GameStorm 13 - Saturday & SundayTwo Days That Blur Together

The critical fail that was my plan for GameStorm continued into Saturday where, once again, I managed to missed every game and panel I was scheduled for, except for a demo of AE Bounty. I'm not even really sure what all I played on Saturday, to be honest. I know I played games, but their names escape me.

Sunday we had our usual inter-gaming group big good bye game. The last few years have been an entertaining game of Junta complete with over-acting and cheesy accents. This year was an intense game of Battlestar Galactica. The game came down to a single die roll that either won or lost the game for us.

With two exposed cylons on the table working openly against our colonial plans we had been ground into dust. All our resource counters were at rock bottom. Any civilian ship token that got destroyed would have lost us the game. Even if we succeeded in the jump roll, we might lose population and thus the game.

Fortunately, the Lords of Cobal were with us and we made the jump successfully and won the game for the ragtag fugitive fleet.

Take that toasters!

Adventures in the Sudan - I made it to the table, but too late. They had already started and I didn't want to make them have to shuffle to fit me in.

Horror 101 - This would have been a fun panel.

AE Bounty :demos and standard crew games / day 3 Table 1 - I made it to this demo. It was quick and I have to say that I rather enjoyed the game. I whipped up a quick two-man crew and took on another one. I won, but I think it was a case of "Let The Wookie Win". I think the system has potential and the fact that it has been used for two different genres means it likely flexes well. I even got a prize blister for trying the demo!

Asteroyds - Rio Grande Demo, session 2 - Missed this but one of the guys in my group who was in an earlier demo said I didn't miss anything.

Danger Patrol (beta) - Neptunian Eaters of Time! - Crap! I wanted to try Danger Patrol!

Savage Worlds: Mars: Locust Men of Barsoom - This sounded soooo fun and I completely forgot about it.

GameStorm 13 - The Magic Orange Cone

One of the cool things about GameStorm is how easy it is to find your way into a game. Though there are many scheduled games there are also a ton of pickup games. GameStorm offers, as one of its features, a game library numbering something like 200 games that can be checked out by conventioneers at any time.



Game Library - GameStorm 11 (2009)

But what is this about an orange cone with mystical power?

As I mentioned above, it's really easy to find you way into a game and it is these cones that make it so. If you have a game with openings left in it, it is considered proper GS etiquette to set a traffic cone at the end of the table. This is an open invitation for anybody to walk up and join in. When you are full up or feel you have a good number of players, you take the cone down.

This is such a good strategy as it really cuts through all the awkwardness of approaching a strange game table. No need to ask to join, just simply slide up and introduce yourself. Proper greetings and niceties ensue and you are in a game. It also has the benefit of warding off those who might otherwise try to bug you during play. No cone, don't ask to join in. By all means stop by and ask about the game and chat with the players but make sure you observe proper table etiquette and don't badger, interrupt or interact to the point of distraction.

This is a tool that I wouldn't mind seeing at other events. Face it, us gamers aren't always the most social of folks, even when surrounded by our own kind. The hobby also has it share of snobs, elitists, grognards, newbs, etc and the orange cone systems really works for all parties concerned. If you are picky about your players, don't put out a cone and wait for interested parties to approach on their own. If you are new to the convention, don't have con buddies, or are looking to meet new players, then the orange cone is your friend.

So, let's all have a warm roundof applause for our friend, The Orange Cone (insert archetypical 1950s science film music)

-Eli

GameStorm 13 - FridayHow Did Things Go So Wrong?

I have already mentioned that GameStorm didn't quite go as I planned it, but how bad was it really?

The convention was a blast, but boy did I mess up my plans. It all started Friday when I totally lost track of my schedule and missed absolutely everything that I had planned to do. It began with getting stuck in a game and missing the first our of another game. Then I had to fill the time until the next thing and ended up overlapping that. By the time the day was over, I had played a bunch of games and visited the dealer's room but had missed out on everything I had on my schedule.

The games I got in on Friday where totally of the schedule.

Risk: 2210 - Started the day with a goo ol' standby. This game went very bad for me and two of the other players. The player with the most chance of challenging the leader was still outgunned thanks to the leading player having attained a nearly unchallenged hold of the Moon from the very beginning of the game. A final turn in which the leading player played an Armageddon card giving everybody carte blanch to unleash any and all nuclear cards they had been holding on to.

Battlestar Galactica - I love this board game! The game changes so much depending on which characters are in play. If you were a fan of the intrigue in the show or intrigue in general, the constant paranoia of not knowing who is and isn't a cylon is a real nail biter. The game adds a second chance to end up a cylon or cylon sympathizer half way through the game. So, even if you had been playing as a human all along, you might suddenly find out you were a cylon and have you agenda change. This game has so much replay value and the expansions only extend that.

Ad Astra - This was a new one for me and I gotta say, I enjoyed it. The game is a resource grab, exploitation, management sort of game with elements of trade, bluffing and calculated risk thrown in. Using various resources you move from world to world, exploring systems blindly, trying to find worlds to colonize and set up factories. Sounds simple enough right?

The trick in Ad Astra is that each turn your get three moves, played secretly by laying down cards on a move tracker. You can set them down in any order and each player places one until all cards for that round are placed. Once all cards are in place, they are played in order. All cards effect or may be accessed by all players depending on resources and desire. Some cards allow the player who played them a bonus move or greater advantage.

Because of this card placement you have to try to way your moves against what other might be doing so you don't open an opportunity to another player before you can take it but at the same time not wanting to waste a movement and trying to take advantage of the plays of others.

So what did I miss?

Catacombs - Didn't even see this game set up.

Battle for Peleliu - This game looked cool, but I got to the table after the action had already started and didn't want to horn my way in.

RPG GMing 101 - Missed it!

The Next Generation of GM's - Was interested in this, but missed it too.

RPG Gaming For Kids - Arrrrrgggh!! Of all the panels I wanted to catch this one the most.

Late-Night Twilight: Star Wars Edition - I had a chance to play in this one, but I bowed out. Despite an amazing reskinning with all new world tiles, empire cards and planet cards, it was just the same old Twilight Imperium. I love the game, but even pretty Star Wars pictures wasn't enough to rope me into a 5+ hour convention game of TI.

Spirit of the Century - "The Final Frontier" - I thought I was scheduled for a different Spirit of the Century game. My buddy even reminded me of this one, but I was convinced I wasn't in it.

Invasion from Outer Space / Last Night on Earth: Zombie Overrun - Eeehhhh..it sounded cool when I signed up, but I passed on this one.

Anime in Gaming - Was curious about this one, but by 9PM I was in another game. I ended up with a chance to play a game I'd not played before called Ad Astra.

GameStorm 13 - ThursdayThe Only Day That Went As Planned

GameStorm always begins on Thursday. Thursday, despite having events scheduled for it, is generally a sort of meet and greet day with a lot of open gaming and a light crowd. This years the crowd seemed a little heavier for a Thursday and their seemed to be more events scheduled.

I didn't have a lot scheduled for Thursday and managed to make all my games except for Galaxy Trucker.

Airships

This was a fun game. It's a resource management type of game in which players try to score points by building up their company and building airships. Each turn a player draws a card that reveals another resource to add to the game. These resources are acquired by rolling different combination of special colored six-sided dice that have set numeric values assigned to them - white, red, and black. Each type of die allows for a higher roll with the blacks allowing up to an 8 to be rolled. These died have to hit a target number to acquire the piece.

As you acquire these pieces you will add new dice, die modifiers, fixed die results, bonus tokens, dice conversions, and/or victory points that will further your way toward victory and help you in acquiring greater resources and completing airships.

One person playing this game commented that, "Though it's a dice game, it doesn't feel like I'm playing one." I have to agree with this. Though there is a lot of dice rolling in this game, there is a ton of strategy involved in doing so. You have to figure out what resources you need and which ones are attainable and which ones to work toward.

The game is quick and streamlined and I would say that it would be a good one for the whole family. Once the rules are explained to younger players they should have no problem working with the game components that involve no reading.

Starmada: Asteroid Rally!

This was my first exposure to Starmada and I have to say I liked it. The game was played as a sort of rally race between armed freighters collected cargo (colored tokens) positioned between several asteroid pairs.

We used the basic movement and combat rules from the Admiralty Edition of the rules and even these were a bit more complex for me at times, but I fumbled through without a single crash and am sure that with replay they would become easier to navigate (no pun, seriously). 

I came in second in the rally having sustained minimal damage and having managed to collect all but one of my cargoes by the time the winner had picked up his last one, but having sustained far more damage than myself.

Wings of War, VS King Kong

A cool concept and with a lot of potential, this game was a bit of a let down. The only restrictions placed on the players was that they had to select WWI era planes. Four of us picked two seat heavy planes with tail gunners.

The rules for Kong really left him outnumbered, outgunned and ineffective. Kong used a standard style damage deck allowing him a wide variety of damage results. He had some reach, but only at the short stick range for WoW. He could only face one direction at a time, but could turn randomly from turn to turn making him a bit more unpredictable.

The problem was that Kong really wasn't all that deadly. We could fly around him with impunity, hitting him coming and going with the multiple heavies with their tail guns. Even when Kong managed a hit, he did not kill or even severely damage a plane. Kong went down with really not fight and effort.

What would I have done different?

I think the answer would have been a bit more planning and setup to the scenario. I do not think that predetermined planes, all of an identical type would have been out of line. This would give some control over the maneuverability and firepower that the players could bring to bear on Kong.

As for Kong, I think that the big ape really needed a special stacked deck that allowed him either a kill or miss result. When you watch the movies, what he hits dies. I would also have liked to have seen him able to throw grabbed planes. This would have given him some range. Making him more lethal would make the flyers have to worry more about his facing and spend a little more time jockeying for position rather than the mob-up that we pulled.

That's it for Thursday, March 24!

-Eli

GameStorm 13 - A Brief Encounter With Michael Stackpole

Most of the conventions I go to have special guests that I either never get to see, let alone meet. It's a strange curse, indeed, but I always managed to find a way to mis them. Even when I do run into them, the moment is wrong, I'm in a hurry and cannot chat, or some elder creature from beyond is otherwise interfering.

Let's looks at my track record...

At a Star Trek convention I met George Takei and what did I have for him to sign? Star Wars ship blue prints. I do hope that he didn't feel that was a slap in the face.

Norwescon. Not only did I totally forget that Harry Turtledove was there, but I thought it was a different author and brought the wrong books.

Another Norwescon. Ended up on an elevator with Jack Horner but it was so late and I was so tired I doubt I could have said t-rex let alone made intelligent conversation.

Mike Pondsmith has been at several GameStorms and I despite me having been a complete Cyberpunk 2013/2020 fanatic back in the day as well as Castle Falkenstein, I have never been able to get a word in with him (not his fault).

Not a stellar record with the celebs.

Anyhow, this year I managed to be in the right place at the right time to run into Michael Stackpole.

What a nice guy. A buddy at our table had brought several books to have signed by him, but didn't have them with him. Michael was cool enough to stand and wait and engage in conversation with me while he waited for my firend to get back. We discussed his books and more interesting to me, as I'd not read many of his books, we talked about his work on Tunnels & Trolls back in the day. We discussed what he worked on and what he was going for and how he liked the T&T system. The conversation was brief but he was just a great guy to talk to.

As a humorous close to the encounter, my buddy finally gets back with his books only to have Michael open them and laughs as he's already signed them years before. He wasn't upset or anything. we all laughed and got a kick out of it, said our thank yous and good byes and that was it.

A fun little encounter, though I'm not sure how many X.P. I get for it.

-Eli

GameStorm 13 - Back From the Con

Hey everyone!

I have returned.

The convention was fun, though it didn't go anythign like I planned. Remember that big list of games and events that I listed? Well, I messed that up real good. I'll explain in greater detail once I have a chance to gather my thoughts, but leave it be said, that I didn't make most of my scheduled events and ended up playing in a lot of unplanned games.

More later,

-Eli

Away to GameStorm

I will be away to GameStorm for the weekend. Off to play loads of games and perhaps shop for a few items of this and that.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to update while at the event, but am still going to try. If I can't then I'll post when I get back.

-Eli

How Would You Like a GameStorm Report?

Last year's GameStorm was very entertaining and I got to play a lot of games. In fact, there was so much stuff to report on the convention, that I ended up doing something like four or five blog posts and even submitted an audio report to the guys over at Minions of the Monster Master for inclusion in their podcast.

This year, I plan to take notes, but I also hope to have my laptop with me so I was curious how folks would like to see me report on the event. Of course a certain amount of reality and logistics will have to prevail, but I'm willing to entertain the possibilities.

I'll go ahead and put up a poll with a few options that I see as a realistic possibility. If you choose other, then please drop a comment on this post to explain your idea?

Have fun,

-Eli

GameStorm 13

It's that time of year again. This year's convention road trip come in two weeks and me and the regular gang are geared up and ready to go. We almost had a fifth body for the group this year, but alas our buddy Chuck had to pull out. Maybe next year!

The events this year look to be pretty strong with a good number of miniatures events. The usual panels, RPG events, and of course boardgaming are all well-represented as well. I've decided to sign up for a lot of stuff ahead of time, this year.

Here is my schedule. You'll notice some overlap. That is on purpose. Games fill up or do not have slots open unless somebody cancels. If I'm on the roster, I get dibs on filling spots -

Airships

Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 3:00pm, 2 hours
Race against other entrepreneurs to assemble the materials and personnel you need to build airships. If you’re really good, you can launch the Hindenburg. This game features lots of dice rolling and the coveted “zeppeleeple”.

Galaxy Trucker

Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 6:00pm, 2 hours
Can you build a space ship durable enough to weather storms of meteors? Armed enough to defend against pirates? Big enough to carry a large crew and valuable cargo? Fast enough to get there first?

Starmada: Asteroid Rally!

Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 7:00pm, 2 hours
Race around a dangerous asteroid field with a bunch of other fast, armed ships! The winner is the first ship to make it through all the checkpoints and back to the starting point -- or the last ship standing!

Wings of War, VS King Kong

Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 9:00pm, 1 hours
Take flight in a WWI Bi-plane and try and bring down the mighty Kong. Game master will provide all materials

Catacombs

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 2:00pm, 2 hours
Delve into this monster-infested Dungeon as Barbarian, Wizard, Elf, or Thief to defeat the evil Catacomb Lord. But beware: in this dexterity-based quest, without dice-rolling and card-play, only through good aim, coordination, and team strategy will you survive!

Battle for Peleliu

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 3:00pm, 3 hours
The 1st Marine Division fights for the Pacific Island of Peleliu in WWII. Battle will be fought in 1/72 scale with painted miniatures and handmade terrain features.

RPG GMing 101

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 3:00pm, 1 hours
RPG GMing 101 - Non-system specific advice and tips for new and intermediate GMs. Panelists: Mike Harvey, Rodney Barnes, A. Scott Glancy. Facilitator: Al Beddow.

The Next Generation of GM's

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 5:00pm, 1 hours
Helpful hints for new gamers and older GMs, with insight into what the under 30 generation of gamers is looking for [the youngest Gen-Xer is 31]. Panelists: Anna Wilsonage, Mike Harvey, John McNicole, Rhiannon Louve, Richard Schnelle. Facilitator Anthony Pryor.

RPG Gaming For Kids

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 6:00pm, 1 hours
Helpful tips and recommendations for running RPGs for children. Panelists: Mike Harvey, John McNicole, Al Beddow.

Late-Night Twilight: Star Wars Edition

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 7:00pm, 8 hours
Forget Mecatol Rex - Coruscant is the real seat of Galactic power! Play familiar factions like the Rebel Alliance, Hutt Clans, Kingdoms of Naboo, and even the Galactic Empire and rule the galaxy!

Spirit of the Century - "The Final Frontier"

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 8:00pm, 4 hours
SotC is a pulp adventure game with a dynamic Trait-based system and easy rules. In this session, characters are drawn into conflict on the Moon, where the Jade Emperor is attempting to set up a military base from which to rule the Earth! Can the heroes stop him ...in zero G?! Pre-Gens provided.

Invasion from Outer Space / Last Night on Earth: Zombie Overrun

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 9:00pm, 3 hours
Zombies vs Martians vs Carnies! It's a three-way melee!

Anime in Gaming

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 9:00pm, 1 hours
A look at how Anime has impacted gaming in not only artwork, but story development and system designs. Panelists: Jason Thompson, Rhiannon Louve, Richard Schnelle. Facilitator Anthony Pryor.

Adventures in the Sudan

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 8:00am, 4 hours
Can you as a newly commissioned officer in the British army get the artillery to the beleaguered force at El Obeid. Or as a tribal Chief can you stop the Infidels from taking control of YOUR country. All materials will be supplied.

Horror 101

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at Noon, 1 hours
Ever wanted to scare the beejabbers out of your players, inflict wholesale slaughter and do it all without the slightest twinge of guilt? Now's your chance to learn! Get the basics on how to be your best at being your worst while running any horror RPG.

AE Bounty :demos and standard crew games / day 3 Table 1

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 1:00pm, 5 hours
Bring a std crew no upgrades , or come and learn to play the great Alien Encounters (AE) game. GM will have materials on hand if needed

Asteroyds - Rio Grande Demo, session 2

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 2:00pm, 2 hours
Racing, shooting, Drone hunting... Asteroyds - a Rich, Versatile Game! Designed by Guillaume Glossier and Fred Henry. From Ystari and Rio Grande Games.

Danger Patrol (beta) - Neptunian Eaters of Time!

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 2:00pm, 4 hours
Our Danger Patrol heroes are seated around a long banquet table in the grand salon of the Nemo, a Lima class submersible on an excursion beneath the waves on the planet Neptune. Queen Zithia and select members of her court are present, as is a delegation from Triton. The stage is set... for DANGER!

Savage Worlds: Mars: Locust Men of Barsoom

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 2:00pm, 4 hours
Sword-slinging action on Edgar Burrough's Mars! Tars Tarkas, ruling Jeddak of the green-skinned tribe of Thark and friend of the might Earthman John Carter, seeks aid against a new threat to the plains of Barsoom! Savage Worlds is a quick easy-to-learn game with the mottot "Fast, Furious, Fun!"

Conquest of Planet Earth

Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 10:00am, 2 hours
An armada of Space Aliens attempt to conquer the Earth

Basics of Game Design

Sunday, March 27, 2011 at Noon, 1 hours
What are the core elements common to all games? What are the questions that everyh game designer needs to answer before they get into specifics? Panelists: Mike Selinker, Michael Schelle, Lisa Steenson, A. Scott Glancy. Facilitator: David Schaber.