Mark Novara - 06:44pm Aug 1, 2001 PST (#34 of 41) Plans for August: Wilderness War demo at GenCon; A Mighty Fortress (PBEM CB), Busta Gallorum (Legion/PRESTAGS PBEM CB), VG Civil War (CB), J6 (GMT-ftf) Comment on GenCon I just picked up my registration package (badge and a book). Regarding pick up games, I found that the area outside the Hall for the miniatures and board games has a large number of good sized tables and plenty of chairs. All but about three were devoid of people. Anyone who wanted to get a game going could have done so. Too bad no one besides a few D&Ders take advantage of this. The only down side is that, as I understand it, they throw you out at 9PM. Hope to see you there, Mark N. Hunter Johnson - 08:43am Aug 7, 2001 PST (#35 of 41) Historical Up Front scenarios: http://www.hunterandlori.com/UpFront.html I'm back from GenCon. Columbia Games and GMT seemed to have good sections carved out in BGHQ (Boardgame Headquarters), and Columbia had what looked like a playtest copy of a global block game. Intriguing, but I didn't get a chance to play (actually, as a Cheapass Games Booth Monkey, I didn't get to play very much of anything). I picked up a copy of Tenjo (from WhySpire?), an abstracted feudal Japan conflict strategy game (kind of iffy on its "consim" status" since the map is so abstracted, but the play looks great) and Frag, a first-person shooter boardgame (in consim terms: a skirmish-level beer-n-pretzels wargame with squares on the map, but easily playable on hexes instead if you've got an appropriate map). Dealer's room photos will be up on my web site some time tonight or tomorrow. Hunter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bob Titran - 01:49pm Aug 12, 2001 PST (#36 of 41) Buffalo, NY How was it? Any wargaming to speak of? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Novara - 06:59am Aug 13, 2001 PST (#37 of 41) Plans for August: Wilderness War demo at GenCon; A Mighty Fortress (PBEM CB), Busta Gallorum (Legion/PRESTAGS PBEM CB), VG Civil War (CB), J6 (GMT-ftf) >How was it? Any wargaming to speak of? In my opinion, Bob, it was OK, but not as much wargaming as there was at Origins. There was a miniatures/boardgaming room similar to the set up at Origins but about half the size. On the miniatures side, I saw nothing but sci-fi and fantasy. I understand there was another miniatures area in a different building, but I don't know whether or not that was just more of the same. GMT, the "Blocks" guys and Europa had set ups similar to Origins. The Gamers was not there. There didn't seem to be as many pick up games or open gaming going on and table space was more of a premium. Lots of activity with Euro's and Train Games. The "word on the street" was also that the "Wizards" weren't putting much effort into GenCon as it has but one more to go in Milwaukee before packing up and heading for Indianapolis. When that happens, I doubt that I would attend it again, as there are other and better con's at which one can spend one's limited wargaming time. But they still had the chainmail bikini babes. I'll miss that aspect of GenCon. Mark N. Patrick Dolan wrote in message <%9Jc7.232048$mG4.106989070@news1.mntp1.il.home.com>... GEN CON REPORT Okay, I finally finished this up... I'm hoping to set up a simple web page next week with pictures of some of the stuff I saw, but we'll see... If I get it done, I'll send out another post. I've pasted the relevant stuff for each group near the top (boardgames for the boardgame newsgroup, cards for the CCG group, etc.), so you don't have to read the whole thing to dig out relevant information (hopefully), though you may want to skip down to the "Misc" section, as that's where I put stuff I couldn't cleanly fit into any specific category. Anyway, as I've done before, I've tried to give a good amount of information about each game that I actually sat down & played, but it's entirely possible that I've forgotten some bits, or left bits out. If you have any questions about any of these games, or the con itself go ahead and drop me a line & I'll attempt to answer them as best I can. ----------- Board Games ------------------------------------------------------------- Gregory Horror Show ------------------------------ I went to Gencon determined to play this game, even though I'd heard nothing but negative comments about it. Why? Well, last year I saw the artwork for the game, and loved it. I never found a demo last year, but since then I've found out more about this bizarre Japanese cartoon, and found that I really like the visuals & characters (though I have yet to see an episode). Anyway, long story short: This is an amazingly poor game. The theme is flawed, the mechanics are flawed, the pacing is flawed, etc. The goal of the game is to "take over" rooms in a haunted house. To do this, you must get to a room, then defeat the monster that's in it. Combat is very simple, you have "Spooky Points" and "Life Points". If you have more Spooky points than the monster, you defeat it and lose the appropriate number of Spooky Points. If not, you simply lose Spooky Points (or Life, if you don't have enough Spooky Points). Once defeated, the Monster generates a special effect and you can "eat" the monster to gain more Spooky Points. Spaces around the board let you gain Life Points or Spooky Points, draw cards, or pick up keys which are needed to enter rooms. Now, the problems: The board is HUGE, with little, tiny spaces (half-inch squares I think). I'd estimate that 80%, or more, of the board is empty, making the number of spaces extremely questionable. When you move, you roll a D20, then consult a table to see how far you move (between 2-5 spaces), which is kludgy, at best (I fail to see what sort of critical difference it would have made to simply roll 1D4+1, as the ranges on the D20 are exactly equal anyway). It took me more than a half dozen turns to even reach a space that _did_ anything. The rooms are even _further_ away. The basic problem is that most of the time, you don't really do anything except trudge slowly across the vast wasteland that is the board. We played about a dozen turns before quitting, and only saw 1 Monster card get triggered (that was also the only time we saw any cards being played). Now, I understand that this is supposed to be a game for younger players (though I'm curious as to whether or not they'll still let players be sent to Hell, like they do now), but frankly, I can't imagine any younger player having the patience to slog through this game long enough for anything to happen. As to strategy, I don't really have much to say, we weren't willing to play long enough to get a lot of interaction going on, so maybe there's a lot of depth & variety that comes up further into the game. The Good: Neat character designs (your mileage may vary), little PVC critters (wandering monsters) that you get in booster packs. The Bad: Too long, too boring, no strategy. http://www.upperdeck.com (no info yet) Zombies ------------------ A game I was specifically hoping to buy at GenCon. Zombies is a tile-based boardgame where you construct a city & populate it with Zombies, while trying to kill as many of them as you can & reach the Helicopter so you can fly to safety. Unfortunately, they didn't have any copies for sale (I think they said it was currently being shipped back from the production facilities), but it should be out within a few weeks. Basically, each turn you draw & place a tile to expand the city, then roll to move your character, roll to fight any Zombies you may encounter, then roll to move Zombies. You have a hand of 3 cards that can be played at any time, but you may only play 1 between the start of your current turn & the start of your next turn. Everything is done with a D6. You move a D6 spaces, when you fight a Zombie, you kill it on a D6 roll of 4-6, you move a D6 worth of Zombies at the end of the turn, etc. The challenge is to best make use of this random element each step of the way. You have some resources to help in this: Bullets, each of which adds +1 to a die roll, after it's been rolled, and Health, which you lose 1 of each time you fail to kill a Zombie (lose your health, you pop back to Town Square with 3 health & 3 bullets, ready to go again). Until the Heliport appears, players tend to run in all directions, away from town square (the start point, and thus probably the furthest point from the Heliport, when it appears), and into the various buildings that grant them extra health and/or bullets, or allow them to equip special items (the Skateboard adds +2 movement, but can only be equipped in the Skate Shop, for instance). Once the Heliport appears, everyone runs for it, as whoever reaches the Helicopter in the center wins, as they are rescued before the town is completely overrun with Zombies. A player can also win if they kill 25 Zombies, which is quite difficult to do, as every time you die (which seems to happen a lot), you lose 1/2 your Zombies, rounded up. The gameplay is pretty simple, and fairly random, but still entertaining. The limit on playing cards helps add some balance to their effects (they can be pretty nasty, like giving you control over a player's movement, adding 10 Zombies to the board, etc.). Some of the people who were playing the game with me didn't like the end game. The reason is that once the Heliport appears, everyone dumps Zombies into the path if they can't get there immediately. Additionally, everyone uses their cards to screw up the first player to reach the Heliport tile (Hah! _I'm_ controlling your movement, I want you to go in the _opposite_ direction! Oh look, 10 more Zombies just appeared!, etc.). Personally, I didn't mind, but then again I like killing hordes of Zombies...:) Plus, we came up with a bunch of very simple fixes that would minimize or eliminate the complaints they had, so I don't think it's really a problem. The Good Includes 100 plastic Zombies. _100 PLASTIC ZOMBIES!_ Believe it or not, we _ran out_ while playing & had to steal Zombies from another table (Okay, I admit, I kept playing the "We're Screwed!" cards that added Zombies to the table...). Does a very nice job of capturing the feel of a Zombie horror movie, as the Zombie count steadily rises while the "heroes" explore the town & try to defend themselves. Simple mechanics make it easy to teach. Everyone likes to kill zombies, so it should appeal to a wide variety of players. Plus, _100 PLASTIC ZOMBIES!_ :) The Bad End game can drag as everyone tries to hose everyone else. Difficult to reach secondary victory condition (25 Zombie Kills), tiles are somewhat hard to read. http://www.journeymanpress.com/game_zombies.htm Vortex --------- Sack Armies, I mean Vortex, is the new game from FFG... (believe it or not, as similar as these games look, they're completely different, and were both created at the same time, independantly of one another). It is _NOT_ Diskwars. It's a boardgame where you construct the board while you're playing the game. The goal of the game is to eliminate your opponent. The only way to do this is by getting more of your tiles adjacent to the Vortex (center of the board), than your opponent. This costs him a Life Point at the end of his turns (each player starts with 3). To eliminate an opponents tile that is hogging an edge of the Vortex, you must attack it with a tile of your own. However, this is where things get interesting. To attack, your tile must be adjacent to the target tile. This generally means you'll have to move within range. Movement is done along the _edges_ of tiles, not over them. Tiles cannot lay on top of one another. Furthermore, you are never allowed to "strand" a tile, either friendly or enemy (IE: do something that causes it to be detached from the rest of the board). Needless to say, this creates some interesting situations, including times when you aren't _allowed_ to remove your opponents most powerful tile (if you kill it in combat, it turns into "energy" that remains in the space, so that's OK, plus you can collect the energy to use on future turns). Combat is straightforward, if your attack is stronger than your opponents defense, they take a wound, making for straightforward strategy in terms of picking your fights. In fact, the only random element is drawing your tiles to fill your hand. All in all, this seems like a very clever game. It's got different strengths than Sack Armies, so I'm not sure I could choose one as "better" than the other, since they're quite different, but I definately like Vortex enough to pick it up once it's available (and I already pick up Sack Armies). The Good All tiles are played face up, never overlapping, and they are quite large, so you see all the cool artwork while playing. The "building" of the board by using tiles adds an entire new layer of strategy to the game. The Bad Larger tiles = More table space needed (Sack Armies can be played in a 1 foot square area generally, making it a great "portable" game). Few random elements, so you can't get a "lucky shot" in combat to take out a big opponent. No multiplayer rules, at least not yet. http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/v.html ---------- Card Games ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- There didn't seem to be as many CCG's this year, at least not any that really grabbed my attention. Last year, it seemed like I couldn't take three steps down an aisle before someone I found some new CCG I wanted to try. This year, I really had to look hard to find anything that grabbed my attention. Warhammer 40K ----------------------- I'd played this previously, via a mainly B&W PDF download, but Sabretooth Games had a more elaborate set of cards than was available there, along with different basic designs & full color illustrations on each card. This is a very fast paced CCG that does a surprisingly good job of capturing the feel of the Warhammer 40K miniatures game. The game lasts a maximum of 4 turns (8 battles), each card has 3 different uses that are used at completely different times (Unit, Die Roll & Command ability), it's impossible to "turtle" (combat is mandatory), and the conflict level increases each turn (battles that aren't definitively won get additional troops each turn). Basically, you & your opponent are fighting for control of a planet, represented by 5 battlefields. To take a battlefield, you have to fight a battle there, then have more flags than your opponent (units have these, they represent how effective they are at holding the territory & getting maximum strategic use out of them), and at least as many as the battlefield requires. If one player takes 3 battlefields, they win. If the game ends, the player who has the most VP's worth of battlefields wins. If neither player has a battlefield, the game ends in a draw. At the start of each turn, players "land" units on the remaining battlefields. The initial wave is drawn one at a time from the deck (the exact number is based on the race) and must be scattered (face up) to a variety of battlefields (IE: One to each available battlefield). This is done all at once, by each player in turn. The second wave is drawn as a hand, and each player alternates playing them face down to any battlefield(s), until they have no more cards. Once the reinforcements have landed, the defending player (the one with fewer units landing at the the start of the turn) chooses a battlefield & both players draw a Command Hand (4 cards from the deck, used upside-down so the special rules on the bottom edge can be read) and then alternate taking Battle Actions until one of them starts a combat. BA's can move units around, grant bonuses, add units from the draw pile, start a combat, etc. Combat is pretty straightforward, you lock (tap) a card to shoot and choose a target card on your opponents side, your opponent can lock a faster card on his side to block the shot thus becoming the new target. Once it's decided which unit is attacking & which is defending, both players use "Command Cards" to further modify the outcome, until they have none left, or pass, and combat is resolved. The attacker does it's damage to the defender, if the damage is equal to or greater than the defenders armor, it's destroyed. A more complex form of combat is done with Assault Units. They must spend one battle action "charging" (turning the card to face your opponent), before they get their assault bonus in an attack. This gives your opponent a chance to shoot at them while they charge across the battlefield. But... If they aren't destroyed, you can have them attack any enemy unit, and your opponent _cannot_ block the attack with a faster unit. Assault units also tend to have very high attack values. Then play returns to the "battle actions" step & repeats until both players run out of units, run out of units to lock, or both pass, at which point they determine who, if either, controls the battlefield. Once the battle is done, the attacker chooses a battlefield & the game continues. Once two battles have been fought, the turn ends and more units arrive. After four turns, the game ends. The mechanics of the game are straightforward, but allow for a good amount of variety (especially with some of the more advanced rules we were told about that will be in the final version). The card designs are nice, each card is useful in some way, even if only for it's command ability, and the scale of the game can handle everything from individual characters up to Titans, for a truly epic feel to the conflict. The Good Excellent artwork, terrific game world, fast gameplay and pretty much no "us eless" cards. The Bad Depending on how the final rules turn out, and how the boosters are packed, players may wind up with a lot of cards for a faction they don't play, with no way to "mix them in". More info, card illustrations & a downloadable PDF version of the game can be found at: http://www.sabretoothgames.com Firestorm ----------------- Finally, a Sci-Fi CCG with top notch artwork! Firestorm lets players try to expand their empire & take over the galaxy. All kinds of classic elements are included: Duels between heroes & villans, adventurers discovering new planets, the destruction of planets, fleets of ships battling in the depths of space, etc. I'm not going to try and really describe the mechanics of the game, because it's pretty complex, and I didn't get a chance to play a full game anyway. The basics are this: Each player starts with a homeworld & a system, represented by a sort of upside down pyramid pattern of cards (the "point" nearest the player is their homeworld). Planets produce resources, used to build ships & equipment, and hire heroes. Technology levels are used to govern what you can, or can't, bring into play. The goal is to either raise your tech level to 30 (you start at about 3), or eliminate all the other players by crossing the "Firestorm" (the "dead space" between the players systems, which can be entered only from the wide end of the pyramid) and destroying their homeworld. Combat is kind of clever. Each ship has three stats combat (two stats here, actually: attack/defense), structure (hit points) and power rating. To attack, the player must spend a point of power to inflict the attack value on the enemy ship. If this meets or exceeds the enemy ships structure, it's destroyed. However, the defender can spend a point of power to activate their shields, absorbing the defense value from the incoming attack, but giving them less energy to attack. Then, there are all kinds of twists that Heroes, equipment & other elements, can add to the mix, making the fight interesting & less predictable. Firestorm does a pretty good job of creating a sci-fi CCG, allowing for all the elements players would expect to find, but keeping the rules from getting horribly complicated (they are complex, but I think they'll become clearer & easier to remember after a couple games). The Good Much better artwork than in any previous CCG, at least, any that I've seen. Good theme, interesting races, clever mechanics, and rules that don't completely drown the player. Also, suitable for multiplayer gaming. The Bad Complex rules may turn off first time players, game design lends itself to "empire building", where each player sits in their home system for the whole game, building a giant fleet, before trying to attack anyone. More information, including pictures & an online rulebook, can be found at: http://www. .com/ A full review can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Cavern/7378/ccgreviews.html Harry Potter -------------------- As a gamer who is also a Harry Potter fan, I have been looking long and hard to find a _good_ game based on the Harry Potter world. From the looks of this CCG, my search must continue. The easiest way to describe the Harry Potter CCG is that it's a watered down version of Magic with a few new twists thrown in. Granted, I only played the demo game that uses the fixed starter set (which doesn't have many of the card types found only in boosters), so it's possible that if you bought a starter & a bunch of boosters, the game improves, but I don't think I'm going to spend the money to find out. Here are the basics: On your turn, you may perform two actions. An action allows you to draw a card, play a card, or use an ability. The goal is to eliminate your opponents deck, generally through creature attacks (creatures being cards that you must play). To play cards, you must have enough "Lessons". These are similar to the Lands of magic, in that there are several colors, and cards are coded to these colors, but they are never tapped, and you don't need to have multiples of any single color. Basically, if you have two cards in your hand, one with a blue 5, and one with a green 2, you can bring them both into play so long as you have at _least_ 5 Lessons, and at least one blue and one green. This is a nice mechanic in some ways, but is also one of the biggest problems. Essentially, if one player gets enough lessons out early, they can bring two of their most powerful creatures into play on the same turn (summoning one with each action), then turn around and do it again on their next turn. This wouldn't be so bad, except for one thing: Creature attacks cannot be blocked. Once you have creatures in play, they damage your opponent's deck at the start of your turn, every turn. The only way to get rid of them is to draw the correct type of card that allows you to remove them from the game, or damage them enough to banish them to the discard pile. If you don't have those cards, or don't have enough Lessons to use them, well, it just sucks to be you, doesn't it? So, in essence, the strategy is this: Draw lots of lessons & creatures before your opponent does. Now, as I said, I only played using the starter set. It's possible that the new card types (more lessons, spells and "adventure" cards) available in the boosters can increase the depth of the game. OTOH, what I've seen of the basic set isn't enough to encourage me to buy that much product just to see if it works better. The Good Interesting use of "land" style cards, allowing for more deck design flexibility. Quick turns & some "locked in" game balance since each player can only do two actions per turn. The Bad Extremely dependant on the luck of the draw. No strategic options other than "hit the other guy first, and harder" (at least in the starter set). "Starter" purchase price higher than it seems since you don't get enough cards in the 2 player starter for two legal decks (each will be 20 cards short), and you won't get any of the more varied cards without buying boosters. Realistically, I suspect you'll need to buy 1 starter & 8 boosters (4 for each deck) to really get the feel for the game. http://www.wizards.com ---------------- Miniatures Games ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Overdrive Arena -------------------------- Okay, I'll admit, I didn't get a chance to play this, or even go through the rules. However, it is a really neat idea, so I figured I'd at least comment on it... It's car wars, but with model cars. When you buy the starter set, you get two snap-together cars (a PT Cruiser & a new Volkswagon Bug), and a rulebook. The mechanics seem similar to Car Wars. You have a vehicle stat sheet showing how much armor damage you've taken to each side, a list of weapons & their locations, etc. There are also a set of basic rules for dealing with head on collisions, sideswipes, etc., some of which use a "spinout" die that determines which direction an out of control car goes, and whether they flip over or not. The players seemed to be having a lot of fun, and even though there were only two cars to use, the table was _always_ crowded, which is a pretty good sign, IMHO. Any game that can attract spectators like that is probably just as much fun to play as it is to watch. The Good Big cars, UNLIMITED customization options. Cars supplied by Testors (and the game is supported by them as well). The Bad Expensive: $49 to start, but that does get you the boxed game & two model cars to build, along with some weapons to attach to 'em. http://www.overdrivearena.com/ Chainmail --------------- I've been playing Mage Knight for almost a year now, ever since I stumbled onto the tiny demo at the Chicago ComiCon (okay, okay, "WizardWorld"). I've had a blast playing it, but I admit, I've kind of been wanting to also get into a more sophisticated fantasy skirmish miniatures game, and Chainmail seemed to fit the bill. So, I went to the WOTC booth & tried a game. We each get 3 figures (all the demos used the same figure sets) : Turn 1: My opponent wins initiative and starts charging his figures pell pell forwards. I keep my figures together, for maximum strategic bonuses, and advance cautiously across the field. Turn 2: My opponent wins initiative. His warrior charges across the field, by himself, taking out one of my figures with a single attack (actually, my figure was reduced to 0 HP, but this knocks him to the ground & out of the fight for now). I decide to put the attacking figure to sleep, since the GM explains that prone figures are automatically hit by any attack that targets them. My opponent charges his lead character forward. I try to use my second figure to attack the sleeping enemy. The GM explains that I can't do this, since prone figures "don't exist", unless they are the only figures left on the battlefield. Instead, I move him forwards to block for my lead character. My opponent uses his remaining figure to shoot my second figure, reducing it to half health, whereupon it fails it's morale check & runs off the battlefield. Turn 3: My opponent wins initiative. His main character charges straight across the battlefield, taking out half my remaining figures HP, he fails his Morale check & runs off the battlefield. He then uses his ranged attacker to get a free hit on my last (prone) figure, instantly killing him. Now... I admit, it's been a while since I've played a "real" miniatures game, but I find it utterly bizarre that simply yelling "charge" and running everyone forwards is a more viable tactic than trying to maintain a formation or use magic to gain an advantage. I watched a few more games, and they seemed to hold pretty true to this one. Players simply charged pell mell forwards & smashed together in the middle, with no regard for any strategy, and this approach _worked_. I guess that the "simple" Mage Knight rules, where you need to effectively flank your opponents, make critical decisions about when & who to charge (knowing you'll eat an attack upon arrival), and use magic & special abilities to gain an advantage, has spoiled me from enjoying a "real" miniatures game... I dunno... It's possible the guy showing me the game didn't really know the rules (gee, I've never come across _that_ at a convention!... :). Maybe the full rules (and full set of figures & stats) allow for more strategy, but I admit I was quite disappointed with what I saw. On the other hand, it _did_ play quickly... And I do like the concept of figures having to "see" their target, and move towards the closest one. It reflects the more primative state of communications (IE: Yelling) and battlefield intelligence gathering (IE: the figure looks around). I also quite like the world the game is taking place in (Greyhawk, after the destruction of the God of War), and the overall goal (everyone is fighting to gather the weapons the God of War turned into, that were scattered across the land. Whoever gets them all will become the new God of War), so I may take another look at it when it's actually out (much to my surprise, it wasn't for sale at the con). The Good The setting, the miniatures, the "line of sight" mechanics & need to keep figures "in check" to get them to do anything except charge towards their opponent. The Bad Questionable rules (could have been a mistake by the GM), initiative can decide the entire battle (On each turn, my opponent won Initiative and attacked immediately, taking out one of my figures each time, often leaving me with no opponent to attack, or no figure to attack with). http://www.wizards.com Mage Knight Dungeons --------------------------------- Can't comment much, as I'm on the playtest team and the game isn't done yet (the rules used at GenCon were very simplified from the full game). However, I will say that the miniatures are very nice, easily the best that WizKids has put out thus far, both in terms of sculpting & painting. The color tiles are well done & provide for a wide variety of setups, since they don't use the "jigsaw puzzle" lock that many other tile games use. They're also double-sided, so you have more variety when assembling the dungeon. http://mageknight.com ------- Misc ----------------------------------------------------------------- Geek ------ The idea behind this game is that each player has a bunch of Geeks, at some nameless convention, and they are trying to hold onto as many of them as they can, while forcing their opponents Geeks to head to the Bus Terminal. Not a bad concept, and GenCon should be the perfect place to sell it. But I almost laughed out loud when I saw the booth... Here's a game about truly bizarre Geeks, and the booth looks like a Yuppie coffeeshop with clean cut, normal looking people staffing it around the clock... This has nothing to do with the game, I'll admit, but I found it bizarre and amusing. Each player starts the game with a group of Geeks face up on the table in front of them, and a hand of cards, then they take turns playing & drawing cards to force their opponents to lose geeks, or to gain geeks for themselves. Most of the "lose a geek" cards can be countered by another card type, and some can be reversed by a specific card. Unfortunately, that's about the extent of the game. There doesn't seem to be any real strategy involved. Some "lose a Geek" cards hit one player, for one geek, but can be canceled or reversed easily, some hit _all_ players, and _can't_ be canceled or reversed easily. So, when your turn comes up, you play the "lose a geek" card that does the most damage, and your opponents try to counter and/or reverse it. The rules aren't well written, and the various symbols on the cards aren't large enough for easy reading by other players. The cards themselves feel like thinly laminated paper. The Good Neat idea, fun illustrations. The Bad Iffy game mechanics, poor rules, tiny icons. http://www.torchlightgames.com/torchlight_games002.htm Grave Robbers from Outer Space -------------------------------------------- I actually bought this game without playing it, simply because of the theme, and the description that the booth guy gave me. Each player is in control of a bad horror movie. You add characters & settings to your movie to boost it's defense value, and send creatures (and bad settings) to your opponents movie in order to cut down their cast. When the "Roll the Credits" card is played, the player with the most defense in their movie, wins. Gameplay is quite random, as there are a TON of "play at any time" cards to mess people up with, and many of them are extremely powerful. However, that's part of the point of the game, and it's quite easy to get cards yourself, to mess with the guy who just went after you. Also, unlike Geek, there are many times you have to decide whether to use a card, or hang onto it to pull a combo, screw with an opponent, keep the credits from rolling, help you bounce back from a loss, etc. But the gameplay isn't really the selling point of the game. The reason to play this game is for all the wonderfully bad cliches that it uses... Cards like "Only the Virgin Survives!: Choose a player, they must lose 1 Male and 1 Female character from their movie", "Mom: +2 Defense, +1 for each Young player in her movie. Mom can, instead, be played as a Strength 7 Psycho Killer" "The guy everyone knows will get killed", etc. Most of them also have great little quotes to liven them up, and there's a neat little running gag through several of the cards. Pretty much every stupid quote, scene, cliche, or other element that you've seen in a bad horror movie can be found in this game. Another neat element is that at the beginning of the game, 6 cards are drawn from the deck & flipped upside down. The words printed on the bottom are then used by the players to construct a title for the movie. Not all the words need to be used, and a few extra words can be added to pad it out, so it sounds like a cheesy horror flick: "Hitler's Satanic Carnival of Horrors!", "Night of the Mysterious Devil Scientist!", "The Tale of Satan Woman!". These are fun to play with, and when the game ends. players earn extra points for each card they have on the table that has one of the key words printed on it. The Good Great theme, loads of jokes and opprotunities to read quotes using false accents. Fun to see what kind of bizarre things can happen ("I'm using Mom, with a Chainsaw, to attack your Little Billy in the Church). The Bad Very random, despite lots of strategic choices, simply due to the strength of some of the cards. Doesn't seem to be nearly enough Characters, we rarely had more than 2 Characters in any of our movies, and often didn't have _any_. http://www.shadowfist.com/html/home.htm Rolled Bones ------------------------- No, this is not Dragon Dice... For one thing, these dice have full color artwork imbedded in the plastic (no chipping, no rubbing off). For another thing, the rules are completely different. Each player starts with a sack of dice. They draw 6, roll them onto the table, then put then in thier "hand" (a small wooden tray). The top face is the "active" one. The goal is to create a sort of castle of 6 "base" dice, and hold it for one turn. On your turn, you can play as many "base" dice as you have in your tray (you immediately replace them with new dice that you pull from the bag & roll). Then you roll 1D6, and, counting from the left of your tray, bring that die into play. Spells & item dice are attached to bases and/or units, units are placed in your base (to defend it), or the "arena" (from where they can attack your opponents base). Combat is quite simple, roll 1D6 and add it to the combat value of the die. High roller wins, loser gets sent back to the bag. Adding to the fun, only the "entrance" of your opponents castle can be attacked (the first base die placed) without the use of special abilities and/or the addition of secret doors to the castle. Spells & items can grant new abilities or modifiers (I had a character who, once he was killed, immediately got to attack again, because of an item). There's no "deck depletion", as dice always go back to the bag, and there's no "cost" to bringing anything into play (it's just random). The Good Simple mechanics, pretty fast gameplay, and geometrically perfect dice (or darn close to it, they stack very well, and have corners sharp enough to put someones eye out). Using nothing but dice in a game has a lot of appeal for most gamers(look at Dragon Dice). Dice seem very durable. The Bad Artwork isn't terribly good on most of the dice, and downright bad on some. Dice are simply too small for the kind of pictures they're trying to squeeze onto them. Game data also much too small & hard to read on the dice. The one player starter set retails for $44.95! Granted, you could cannibalize one set to supply two players, but that's _still_ a lot of money. http://www.rolledbones.com/ Obsidian Lords ------------------------ A true CPG (Collectible Pog Game), Obsidian Lords uses parts that seem to be exactly Pog sized all the way, including a plastic pog container to store 'em in. Gameplay is pretty standard CCG fare: You get to play a resource each turn for free, spend resources to summon creatures, spells & items, and use these to reduce your opponents life points. But there are a few twists... First off, summoned creatures can defend, but they can't attack, unless they have a weapon (item). When fighting, players roll dice to hit and roll dice to generate damage, and the damage must be tracked for each creature involved in the combat. The problem is that, without a weapon, each creature does 1 point of damage per successful attack (generally a 12 or less on a D20). Most creatures have 30+ hit points... So, even if a creature has a weapon that does 1D6 damage, it's going to take, on average, 12 rounds of combat to kill an average creature (hitting slightly more than 50% of the time, inflicting an average of 3.5 HP each attack). Now, you _can_ simply concede the combat & let your creature die, but I don't think many gamers will do that, even if they are facing overwhelming odds. The artwork, isn't. Instead, they have a handful of silhouettes, one for each type of pog, with varying stats depending on whether it's (for instance) a Swamp Dragon or a Fire Dragon. All the special abilities the creatures have are represented by icons. Now, as kludgy as this game is, if they had gone with, say, plastic disks with the designs & data eteched into them (to look like runestones), the sheer novelty would have probably been enough to carry it. But with cheap cardboard pogs, no artwork and questionable mechanics, I don't think it's really going to fly. The Good Well, they give you a bag, a play shield (to hide your "hand" and explain all the icons), a pog container, dice and (I think) a booster pack for $14.95, so it's not that far out of whack with other games. The icon SA system is nice also, and provides for much less confusion in how things interact simply because they had less variables to test while tweaking. The Bad Clumsy mechanics, lots of record keeping (even if it's only for a turn). http://www.r3games.com/ HACK! ------------- _Another_ game I was hoping to buy, but wasn't available for sale... Oh well, at least I got to play it. HACK! is a somewhat non-collectible card game about a dungeon crawl. I say "somewhat" non-collectible because there are 5 fixed decks to choose from, but no booster packs, and the fans of the comic book that it's based on (Knights of the Dinner Table), will likely want 'em all... Anyway, HACK! is a basic dungeon crawl, with some interesting twists. First off, each deck represents both the character from the KOTD comic, _and_ their Hackmaster character. While playing the game, you are playing the character who is role-playing their Player Character in Hackmaster. That means that, for instance, if you use Brian's deck, you will be playing Teflon Billy _and_ Brian... In the Dungeon, you'll be using Teflon Billy to hurl fireballs and fight monsters, but you'll also have cards that allow you to add to or modify the "game rules", as Brian digs up obscure rulings that can give him an advantage. The basic mechanics are that you play room cards & then move your character through the dungeon. When you enter a room, you get to search (roll 1D6, if the total is equal to or less than the "length" of the dungeon, measured from the entry room to the room you're in, you can play an item card). Whether you search or not, the player to your left can play an encounter on you (Monster, NPC or Trap), that you have to defeat with the appropriate skill (giving you a chance to play another card), or you die, lose an item & are returned to the entry room. That pretty much sums up the mechanics, but the actual gameplay gets a lot more chaotic & nasty than that... There are plenty of monsters to fight, new rules to introduce that can really hose the other players or grant one player a big advantage (and the other players can attempt to "rules lawyer" them out of the game), nasty traps & other fun stuff. To win the game, you simply have to escape the dungeon via the exit. However, the exit can't be placed closer than 5 cards from the entry space, so that gives your opponents at least 5 chances to take you out while you're running for your life. Alternately, you can find the "Hand of Vectra", and attempt to attach it to your character (guess which arm it attaches too, chop that hand off & cross your remaining fingers, you've got a 50/50 chance of being right). An evil, vindictive game that's a surprising amount of fun, whether you're a fan of the comic or not. Plus, while at GenCon, I found that there will shortly be a Dork Tower expansion, so there'll be more cards & characters to liven the game up, especially for fans of DT. The Good Simple, clever mechanics, lots of chances for backstabbing, tons of references to the comic book. Lots of variety & every player stays involved throughout the game. The Bad Pretty random flow, players can gain & lose huge advantages at the drop of a hat. Still, that's part of what makes it fun...:) http://www.edenstudios.net/HACK/ Other Stuff ---------------- Heavy Gear Diskwars was nowhere to be found, they even canceled the various events that were scheduled... :( Likewise, Car Wars, both the CCG and standalone game, were MIA. I bought Chez Dork, but haven't had a chance to play it. If you see it at your local store, you may want to buy it _now_, as it sounded like they didn't get nearly as many as they were expecting in the first shipment (at the con, they had less than a dozen copies for sale, all but 2 of which were gone by the time I got to the head of the checkout line). I got a chance to try a turn of the new RISK game, and I'm sold! It's faster, and has more variety & twists than the old game, so I think it'll go over very well in my group (I didn't buy it at the con because frankly, I can get it anywhere). I stopped by the booth of a company called Eagle Games. They weren't playing their games, but they were showing off the HUGE maps & some of the playing pieces, and so long as the mechanics are sound, I think they may have some winners here. These maps are really, really, big, very well illustrated, and you get a truckload of pieces for a very reasonable price ($49 for a 46" x 36" map & 300+ figures? Sign me up!) http://www.eaglegames.net/