GenCon Loot

At the end of the day, Slaz was able to ninja for me everything I asked for.  M2E rules, Neverborn deck, Miss Step, and Tara were all grabbed before anything sold out.  He managed to get one of the few WWX release Lawmen to add to that collection when it hits my hands from the Kickstarter, and he also managed to score the limited L5R RPG book.  I was certain something would get missed in all the chaos and given the limited releases of some of them, but he got them all.

I guess I'll forgive him for the Steam Summer Sale now.

I haven't had enough time to go into much of the new loot yet, but I did get a pleasant  surprise while Gencon was going on.  The new Battlestar Galactica expansion, Daybreak, came out already.  I managed to grab my copy from Huzzah Hobbies, get it all set up, and get my first game with it.  We had six players, giving us a chance to try out either the new Mutineer loyalty card or the new way to use Cylon Leaders.  Dan wanted to play Athena, so we opted for the Cylon Leaders choice.

Without going to much into detail, I have to say that so far this is easily my favorite of the expansions.  They took three pieces of the game that I thought always missed their potential - the Treachery deck, the Cylon Leaders, and the Sympathizer card - and improved upon them.  Add in 12 new characters, a couple new boards, and a new victory path (I actually really like Earth over Kobol, but it had mixed reviews in our game) and you've got a great box.

More detail to come on this later.  It might not be on this blog, but rest assured I'll let you know where it comes up if you're curious.

GenCon 2013

We are less than a week away from GenCon launching, the greatest event of gaming.  I have to say, the anticipation is killing me.  I can’t wait to… oh, wait.  I’m not going this year. 

For a number of reasons, I’ve had to put off my trip to GenCon for a year.  The birth of my son is the major reason.  He’s not even two months old, and as much as I would love to bring him to Indianapolis and cart him around, I know it’s just not feasible at this point.  His mother would be angry with me – either for taking him and exposing him to the con-crud, or for leaving him (and her) behind and not letting them go to the convention at all.  It’s a fight I can’t win whichever way I go, so as a wise man once said, “You can’t lose a battle you don’t show up to.”  Better to put off the plans for another year.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not excited this year.  I’ve already found my ninja-shopper and given him money, and let my friendly LGS-owner know what I would like him to order for me.

So what am I getting?

First, the ninja-ing.

Slaz has been generous enough to not only pick up whatever I give him money for, but also drive by my house on his way back home from GenCon to drop it all off.  The man gets mad props.

From me, he’ll be making a brief stop by three booths: the Wyrd booth, the AEG booth, and the Battlefoam booth.

At Wyrd, he’s grabbing only a few things this year.  Enough to hit what I think I want immediately, and the rest I’m holding until later.  With M2E coming out, there’s plenty to consider.  But in the immediacy, I only asked for the following:

Nightmare Tara

Evidently there’s some controversy about this model which, near as I can tell, stems around people who have decided they’re not going to buy it still complaining that they’re not going to buy it.  It seems to me that’s a central theme of capitalism – if a manufacturer creates something you do not want, you can vote with your dollar and exercise your right NOT to buy something.  Similarly, if you like something, you can vote with your dollar and exercise your right TO buy something.  Personally, I really like the sculpts in the box, the Nothing Beast especially.

I have a suspicion about the Nightmare box.  I honestly believe that the Nothing Beast is probably the only unique sculpt in that box.  Once the actual release hits, everything will look the same except the Nothing Beast.  When I first saw the box, that’s what I thought the case was.  I still believe it is.  And as soon as I saw the box, I decided it was worth it to pick up.  Nightmare Chompy was the only nightmare model in the Dreamer release back several Gencons ago, and that went over fine.  Why should this be such a controversy?

Regardless, I didn’t intend to get into that whole deal.  End result: I like the model, and I’m buying it.

M2E Rules Guide

Kinda need it for the game, or at least you need to have one between yourself and your opponent.  Strategies and Schemes are within.  All the updated rules since the last Open Beta are within.  Plus, lots of art, I’m sure, and a ton of fluff.

Arsenal Pack: Neverborn

The only Arsenal Pack I’m picking up from GenCon is the Neverborn one.  Eventually I’ll be getting five of them, but I’ll hold off on the other four and pick them up from my LGS.  It just means for the short-term, I’ll be playing only Neverborn.  No problem there – I love the new feel for all three masters.  Lilith is fantastic, Pandora’s actually fun to play against (until I figure out how to make her real annoying… I have some ideas), and Zoraida’s got a new feel to her as well.

Miss Step

This is a free goodie that will be stuck in my bag thanks to the fact I’m buying at least $100 from them.  I don’t like Archanists, but it’ll give me something else I can throw into my bin of “cool miniatures” that one day I want to paint up.  Might have to go through that bin at some point and see what all I have in there.  I think I have a Dead Justice box set.  Might open that up finally and paint up the Death Marshals to work with Tara.  Oh, and that would get me a painted Judge too, since I’m missing that guy.  Hmm… sounds like a good idea after all.

Okay, so after hitting Wyrd, Slaz will be checking out the AEG booth to try to grab a limited-run RPG book.  Evidently they’ve got a small book they were going to put in PDF only, but decided to put into print for a limited number at GenCon.  Most of them will be given away to people involved in a particular event, but there are some they said would be sold, if I read them right.

Secrets of the Empire: Naishou Province

It’s been a while since I’ve run L5R for my group.  My son was born at the end of June, and we’ve been on hiatus since then.  Eventually we’ll get back to the game, and I hope getting books like this will spark my enthusiasm to get back to it faster.

Finally, Slaz will head over to the Battlefoam stop.  Wild West Exodus, a miniatures game I backed from Kickstarter, will be released soon and they have a couple of prerelease models available.

US Marshal McClain

He’s an Outlaw and Lawman model (wha??) and looks pretty sweet.  I don’t know how much of WWX I am going to play after all is said and done, but I’ve got a lot on my way and I like this model, so it’ll be another nice piece to have painted up if nothing else.  Since it sounds like he’s a GenCon exclusive, I figured it’d be my one shot to grab this version of him.

I mentioned there were other things I was asking my LGS to order too.  I won’t go into as much detail, but I’ll be picking up the Arsenal packs for Outcasts, Guild, Resurrectionsts and 10 Thunders, as well as the new Battlestar Galactica expansion from Fantasy Flight Games.

Also wondering whether I should pick up the new Lilith box.  I don’t have any other way to get Barbaros, and I really like him.  I think the new Cherub is miles better than the old one.  I think the new Terror Tots are better than the old ones.  And the new Lilith sculpt, while not as good as the alternate metal one, is still pretty solid.  It might be one of those things I pick up a month or two down the line once I’m set with everything else.  But I was surprised to see that there was a box set I was tempted by, especially since I own all the metal versions already.

For those off to GenCon, enjoy!  Hope to make it out next year.

Gencon Recap

 

Back from Gencon and what a whirlwind trip it was.  I traveled with Laura (my wife), Dan (my awesome brother), Ellen (his wife) and Ryan (another buddy).  It was a long drive, made worse for me by my lingering dizziness.  I thought I might be pretty bad off during the Gencon week, but once the show started, my head cleared and it was go-time.

I won’t bother with a blow-by-blow.  That would take far too long.  Instead, I’ll hit the different games we tried out and my thoughts on them.

Evil Baby Orphanage (Wyrd Miniatures):

This was a game several of my friends were looking forward to.  I was on the fence about it, but when we got an advance preview of the game, I jumped at the chance.  It’s a non-collectable card game involving capturing evil people when they’re babies and building a child-friendly orphanage to keep them all calm and not hurting each other (no Genghis… don’t bite Hitler!).  The game was fun, but turned out to be much longer than I expected.  Dan ended up picking this one up (he had funded the Kickstarter for it) but I found it to be a “pass” myself.  I’d play it if it came up, but it would be low on my list of things I’d want to try.

Verdict: TOO LONG, NO THANKS

Attack on Planet Earth (Flying Frog Productions):

Laura, Ellen, Dan and I lined up for a demo of Attack on Planet Earth.  The game can be played co-op or competitively and is designed around a bunch of alien races all trying to take over the planet.  You move your aliens to different places, attack the resistance, and subjugated humans while trying to stop other aliens from doing the same.  It was actually pretty different in gameplay from a lot of other Flying Frog Games, but wasn’t enough to really warrant a purchase.  Especially since I had just spent a lot of money at the booth on something else…

Verdict: WAS FUN, BUT NO THANKS

Last Night on Earth: Timber Peak (Flying Frog Productions):

The first of the games I actually went to find a Gencon and it did not disappoint.  A whole new set of boards, new experience abilities, new characters, new cards.  I picked this up and we played a couple games at the hotel room that night.  Dan wasn’t feeling well (bad food) so Laura, Ellen and I played.  There has often been concern that the humans are at a real disadvantage in the game.  Let me tell you, the experience abilities seemed to turn that right around.  Both games the humans had a pretty solid time of it turning back the zombie horde.  I’m looking forward to combining the games and seeing if they bring a nice balanced mix to the whole thing.

Verdict:  PURCHASED, AND HAPPY I DID

Level 7 (Privateer Press):

The second of the games I actually went to find.  The line for the PP booth was hours long, but Dan spotted one of our locals and asked him if he wouldn’t mind picking up Level 7 for us when he reached the front.  It took a day later to get the game, and we played it on Friday night.  Now understand we were reading the rules around midnight in order to start playing, so we did get a lot wrong, but we had a ton of fun playing.  The game is a board game with tile exploration similar to the Dungeons and Dragons board games.  It’s semi-cooperative in that the players work together, but you can win without the other players winning.  It’s an alien horror game, and does very well at keeping the horror feel going throughout.  We ran into trouble at the end of the game when it seemed to fall apart, but on Sunday I went back to the PP booth to ask some questions and sure enough we played it wrong a little.  Still, fantastic game and really looking forward to the next time it comes out.

Verdict: PURCHASED, AND REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING IT BACK OUT

Chupacabre (Moostache Games):

This was a simple dice game that could be played very quickly.  Each person has six dice with different animals on them.  You roll your dice, put all the like animals together, and then anyone who rolled the evil Chupacabre could start trying to eat other animals, so long as there were not too many of them to overpower him.  Any that he ate, you got to keep the dice and then you all roll again.  Whoever ends up with all the dice wins.  We did notice that the game got to the point of one person winning was pretty much impossible to stop, but made a houserule to help out with that.  Plus, since one-on-one games ended in about 2 minutes, it’s not a big deal.

Verdict:  PURCHASED, IT’S A NICE GAME TO PULL OUT WHEN YOU’RE WAITING FOR SOMETHING ELSE

Smash Up (AEG):

This was a new non-collectable card game where you took two of eight different decks and put them together to make your one deck.  So you could be playing Zombie Robots against Pirate Aliens and then the next game be playing Zombie Wizards against Robot Tricksters.  There were eight factions so you could play up to four players.  Each group had its own feel.  Zombies brought creatures back from the discard pile.  Dinosaurs had lots of strength (and lasers).  Ninja were all about killing and moving their people around.  You had to attack different locations and earn victory points as the game progressed.  A fun diversion, but I think there would quickly become “best deck combinations” and if you happened to get two that played together well, you’ll end up with a leg up over everyone else.  Dan ended up picking it up, so I’m sure it’ll hit the table again soon.

Verdict:  PASS, BUT I’LL PLAY IT WHEN DAN BRINGS IT OUT

Mage Wars (?):

This was the “surprise” game for me this year.  Almost every year there’s a game I get that I didn’t even know existed before I got there.  This year it was Mage Wars.  We got a demo of the game and it sounded really interesting, so I tried to buy one.  But they were sold out.  But they said on Saturday morning they would have 80 more copies to sell.  I managed to get one of those copies and sat down with Laura to try to figure out all the rules on Saturday night.  Wow, it was complicated.  We got through part of it, but it was going to take me a long time just to figure out how to do everything, so we put it away until I had a few hours to devote to learning how to play it.

Verdict:  PURCHASED, BUT NOT EXACTLY SURE HOW GOOD IT IS YET

X-Wing (Fantasy Flight):

We demoed the new X-Wing game and Dan dubbed it “Wings of War 2!”  I never played Wings of War, but it seems like it’s pretty much the same game as this one, except this one has more customization available and used more ships at a time.  We had an enjoyable demo where Laura and I (the TIE Fighters) all ran into Dan and Ellen (the X-Wings) and stuff blew up.  I checked out the game itself – it was being sold as two TIE Fighters and one X-Wing, and then expansion packs of $15 were another single ship.  Wow.  A bit too rich for my blood.

Verdict:  PASS, BECAUSE IT WAS TOO EXPENSIVE

Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game (Privateer Press):
We bought tickets to play in the new IK RPG on Friday morning.  By this point we already knew that we weren’t going to get a copy of the game.  Only 350 copies arrived at Gencon and they sold out quick.  Still, we wanted to try out the game, so there we were.  We had five people (Slaz joined us for this one) but the game only allowed four.  We managed to convince the GM (Doug Seacat, no less!) to let me step in as the warjack so we could all play in the same game.  By the end of it, we were all smitten with it.  Fantastic game, I love the world (I always have – I was playing in Iron Kingdoms back when the only thing PP had to their name was the first Witchfire Trilogy book), and the rules actually seemed to flow very well.  Even my wife, who hates new rules, said she would love to play this one.

Verdict:  OHMIGOD I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS BOOK TO ARRIVE IN STORES!!!

Flashpoint (Indie Games):

I had played this one before, but I didn’t realize they were going to be at Gencon and when I was on my own for a short time, I wandered past them and did a double-take.  I sat down to play a demo mostly because this is one of my favorite board games of all time and I did not own it yet.  I’m going to tell you what it’s about and ask that you ignore the “meh” comment that comes up when you hear it: you’re a team of firefighters trying to save people in a building.  Yeah, doesn’t sound that interesting.  But trust me, it’s awesome.  I had the same reaction as you but my buddy, Zusmer, kept raving about it and I tried it.  At Gencon I bought it and convinced Dan, Ellen and Laura to play it despite their “meh” reactions and it ended up being one of the best board games we played all weekend.  Give this game a try if you like cooperative games.

Verdict:  PURCHASED, ONE OF THE BEST GAMES I HAVE PLAYED

Zombicide (Cool Mini or Not):

I picked this one up through the kickstarter but I figured I’d see how the game itself played.  Laura and I sat down for a demo and got what I would dub “the worst demo this year”.  The girl who was trying to teach us the game (“trying” is probably the wrong word… “reluctantly” might be better in its place) could not care less about us.  She texted on her phone, talked to other people at the booth, and randomly flipped cards and moved zombies and told us we were dead.  Had I not already purchased the game, this demo would have certainly turned me off from getting it at the con.  But I do have it already, and will have to give it my review later when I can actually play it.

Verdict:  WORST DEMO OF THE YEAR, THOUGH I ALREADY OWN THE GAME AND HEAR IT’S GOOD

True Dungeon:

This isn’t really a board game or anything, but rather the whole True Dungeon event that I always hear about.  This was my third Gencon and the first time I had done True Dungeon.  I didn’t know anything about what I was doing.  We had seven people in the game that I knew and were joined by three others – one who was a veteran who was really nice and helped us out, and two adolescent girls, one who was nice and the other who spent the whole time complaining and yelling at people.  She almost singlehandedly ruined the experience for me until she was pulled out of the game halfway through (for unrelated reasons).  Overall, the word I have to say about it is: confused.  I didn’t really know what I was doing, the people who were running the event didn’t really explain anything, and poor Slaz had to help four brand new people who had no idea what was going on.  Add to that the rooms were all quite dark so no one could read the primers that they offered the new players so they would know what was going on.  It wasn’t until around room 4 or 5 (after the annoying girl was gone) that I finally started to understand the game.  And by then, the game was nearly over.  I would probably enjoy it more the next time, but it’s priced pretty high for the entertainment value.

Verdict:  WOULD DO IT AGAIN IF WE COULD GET ALL OUR OWN PEOPLE IN ONE EVENT, BUT WOULDN’T MIND PASSING ON IT TOO

Indianapolis Brew Tour:

On Saturday afternoon when the floor was packed, Laura, Ellen, Dan and I all went on the Indy brew tour of four different breweries.  Some were bad, some were fantastic, some were bland and some were nice middle-of-the-road.  We spent almost four hours drinking and chatting with other Con-goers in a non-gaming-atmosphere.  A great break from everything else happening.  My only worry about doing it again would be that I would want to see different breweries.

Verdict:  WOULD DO IT AGAIN IF I KNEW IT WAS NEW BREWERIES, GLAD I DID IT

Tracy Hickman’s Breakfast:

About 500 people piled into an auditorium-style room to watch Tracy Hickman do an improv/gaming session where he kills lines of people at a time.  The people often have their own things they do to try to mess with Hickman.  The concept seems really fun, except that I could not hear anything anyone was saying.  My wife could only hear every other word.  And half of the people who tried to do something funny just turned out to be lame instead.  I left after an hour of not being able to hear any of the jokes so that I could get in line to get Mage Wars instead, and Dan, Laura and Ellen left not too long after that.

Verdict:  NEVER AGAIN

Fortune and Glory (Flying Frog Productions):

I usually remember the terrible demos I receive, but this is without a doubt one of the best demos I received.  I didn’t really want another FFP game (they all play similarly and we have many of them already), but this one looked interesting.  It’s a competitive game where you all play Indiana Jones-type treasure-hunters going around the world to search for treasure.  As you do, Nazis are trying to thwart you, and you have to go through obstacles to reach the prize.  Sometimes you have to race against other players to reach the goal.  If you fail at a challenge, it flips over and becomes a Cliffhanger!  (Will the Doctor manage to escape the plane crashing into a mountain?  Find out next turn!)  The woman running the demo did great at selling the game like a story, hamming it up as much as she could.  If I didn’t already have a ton of loot and were it not already Sunday, I might have made this my impulse buy of the con.

Verdict:  PASS, THOUGH IT DOES LOOK LIKE A VERY FUN GAME

So there you have it – most of the events and games I tried (I left a couple out because I didn’t really care enough about them one way or the other).  An exhausting con, but had a fantastic time.

Malifaux Teasers for Gencon

Wyrd Miniatures has been going gangbusters for their Malifaux releases at Gencon.  While it looks like they might fall short of the 70% of Book 4 release goal they had (reports are that they will have a lot of Neverborn and Archanists, possibly a lot of Ten Thunders, and nothing from Guild, Ressers or Outcasts), what they are bringing looks very nice.

First, they're moving to plastics with this release.  Metal has just become too expensive to keep up with the rising cost, and they're looking to make some changes to make sure they don't have to increase prices.  While I do like the heft of a nice metal model, I have to say the detail they're putting in to these models looks fantastic.  That, plus the more easily customized models, makes the move to plastic a good move in my book.

NEVERBORN
My first faction and my true love.  They're getting a whole new crew that looks very different from the other Neverborn models.  We've got some dapper gentlemen and some... female entertainers.  On the Breachside Broadcast, they once had an advertisement for a new casino called the Honey Pot, which ended with "Tell 'em Jakob sent ya."  And now we finally get to see Jakob himself.

I've decided I am going to refer to Jakob as Mr. Lynch so that I can have Mr. Lynch, Mr. Tannen and Mr. Graves walking around in their tuxedos kicking butt.  I am really looking forward to this line.
 

 

ARCHANISTS
I have to be honest, these guys don't really do it for me, but I can't deny that they look cool.  The metal/rail road theme isn't really my speed, but Mei herself looks fantastic with the exploding rubble around her.  She's got that kung fu look to her - maybe Archanists will finally get a melee-centric master.

I'm not a huge fan of the Metal Gamin, though I love the look of the Rail Golem.  Willie looks pretty hilarious, but I don't think it's enough to push me into picking up the crew.

 

TEN THUNDERS
Of course, we had to see some of the new faction on the block.  Misaki graduated from a minion in the Outcast line to a master in the new Ten Thunders crew.  They sport a very Asian look.  As a long-time player of the Legend of the Five Rings roleplaying game, I wholeheartedly approve.

I don't like the way Misaki herself looks - she's far too dynamic of a pose.  It looks like they tried to do too much with her.  But Yamaziko looks fantastic, and the Archers look really nice too.

 

EXTRAS
We also got a good look at the new Miss mode, Miss Terious (an alternate Death Marshall).  There's going to be a Santiago alternate sculpt, Santana, which is available only to Henchmen.  And finally, the Nightmare model for this time around is the Hanging Tree featuring Nathan and Eric, the founders of Wyrd.

All three models are top notch.  I'll certainly be getting the Miss Terious and the Hanging Tree.  If I can manage to get my hands on a Santana, I'll be doing that as well.

And because seeing the new plastic models was not enough for Wyrd, they've also gone out to release different pages from the upcoming book to generate even more excitement.  Below are some of the pages they've put up.  All of them look fantastic.  A Resser model with 10 wounds, Riposte, and Object 2?  A Guild model that can pour out tons of ranged damage?  A Neverborn model that shuts down card draw and plays with fate?  An Archanist model that tosses dynamite around and control the field a bit?  And a Ten Thunders six-stone minion with Use Soulstone?  All very awesome.

In short, Gencon cannot get here fast enough.  Less than a week away, and I'm already counting down the hours.

GenCon in Less Than a Month

I just got my GenCon tickets in the mail which means I am one step closer to heading west for Indianapolis.  I’ve been reading through the various companies that put out games that I enjoy and have a list of things I’d really like to see while I’m out there.  Some of them I’ll buy, others just fall in the “curiosity” spot.

Ten Thunders/Storm of Shadows by Wyrd

Every year I go to GenCon (this will be my third year going) I have one place I want to head first as soon as the doors open.  The first year I rushed to the Privateer Press booth to grab a copy of Apotheosis and see what the new warcasters and unique warjacks were all about.  The second year I went, I ran to the Fantasy Flight Games booth to get a copy of the Pegasus expansion for my favorite board game, Battlestar Galactica.  This year I rush to the Wyrd booth.

Wyrd has already announced the name of their new book, Storm of Shadows, and said it will introduce a new faction, the Ten Thunders.  They’ve estimated that around 70-80% of the book will be available at the booth.  I don’t know exactly what that will entail yet, but I know I will be buying at least the book and the Nightmare Hanging Tree.  Beyond that, I’d guess that Neverborn and Guild would be my top priorities.

X-Wing by FFG
I’ll admit I had no interest in this game whatsoever when I first heard about it, and I will likely pass on buying it, but I did get to see what the miniatures are going to look like, and it looks like it could turn out to be pretty fun.  I hope to make it to the FFG booth and get a demo of the game.  If I don’t, no big deal.  It’s not high on my list.  But since I’ve stopped playing Firestorm Armada, I don’t really have a good way to hold off my space combat fix.

Zombiecide by Cool Mini
I love zombie games, and while I certainly will not be purchasing this at GenCon (I already ordered a copy of it through their Kickstarter), I really am looking forward to seeing how the game plays.  The miniatures look good, and the characters I’ve seen from the emails that have been sent out to the supporters look solid.  I expect this to be a game of heroes working together to mow down as many zombies as they can, just blasting them to pieces.

Overall, looks like a nice companion game to my Last Night on Earth addiction.  LNoE serves as a good one for when I'm looking to have my zombies slaughter folks wholesale.  Zombicide will hopefully be the one to grab when you want to get out there and kill dozens of zombie minions.

Iron Kingdoms RPG by Privateer Press
I have been looking forward to this for years.  Ever since Privateer Press stopped making their DnD 3.5 edition compatible version.  I love the world for the Iron Kingdoms, even back before I ever started playing Warmachine.  I remember when DnD3 was a new thing and I saw the art for the first Witchfire book sitting on the shelf at a local gaming store.  I picked it up and read it through and was immediately taken by the world.  As the next two books came out, I picked them up as well, and then the world books when they arrived.  Even though I don’t really like the DnD system, I kept picking up the Iron Kingdoms books.

When it was canceled, we were told that they would come out with a new roleplaying game.  I’ve been waiting years.  And now it’s finally here.

I’ll be taking part in one of the demo games of this – my wife, Dan and his wife, and Slaz will all be joining in on the fun.  Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Level 7 by Privateer Press
This falls into the realm of games I’m interested in seeing but probably won’t buy unless it surprises the heck out of me.  I really enjoy PP games though, so I figure I should give this one a try.  This is a sci-fi conspiracy-type board game, and beyond that I know little about it.

Timber Peak (LNoE) by Flying Frog Productions
Here’s one I am certainly buying if it is there.  Last Night on Earth is one of my top board games, and when I heard they were coming out with a new stand-alone expansion for it, I knew I had to get it.  The game will be able to be played by itself or with any of the other ones.  There are six characters – three new ones and three “survivor” versions of the old ones.  Fourteen zombies, a full set of new boards, and new missions to play.  Seems like a must-have for LNoE players.

The Second City Boxed Set (L5R RPG) by AEG

This last one comes down to how I’m feeling at the time.  I am going to be starting a Legend of the Five Rings campaign up soon and I have been going out and getting all the books I can find for the new edition.  The problem I have is that I really don’t like the current storyline.  The pre-Scorpion Clan Coup time period from back before the card game mucked things up really was the best of the time periods.

Fortunately, most of the 4th Edition L5R stuff can be used with any time period.  It’s designed to be timeline-independent.  However, this new box set is coming out that falls straight into the current timeline.  It’s a city set, similar to the old City of Lies and Otosan Uchi box sets from the first edition.  This one centers around “Second City”, the city that Rokugan is using as the capital of their occupied Burning Sands.  Problem is it sounds very dependent on the Rokugani being in the Burning Sands, otherwise it doesn’t really make much sense.  I might see if I can find someone who can talk me through how it is set up but at the moment it feels like a no-go.

What about all of you who are heading out to GenCon?  What are you looking forward to getting?

GenCon 2012 is Coming....

This year I will be heading out to GenCon with my wife and some friends.  Joining us will be Second Generation Awesome Dan and his wife, Ellen.  We will be meeting up with Gamers’ Lounge Bill and his wife too.

Since the tickets to events open up this weekend, we were trying to decide what to do.  In the past when I’ve gone, sometimes I’ve taken on more than I actually ended up wanting to do when I was there.  I enjoy wandering the vendors hall and playing demos of new (or old) games I’ve never tried before.

So for this year, here’s what we’re starting with:

1.       We want to get into a game of True Dungeon.  My wife and I have never played it (this will be her first time at the convention) and we’ve heard good things about it.  Should be fun to get in for a round to see what all the fuss is about.

2.       I’d love to get into a roleplaying game of Iron Kingdoms, but evidently it’s not on the table yet.  Instead we’re signing up for a late-night game of Call of Cthulhu so we can get some good roleplaying in.

3.       We’ll also be going on a local beer tour.  All of us really like craft beers, so being able to head around town to see what’s offered should be fun.  I am a little disappointed that Alcatraz is no longer in business (so I’ve heard) – I thought they had the best beer within walking distance of the convention center.

4.       If possible, we’d like to get a game of Arkham Horror in with someone important.  I remember they used to let you play the games with the creators in the past – not sure if that’s possible, but it would be fun to try.

One thing you’ll notice I will not be doing is playing in any Malifaux tournaments.  Long-time readers will know how little I like tournaments.  Those who have joined up recently now know – I don’t like tournaments.  I’ve been to GenCon twice before and both times I’ve gone, I’ve signed up for a tournament in the game that I happen to be playing at the time (Warmachine both times before).  By the time I finished up at GenCon, I could say with confidence that my day playing in the tournaments has always been my least favorite day of the trip.

The only reason I’d want to play in the tournament is to see how I’d do faced up against other players from around the nation (world?), but the way that Wyrd set up the tournaments this year wouldn’t allow me to do that unless I devote two days to the event.  Rather than having a major tournament, they have a bunch of tournaments all of which allow you to get an invitation to another tournament on Sunday.

It is a little bit of a shame, because it would be fun to see how I would do, but after balancing the fact that what has looked like fun in the past (playing tournaments at GenCon) has actually turned out to be a disappointment, plus the fact I’d have to devote a large amount of time to it, means I’m just going to avoid it altogether.  I’ll have models with me to play pickup games, but no tournaments.