» Conventions
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Origins 2006 Live: crawling from the wreckage
A few last details:
- Hey, guess what? AT-43 isn’t collectible. Fixed boxes of assembled and painted plastic figs. It will be in your FLGS in December, provided that Rackham communicates anything to retailers at all, which they seem not to enjoy, so who knows.
- People do indeed seem to be making the jump from Fluxx to the Icehouse world as a result of Treehouse. So yay for Looney Labs, there.
- After visiting the Hidden City booth and demoing Clout Fantasy yet again (to get throwing tips), I have decided not to count them out. First, they have preconstructed stacks now. Second, they have a piratey expansion coming out for Gen Con, and the kids, they love them some pirates. Lastly, (and this is total rumor territory) they may have picked up a major superhero license. And the comics fans seem willing to buy anything. But really, every time I play it I have fun but wish I could get things to land where I wanted. The precons will definitely be something I consider.
- Played The Shab-al-Hiri Roach for the first time - ironic, given that my name is on the back cover - and had a blast. The table took things in a sillier direction than I really wanted to take things at first, but that’s collaboration for you. I managed to keep a bit of an edge on things with my degenerate proto-fascist classics prof. Good times.
- Battlegrounds, man. Finally got to demo this and picked up two army decks. They have the dwarf army debuting at Indy, and next year? WWII, baby. I laid down some tape with Rob Dougherty, Your Move’s head (I think) and Battlegrounds’ designer, so Audio Report subscribers will get an earful of that soon.
Saturday, July 1, 2006
Origins 2006 Live: don’t follow the corsets
- Playtested Slugfest Games’ upcoming expansion for Kung Fu Fighting. I am NDAed on the details but I can tell you I am confident that this set will make an already-screamingly-fun game even more fun.
- I keep meaning to say to any board game fans at the show that Titan Games has some copies of Tenjo at 75% off and if you have enough space in your luggage/vehicle to get it home, then dammit, you need it. I hope they still have some left as I write this.
- Still hoping to get a shot at Days of Wonder’s Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, which is effectively new at the show.
- WizKids is doing nice fixed figure sets for HeroClix and, even more interestingly, for HorrorClix AvP. There’s one for MechWarrior as well, but the others have nice big plastic windows in the boxes that show you everything inside in a nice little tableau. So, at least collectors will probably find that more appealing.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Origins 2006 Live: vicious because the stakes are so small
- Picked up a copy of Mortal Coil, the new diceless (and no, it doesn’t use playing cards either) small-press RPG by Brennan Taylor, better known to the world as the head of Indie Press Revolution. It looks like it’s in the Baron Munchausen camp a bit, but building on a simple token-betting thing with other conditions and costs. I’ve also looked at Ron Edwards’ It Was A Mutual Decision, which has the best single sentence summary ever. From the mouth of Clinton R. Nixon: “It’s a breakup game where you might be a wererat.” WORD
- I know I’m years late in getting on this train, but damn, Memoir ‘44 is fun as hell.
- Finally got to play Treehouse against real humans, instead of playing it solitaire on Volity. It’s the game that Looney Labs wanted it to be, which is to say that it should appeal to Fluxx fans, or at least not offend them. Getting them excited is another question, and I guess we’ll see.
- I’m gonna jump back into the exhibit hall for a few minutes before my Roach game, because I haven’t so much been looking at new stuff today and I’d like to post about something else before bed. Well, I say that, but really I just wanna go buy Memoir ‘44.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Origins 2006 Live: who goes to that show? We do.
So! A few quick hits:
- It really is pretty shocking how much roleplaying seems to be going on. Many rooms full of tables, lots of LARP action across the street at the Crowne Plaza. Was it always like this and I just didn’t notice? I think the LARP stuff at least is kinda new.
- WotC indeed has no booth in the exhibit hall, which I think is a tactical mistake for Dreamblade. The crowd here is at least potentially down for DB.
- Definitely feels uncrowded. Not empty, but uncrowded.
- There is a Clout Fantasy starter in every reg bag, for free. Also, unrelatedly, two HorrorClix figures packaged with a map and counters and presumably even some rules of some kind. (The figs are not, you know, notable personas like promo figs of yore, but I think playable things in swagbags are a much better idea. Also there is a booster pack of relaunched POGs.)
- Someone with a product called Tokkens has a huuuuge booth and a bunch of highly visible bags they’re giving out. The product? Collectible D20 item cards printed on metal. *sigh* At least they are rokken like Dokken.
More to come. I recorded some stuff with the Volity team but it isn’t clean enough to upload straight away, so you’ll probably hear it after the con.
Thursday, June 8, 2006
True Dungeon sells out at Gen Con 2006
As expected, True Dungeon has sold out at Gen Con Indy again. This is despite the increased ticket price, and may have been aided by the changes/upgrades announced a while back. Meanwhile, we’re still trying to define the type of LARP-offshoot genre that True Dungeon has become. Live puzzle game? Cooperative quest game?
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Tuesday, April 4, 2006
True Dungeon truths for ‘06
The lowdown on True Dungeon’s gameplan for 2006 has been announced, along with a video peek of the enhanced adventure for this year, Escape from the Spider Cult. The massive live dungeon-crawl event will benefit from increased volunteer training, improved props and environments, and 5.1 stereo surround sound. Other adjustments and improvements are in the press release (below), but one that may bite them in the ass is giving “dead” players the option to hang around and watch. Oh sure, you’ll heal her, but you wouldn’t heal me two rooms ago! Find another ride home, buddy!
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Monday, March 20, 2006
Call for True Dungeon volunteers
The folks at True Dungeon are gearing up for Gen Con 2006 already. While event specific information is promised in a couple weeks, the crew is looking for volunteers, who will get various levels of swag and other compensation (even a hotel room). Read the press release below if you’re inclined to lend a hand.
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Friday, December 2, 2005
OgreCave videos: Tidbits from GenCon SoCal ‘05
We didn’t make nearly enough time for interviewing folks at Gen Con SoCal a couple weeks back, but Steve and I did manage to tape a couple of interesting videos. Trying a 3-5 question approach to minimize the bandwidth hit, we talked with Mark MacKinnon of Guardians of Order about the Limited Edition of A Game of Thrones RPG; asked the Dead Gentlemen about upcoming projects; and learned about what makes The Burning Wheel RPG so great from Luke Crane. As a bonus, Peter Adkison of Gen Con LLC stopped by and momentarily derailed our talk with Luke, but it was so worth it. Have a look at all of these, and our older videos, on our Video page, of course.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Gen Con SoCal ‘05 attendance numbers up 12%
Official word from last week’s Gen Con SoCal is in, and apparently attendance was up a bit. According to Peter Adkison, CEO of Gen Con LLC, “Unique attendance was about 6,300, an increase of 12% from 2004.” So more of us gamers came to the show, which is good. If a few more of the problems holding the show back could be sorted out (schedule book errors, convention hall union issues, the “Best Four Days of Gaming” being closer to three this time, to name a few), Gen Con SoCal just might be around for years to come. We’ll talk more about this in our next audio report, but despite the attendance increase, the jury still seems to be out on California’s Gen Con spin-off.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Live at GenCon SoCal ‘05: Best non-miniatures minis wargame
Your Move Games has one of the more interesting games at the show: Battleground: Fantasy Warfare (which was sold at Indy, but is officially releasing this month). This card-based wargame is an idea whose time should’ve come years ago, but for some reason hadn’t materialized until now. Each card represents one unit of a fantasy army, displaying an overhead view of the warriors, trolls, undead, or the like, and moves around the battlefield in card lengths, similar to WizKids’ Pirates. Players aren’t encumbered with tables and charts, but are instead able to mark lost health, current orders, and other status changes directly on the cards, which are dry erase marker friendly. One 48-card starter from any of the three armies (Undead, Orcs, or Men) of this non-collectible game provides enough combatants for two players to let slip the dogs of point-based beat-down. If that ain’t enough, each faction has a 50-card reinforcement deck with plenty more units, and at that point you own every card for the faction. At under $20 for either starter decks or reinforcement decks, any gamer who enjoys a good multi-unit fantasy rumble should look into Battleground.
Friday, November 18, 2005
News from the (somewhat shrunken) floor of Gen Con SoCal
Real quick: apparently Privateer has the four core box sets from Hordes on sale at the show. Who knew? (Uh, fellas… that’s a nice surprise and everything, but given the projected shortages of Warmachine core sets through the holiday season, you might wanna get back to casting things people already know they want and can buy? Just a thought.) Also, more Shadowrun 4E books are shipping to distribution today and Monday.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
News flash: gaming trade show plagued by non-professionals and swag hoarders
But not the one you think, ho ho ho ho. I guess it’s true what they say: mo’ money, mo’ problems.
Friday, September 9, 2005
Gen Con Indy now probably Gen Con… um… somewhere
At GenCon, we taped, but didn’t post, a long coda to Peter Adkison’s con-focused press conference. It was by a representative of the Indianapolis Convention Center, announcing the big plans to start expanding the center, virtually right after GenCon closed up. Well, apparently they aren’t gonna be done by next year. Where might they head? If Indy’s too small, Chicago’s the only reasonable choice in the area, in which they’ve said they’ll stay. That might change up the dates. (That’s just speculation, you monkeys!) Interesting times. [UPDATE: Indy is the place in 2006; such is the official word in the comments.]
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Audio Report: slowly driving a stake into the heart of GenCon
Yup. 45 minutes of action. We put plenty of links in the show summary this time, and you can have at the discussion here.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
GenCon 05 aftermath: return of the Audio Report
Back on the stick! Back in the seat! Back on maybe some metaphor that doesn’t sound as dirty! Here’s 28 minutes of good stuff from the GenCon show floor. We might paste some more into the regular on-mic podcast, which should get back on track for next week into the foreseeable future. Enjoy!
Monday, August 22, 2005
GenCon ‘05 aftermath: WotC & Upper Deck pre-game shows
By request, Steve has uploaded video of the missing press announcements foreshadowed by Peter Adkison in his “State of GenCon” press conference. Here’s the (very) short press announcements on Indy’s first day, from Claire Vail of Wizards of the Coast and Claudine Ricanor of Upper Deck.
WotC and Upper Deck press announcements (Quicktime required)
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Live at GenCon ‘05: Jason Mical of WizKids
Steve’s prepping more video footage, so he asked me to point out Mike’s interview with Jason Mical, WizKids Marketing Director. Watch the video and learn more about WizKids’ current plans, including some tidbits on NASCAR Race Day and the Battlestar Galactica CCG.
Jason Mical of WizKids (Quicktime required)
D&D Minis news trickling out of Indy
According to numerous websites, there’s a fair amount of D&D Miniatures information coming out of GenCon. Here’s what I’ve been able to round up:
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