For all you long suffering readers waiting for the Spring JimCon Report, it is now available! Enjoy.
Well, just to keep all of our faithful followers up to date, Steve and I are at Norm’s house this weekend, with Dave, Norm, Al, Tom and Gordon. We started off with Norm’s prequel to the game he’ll be running tonight where we are the counselors at kid’s camp that is taken over by zombies.
Then I ran my Deadlands Noir game where they had to find out the mystery behind a dead woman found in a boxer’s dressing room. This morning we started with Steve’s Olympian Breed game where we all played Demi-Gods in Ancient Greece.
Dave then ran his post-apocalyptic cyberpunk world game. Norm finishes up his zombie camp game tonight and Gordon will run his Fallout game tomorrow morning before we head home in the snowstorm expected on Sunday!
Here are some pics.
We were able to fit in a holiday game day this week. We held it at Owen’s new place. Best game day ever. He had all the accoutrements a bunch of gaming guys would want—mostly delicious food, snacks, and drinks. He also recently purchased a dining room table that was the perfect sixe for gaming. Especially when you consider the first game we played was Civilization.
We played the 2010 version of Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game by Fantasy Flight Games. Apparently this version is in no way related to the 2002 game by Eagle Games which has the same name. Owen did a stellar job going over the rules with us. We had played this game at least once in the past, but I only vaguely remembered it. Mike seemed to remember a good bit about it. Ben wanted to skip the rules and just start playing it. We’ll see later what happened to Ben.
Ben was Egypt, Mike was China, Owen was Russia, and I was Germany. Mike decided to take the Culture Point path to victory. Ben mentioned that this was how I won the game the last time we played. I didn’t remember, but was glad I did so well. Being Germany I concentrated on military might. I’m not sure what Owen’s overarching plan was, but his cities flourished. Ben seemed to flounder. Maybe he should have listened to the rules. Owen and I were the first to get three cities on the board. Mike soon followed. I don’t think Ben ever had three cities. And if he did, it was only for a moment.
Soon it was a Culture Point race between Ben and Mike. Mike found many ways to use his Culture Cards…usually against me. Apparently my military might was scaring my neighbors. (I don’t think I lost a battle the entire game.) Owen’s country prospered.
Coming down to the end of the game, I had already destroyed one of Ben’s cities and I had my eye on his capital. (One of the ways to win the game was to destroy an <evil> opponent’s capital.) Another way to win was to get the level five tech advancement of Space Flight. Owen was only a few tech’s away from that. Both Ben and Mike had slowed their Culture Point advancement. (You could also win by getting to the end of the culture track.) Suddenly I found myself with another military player on the block. Owen has raised his mounted forces all of the way to tanks! He too was heading for Ben’s capital. Mike attacked one of my city’s, mostly to weaken my military stash of units. It worked to a degree, but he ended up losing the battle.
Owen was now in position to attack Ben’s capital and win the game. Even with his tanks, he didn’t think he could do it. “But you could win the game!†we all said. Instead Owen attacked and destroyed one of Ben’s cities. The city contained a general so this weakened Ben. What was Owen up too? It appeared that his move only helped me to more easily take Ben’s capital. I pounced on Ben’s capital, only to be stopped by a Culture Card played by Owen! I could NOT march on Ben’s capital this turn. We all knew Owen had something up his sleeve, but none of us could figure it out until he played that card. Now he had another turn to build his forces and attack Ben before me…but he didn’t.
On my next turn, I once again pounced on Ben’s capital. Once again Owen played the same Culture Card to stop me. He had TWO of those stinking cards! Ben’s forces were next to nothing, but he got a huge bonus from his capital. I decided to use a single army, consisting of 3 units to attack him. Ben had 3 units as well. My only hope was that Ben’s army was crap. It was! I won the battle by a slim margin, winning the game.
We all enjoyed this game and hope we can find the time to play it again soon. It took us six hours to complete it.
As the Munchkin box says, “Kill the monster. Steal the treasure. Stab your buddy.†So it was with us. This is a fun, lighthearted card game of trying to be the first player to get a 10th level character. During our game, Ben lagged behind—maybe because he didn’t have a “Boots of Butt-Kicking†or “Flaming Armorâ€. Maybe because he didn’t listen the rules and just wanted to start playing the game. I don’t know. I was the steady leader until Mike got a bunch of treasure for helping out (taking advantage off) his friends. He got 3 or 4 quick level-ups to put him at 9th level. To reach 10th level you must kill a monster. On Mike’s turn all he had to do was draw or play a monster and then kill it. He got one. Fortunately I had a card to divert his monster to Ben. Ben got the level-up, not Mike. I reached 9th level next, but I did it the old fashion way, by fighting and clawing my way there. Around to Mike again—no monsters showed up on his turn, nor on my turn. Owen reached 9th level. Again, no monsters for Mike. No monsters for me. Owen got a monster…a level 2 monster—something he could kill in his sleep. We played everything we had against him, but it was too little, too late…until Mike played his card and sucked a level from Owen. Owen killed the monster and was back up at 9th level with Mike and I. Again no monsters for Mike or me. Mike and I were hoping against hope for Owen to pull a 20th level monster; something he couldn’t easily kill. Owen pulled a 20th level platinum dragon from the deck and defeated it to win the game.
We all love 7 Wonders. We played two games of it. During the first game, we pretty much thought Ben had it sewn up with his green tech cards. He was close, but somehow I squeaked by him with 57 points. Ben had 55. Owen had 50 and poor Mike had 33. Mike’s constant cry during the third phase of the game was “Why don’t you turkeys have any glass!!â€
The next game Mike made up for it by handily winning with 54 points. I was second with 47. Ben had 45 and Owen had 40.
We had a great day! Thanks to Owen for hosting!!
Chaos Steve
Since people out there were clamoring for a JimCon write-up. I decided to do a quick wrap-up of what happened. (I say one person is a “clamorâ€.) But first a song sung to the tune of “The Piano Manâ€:
The GM Man
It’s nine o’clock on a Friday morn
the regular crowd shuffles in
There’s an old man sitting next to me
Makin’ changes to his character Trin
He says, son can run a game for me
I’m not really sure how it goes
But it’s got orcs and efreet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man’s clothes
[Chorus]
La la la de de da
la la de de da da dum
Play us your game, you’re the GM man
Play us your game tonight
Well, we’re all in the mood for a TPK
And you’ve got us ready to fight
This year the “usual crowd†was augmented by Bob Geiger. Our friend Bob got to come almost a whole day early to JimCon. (Yea!) Once everyone arrived and the cars were unloaded of games, we got down to actually playing one.
Evil Mike ran us through the four-hour version of the two-hour Savage Worlds demo he would be running at the big conventions this year. It’s called “Hell on Wheelsâ€. And yes, it’s patterned after the TV show. I think we did ok; no deaths that I recall. We did help the evil one figure out what parts to keep for his two-hour version.
Next, we played History of the World, a JimCon favorite. Completely against all gaming protocols I did not write down who won. I can only guess it was me…and I won by a huge margin.
The movie of the night was Kick-Ass. I had never seen this one and I was completely surprised by it. I expected a typical super hero movie. Kick-Ass is not that.
Saturday is RPG day at JimCon, but before that all started Ben and I played a game called Battle Khaos. Ben played the paltry humans, while I took the orcs. Battle Khaos is a placement game of sorts where the object is to take over towers and score points for doing so. The orcs shutout the humans 7-0. Go Khaos!
The first Savage Worlds game of the day was Owen’s Weird War II game. Actually it isn’t Weird War II, but the real World War II with no weirdness. Our team of elite troops was assigned to recue some downed pilots. We did just that and my character, Boris, got promoted. (I don’t remember why.)
Then Evil Mike ran us through his star wars adventure. I don’t remember a single thing about it except that Ben briefly flirted with the light-side, before plunging back to the dark-side. A fantastic time was had by all. A very memorable game—probably Mike’s best to date.
That night we watched Sucker Punch. (Someone please explain this movie to me.)
Sunday morning a few of us played a game called Eminent Domain. Everyone else had played this before and I must say I was rather lost through the whole game. The other players did help me though, which is why I came in second with 19 points. Ben won with 21 points. Mike and Evil Mike tied for last with 17.
We spit up for the next few games, Ron, Bob, Jim and I played Deadwood. It’s similar to the game Carson City, but less complicated and, I think, a more fun. Ron’s Rowdies won the town with 21 points. Bob’s Buckaroos come in second with 17, Jim’s Jackalopes scored 16, and Steve’s Saddle Tramps came in so far last, with 5 points, it was embarrassing.
We then played Ra, the dice game. Ra is a great game for 2-4 players. Roll the dice. Determine your strategy for scoring points and mark you selections. It’s simple, but fun. Ron once again showed his superior game-playing skill and won with 48 points. Bob came in second with 35 points, I managed a third place showing with 34, and Jim came in last at 31.
Finally, we played the Monopoly Deal card game. This is a fun and fast version of Monopoly. (it’s strange writing “fast†and “monopoly†in the same sentence.) In this one, I finally fought my way to the top and won.
While we were playing through our three games, Evil Mike, Owen, Ben, and Mike were playing Steam. I’m sure their game wasn’t as fun as ours. Evil Mike won with 54 points. Ben and Owen tied for second with 41. Mike came in last with 29.
Next up was Lifeboat, an interesting card game that Bob brought. In it you play a character trying to survive on a lifeboat filled with others. One character you love; one character you hate. You get points for seeing the proper end for both of those characters. One nice touch; it’s possible to love and/or hate yourself. After a few fights, some characters falling overboard, shark attacks, and general pushing and shoving the lifeboat sighted land. Bob won with his character getting 21 points. I had 19 points. Ron had 16. Jim, whose character died during the trip, got 8 points, and Mike got 4 points. Please note that Jim’s character died and did better than Mike.
Lastly, we played Ivanhoe, a great card game by Renier Knizia. It was quite a battle, but Ron rose to be victorious.
Thanks Jim for hosting yet another great JimCon! See you all in the fall!
Check out the Conventions 2012 page to see the Origins Con Report!
Norm’s Monster Hunter 101 (Agents of Oblivion) game
After arriving at CotC (on time even!) we started out in Norm’s Agents of Oblivion game. We all played different AoO branch types. I was the “Combat Wizard” which immediately prompted many choruses of “Pinball Wizard” with Pinball replaced with Combat.
I named my guy, Gus Gustavo from Guatemala. But to make it easier on the gringos, they could just call me “Steve”. Coincidentally, Steve’s character was Miguel something and he went by “Mike”.
Our mission was to fly in and land on an old shipping barge that Oblivion was using as a portable Guantanamo bay, but for Vamps and Werewolves. Apparently something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.
We soon discovered that an alien device was on board and one of the ancient vamps on board had gotten free, taken over the ship and was using the machine to open a rift in space-time in order to bring an ancient god into our world! Suffice to say, we kicked ass and took her down!
Dinner
It was pouring down rain, so we decided to eat at the bar in the hotel. It was slow service, but the waitress was run ragged and did her best. Food was good though when it finally got there!
Mike’s Knights of the Old Republic game
We next played a new campaign I’m running for the guys. It’s set in the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic timeframe. The players start off as 0xp characters looking for one of the few remaining Jedi to train them in the Force and the ways of the Jedi. Some were already strong with the Force, others, not so much.
I don’t want to spill too much here, since I’m running this for another group at JimCon, but I will say this…we got a later start than I expected, and I had a timeframe of 4 hours in mind. So when a good stopping point presented itself, near to when I thought my 4 hours had elapsed, I called the game, intending to pick it up next time….except I was an hour earlier than I wanted! So, we may finish this up later in the con. Doh!
So Steve and I are off and running to CotC and I thought I’d post about how not to prepare for a convention!
First, it’s important to know that Steve and I have so much gaming stuff, we can’t fit it all at our houses (because we also have too much non-gaming stuff). So, our friend Ben has volunteered his basement and garage for storing our terrain and odds and ends. Ben also builds and repairs our terrain. And we also play Savage Worlds at his house now so it all works out well.
Anyway, as usual, I waited until the last minute to think about what I’d need. I grabbed everything I thought I’d need at the last game night at Ben’s but realized on Tuesday that I didn’t have everything. So I went to Ben’s that night and picked up my combat cases (large reinforced bags to carry miniatures and terrain).
Then Wednesday, as I’m typing up my game (herein lies the problem) and putting all my minis together, I couldn’t find a mini that was kind of critical for my game. I could always use a substitute, but I knew I had the perfect mini somewhere and I really wanted to use it. Anyway, I called up Ben to have him check to see if I’d left it at his house somehow and sure enough it was there. Well, that was like 8pm on Wednesday and I didn’t want to get dressed and go out, so I was just going to live without it.
On Thursday morning, I got up early and while in the shower, I thought I should call Ben and have him put those minis out on his porch and I would swing by and get them. Unfortunately, Ben’s house is in the opposite direction of I-70. In order to get to Norm’s game at CotC on time, we figured we had to leave no later than 8am and we wanted to leave earlier to make sure we had time for lunch. But with the detour to Ben’s it’s looking like we will be late to Norm’s game. Sorry Norm! It’s all my fault!
So just wanted to officially note, I’m kicking Steve’s ass at boardgames this year. I won 2 Roll Through the Ages games on Wednesday, 2 Ra the Dice Game on Friday and 1 Catan two player card game on Friday. Mike 5 Steve 0. One of my best GenCon performances ever.
No comments about how it was just Steve, as I’d like to bask in my victories a little longer. :)
Update: played a new game today called “Unspeakable Words”. I lost. Twice. To Steve. On a word game. But it had a chaotic factor to it so I don’t count it.
On the plus side, we played two more games of Ra the dice game, and I won both of those. :)
