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mikeknI spent the weekend with a couple hundred gamers at Ubercon VI. I had a great time, so I shall have to do it again in the future (but the next Ubercon is the same weekend as the Mead Fest).
I was on my own for the weekend, which has it's pros and cons. Leading the list of the cons is simply not having friends to hang out and play games with. As it turns out I did know a few people at the convention, but they were mostly doing their own thing. Playing with strangers is ok, and after a game or two they aren't quite strangers, but playing with friends is far better. Being on my own also meant that I had to foot the entire bill for the weekend. I can afford to do that from time to time, but there would be more money to buy games with if I was splitting it with two or three (or six) people. On the plus side, I wasn't tied to anyone else's schedule, nor did I have anyone suggesting/requesting we leave the con to go get food or something silly like that (I had a total of two "meals" all weekend, with lots of snacks in between).
Games
My goal for this con was to play as many new (or new to me) games that I could. I had a few that I'd heard good things about and wanted to try, plus there were some that just sounded interesting. I've added a star rating after each write up, with five (*****) being the top.
Friday
Meuterer A nautical themed card game for 3-4 people. Players score points by trying trading goods at various islands and by controlling the ship. The player who is the captain normally controls where the ship will go, but another player can try and start a mutiny to take it over. The game has a fixed number of turns after which the person with the highest score wins. It was a nice game, pretty easy to learn and play, but not one I couldn't live without. (***)
Pirate's Cover Continuing the sailing theme was this game of competing pirate ships. During each turn players secretly decide to which of the six islands they want to sail their boat. Five of the islands offer certain rewards (cash, treasure, cards, victory points), while the sixth island is where you bury your treasure to get victory points for it. Each island also allows you to purchase one kind of upgrade for part of your ship (hull, sails, cannon, crew) or cards. If only one person sails to an island, that person gets the rewards and can buy the upgrades. If two or more arrive at the same island they must fight it out until only one remains (the others limp off to get repairs). At the end of twelve rounds the person with the most victory points wins. This was a lot of fun, and is one I know I'll probably see some time at the Philly Area Gamers meeting. I'm still thinking about if I want a copy or not. (****)
Fist of Dragonstones A card game where players compete to score points by blind bidding on cards that provide various rewards or abilities. It was an ok game, but didn't really do anything for me. (**)
Ingenious I had signed up to play this game, but spotted it earlier in the day. It is an abstract strategy game, and I wasn't really in the mode for that sort of game, so I skipped playing and instead tried:
Betrayal at House on the Hill I was signed up to play this game on Saturday, but had a chance to play it early. This game starts out as a cooperative game with the players exploring a haunted house, finding item, triggering events and uncovering omens. At some point one of the omens is going to trigger The Haunt. The Haunt is one of 50 scenarios which will determine which player is the betrayer (traitor) and what form the haunt will take. At this point the game changes to a competition between the traitor, who controls any additional monsters resulting from the haunt, and the heroes. Each side has goals that are unique to the scenario they are playing and the game ends when one side meets its goals and thus defeats the other. I got to play this again later in the weekend and enjoyed both games (although I seriously recommend folks get a hold of the errata before playing). (***)
After Betrayal it was about 2 AM, so I headed to bed.
Saturday
Get Nifty! I was hoping that this game was being released at Ubercon, but things are running behind schedule and it's not out yet. Still I attended the 10 AM panel where we heard the story of the three year process to bring this game to market. It's in production right now and should be out on the shelves in a couple of months. For folks just checking in, Get Nifty is a card game based on the web comic Sluggy Freelance.
En Garde! The was the only tournament game I played - my main goal was to check out the game, but the fact that I could win a copy was a bonus. This is a fencing themed card game that all SCA fencing gamers should probably get a copy of (if they don't have it already). It's a fairly quick paced game that does fun job of mimicking a fencing bout or melee. On your turn you play a card (or cards) to attack one of the other players, and they can then defend with cards of their own. Should your attack succeed your opponent will loose poise points. So long as a fencer has some poise points, they can't be killed - but once they lose them the next successful attack will kill them. I didn't win the tournament, but I did buy a copy of the game. (****)
Red Dragon Inn I was supposed to play this on Friday, but the folks running it got stuck in traffic. The game is still in development, but it was a lot of fun so I'll be picking it up when it gets release. It's a card game in which each player takes on the role of a member of an adventuring party - only you're not adventuring right now, you are all hanging out at the Inn. On your turn, you buy one of the other players a drink, and drink whatever you have in front of you. You also play cards against other players causing them to lose endurance or money, or start a round of gambling. If your inebriation level ever reaches your endurance level, you pass out. Your friends then split your money with the Inn and dump you outside. If you run out of cash, you're also kicked out. The last person standing is the winner. Each player has their own deck of cards based on their character, so the actions available to one player are different then the others. It also serves to give the different characters strengths and weaknesses. For example, the illusionist is hard to hit, cause they have a lot of defense cards (not standing where you thought they were), while the dwarf is hard to get drunk. I'm looking forward to this one being released :) (****)
La Citta A complex city building game. You must build your cities balancing population and food with the people's desire for education, culture and health. Too many people and you'll get starvation. Not enough of what the people want, and they'll move to another player's city (and what they want changes each "year" of the five year game). There is a lot going on in this game, making it somewhat hard to keep track with (and we were playing a reduced "beginners" game) - still everyone at the table loved it (even when it did make our brains explode). The winner is the player with the highest population and the most balanced cities. If I though I could get a group of people to play it on a somewhat regular basis, I'd buy it. But I don't think it fits the interest of most of the folks I game with. (***)
Shadows Over Camelot Another cooperative game, but this time you are all Knights of the Round Table. Each player plays a specific knight with unique special abilities to help them along. You play against the game, trying to finish a number of different quests which score white swords that are placed on the round table - failure at a quest will score black swords. When the game ends, if the white swords outnumber the black, then the Knights win, otherwise the forces of evil win. Things are made a little more interesting because at the start of the game everyone is given a loyalty card, and one of them could be a traitor. There isn't always a traitor in the game, but there is always the chance that there is. The traitors job is to slow the progress of the knights with out getting caught. If they do get caught they start working directly against the knights. If the game ends without them being caught they automatically convert three white swords into black ones - which could be enough to tip the balance. I might try and pick this one up at some point. (***)
After the game it was close to 3 AM, so I called it a night.
Sunday
Early American Chrononaughts Joined a game of this while waiting for another game to start. I have a copy of it, and I've played the original version, but never had a chance to play this one. It's a cool card game about time travel, in this case focused on early American history. Each player is someone from an alternate time line who is trying to get home by adjusting the historic events to match where they came from. Meanwhile, they are also on a mission to collect three specific artifacts from the past all while trying to keep the time line from tearing apart due to paradoxes. The winner is the first person to return home, complete their mission or patch ten paradoxes in the time line.
Carcassonne I played in two games of Carcassonne on Saturday, but they were just pickup games. One used only the river expansion, while the other used Inns and Cathedrals. My main Carcassonne event was Sunday when I played in a game with almost every expansion (we had: Inns & Cathedrals, Builders & Traders, The Count, The King, The Princess & Dragon and The Cathars - we decided to skip the River due to time) plus we used a variant attributed to Richard Garfield which can cause the game to end before all the tiles are drawn.
Anyway - loved it. It worked out very nicely. Even though there was a lot going on, the game didn't bog down nor get too confusing. And I'm happy to report that I emerged as the victor :)
I was on my own for the weekend, which has it's pros and cons. Leading the list of the cons is simply not having friends to hang out and play games with. As it turns out I did know a few people at the convention, but they were mostly doing their own thing. Playing with strangers is ok, and after a game or two they aren't quite strangers, but playing with friends is far better. Being on my own also meant that I had to foot the entire bill for the weekend. I can afford to do that from time to time, but there would be more money to buy games with if I was splitting it with two or three (or six) people. On the plus side, I wasn't tied to anyone else's schedule, nor did I have anyone suggesting/requesting we leave the con to go get food or something silly like that (I had a total of two "meals" all weekend, with lots of snacks in between).
Games
My goal for this con was to play as many new (or new to me) games that I could. I had a few that I'd heard good things about and wanted to try, plus there were some that just sounded interesting. I've added a star rating after each write up, with five (*****) being the top.
Friday
Meuterer A nautical themed card game for 3-4 people. Players score points by trying trading goods at various islands and by controlling the ship. The player who is the captain normally controls where the ship will go, but another player can try and start a mutiny to take it over. The game has a fixed number of turns after which the person with the highest score wins. It was a nice game, pretty easy to learn and play, but not one I couldn't live without. (***)
Pirate's Cover Continuing the sailing theme was this game of competing pirate ships. During each turn players secretly decide to which of the six islands they want to sail their boat. Five of the islands offer certain rewards (cash, treasure, cards, victory points), while the sixth island is where you bury your treasure to get victory points for it. Each island also allows you to purchase one kind of upgrade for part of your ship (hull, sails, cannon, crew) or cards. If only one person sails to an island, that person gets the rewards and can buy the upgrades. If two or more arrive at the same island they must fight it out until only one remains (the others limp off to get repairs). At the end of twelve rounds the person with the most victory points wins. This was a lot of fun, and is one I know I'll probably see some time at the Philly Area Gamers meeting. I'm still thinking about if I want a copy or not. (****)
Fist of Dragonstones A card game where players compete to score points by blind bidding on cards that provide various rewards or abilities. It was an ok game, but didn't really do anything for me. (**)
Ingenious I had signed up to play this game, but spotted it earlier in the day. It is an abstract strategy game, and I wasn't really in the mode for that sort of game, so I skipped playing and instead tried:
Betrayal at House on the Hill I was signed up to play this game on Saturday, but had a chance to play it early. This game starts out as a cooperative game with the players exploring a haunted house, finding item, triggering events and uncovering omens. At some point one of the omens is going to trigger The Haunt. The Haunt is one of 50 scenarios which will determine which player is the betrayer (traitor) and what form the haunt will take. At this point the game changes to a competition between the traitor, who controls any additional monsters resulting from the haunt, and the heroes. Each side has goals that are unique to the scenario they are playing and the game ends when one side meets its goals and thus defeats the other. I got to play this again later in the weekend and enjoyed both games (although I seriously recommend folks get a hold of the errata before playing). (***)
After Betrayal it was about 2 AM, so I headed to bed.
Saturday
Get Nifty! I was hoping that this game was being released at Ubercon, but things are running behind schedule and it's not out yet. Still I attended the 10 AM panel where we heard the story of the three year process to bring this game to market. It's in production right now and should be out on the shelves in a couple of months. For folks just checking in, Get Nifty is a card game based on the web comic Sluggy Freelance.
En Garde! The was the only tournament game I played - my main goal was to check out the game, but the fact that I could win a copy was a bonus. This is a fencing themed card game that all SCA fencing gamers should probably get a copy of (if they don't have it already). It's a fairly quick paced game that does fun job of mimicking a fencing bout or melee. On your turn you play a card (or cards) to attack one of the other players, and they can then defend with cards of their own. Should your attack succeed your opponent will loose poise points. So long as a fencer has some poise points, they can't be killed - but once they lose them the next successful attack will kill them. I didn't win the tournament, but I did buy a copy of the game. (****)
Red Dragon Inn I was supposed to play this on Friday, but the folks running it got stuck in traffic. The game is still in development, but it was a lot of fun so I'll be picking it up when it gets release. It's a card game in which each player takes on the role of a member of an adventuring party - only you're not adventuring right now, you are all hanging out at the Inn. On your turn, you buy one of the other players a drink, and drink whatever you have in front of you. You also play cards against other players causing them to lose endurance or money, or start a round of gambling. If your inebriation level ever reaches your endurance level, you pass out. Your friends then split your money with the Inn and dump you outside. If you run out of cash, you're also kicked out. The last person standing is the winner. Each player has their own deck of cards based on their character, so the actions available to one player are different then the others. It also serves to give the different characters strengths and weaknesses. For example, the illusionist is hard to hit, cause they have a lot of defense cards (not standing where you thought they were), while the dwarf is hard to get drunk. I'm looking forward to this one being released :) (****)
La Citta A complex city building game. You must build your cities balancing population and food with the people's desire for education, culture and health. Too many people and you'll get starvation. Not enough of what the people want, and they'll move to another player's city (and what they want changes each "year" of the five year game). There is a lot going on in this game, making it somewhat hard to keep track with (and we were playing a reduced "beginners" game) - still everyone at the table loved it (even when it did make our brains explode). The winner is the player with the highest population and the most balanced cities. If I though I could get a group of people to play it on a somewhat regular basis, I'd buy it. But I don't think it fits the interest of most of the folks I game with. (***)
Shadows Over Camelot Another cooperative game, but this time you are all Knights of the Round Table. Each player plays a specific knight with unique special abilities to help them along. You play against the game, trying to finish a number of different quests which score white swords that are placed on the round table - failure at a quest will score black swords. When the game ends, if the white swords outnumber the black, then the Knights win, otherwise the forces of evil win. Things are made a little more interesting because at the start of the game everyone is given a loyalty card, and one of them could be a traitor. There isn't always a traitor in the game, but there is always the chance that there is. The traitors job is to slow the progress of the knights with out getting caught. If they do get caught they start working directly against the knights. If the game ends without them being caught they automatically convert three white swords into black ones - which could be enough to tip the balance. I might try and pick this one up at some point. (***)
After the game it was close to 3 AM, so I called it a night.
Sunday
Early American Chrononaughts Joined a game of this while waiting for another game to start. I have a copy of it, and I've played the original version, but never had a chance to play this one. It's a cool card game about time travel, in this case focused on early American history. Each player is someone from an alternate time line who is trying to get home by adjusting the historic events to match where they came from. Meanwhile, they are also on a mission to collect three specific artifacts from the past all while trying to keep the time line from tearing apart due to paradoxes. The winner is the first person to return home, complete their mission or patch ten paradoxes in the time line.
Carcassonne I played in two games of Carcassonne on Saturday, but they were just pickup games. One used only the river expansion, while the other used Inns and Cathedrals. My main Carcassonne event was Sunday when I played in a game with almost every expansion (we had: Inns & Cathedrals, Builders & Traders, The Count, The King, The Princess & Dragon and The Cathars - we decided to skip the River due to time) plus we used a variant attributed to Richard Garfield which can cause the game to end before all the tiles are drawn.
Anyway - loved it. It worked out very nicely. Even though there was a lot going on, the game didn't bog down nor get too confusing. And I'm happy to report that I emerged as the victor :)
