkatlwYCySVMfyx3JaqQNlS3hgX1SQATckWOFfDN9L6RxVTQ/s1600/Firefly_Box.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwOMfFK-u2P2NccWQo1rDSZjIQKamkpY6p2g_QBm_XmOzKfXP0omFTuCoTU-_MVpBNHF0rTaJIKs9auXX8GhDEog3HXJxkatlwYCySVMfyx3JaqQNlS3hgX1SQATckWOFfDN9L6RxVTQ/s320/Firefly_Box.png" width="320" /></a>We hemmed an hawed a little about which scenario to play, but finally settled on "The King of All Londinium", which is the suggested starting scenario - but has also been roundly criticized for taking MUCH longer than the estimated 2 hours. (Note - Gale Force Nine has released a new "beginners story" on their website - "<a href="http://www.fireflythegame.com/howtoplay/StoryCards.aspx">First Time in the Captain's Chair</a>") The thing about "The King of All Londinium" (and the reason that it takes so long) is that it forces you to try and get the full experience of <i>Firefly</i>, as you have to not only earn money, but get a crew that is proficient at all the skill sets in order to succeed. <br />
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It's actually the first goal in "The King of All Londinium" that seems to take the longest time, as you not only need to build a decent crew (in particular, with the negotiation skill), but in the first goal, you need to have at least $7000 in order to succeed (you can chance it with $5000). It takes some time to build up that kind of cash, as your crew takes their cut for each successful job. Note that we all still played a bit conservatively, as no one was risking a disgruntled crew by not paying them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8sU4N9Nrf1uWo39NLHx5PbPWREoblRAf3vl9_kmwMao34nNTtHsSH16YM2khAjZo-50vQTwgdVQFVo6OPmZ2tm54aPyCtBaTlzroFTxyuKIJCRufbE7HeXRgtapqMjBU3Wulj4kHVp6U/s1600/Firefly_Ship_Model.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8sU4N9Nrf1uWo39NLHx5PbPWREoblRAf3vl9_kmwMao34nNTtHsSH16YM2khAjZo-50vQTwgdVQFVo6OPmZ2tm54aPyCtBaTlzroFTxyuKIJCRufbE7HeXRgtapqMjBU3Wulj4kHVp6U/s320/Firefly_Ship_Model.jpg" width="320" /></a>Without giving a detailed overview of our actual game, I'll just cut to the chase and report that Brian won, beating me by one turn in completing the 3rd goal. Remember, Brian was the only player with absolutely no experience with the game. Randy finished 3rd, having completed the 1st goal a few turns prior the end, and Carson never completed that first goal. It took us about 3 hours. Which wasn't bad considering, the first time around, we called it at 3.5 hours, and only one person had completed the first goal.<br />
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What I really wanted to talk about is my impression of the game after 3 plays now. I love the <i>Firefly</i> universe as much as the next geek. I want to love this board game. But I don't. I like it - quite a bit. But I don't love it - I don't think it's worthy of the hype it's been getting - although I feel like there are some more criticisms creeping out there. So, what are the issues for me? The biggest one is player interaction - there is very little. Yes, you can potentially send the Alliance or Reavers after other players, but you need to be a little lucky to do that - that typically only happens when someone is moving through space and flips a card that allows the player next to them to move the Alliance/Reavers. And then the moving person already has to be only one space away for anything to happen. For other interaction - you can potentially trade with someone in the same space, or steal their disgruntled crews. We never had that happen - disgruntled crew was rare, and besides everyone was just trying to complete their jobs rather than spy out what was happening on other players ships. Brian said it best after the game - "I had little idea what anyone else was doing during the game." I almost wish - and I've had vague notions of trying to home-rule something like this - that multiple ships could be working the same job, and there was some kind of race to see who completed it first. However, I would also want some way to try and hinder the the other players trying to work the same job as you - perhaps some way to force a misbehaving card on them? Hmm...<br />
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Then there's the luck factor. This turns up mostly during the travel, as you flip the Alliance and Reaver decks. Poor Carson in our game got hammered by this - having the Reavers pop into his space on several occasions. I probably would have won the game if Zoe hadn't been snatched from my crew by the Alliance, forcing me to find a replacement for her. In fact, we had a run of bad luck where it seemed the Alliance was finding anyone with a warrant. Randy must have tried for 4 turns to complete that first goal before he was able to, just due to the cards that popped up - the misbehave cards can be easy or difficult, and there's no good way to build your crew to handle them - they could require any of the skills.<br />
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One other issue I wanted to mention is that if you get behind in this game - there seems to be little chance to catch up. Brian and I were fortunate enough to complete the first goal at relatively the same time. Carson and Randy were not able to do so, and it quickly became apparent that they wouldn't catch us. Since this game tends to run long, that can be an issue for players if they know they're out of it, and there's still 2 hours of game to go. Perhaps that's mainly a problem with the Londinium story, though - as I mentioned, I think the first goal is the hardest. Once you get past that, it's relatively straight forward to try and optimize your crew skills for the 2nd and 3rd goals. <br />
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Ok...all that said...I still <i>like</i> the game, and I'd be happy to play it again. Another quote from Brian - "I was never bored". It's just that it's almost like 4 players playing solo games on the same board. Another quote, from my buddy Paul O. - I don't remember if he said this when I was describing <i>Firefly</i>, or we were talking about another game - he talked about it sounding like an "experience game". I think that's dead on here. You play the game to have the <i>experience</i> of "living" in the <i>Firefly</i> universe for a little while. To that end, I think a little role playing may help out - really read the flavor text on the various cards, don't just look for the skill check numbers and roll the dice.<br />
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Well, that's it for now...despite my misgivings, I'm sure I'll shell out the money for the expansion cards that are due in a month or so. Until then, keep flying....Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-74460137241656698972013-10-24T19:20:00.002-07:002013-10-24T19:30:40.278-07:00Blinded by ScienceWell, our latest Tuesday night session was all about science! We got in another play of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/114667/the-new-science"><i>The New Science</i></a>, but before that, we tried out an eagerly anticipated arrival....<br />
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Earlier this year, I finally jumped on board the Kickstarter wagon, backing a number of projects. One of them was the latest iteration of <i><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/48726/alien-frontiers">Alien Frontiers</a></i>...so I wasn't exactly going out on a limb with that one. However, one that I backed sight unseen was <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118174/compounded"><i>Compounded</i></a>, from <a href="http://dicehateme.com/">Dice Hate Me Games</a>, by designer Darrell Louder. Now, I decided to back this for a number of reasons. First, I've gotten to know the folks at Dice Hate Me a little bit, and I've enjoyed the games they've been putting out - and I'm always happy to help a small independent publisher. In fact, I met Darrell at this year's Prezcon - and marveled at how he restrained from throttling some younger players during a game of Pitch Car. Second, I loved the theme, I'm a science guy - though I'm more comfortable with orbit mechanics than chemistry - and I loved the idea of a game based on science. Third, the game got a thumbs up from my buddy Paul Owen, who had played a prototype at one of the UnPub events.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvcqAdQUVcgGj_07x2KfVDgHJBs2F7tdRFaz-frMrH5nMu7WvQPP86U4tFqOM36_0EbvwStEN2Q8lveywLxfcHduOlMiQKIdS6vWqTCBwdmTrnwEvHyF8KQPrXPZVXYyM9ifER281lDRc/s1600/compunded_all.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvcqAdQUVcgGj_07x2KfVDgHJBs2F7tdRFaz-frMrH5nMu7WvQPP86U4tFqOM36_0EbvwStEN2Q8lveywLxfcHduOlMiQKIdS6vWqTCBwdmTrnwEvHyF8KQPrXPZVXYyM9ifER281lDRc/s320/compunded_all.jpg" width="320" /></a>Well, as fortune would have it, <i>Compounded</i> arrived on my doorstep this past Monday. I punched the pieces, and put on the stickers that night, but falling victim to an oncoming cold, I didn't get a chance to read the rules. Not wanting to miss game night, I went to work snuffling and sneezing, and I threw Compounded in the game box, "just in case". After medicating myself, and buying some hand sanitizer in an attempt to not spread my disease to my fellow gamers, I showed up at the Game Parlor, and since Paul was also joining us, and knew the rules, we quickly decided to give Compounded a try. Setup was fairly quick, as I had each players components sorted into the test tubes (centrifuge tubes, really) that came as part of the Kickstarter campaign. Paul quickly dealt the various chemical cards that would initially be up for play. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My initial start with in 1 hydrogen, 1 carbon and 2 oxygens </td></tr>
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The game consists of four phases per turn - "Discovery", in which you draw "elements" (i.e. plastic colored "jewels") from a bag - and importantly, make deals with other players; "Study", where you lay claim to chemicals that are in play; "Research", where you play your elements onto chemicals; and "Lab" where you can score for completed chemical compounds, and perform some actions to set you up for the next turn. As you complete chemical compounds, not only do you score points, but you can increase your prowess in the various phases of the game, and also collect tools that will be useful. But beware - hidden in the deck are Lab Fire cards, which will cause certain compounds to catch on fire, possibly exploding, scattering their elements to other compounds. In such cases, it is always handy to have completed your fire extinguisher (needing carbon and oxygen).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Completing my extinguisher early in the game</td></tr>
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So how would I rate my first Kickstarter "blind purchase"? In short - a resounding success! Everyone at our table enjoyed the game - there were several quotes along the lines of "this is a lot funner than I thought it would be!" As for my part, I really enjoyed the game. The game components are, for the most part, top notch. The artwork and graphic design is fabulous, as one would expect from Dice Hate Me - using the Periodic Table as the score track is brilliant! The wheeling and dealing that happens during the Discovery phase is chaotic fun - more chaotic, than <i>Settlers of Catan</i> for example, since it's a free for all - and I see the chance of the game getting bogged down a bit there...but I think it's critical for player interaction.<br />
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If I had a couple of nitpicks, it would be that I found a few things to be on the small side. The game is nice and compact - I was expecting a <i>Ticket To Ride</i> sized box, instead it measures a hair under 9" square - which is in itself fine, it just necessitates that everything else be a little smaller. Specifically, the text on the player boards is tiny - although after a few plays, I doubt you'd be relying on that text. The flame tokens to place on compounds after a Lab Fire are very tiny - make sure you don't lose them. The centrifuge tubes that came as a Kickstarter bonus are a little overkill - they take up too much room in the box for the amount they store. However, that's the nittiest of nitpicks, considering they were a bonus, and the folks at Dice Hate Me went through quite an ordeal to find something that they promised during the Kickstarter campaign. In fact, from fragile materials, to size issues, the test tube issue seemed to cause the most headaches, and they very well could have just canned the idea, but they stuck with it and delivered on their promise - and I can't help but respect that. In fact, for my first Kickstarter experience, I can't help but feel this is the way it should be done - constant updates, explanations for hiccups (i.e. the test tubes) - I never once worried that my "investment" was in trouble. Now...bring on <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/139898/brew-crafters"><i>Brew Crafters</i></a>!Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-19607395929864262642013-09-27T14:35:00.001-07:002013-09-27T14:35:57.300-07:00The New Science and Time N SpaceWell, it's been some time since my last blog post. I made the decision that I didn't necessarily need to blog about every single game I've played...that was just turning into weekly recaps...instead I'm just going to post whenever I encounter something new and different, or there's something particularly compelling to talk about.<br />
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This past Tuesday, at our weekly game night, our group played two new games that I thought I'd spend some time discussion. Actually, we played three games, the first being one of our favorites - <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/43015/hansa-teutonica"><i>Hansa Teutonica</i></a>. I want to mention that briefly, because Mike R. pulled out the victory with a very clever strategy that was semi-new to our group. Usually in Hansa, the early game tends to be a struggle over people completing routes to the city of Gottingen in order to gain extra actions. Inevitably someone claims an office in Gottingen in order to score points on all the folks completing the route for extra actions. In our game, the very first person - Brian - to complete that route claimed the first office of Gottingen - and shortly thereafter Grant took the 2nd office. So, the fight for Gottingen was more vicious than normal. But Mike...he stayed out of that mess and quietly claimed the offices all across the north, include the towns of Groningen, Stade, and Lubeck - which open up Liber Sophiae, Privilegium and "Bag" actions respectively. When the rest of us got around to using those routes, Mike was vacuuming in the points. We all saw it, but no one did anything to stop him, and he won by a comfortable margin.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcZQOamut8XcGo5o2w7EQDLCzTyBIzrsvuVGLgmA3Qked89Pw6nnWETr3VMHSYPRGaQIOtUtIIzyqPAkcy1sql1xTxRIpFBjjblugJISCTE2BinaLR2VQg-TMTZfbjOxl0pkRzK3R7E4g/s1600/NewScience_box.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcZQOamut8XcGo5o2w7EQDLCzTyBIzrsvuVGLgmA3Qked89Pw6nnWETr3VMHSYPRGaQIOtUtIIzyqPAkcy1sql1xTxRIpFBjjblugJISCTE2BinaLR2VQg-TMTZfbjOxl0pkRzK3R7E4g/s320/NewScience_box.png" width="320" /></a>Alright...the first "new" game we played was <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/114667/the-new-science"><i>The New Science</i></a>, from Conquistador Games. In this game, you take on the role of one of the famous Renaissance era scientists - Newton, Galileo, Kepler, etc. You have 3 "energy cubes" for each turn, which you place on certain actions on the side of the board - re-arranging turn order, claiming "happening" cards, increasing your influence in several tracks, and most importantly - researching, experimenting and publishing scientific discoveries. After everyone has placed, the actions are resolved, top to bottom, left to right - very similar to <i>Dominant Species</i>. The bulk of the board is taken up by the "tech tree" of various scientific discoveries, which are broken up into 5 disciplines - astronomy, physics, mathematics, chemistry and biology. <br />
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Each discovery is represented in a box with 3 levels - one for researching, one for experimenting and one for publishing. In order to do those three actions successfully, you have to have a certain number of points in those areas - which are dictated by how good your particular scientist is in those areas, points that you can gain (or lose) on the action track, and in the case of experimenting, a die roll. You can also use "rest points" that you have gained by using the turn order action space. Lastly, to successfully publish, you must meet the requirements of having influence in different areas - government, religion, enterprise and science.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghYlL_fuglsfRpMBeFktGpd0hDefGxr92RYV8won3OMrr_lhWRntcyAV8tqOhTKVHfd6i5zFXGAJpw0iqTD6gG7BmyyEtLXMMs6clXWj0odSy7igtliA5bajzPaDX9EFmKp82475_2XgY/s1600/TheNewScience.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghYlL_fuglsfRpMBeFktGpd0hDefGxr92RYV8won3OMrr_lhWRntcyAV8tqOhTKVHfd6i5zFXGAJpw0iqTD6gG7BmyyEtLXMMs6clXWj0odSy7igtliA5bajzPaDX9EFmKp82475_2XgY/s320/TheNewScience.jpg" width="320" /></a>Now, I called the scientific discoveries a "tech tree" earlier, and that's what it is. The higher level discoveries depend on the player having information on earlier discoveries. The player can get that info by successfully experimenting on earlier per-requisite discoveries...or if they have been published <i>by any player</i>. That's right...when you publish on a subject, you potentially open up higher level discoveries to other players. So why publish? Well, that's just about the only way you gain prestige (i.e. victory points). In fact, that's really the core of the game, in my opinion...that decision on when to publish, and when to keep your discoveries to yourself (although someone else can certainly research and experiment on the same discovery as you).<br />
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One other thing I want to mention - starting with the 2nd round, 2 "Happening" cards are available each turn. These can be "events", which affect everyone for that whole turn, "play" cards which take affect as soon as they are claimed or "laboratory" cards which give the player who claims it a continuing advantage for the rest of the game (or until he replaces it with another card).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfFa03ITWPaWL3BBbfSdWX6uNyafOl7KHZkkCPXKVxU2tB__SZPxTq_GtNVAzaSbuw70CUg8CKlANNtF4X9khGu9b2bnFH83j76zhzHkoRBadKKk5gIOMKf8VKo2o114Jws8uQ3xu8J8I/s1600/NewScience_Kepler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfFa03ITWPaWL3BBbfSdWX6uNyafOl7KHZkkCPXKVxU2tB__SZPxTq_GtNVAzaSbuw70CUg8CKlANNtF4X9khGu9b2bnFH83j76zhzHkoRBadKKk5gIOMKf8VKo2o114Jws8uQ3xu8J8I/s320/NewScience_Kepler.jpg" width="320" /></a>I should mention that this is actually the 2nd time I've played this, but our first game a few weeks ago was rushed and cut a little short. This time we played a full game with 5 players. I'll say right up front that I really enjoy this game. The tech tree mechanic is pretty unique, as far as I know. In my limited experience, it seems to me that diversity is key - I got too wrapped up in the chemistry and biology sciences, and did well there, but then I was really shut out of the other sciences. The "when to publish" decision is critical...and that also ties in to how you take your actions, and which particular research, experiment or publish action you claim (there are multiple, but they resolve in a very specific order...it can be easy to screw up and select a publish action that happens before your experiment action...in which case you've really screwed yourself. Everyone at our table was new to the game, and everyone enjoyed it...some of the folks were not impressed with the pastel layout of the game board, but I didn't particularly have a problem with it. I definitely would like to get this one to the table again soon.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicgV_7_knyaApdkL3nHJc35oSjDsLg0I0QWIK03E8F73i-874boCGQLZpkyB9yXB5OngQdRLTFtAYnl3GRfG75r57tkbzybYOuNFXdpidqWYdE3B3m4Db66hVr8bqpQfYkHPPhdoboXFE/s1600/TimeNSpace_Box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicgV_7_knyaApdkL3nHJc35oSjDsLg0I0QWIK03E8F73i-874boCGQLZpkyB9yXB5OngQdRLTFtAYnl3GRfG75r57tkbzybYOuNFXdpidqWYdE3B3m4Db66hVr8bqpQfYkHPPhdoboXFE/s200/TimeNSpace_Box.jpg" width="200" /></a>The second new game we played was <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/137238/time-n-space"><i>Time N Space</i></a> by Stronghold Games. I'm a big Stronghold Games fan, and last year at WBC owner Stephen Buonocore talked me into buying a ton of his games. This year I resisted (well...I got <i>Space Cadets:Dice Duel</i>), but Stephen worked his wiley ways on Brian, who picked up <i>TnS</i>. We finally had a chance to get this to the table on Tuesday. We were fairly excited about trying this one, as the "innovative mechanic" is the use of sandtimers that each player uses to control their actions, in real time. Additionally, the game is played to a strict 30 minute time limit (the Stronghold Games timer app for Android was very useful here...).<br />
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The theme of the game is interstellar trading. Each player has 2 spaceships, 2 sand timers, and a player mat that has spaces which dictate how much he can produce, where to put demand tokens, and places to transport them to other players. The goods/demand tokens are broken up into 4 different colors, and each player has 6 demand tokens of each color (3 1's, 2 2's and 1 3 demand). The different areas on your player mat can produce goods of those colors, and you have to fly your spaceship to other people's planets, and deliver the amount of goods on their demand tokens to claim those tokens. The demand tokens that you claim from other players are used for you score at the end of the game...but here's the catch. You can only score for demand tokens in which you have managed to give away your own tokens of that color. So you may have claimed a bunch of blue tokens from other players...but if you still have any of your blue tokens left, you don't get to score those.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU4zyjzjHnf8PEcAnYlA8BJNNOL-i8RjIeOMN_kOM3Kh_-OtVUegjKEdDycMxp_nN8GoFtgAfXhvgI_5mUYcqv3Hh3br3MmF6fSiNdUTV3u7fB1QY-TD-cZ0cGbdr0YdANBShCaPP9EYU/s1600/TimeNSpace_proto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU4zyjzjHnf8PEcAnYlA8BJNNOL-i8RjIeOMN_kOM3Kh_-OtVUegjKEdDycMxp_nN8GoFtgAfXhvgI_5mUYcqv3Hh3br3MmF6fSiNdUTV3u7fB1QY-TD-cZ0cGbdr0YdANBShCaPP9EYU/s320/TimeNSpace_proto.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A prototype pic I found on BGG </td></tr>
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The sand timers are used for <i>everything</i>. You move your ship - move it, but put a timer on it. Want to create a new good? Put a timer in that spot on your mat. Same with placing new demand tokens an delivering goods. You also have the opportunity to upgrade the various spots on your player mat...they start out only producing one good, or transporting 1 good etc...but you can pick up better tokens to place on your mat, but of course to place them, you have to use a sand timer. The timers are 1 minute each...so in a 30 minute game, you're going to get at most 60 actions.<br />
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As I mentioned, we had high hopes for this game. At the end...we were honestly, a little disappointed. We were hoping the sand timers would drive a crazy real-time chaos-fest. And it was chaotic, but in spurts. I almost feel they would have been better if each player had two timers that were of different length. Both of them being a minute long meant that you often take 2 actions right in a row, and then waited a minute for both of your timers to run out. Our 4 player game also devolved into players A&B trading with each other and C&D trading with each other. Which was not good, because you score multipliers based on the number of different people who's tokens you collect. There is a lot of talking and negotiating in this game - "I need brown, put out brown, and fulfill that request for you"..things like that. So, I dunno...I'm willing to try it again...in fact I WANT to try it again, because this game, more so than most, I think will require multiple plays in order to get a real feel for how you should do things. That being said...I'm not absolutely clamoring for it again right away.<br />
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<br />Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-39835815897569491272013-08-28T18:08:00.001-07:002013-08-29T04:03:21.021-07:00Two Eagerly Anticipated GamesWell, GenCon has come and went (I really need to get there some day) and with it, a bunch of eagerly awaited new games have arrived. There are two that have been on my radar for a quite a while, and I've been fortunate enough to try them both in the last week or two. They are the <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/110327/lords-of-waterdeep"><i>Lords of Waterdeep</i></a> expansion, <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/134342/lords-of-waterdeep-scoundrels-of-skullport"><i>Scoundrels of Skullport</i></a>, and the newest offering from Gale Force Nine, <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/138161/firefly-the-game"><i>Firefly:The Game</i></a>. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNeV1yzYGvVWHbV5z2FxDNoVeHYggd89oHc-tA_sX8iswjst3aY8ZgZ9TyWEG5H3gxW_LHy7vPfwBYqALbc3QuJ1TweBtaPtmvG1vybxNkLensP7LFrZ8lJZuz3afnEuw6M_kG_CmXXf4/s1600/SoS_Box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNeV1yzYGvVWHbV5z2FxDNoVeHYggd89oHc-tA_sX8iswjst3aY8ZgZ9TyWEG5H3gxW_LHy7vPfwBYqALbc3QuJ1TweBtaPtmvG1vybxNkLensP7LFrZ8lJZuz3afnEuw6M_kG_CmXXf4/s320/SoS_Box.jpg" width="260" /></a>Let me start with <i>Scoundrels of Skullport (SoS)</i>. <i> Lords of Waterdeep</i> has become a favorite at my house - my wife loves it, and it's just as fun with 2 players as it is with 5. If I were to bet, it would be that LoW is my most played game in the last year (I've now started tracking my plays on BGG, so next year I'll be able to definitely see what I've played the most). That being said, you can only Rescue the Magister's Orb or Domesticate Owl Bears so many times before you're ready for something a little new. I worry a little about how tuned in my FLGS is to the overall gaming scene, and when I pre-ordered SoS from them, months ago, I was nervous that they wouldn't quite follow through. So, I pre-ordered on Amazon as well. Imagine how excited I was when my FLGS called me on the Thursday that GenCon had started to tell me they had it on the shelves. I immediately ran over and picked up a copy...I think I got my copy before GenCon attendees got theirs! Also, that gave me enough time to cancel my Amazon pre-order, which is fortunate, because apparently Amazon was unable to fulfill quite a bit of those orders. So...+1 for my FLGS!<br />
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But, on to the expansion - SoS provides some new variety, with not one, but two(!) expansions in one box. The "Undermountain" expansion adds new Lords, new quests and new intrigue cards, but generally does not alter the game that much. The "Skullport" expansion adds a little more variety - again with new Lords, quests and intrigue...but also a new "resource" - corruption - which is worth negative points at the end of the game. SoS also comes with agents and tokens for a 6th player, and some extra agents for the original 5 colors, so you can play the "long game" with more actions per turn.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjosUOAMgvMq-kKztR_lH1HLlAD7Him_2krMdxqLBB28oFQRkoZQgdywbKuB99-El-hNNbJAGe9KWHezS7smSuMqdYpdOhnSHITuco2wZcuScNA3p5xVr5GhxZTJFFaliVjNqcACvacIig/s1600/SoS_tray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjosUOAMgvMq-kKztR_lH1HLlAD7Him_2krMdxqLBB28oFQRkoZQgdywbKuB99-El-hNNbJAGe9KWHezS7smSuMqdYpdOhnSHITuco2wZcuScNA3p5xVr5GhxZTJFFaliVjNqcACvacIig/s1600/SoS_tray.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Things aren't fitting quite as nicely</td></tr>
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SoS has not been without some controversy, as apparently someone at the Wizards of the Coast quality control department fell asleep when this expansion was being made. The cards are all a hair bigger than their counterparts from the base game, there's some slight color difference in the card backs, the quest cards are printed "upside down" with respect to their back and the box insert, while mimicking the insert of the base game, is of substantially lower quality (feels flimsier and doesn't hold the pieces as well). I don't think any of this is a deal breaker, but some of it is mildly annoying, particularly from WotC, who have been publishing identically sized<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/463/magic-the-gathering"><i> Magic:The Gathering</i></a> cards for over a decade now. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAYD7BVyf1hzFgHzbmkRRY0y8m_T3mBUMYuc28t4yhuYPLZoIDz2ZrbZR4VOepW29rg_wd3z0DunkCMoC91Iq38XEkSQVvZs8KxHYyQzBpuqSNxGaL8Bhfqbpm-nXvhAyeqf-HaODtqlk/s1600/Undermountain_board.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAYD7BVyf1hzFgHzbmkRRY0y8m_T3mBUMYuc28t4yhuYPLZoIDz2ZrbZR4VOepW29rg_wd3z0DunkCMoC91Iq38XEkSQVvZs8KxHYyQzBpuqSNxGaL8Bhfqbpm-nXvhAyeqf-HaODtqlk/s320/Undermountain_board.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new starting buildings in Undermountain</td></tr>
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I've had a chance to play SoS twice now...but both times I've only played the Undermountain expansion. So I haven't had a chance to play with the corruption yet...but that looks very interesting to me. I've seen some concern online that the lord that gives you points for your corruption tokens is underpowered. But how about Undermoutain? The three new lords give you points in the following ways: 4 pts per Undermountain quest, 3 points for <i>any</i> (non-mandatory) quest and 5 points for any quest that was already valued at 10 or more. Some big highlights of the other new items include 40 point quests, intrigue and buildings cards that force you to seed other parts of the board with money or adventurers, and intrigue cards that allow you attack (i.e. remove) other players buildings. I should also mention that a side board brings three new buildings into play from game start (as does a similar board in the Skullport expansion).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZwkxR54XCOJ5JYWceAYOAftm5F6slGn7hZnIMni94LwKthYlmULd8ygMBSILRSXUn455KvMrL7vQZ5yLu_2cJK6uNFvqHDo2fydsECNF_B4M_lmpys1tlCuQpX8mIPGKA6qNrQb04vUQ/s1600/Skullport_board.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZwkxR54XCOJ5JYWceAYOAftm5F6slGn7hZnIMni94LwKthYlmULd8ygMBSILRSXUn455KvMrL7vQZ5yLu_2cJK6uNFvqHDo2fydsECNF_B4M_lmpys1tlCuQpX8mIPGKA6qNrQb04vUQ/s1600/Skullport_board.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some nasty corruption tokens</td></tr>
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In general, I've liked the expansion in both my plays. The new quests and buildings and intrigue cards are adding some variety to the base game. I have a slight nagging feeling that some things may be unbalanced, though. In both games I've played (one 2-player, and one 5-player) the person with the lord who scored 5 points for every quest > 10 points won. The 40 point quests are a huge advantage if one player gets one, and no more turn up. The 40 point quest did not seem particularly hard to complete either - about on par with the 25 point quests in the base game. The player who won in both games also played an intrigue card that immediately allowed them to draw 2 more intrigue cards and play them immediately. That being said, in our five player game, we knew the eventual winner was more or less running away with it, and we did nothing to hamper him. So, we have ourselves to blame - at least partially. I will not be making any rash judgements after only 2 plays, but I will be keeping an eye on how things play out in future games. I was also thinking of using the expansion in the final of next year's Prezcon LoW tournament, but I've cooled on that a bit. We'll see...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqScsUH4JkjA7_SPlS6q5OvSvN99LwO0ebdWf0RSf_5wrIBnTrYAVSQEJi0QesrT8uBSkdbqctRoyOGLrc4g-PFVPorKpUOyF41OpdNXbuK0zqGKU-ckf-jQWB2T9TMLAerNMdbN4_PHo/s1600/Firefly_Box.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqScsUH4JkjA7_SPlS6q5OvSvN99LwO0ebdWf0RSf_5wrIBnTrYAVSQEJi0QesrT8uBSkdbqctRoyOGLrc4g-PFVPorKpUOyF41OpdNXbuK0zqGKU-ckf-jQWB2T9TMLAerNMdbN4_PHo/s320/Firefly_Box.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shiny!</td></tr>
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Eagerly anticipated game #2 was <i>Firefly:The Game</i> (FtG) from <a href="http://www.gf9.com/">Gale Force Nine</a>. Long known as a purveyor of cool little tokens and trinkets for miniatures and board games, GF9 hit a home run last year with their first in-house game, <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128671/spartacus-a-game-of-blood-treachery"><i>Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery</i></a>. For their 2nd game, they had taken on the universe of<i> Firefly</i>, one of the most beloved (if short lived) franchises in Sci-Fi history. I must admit, that when I first saw pictures of the game back at Prezcon in February, I was underwhelmed with the board layout. But still...it's Firefly, right? Unlike SoS, FtG will not be available to the general public until the end of September or so, mostly due to a production error with the Alliance ship, I understand. However, they did have limited numbers available at GenCon, and one of our gaming regulars, Carson, snatched one up.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1XXofFmu6fq38CVlQqdcNG4ohwQRJPY6JnYKEfJx2UlYbBue4KL9ORqGUpn1tsPZTN-ieXv1kESApXXQ_JPbeLNMgguXR-ozN9D5ZGPf66Sj4lx7FwlC8Vp0uSOPFSK3cxGmEAd9AAno/s1600/Firefly_Ship_Model.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1XXofFmu6fq38CVlQqdcNG4ohwQRJPY6JnYKEfJx2UlYbBue4KL9ORqGUpn1tsPZTN-ieXv1kESApXXQ_JPbeLNMgguXR-ozN9D5ZGPf66Sj4lx7FwlC8Vp0uSOPFSK3cxGmEAd9AAno/s320/Firefly_Ship_Model.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can't take the sky from me</td></tr>
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FtG is, at it's heart a "pick up and deliver" game. You're the captain of a Firefly class transport ship, and you fly from planet to planet and your goal, to quote Malcolm Reynolds, is to "find a crew, find a job, keep flying." At the start of the game, you pick from a number of "stories", which is basically your overall objective or scenario for the game. Each story has 3 goals, and the first player to complete all 3 wins. Now, you won't have enough skills or money to complete those goals immediately, so you have to take other "jobs", which allow you to earn money, which in turn allow you to hire crew, buy equipment, get ship upgrades,etc. - which in turn allow you to tackle tougher jobs, which get you more money, enabling you to get more crew, more equipment etc. - until you feel you can start tackling the main goals of the game.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbUNLnF4NrOyNQcXudW_Z2WsF9-CUeKFM_BhKJK6tkCdKyLg9vs9s3gN4_JM_P799SVb8wOgsM59oPlvTSKhkN4vavkK0Jfzed-IJw8LJKUXVRnKjZyDnLSnra4Pmox7RP54m0PT9Qzek/s1600/Firefly_Ship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbUNLnF4NrOyNQcXudW_Z2WsF9-CUeKFM_BhKJK6tkCdKyLg9vs9s3gN4_JM_P799SVb8wOgsM59oPlvTSKhkN4vavkK0Jfzed-IJw8LJKUXVRnKjZyDnLSnra4Pmox7RP54m0PT9Qzek/s320/Firefly_Ship.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My ride!</td></tr>
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Our game was a 4 player game - which is the maximum amount of players - unless you picked up Game Trade Magazine Issue #162 which came packaged with "The Artful Dodger", a 5th ship. Let me say right off the bat, that FtG comes as close to faithfully representing it's source material as any game I've played. I think Gf9 did an outstanding job of getting the "feel" of the Firefly universe right. You had to dodge the Alliance and Reavers, hope your ship held together as your go from one end of the 'Verse to the other, maybe take on some less than savory jobs just to stay afloat, make sure your crew stayed happy, watch out for the likes of Saffron - all great stuff! My main concern after my one play is play time. We played with the recommended starting scenario - and it was listed as 2 hours. After 3 hours, we had to pack up because the FLGS was closing - and only one player had completed one of the goals. I estimate we had at least another hour to go. And that seems to match up with the comments on BGG, which are estimating an hour per player.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5BUAT4dHAoBx-g0pPSAHmwEknKu22iIB9L9-bpq9CQbehP4AxfjECPCNDLaOr2YKdrNKaudms2c3Vj7jZUzciSXrJl5X1wn29TdfqLS3rb5fceTN7OB3G3cV6abR9kVQdn-SQkA_mHXI/s1600/Firelfy_board.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5BUAT4dHAoBx-g0pPSAHmwEknKu22iIB9L9-bpq9CQbehP4AxfjECPCNDLaOr2YKdrNKaudms2c3Vj7jZUzciSXrJl5X1wn29TdfqLS3rb5fceTN7OB3G3cV6abR9kVQdn-SQkA_mHXI/s320/Firelfy_board.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 'Verse</td></tr>
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Along with play time, and maybe related, I have a concern about downtime. This, of course, is more concerning with higher player counts. But, there's not a lot to do while the other players are taking their turns. There's no direct conflict in the game, although players can move the Alliance or Reaver ships towards each other, and trade with each other. But, by the end of the game we were getting better about speeding things along - for example if a player takes his last action as "going shopping" at one of the markets - fine, while he's deciding what to buy, the next player can start moving his ship. And I will say that I thought as we started to get the hang of the game, we were playing faster, which is to be expected of any new players. We were also starting to get the hang of how to earn money, which is key. After about the first 2.5 hours, most of us still had the same amount of money we started with. But we were getting there. If we had started again, I feel we could have probably finished the game in 3 hours...but probably not the 2 hours they estimated in the instructions.<br />
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Bottom line - despite concerns of play length - I am eager to get this one to the table again. I think just being prepared for a longer game, plus with experience in the game, will help a lot. And there's a lot of fun stuff going on here. I will say that this game takes up a lot of table space. This game has the most cards I've seen other than maybe<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15987/arkham-horror"><i> Arkham Horror</i></a>. And a lot of tokens for cargo, contraband, fuel, passengers, etc. Each player needs to have their stuff laid out so they can see it, too, which means a lot of space. But, I'm anxious to get my copy in a month or so and play it some more (one of the "stories" allows for solo play, I believe). Until then, I'll be in my bunk. <br />
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<br />Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-87352044167615224392013-08-15T19:15:00.002-07:002013-08-15T19:16:55.820-07:00WBC 2013 Part 4Ok, one last post about WBC 2013. I'm not going to cover in depth everything that we did Saturday night and Sunday morning, because Paul did a great job covering it <a href="http://paulowengames.blogspot.com/2013/08/wbc-2013-saturday-wooden-ships-fleet.html">here</a> and <a href="http://paulowengames.blogspot.com/2013/08/wbc-2013-sunday-convention-wrap-up.html">here</a>. Bottom line - we stayed up way too late on Saturday night, and then clung to every last minute into Sunday afternoon.<br />
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I didn't have quite as much fun with <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/113293/article-27-the-un-security-council-game"><i>Article 27</i></a> as we did at Prezcon, but some of that may have been due to the late hour. I also got a bum deal in which 4 of my 5 secret agenda tokens got pulled all on the same turn...and there was no way I was going to get everyone to agree to passing that many in one round. All the same...I remain unsure about that game...with 6 players especially, it can be hard to keep track of all your bribes. <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/104581/panic-on-wall-street"><i>Panic on Wall Street</i></a> I enjoyed, though it took me a few turns to get the hang of it. I would like to try it with more than 5 players, though. <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/443/code-777"><i>Code 777</i></a> - I've been wanting to try this with more than 2 players since Paul and I played it last year at WBC. Unfortunately, 2 in the morning is not the best time to dive in...we gave it a shot, but it was just too much for our tired brains at that point.<br />
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On Sunday, I enjoyed <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/760/battle-line"><i>Battle Line</i></a>, which I picked up for $5 thanks to my $10 GMT coupon. Neat little 2-player game - time will tell if I like it better than <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/50/lost-cities"><i>Lost Cities</i></a> or not. <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128671/spartacus-a-game-of-blood-treachery"><i>Spartacus</i></a> - speed kills, speed kills. My gladiator, with his ability to use speed dice as defensive dice, was a juggernaut in the arena.<br />
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I want to highlight my purchases. Usually, I get caught up in convention fever and spend more than I should, and end up getting a stinker or two (see the "buy 1 get 2 free" Mayfair sale at Prezcon this year - there's a reason they were giving away some of the games for free). I feel pretty good about my haul at WBC, though:<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/62219/dominant-species"><i>Dominant Species</i></a> - Didn't play it at WBC, but I really enjoyed it during vacation this summer - I pretty much knew I was going to buy it before I got to the con.<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/142079/space-cadets-dice-duel"><i>Space Cadets:Dice Duel</i></a> - possibly my best pickup of the con. I still haven't had a chance to play the original <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/123096/space-cadets"><i>Space Cadets</i></a>, and I was suckered in a little by the "buy it first at WBC" schtick - but after a few plays, I can report that this game is a blast. Especially after a long day hunkering down in front of "serious" games.<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/124047/pirate-dice-voyage-on-the-rolling-seas"><i>Pirate Dice</i></a> - I had read about this, and previously tried to pick it up online, but it had been sold out. When I saw it at a vendor table, I snatched it up quick. I'm glad I did (though I found it online later for half the price) - this is another fun, wacky game - and much easier to get into than Robo Rally. I've already ordered the expansions.<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/114667/the-new-science"><i>The New Science</i></a> - Probably the only game I totally bought on a whim. I'd heard a few good mutterings about it, but hadn't had time to really research it. But the science theme called to me, and I went for it. I've since played one game, and I'm glad I picked it up. One game isn't enough to really run it through it's paces, and I'm mildly concerned about a mechanic or two...but all in all I really like it so far.<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/130752/agricola-all-creatures-big-and-small-more-buildi"><i>Agricola All Creatures Big and Small More Buildings Big and Small</i></a> - I really liked this "mini Agricola" for 2 players when I picked it up last year. It hasn't made it to the table recently...but I couldn't pass up on the expansion at the Z-Man booth.<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic"><i>Pandemic</i></a> and <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/40849/pandemic-on-the-brink"><i>On the Brink</i></a> - Yes, I already owned Pandemic and it's expansion. However, there's a <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/137136/pandemic-in-the-lab">new expansion</a> coming out soon, and it will only be compatible with the new artwork in the Pandemic reprints. So I rebought the base game and the first expansion. The good news - the On The Brink box now fits everything...but will it fit the new expansion???<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/760/battle-line"><i>Battle Line</i></a> - As mentioned, I got a $10 GMT coupon for winning <i>Conquest of Paradise</i>...I thought about getting the <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/96260/dominant-species-the-card-game"><i>Dominant Species Card Game</i></a>, but they were sold out, and Paul convinced me to pick this up instead, and I'm glad I did.<br />
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So...sadly, another WBC has come and gone. And now I get to sit here and be jealous of all the info coming from Gen Con. But, Prezcon is only 6 months away...and my copy of the<i> </i><a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/134342/lords-of-waterdeep-scoundrels-of-skullport"><i>Lords of Waterdeep</i> expansion</a> should arrive in a few days. Looking forward to the next big event!Keith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.com0