GenCon: EconoHazard

The GenCon team finally posted their Exhibit Hall Map and the List of Exhibitors.

As I did every year, I printed out the map and the list and started color-coding it (after the year I dropped close to $500 at the IPR booth, I realized that the extra homework would be a necessary step.

This extra work has really paid off the last few years, as I didn't drop every single nickel I had, and even managed to send my wife to pick up items at some booths. And, even more amazingly, still had a few bucks in my pocket for the plane ride home.

Of course, these days my wife needs her own map with her own color codes ...

This is a snippet of the 2011 map. In summary: My wallet is in big trouble. Asmodee will be in Booth 511.

Booth 412/413? That's IPR, among others. It's the most dangerous booth at GenCon for my wallet.

Booth 605? It's another accumulation of publishers who make several games I like. I'll be shocked if I don't come home with Oz: Dark and Terrible and probably several other books.

Booth 711? Cubicle 7, home to Victoriana and the new Abney Park game. And the Laundry Files RPG (read the books if you haven't already).

Booth 311? Burning Wheel. The only reason Burning Wheel is less dangerous than IPR this year is because they'll only have one book I need - Burning Wheel Gold.

Booth 825 is Dream Pod 9. Tribe 8 continues to be one of my favorite RPG lines of all time. While I doubt I'll see more for it in the near future ... well, it's worth checking on from time to time. And their other lines are also thought-provoking and entertaining.

In other words, I may need to have my wife blindfold me and lead me to the booth every morning. Because these other guys are just too close for comfort.

Gamethyme's Game of the Year - Currently Eligible Games

A few months back, I mentioned that I would give out my own personal "Gamethyme's Game of the Year" post during GenCon this year.

To be eligible, a game must be new to me since the start of the previous year's GenCon. That's the only requirement. I promised no "short list of eligible nominees" - this is a complete list (to date).

Now, this isn't necessarily the final list of eligible games, but here is the current list and a few thoughts on some of the games contained therein:

Win, Lose, or Banana - This game takes as long to explain as it does to play.  I'd heard about it before GenCon, and wanted to check it out.  At $1, I bought a bunch of them. We played it a lot, and the game nearly always left us in stitches. I call it $1 well spent.

GoSu - As I wrote about earlier this year, I like this one.  It's a solid game, and I wish it had broader exposure. The expansion is due in September, according to Moonster's latest update.

Water Lily - Another gift from Asmodee. It was a hit with my group for a while - and I still like it a great deal.  I've just played it to death.

7 Wonders - Since I wrote about it a few weeks back, it's been nominated for several significant gaming awards (and has won a few others).  The expansion is in process of hitting (and I hope to have it before GenCon ... )

Mr. Jack Pocket - It's the easiest to carry of the Mr. Jack games. I don't play two-player games that often, but I haul this one with me to game night because I can break it out for a quick game while we wait for more players.  I don't play it much, but it keeps a bunch of other folks busy.

Sobek - a fast-playing Egyptian-themed game with commonality with Cleopatra and the Society of Architects?  Sign me up! Cleopatra left me a bit cold - it was too gimmicky for my tastes, and seemed to take too long for what it was. Sobek, on the other hand, I quite enjoy.

Hex Hex XL - Curt Covert makes fun games. Smirk & Dagger games are fun. This is a Curt Covert game. I'll let you do the math.

Revolution - I'm automatically skeptical of any game which says "Steve Jackson Games" on the box - there have been too many let-downs and mediocre games. I know that they make huge piles of money off of Munchkin, but I just don't get why. Regardless, I'm very glad I looked past the publisher and gave Revolution a shot.  It's a lot of fun, and the expansion doesn't seem to hurt the game at all (which is, as I'm sure you know, all too common with expansions). It's also worth mentioning that the designer of Revolution has another game on Kickstarter right now.

Tichu. Yes, I know.  I'm late to the party. I finally decided to check this one out a few weeks ago. And I found that I like it. A lot. It scratches a similar itch as Rook, but has more strategic depth.

Those are the games which (so far) have a shot.  Here are games which are technically eligible, but are (at best) long shots:

10 Days in the USA- Yes, I'd somehow missed out on the 10 Days series. It was fun, but lighter than I tend to enjoy.

Call of Cthulhu - the FFG Living Card Game.  It failed to make an impact on me - I'll play it, but it's not one I would actively seek out.

Tikal II: The Lost Temple - It's not a bad game. It has a lot of negative reviews on BGG, but most of those reviews don't review the game for itself - they review it by comparing it to the original Tikal, where it does fall short in several respects. I'd like to get it to the table more often, but my group also compared it to the original.  It's not the original. It's a different game with a similar theme. I think that, had this been released as The Lost Temple, it would have done better. The reason it's a long shot this year is because I've had so much trouble getting it back to the table.

Discworld

It should come as no surprise to many of you that I am a huge fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of novels. I was really disappointed a few years back when Steve Jackson Games published GURPS Discworld.

But it's grown on me.  Not a lot, mind you, because I'm not a fan of GURPS.  I have a number of their sourcebooks and the (3rd Edition) core books. Since it was first released, I've been trying to find a better system for the series.

I occasionally make the mistake of mentioning this to people. They inevitably ask me, "Why don't you use Toon?" The answer to this question is surprisingly simple: Because Toon is for wacky games.  The Disc is comical, but it's not wacky.  The characters on the Disc sometimes seem to be aware of the fact that they are characters. What they're not aware of is that they are in a comedy.

I have a long commute to work. Every day, I spend more than an hour in the car on the way to work. Thankfully, Stephanie and I can carpool part of the way. It means we can switch off driving.  The rule in our car is that the driver controls the stereo. When I drive, usually listen to the satellite radio.  When Stephanie drives, we'll often listen to her audio books. And she's often listening to the Discworld books.

When Stephanie drives, I'll read books so as not to get carsick (Yes, I know. I'm wired backwards). On May 19th, she was listening to Night Watch. I was reading Burning Wheel Revised. You see, Luke Crane had just announced that BW:R had gone out of print. I was reading about Beliefs when Vimes started chewing out another character who hadn't followed the rules. It was an epiphany for me - Burning Wheel is the ideal system for Discworld.

It's really really difficult to write comedy into an RPG. The humor in most games (in my experience) comes from player interaction (and odd rolls). A few years ago, we had a D&D party that had to head through a portal to another plane. The portal guards did their best to disarm the party. We did opposed conceal vs perception checks. The Rogue didn't manage to get so much as a toothpick through due to some really poor rolls on his part. We all chuckled at this.  Then, one of the Dwarves didn't bother with conceal - he tried to Bluff.  He convinced the guard that it wasn't an axe - it was a proper Dwarven Belt Buckle. We all laughed - but we all remember it. Even had the Dwarf failed, we still would have laughed, but it wouldn't have been as memorable.

I think that because comedy is so difficult to write into a game, most comedy RPG's are doomed from the outset.  Toon is fun, but it's not a great game. Paranoia is funny, but it's hard to have long-term games with it (it's best-suited to one-shots). The Red Dwarf RPG is funny, but (again) I think it's best as a one-shot. Or short campaign.

Can Burning Wheel do funny? I think it can. And I'm apparently not the first one to think so:

In short, yes. A slightly longer answer is that Burning Wheel takes the setting completely seriously, even if the setting itself involves crooning molerats, an earring-sized battle axe known as the Wee Prick, bar brawls with gangs of nine-pin hooligans, and extra-dimensional brain-tearing missle weapons that can blow holes in buildings.

Another way to put it is that life can be really funny, but falling off your roof still hurts. Burning Wheel is kind of like that.

I intend (at some point in the not-too-distant future) to try it out. I'll let you know how it goes.

Classic Games: Variants as a Way of Life

Those of you who've been reading this blog for a while know that I have a weakness for classic games. Mah Jongg continues to be a favorite of mine (and of nearly everyone I've played it with).

A few weeks ago, while cleaning the apartment, I stumbled across one of my Rook decks. Rook is a game I used to play with my great-grandparents. I hadn't played in many years, so I took it to Game Night.

Only one other person there had played before. After a few seconds of discussion, I learned that we played it differently.  After referring to the rulebook, I discovered that neither of us played what is the default - "Tournament Rook."

See, when she played, the deck used all 57 cards, and the counters are 14, 10, 5, and the Rook itself. The Rook is considered to be the highest trump card.

In my family, we also used all 57 cards, the counters were 13, 10, 5 and the Rook itself. And the Rook was the lowest trump card.

In Tournament Rook, you remove 1-4 from the deck. The counters are 14, 10, 5, and the Rook (If the Rook is being used). If it's in play, the Rook is the high trump.

I wrote a few months ago about House Rules. I don't know that any of these could be considered house rules - they're more like regional variations. The "Tournament Rook" rules are "official," as handed down by Parker Brothers and Hasbro. The book included a number of common variants (not including the one I grew up playing).

So why are there so many variations?

My wife and I are reading The Westing Game together. More accurately, she's reading it to me as we drive home from work some evenings.  It's a book I loved growing up, and she's never read it. Even now, more than twenty years later, I'm enjoying it.

At one point in the book, there is a discussion about the phrase, "May God thy gold refine." The characters argue over whether it's Shakespeare or the Bible. At one point, a character goes to a library and talks to the librarian, where they discover that it's from the song "America the Beautiful." It's one of the central puzzles early in the book.

I stopped Stephanie when we reached that point.  "Wow," I said, "You can sure tell this was before Google." And it's true - if faced with a similar puzzle these days, I'd pull out my phone and Google it. The Heirs would have licked that puzzle in minutes rather than weeks.

The internet has very much changed a lot of things for us. I learned Rook from my great-grandparents in Grant's Pass, Oregon. They brought it with them from the Midwest.  Anyone that they taught to play uses the variant my family uses. Unless they forgot a rule or misremembered a rule, which could (and would) spark another variant.

This sort of confusion is no less common, today, but we also have more resources. The Rook cards come with a rulebook that is much clearer than it used to be. Boardgamegeek has thousands of folks handy with rules clarifications. Many manufacturers can (and will) respond to rules queries by e-mail. Wikipedia has dozens of game entries with rules summaries and occasional clarifications to common issues.

That's not to say we won't see regional variations, anymore. Another game I grew up playing is Pinochle. The part of my family that plays this game lives in rural Montana. Rural enough that, until three years ago there was no cellular service. There's still no reliable high-speed internet. And small-town Montana is not alone in this. But it means that this is an area where rules disputes have to go to whatever rulebook is on hand or whoever the local expert is.

I learned Pinochle from my grandparents. When I first went to play online, I was confused. Why was a ten chopped from the scores? How did I get more than two of a kind? Where is the nine? And - most of all - why couldn't I pass cards to my partner when we won the bid? I've since learned that the "standard" Pinochle game these days is double-deck, which doesn't use the nine, and the card-passing thing? I've only ever found one reference to it anywhere. But my grandparents used to play as part of the local Pinochle Club, which pulled fifty or so couples, all of whom used the same set of rules.

I have to wonder - is the gradual loss of regional variants a good thing? Or do we lose some of the richness and possible depth that many of these games contain?

I'm A Contest!

This year will be my seventh GenCon. A lot has changed over the years, mostly for the good.

For my first GenCon, I taught Dungeon Twister. There were other games in the booth (Jungle Speed, for example), but I didn't teach them.  The team was just Stephan, Christophe, Christophe, and myself.

For my second GenCon, I taught Dungeon Twister and Mall of Horror. And a couple of others. It was Christophe, Christophe, Alex, and myself.

For my third GenCon, we had a lot of games. And a much larger booth. And the team was Christophe, Steve, Stephanie, Katie, Alex, Mathieu, and myself. This was the year I spent teaching Hell Dorado. The expected big game was Mission: Red Planet, but it failed to arrive before the convention.

For my fourth GenCon, we had a comparably-sized team and we spent the time teaching Ca$h 'n Gun$ and Senji. We had a comparably-sized team (and most of the same people) as the previous GenCon, but there was one important addition this year: T-shirts. They were airbrushed front-and-back and looked like they'd been hit by a graffiti artist. They were ... okay.

For my fifth GenCon, the focus games were Ghost Stories and Formula D. And we had new T-shirts - maroon shirts that simply said "Asmodee" on the front.

For my sixth GenCon, the focus was on Claustrophobia. The shirts this year were the same as the previous year, but in red instead of maroon.

This year, Asmodee has decided that they want something on the back of their shirts. Rather than just picking something, they have decided that it's contest time. And they decided to tease me a bit in the process. You can win a game and a shirt, simply by entering their contest. Enter quickly, though - there's not much time for this one.

Dungeon Twister: Rookie Mistakes to Avoid

I do a lot of Dungeon Twister demos locally. Sometimes, it's formal - I'll make arrangements with a local game store, and I'll show up with my game, and teach people to play for four or five hours. Sometimes this is in conjunction with a tournament. Other times, I'll be going to a game store to shop or hang out, and someone will point me out as "that Dungeon Twister Guy." Or someone will ask me if I know of a good game.

Either way, I've seen a lot of rookie mistakes in the five and more years I've been playing and teaching this game. Here are the ones I see the most, and a few tips on how to avoid them.  Most of these tips are tailored for the original Base Set, but some of them cover Prison, as well.

There are exceptions to every single one of these guidelines. There are (as ever) extremely good players (including at least one World Champion) who vehemently disagree with my analysis on one or more of these points. Take what I say here with a grain or two of salt.

Trolls on the Starting Line
I like having diversity on my starting line, so I can react to what my opponent has placed in my front two rooms. That means I want at least one Hitter and at least one Runner. I also want to be able to conserve my AP - especially early in the game, where my card choice is restricted.

If you put a Troll on the starting line, he's too slow to reach the fight. You're better off using the Warrior as your starting line Hitter. He's just fast enough to be able to get in the way for 1-2 AP most of the time.

Clerics in the Maze
I nearly always put my Cleric on my starting line. If I put him in the maze, I'll put him in one of my front two rooms. The reasoning for this is simple: If I lose my Cleric, I lose the ability to heal. If my opponent reveals the Cleric, they'll probably be able to thump him before I can move him to safety. So I always want my Cleric in a room where I get to reveal him.

Spending Your Last Action To Reveal A Room
Christophe Boelinger used to beat me because I'd spend an action to reveal a room only to be unable to respond to what I found in that room - even if I placed it well, I wouldn't be able to take advantage of that placement. The primary exception to this is if your opponent is in a position to reveal that same room - it's nearly always better to reveal rooms yourself so that you have some control over its contents.

Forgetting That the Wizard Can Fly
This is an issue both on offense and on defense.  I can't block your Wizard just by standing in front of him. Similarly, I need to remember that my Wizard can fly past you, too. Someone who forgets this on offense will probably forget it on defense, too.

Attacking a Troll

If you attack my Troll, then I get to spend one Action next turn to stand him back up. If you win. Even if you gang up on him, as soon as you wound him on your turn, he's safe until the next turn, which is mine. I don't throw a combat card greater than +0 when my Troll is defending. This will use up your combat cards and we'll both waste one action - you to attack, me to regenerate. It's no gain to you, long-term.

Starting Fights You Aren't Willing to Win

A shorter way to say this is "Don't bluff with combat." If it will take the +6 to win a combat, don't initiate that combat unless you are going to play your +5 or +6. If I attack your Cleric, it's not because I'm trying to burn your combat cards (unless I'm starting a fight I know I can't win). It's because I want to wound your Cleric. And then kill him next turn.

Leaving Enemy Wounded On The Board
Just kill them. Really.  Their Strength is a zero, so you should be able to kill them fairly easily. And it's a victory point that you need to win the game.  If you leave enemy wounded lying around, you give your opponent a chance to get a Cleric there to heal them.  Or someone else there to carry the wounded character off the board, costing you your chance to kill them (and gain that point).

Rotating Rooms to Set Up Future Turns
It's silly to try to set up future turns by rotating rooms. Especially if your opponent has any character on a Rotation Gear that controls it - this goes double if it's the Mechanork. You should only rotate rooms for two reasons. Either you need the room turned so you can take advantage of the rotation right now or turning the room will make things more difficult for your opponent. Any other reason for turning the room is a waste of AP.

Relying on Items
This is an easy trap to fall into. That Fireball Wand ... it's a Victory Point! So is that Treasure. But you can't guarantee that you'll be able to get your hands on either of them. You can tip the odds in your favor, but you never know what's in a room until you reveal it. You will never be sure you can get your hands on them, so basing your strategy on them is doubly silly. If my strategy is Victory through Fireball Wand and Treasure and I never get my hands on ether one of them ... well ... my odds are looking pretty bad.

Giving the Treasure to the Goblin
It's predictable at this point. Rookies always seem to try to get the Treasure to their Goblin for a quick three.points. It's really good - if you can do it. But if I have a choice between running the Goblin out this turn or grabbing the treasure and running out next turn, well ... I'm going to look long and hard at where my opponent is on the board. Can he kill my Goblin with 5 Actions? Can he turn a room, blocking my escape? How many extra actions will it take me to grab the treasure and get out? Would those actions be better spent putting a Hit on one of my opponent's characters?

Escaping Before It's Time
My Thief isn't just a victory point waiting to escape. She's a toolbox that is used for helping other characters escape.  Even though she's fast enough to get out in two or fewer turns (most of the time), I very rarely escape her until she is my 4th or 5th Victory Point.

The thing to remember with escaping is that every character who escapes is one fewer option I have on the board. I'll run my Goblin off as soon as I can. His Strength of 1 isn't significant in Group Combat - not enough to be worth the extra AP to get him to the scene, at any rate. The Wall-Walker is similar to me - she has other uses, but her best use most of the time is getting off of the map. The rest of them usually stick around long enough to be useful. Warriors and Trolls pick fights. The Thief clears the path for the Wall-Walker and Goblin. The Wizard - once he's used his Fireball Wand - should run for the border, too.

Now these aren't - by any means - all of the rookie mistakes people make.  But they're the most common. And (as I said at the beginning), all of them have exceptions. Avoiding these mistakes will improve your play almost immediately, however, and will make you a more competitive player.

Time To Play: A Matter of Priorities

I'm often asked where I find the time to play these games. And think about games. And write about them. The answer is simple: I made the time.

Think about your day. How much time do you spend in the evenings watching television or surfing the internet? How late do you sleep in on weekends?

In 2001, I was watching too much television. I wasn't even filtering for good TV - I just flipped channels until I saw something that caught my interest. I even watched Rollerball one evening.  My human interaction outside of work was nearly zero - I had friends, I just never saw them. I read maybe a book every month or two (which is very unlike me).

The day I realized this, I re-arranged my priorities. I pushed human interaction to the top of the list. I cancelled my cable, and started working harder to see people.

That first week, I read twelve books.

In September of 2002, I started hosting Game Night - gaming has always been my preferred mode of social interaction. I have never looked back.

About six years ago, I got cable again. I should say "we," as it wasn't just me at that point.  I was really afraid of it, but it worked out okay. For the first few months, I watched very little TV. But I eventually realized - yes, I enjoy watching television, but given the choice between TV and Game Night, it's a no-brainer. I'll go to Game Night every time.

I had readjusted my priorities, and - apparently - that readjustment stuck.

I watch TV, now, but I do so on my own schedule (thanks to a DVR). It fits where I want it to fit, and doesn't usually get in the way of anything else like it used to.

We've played some duds on Wednesdays, it's true - but I don't mind the duds so much, because time spent playing games with friends is always better than time spent watching television. In fact, most things are.