[GameStorm 12 Report] Part Five - Wrap Up

Gaming spaces are divided by partition walls by game type. Miniatures and board games were in the main hall with RPG and dealer spaces in another main hall. Panels were in various speaking rooms upstairs.

Being mainly a board game convention, GameStorm features all manner of games being played. I snapped some pics of some of the games being played as I strolled about. Some really popular titles this year were Dominion, Stronghold, Dungeon Lords to name a few.

Stronghold (pictured to the right) is an awesome game and plays just as well with two players or four. The whole time management element and the fact that the goal isn't just to break in are great parts of this game and make it very challenging. Take too long as the attacker, and you will have a hard time winning. Break in too fast and you lose too.

Dungeon Lord (above) is another wacky game that combines resource management with construction elements and then ties them together with a mechanic by which invading adventurers test your dungeon. You have to manage food, gold and imps to make sure you have enough traps, monsters, supplies and a big enough dungeon to give those adventurers a challenge. Get too evil and you will attract the incredibly over-powered paladin who can make or break your dungeon single-handedly.

Battletech (above left) was another favorite with several games running including an all-day event where folks were encouraged to drop in and drop out of the game as needed. There was a gigantic game of Flames of War (above right) fighting out a portion of the Battle of Kursk. The tanks in the above picture were all provided by owner of Game Matrix. Not only are there a ton of them, but they are all painted beautifully. Another historical game was run by the same gents who ran the Escape from the Lost City game I played in. They ran a Stallingrad scenario in 1/72 (below). The terrain they used was really cool as four ruined buildings could be packed into an interlocked cube for transport and storage.

On Saturday I played in a game of Space Hulk (below) that used two game sets playing simultaneous scenarious with victory conditions on each effecting the other. Oddly enough, both scenarios ended close enough to have no effect on the other. One of the games was being played exclusively by my gaming group. Nothing planned, just how it ended up. BTW, Genestealers won on both tables. There was also DBA and HOTT (below right) being played  on a few tables and several times in both instructional and actual game play. There was a pretty cool game of Starmada (below left) being played as well but I wasn't able to get in on it. Last I saw, the left of the Imperial fleet was folding which likely explains buddy Roy's pained expression in the foreground there.

And last, but not least and sadly so, there was a Sunday fairwell game of Junta that I missed AGAIN. The first year I went to GameStorm, Iken introduced me to a couple of guys he had played with the year prior. It's sort of a tradition now to get a pickup game of Junta (below) going on Sunday after everyone's checked out and packed for the trip home. I missed it last year and this year because I went to breakfast with my mother and grandmother who live in the area. I cannot deny them the chance to see me when I am down there, but next year they get to see me on Saturday. Junta Guy (we can never remember his name) is a riot to play with and everyone has an awesome time hamming it up and playing the roles of Banana Republic corrupt politicians. I did get to sit in on the last bit of the game this year at least and so was able to enjoy some of the fun as spectator.

Well, that is GameStorm for this year. There was a lot of fun that didn't get covered either because it escapes my memory or I don't have pics. There were panels as well, but they are not as fun to post about. Topics such as GMing 101, Theology in RPGs, and Role-Playing vs Acting Out were some of those that were covered as well as one title, "What is Old School Gaming?".

Take care,

-Eli

[GameStorm 12 Report] Part Four - Dealer Room Swag

Psi Rat wants to devour your mind!

Taking a break from game reporting, I thought I'd mention that this year was a good year for purchases at GameStorm. The dealer room, though never huge, was back up to speed from last year and there was even a swap meet that featured some RPG stuff in addition to the usual board game stuff. I almost picked up an old, beat-up ccopy of the original Traveller boxed set, but resisted as I wasn't really in the market for Traveller. So, what did I buy?

My first purchase was a Star Frontiers - Alpha Dawn boxed set and three supplements. These I purchased from Spiff 'n' Swag, a newcomer to the con that I hope will return in future years. They specialize in used gaming goods and had more stuff than I could buy in one con. They even had a box of old Grenadier D&D figures and a complete box of what I believe is Swamp Denizens. I got the Star Frontiers lot for $40 which seemed fair as the lot was individually tagged at $50.

Spiff 'n' Swag tormented me with temptations of other stuff as well, including a Knight Hawks boxed set for Star Frontiers and some old Twilight 2000 supplments. I did visit them again to take advantage of a fun bit they had layed out. Gaming Grab Bag it said and all I could ID inside the plastic bag was a tattered copy of the AD&D Oriental Adventures book and right out front X1 Isle of Dread. With the whole bag being a good 6-8" thick and weighing a ton, I decided to drop the $10 and have some fun taking a chance. I am happy I did. Sure most of the stuff in the bag had obviously been loved near to death, but I got a few things I'd been looking for besides the OA and X1. The bag included a bunch of old characters and character sheets of players past as well as the following-

• 
  
  2 copies of the 1983 Dungeons & Dragon Dungeon Masters Rulebook
• 
  
  1 copy of the 1983 Dungeons & Dragons Players Manual
• 
  
  A coverless but otherwise intact 1981 Moldvay Basic Rulebook
• 
  
  A good copy of the 1981 Cook Expert Rulebook
• 
  
  2 Well-loved, tape-bound copies of the AD&D Player's Handbook (one belonged to a girl!)
• 
  
  Glossography book from the 1983 World of Greyhawk boxed set
• 
  
  The cover/maps from S3 Expedition the the Barrier Peaks
• 
  
  2nd Edition DM's screen
• 
  
  Map of the Sword Coast

From other dealers I picked up the odd creature at the top of the post. He is the "Psi Rat" sold by local company Bucephalus Games. I bought him for my 6-yr old daughter. I also picked up the Uncle Sam figure from Reaper's Chronoscope line to paint up as the undertaker for our Dustswallow Wild West project. I am sure it seems like blasphemy but his leaning pointing pose, gaunt appearance, tailed coat and top hat he seems all too right for the role.

Another cool purchase was Berangad Games' "Beast Hunters" RPG. If you haven't heard about this game it sounds very fun. What drew me to it was the cool concept of an RPG in a tribal setting where the heroes play tribal defenders, hunting monsters for glory and the protection of their people. What sold me on the game was co-author/creator Christian Griffen who was kind enough to talk to me about his creation which he is very passionate about.

As I was shopping for games I could play with my oldest daughter, this game really does appeal as it is designed with 2-player play in mind. It is a story-based game that uses a pretty cool system of situation resolution referred to as Negotiation. This is a system of bargaining where the Challenger (GM) and the Hunter (player) argue through several stages - Solution, Elaboration, Complication. This is ultimately a bit of a match of wits and guts between the players with penalties and bonuses to ech of them. The game also has a bit of a colaborative element to it as the Hunter determines what sort of game you are going to play. The Challenger then designs a challenge based on the budget he is given by the Hunter.

I am looking forward to giving this very intriging and unique sounding RPG a try as it feels very different from things I have played before. They have a pretty cool online presence and if you follow some of the threads you get some great insights on the game. Christian also mentioned a 1.5 add-on to the rules offering more exampleso fp lay to help cement the concept for those who might be having trouble grasping it.

Game on!

-Eli

[GameStorm 12 Report] Part Three - Friday

Friday was a good day at the con and though I do not recall everything I played, I played in a couple of interesting games worth mentioning. Friday is the day when the con really starts to get going and when the dealer's room opens (but not until 1pm), so things are starting to jump. I started to see people I recognized from the year prior and wandered around to see what waqs getting going. Hospitality also opened and so we checked it out. They had a nice supply of sodas and sandwich fixings and a projector running non-stop anime though not the sort I like (anime soap opera crap!).

WORMHOLE

My fleet is the one in the foreground. I found out later I was a bit outgunned.

My first game of the day was a new game that takes a daring approach to miniatures - all paper. I have to say I am not sure who makes Wormhole, but I do know that it is one of the bigger paper terrain companies. The kid genius running the game was polite and really enthusiastic and though I had my reservations about this game, I gave it a go.

Wormhole is a miniatures game where everything used in the game is printable, from the ships, to the counters to the measuring sticks. There are no conventional ship record sheets in this game. Instead you have cards that you print out for ship stats and special abilities and print and assemble, 3D control consoles for each ship.

Left: My entire fleet in 3D console form. Note the collection of missile tokens and the edges of the force cards.

These consoles bugged me a bit. They are clever and include toggle switches for movement, attack, repair and other special abilities the ships might have, as well as a damage slider that tracks both damage and its effects in one step. What bothered me was that they really seemed unnecesarily fiddly, taking up as much room as a stat card and not being stackable like a hand full of sheets would have been.

Game play in Wormhole is really quick. There is an initiative determined by who influcted the most damage in the previous turn, which keeps players playing agressively. The movement system is dymanic and some ships are allowed to move more than once in a turn. Fire is quick and easy with attacker rolling versus a standardized attack roll vs a defender's defense roll. Damage is simply tracked by sliding the damage slider on the console for the appropriate ship with modifiers caused by damage reflected on both stat cards and the consoles.

Overall, I liked this game. I think I'd sub out the cumbersome and often delicate paper models and consoles for a good old fashioned set of SSD style sheets and metal miniatures but it played well. The only other big complaint I had is this game is very much a set piece game. There are no rules for using other ships besides those written for the game and currently there are only two factions (red and blue) using the same ships.

RETREAT FROM THE LOST CITY

El Capitan and the Sarjento make a break for it, leaving the Lieutenant to fend for himself.

This game was a lot of fun. I was the only player who signed up for it ahead of time and I fully expected it to get cancelled. I was pleasently surprised when it not only didn't get cancelled but also started early, meaning it would not overlap with the other game it was originally in conflict with. The gents putting on the game were a couple of older grognards types and one of their buddies was also playing. These guys were awesome. I am ashamed that I only remember one of their names (Kim, you and your buddies are fantastic). I also found out that at least Kim is a guy from WA like myself and is a regular at our local minis convention Enfilade.

The scenario for the game was that in 1917 a group of Mexican federal troops had raided a lost Aztec city and stirred up a nest of trouble in the form of lizard men. Having failed to find the gold they were looking for they were now fleeing for their lives. The scenario was actually a modified Isandwana retreat scenario taken from some historical wargaming magazine and used a slimmed down Sword & Flame rules system.

28mm Old Glory Mexican Federals

There were three groups of soldiers that constituted the player's teams. Each of them was led by a  different character with a different sub-objective besides the overall objective of escaping to the other side of the board with 25% of our total force.

They were -

The Captain - Tasked with protecting a signorita and getting her safely off the board.

The Lieutenant - Driven mad by the death of his brother, his unit needed to inflict more casualties than the lizard men.

The Sergeant (Me!) - A loyal bat man, his objective was to get the Captain safely off the board.

The lizard men were deployed by random die roll coming at use from varying directions, distances and in different numbers. They could even pop up within charge range. Their actions were also determined randomly and more than once we were offered a glimpse of our enemy only to have him fade away before we could engage.

Traffic jam in the Mexican deployment zone.          Forming the line while the Lt. Fights for his life.

The game went well, even though we lost. We got bogged down in our deployment zone, because the Captain and Lt decided to deploy in formation rather than skirmish. This got them caught up in the rough terrain and the rolls for our semi-random movement distances did us no favors. It wasn't until turn three that I even got all my forces on the board anf by then the Lietenant had already lost half his force and was continuing to get cut down. Heck, our first encounter was with 22 lizard men who appeared at medium range but close enough to charge into combat.

(left) As El Capitan makes his move toward freedom, more lizard men appear in his path. (right) The initial board set up.

We were only about a turn or two away from making it to the other side of the board, but by turn 12 we just hadn't made it and were still being heavily harrassed by the lizard men. After I was done, Chrispy gave it a go and managed to help the good guys to a win, using his unit to stage a rear guard action. Good man Chris!

THE GREAT SPACE RACE

This game was hosted by my buddy Roy and included most of my gaming group. Roy really made this fun, wacky race game shine with several little touches. He customed built inididualized counters for each of the ships in the game, copying the limited images presented on the ship sheets as well as tricking out the track with 3D laser turrets and easy to use dials on the ship roster sheets.

If you have never played this game before it's a bit like Robo Rally in that you plot your movement, using a number of cards determined by your speed. The big thing is, you don't know what cards you will have turn to turn and have to plot them before the action actually begins. The best laid plans can easily fall apart in this game where the race track is full of madcap pilots, random events, mines, wormholes, black holes, acidic gas clouds and epxloding ships.

I survived to nearly the end of the game until I manuevered myself into a corner that there simply wasn't any escaping from. My only regret is that my explosion didn't take anybody with me.

[GameStorm 12 Report] Part Two - Thursday

Thursday is always the warm-up day for the convention. We get there in the late afternoon after having driven across the state and having made our annual pilgrimage to the wonderful FLGS (not so L) Game Matrix. After check-ins, getting stuff tucked away and getting our bearings with a sweep around the convention we then set out to our various scheduled games. Unfortunately I was full of fail Thursday and forgot to take my camera with me and so have few pictures to show for itt.

THE ADVENTURERS by AEG

I have to say that I am not overly thrilled with this game. The setup looks nice - figures, 3D game pieces, color map, snappy character cards, etc - but it plays on such a random basic level with so little actually going on that I don't see a lot of replay value in it.

If you are not familiar with the game, it is all about tomb raiding. Each player selects two characters, each played one at a time and having different special abilities like stamina, swimming, etc. You play your first character until he dies and then bring in your second character in once certain conditions have been met in the game's overall flow. Each character has the same number of action in a turn, which are reduced by the number of treasures you carry (encumbrance). Actions are spent to move spaces or perform actions in the form of searches and such.

The first room/obstacle is a a hallway with sliding walls on either side. Each player may spend his actions moving through this area, searching for treasures (drawing cards), or peaking at some hidden tiles to assist in an upcoming challenge. At the end of each turn, there is a draw of cards to see which of the two wall pieces moves and how far until they utlimately close, killing any characters still in the hall at the time.

At a certain point, a rolling boulder is released and moves, by roll of a growing number of dice each turn until it closes off the escape at the end of the game track. This boulder serves as timer for the game as well as an obstacle and potential lethal trap for characters in the game.

The scond obstacle and as far as I goth with either of my characters, is the Lava Room. This is an area with many tiles over the spaces. You can move to one of these spaces and check to see if they are treasure or a trap. If they are a trap you die. I never made it past this second obstacle. Both my first and second characters died to the traps here ending my time playing The Adventurers in a short 3-4 turns.

FORTESS AMERICA

I am posting this under Thursday because the game started at midnight and ran until 3AM Friday morning. I am sure lots of you remember this oldy but goody. I had a great time with it and the people I was playing with were a lot of fun. I lost, but only after fighting the good fight for three hours straight.

Not a lot ot post except that I found the games dynamic movement system as well as the varied objectives and tactics for the three atackers made this a really interesting game. The American player gets reinforcements by random cards drawn in varying numbers based on how well he does.






OUTPOST
Not a game I played in myself, but from where I sat in my Fortress America game it looked like Iken and Chris were having a great time. The table was very lively playing this bidding game with the theme of trying to outfit and run a space colony.

What was funny is toward the end of the night I saw the group having to pull out calculators to help their failing minds deal with the math of the buying and selling in a game that doesn't allow you to really make change.

[GameStorm 12 Report] Part One - Do you have Geme'?

When we arrived late Thursday afternoon we were greeted by Geme', the source of many jokes last at least year's GameStorm, we were surprised to see this quint little shop still around in the floundering city of Vancouver, WA. Unfortunately, it's not some upscale game store boutique but an art shop, of which there seem to be many clinging onto life in the area. Once again the "Geme'" jokes flew with us carrying our luggage and an entire cart full of games into the Vancouver Hilton where the event was being held.

"Do you 'ave gem?" (insert snooty French accent)

It is always a fun thing to watch hotel staff and regular guests react to seeing a cluster of gamers came through with a roof bag full of their bags being toted by hand because the cart is full of board game boxes only to see them again when they come through with cases of soda and room grub supplies (a later trip). The room was comfortable as usual and nothing too special. We managed to get a room with a mini frige this year which was nice for keeping the travel costs down as we could keep a supply of non-snack food at hand. Hospitality exists at the con but like any con it can be hit and miss and GameStorm doesn't have a ton of cash to throw around on such things, I'd imagine.

Headquarters established, it was time to get our game on. We all had various things scheduled for Thursday evening which is usually a more relaxed day as most of the con guests haven't filtered in yet. Even still there were already plenty of games to be hplayed, both scheduled and pick-up. I'm not sure I'll cover everything I played and it seemed like I actually played fewer games this year than last but I also played almost all scheduled games this year and made sure to take time to recover between games.

My next post will start the coverage of the games I played as well as some of the fun things I picked up in the dealer's room.

Good to be back!,

-Eli

P.S. I saved my lost files, but seem to have now lost my flash drive.