Gen Con 2014

((Partially cross-posted from the 'games purchased' thread))

Had another fun and crazy-busy time at Gencon. Bunch of time spent at the Stronghold booth demo'ing Dice Duel and Die Fighter, which is always gratifying. All Space Cadets stuff sold out, along with Panamax, Beyond the Stars, and Diamonds.

Plus my 50th birthday was Saturday, and the family surprised me with cupcakes and blowers at the booth, so that was fun. Folks getting demos seemed to enjoy my rules explanations much more while enjoying a cupcake.

Had a nice conversation with Jordan Weisman, designer of Golem Arcana. Did not realize he also designed Battletech and founded FASA and Wizkids. Very interesting guy, and look forward to having him on as a Ludology guest.

They're trying to do a lot of different and interesting things with Golem, which uses infrared ink dots on the board and pieces to identify what they are and tie into the iOS/Android app. Not all of the new ideas will be successful, but I'm happy to see people pushing boundaries.

Did a True Dungeon run, after a 3 year hiatus. It was fun, and they put an amazing amount of effort into props and everything. But it's not worth the $50. And the way people get obsessed with the loot is crazy. To me, the fun is seeing the sets and the situations, and whether I play on 'easy' with my crappy gear or 'nightmare' with my godlike gear, the situation is the same. Just the difficulty of the critters ramps up, but it's the same experience.

And speaking of experiences, for a charity event on Thursday evening we ran a completely insane 22-person Dice Duel game. We split the players up onto two boards, and only the fighters were allowed to jump between them using worm holes. It had major fiasco potential, but actually worked out in the end. Nuts!

Speaking of Fiasco potential, I did a musical segment at Dice Tower Live with my kids that could have (and perhaps did) result in extreme humiliation, but I think in the end went well.

Decided before going to Gencon that my priority was going to be meeting folks and not trolling through the exhibit hall. So I didn't get to try a bunch of the new hotness.

But I did pick up stuff, most of it on reputation:

Battle at Kemble's Cascade: Really neat artwork, and mechanics seem interesting.
Heroes Wanted
Impulse
Red
Imperial Settlers
A Machine of Death
Quartermaster General: This may end up being a clunker, but I'm working on a simple strategic WW2 game, and am interested in how this flows.
Star Realms

I also won a copy of Castle Dice at the Nerd Nighters charity event, which was a nice surprise.

Will probably pick up Sons of Anarchy at some point, but ran out of luggage space and figured I could get this one pretty easily soon.

Got a quick demo of Spirit Island, from Greater Than Games. Coop game, where you play a native spirit protecting the land against 'invaders', which can be generic, or British or French colonists depending on scenario, and need to protect the land from blight. Theme is very cool, and I will follow this one closely.

My kids were both totally obsessed with Tragedy Looper after getting a demo, but the copies were long sold out by then. They're not sure if it will hold up, but they kept thinking and talking about it.

Geoff, that musical number was hilarious (in both a good and bad way). Sydney was pretty spectacular too.

charlest wrote:

SuperflyTNT wrote:

black inferno wrote:

charlest wrote: Quick thoughts on Gen Con:Battle At Kemble's Cascade was very cool. Played two turns before having to duck out. I think I'll need to play this a few times to solidify my opinion though as it's very unique and different. I also talked briefly with Zev and he was very friendly.

I'm curious about this one. I'd been planning on picking it up, but then I didn't see any write-ups about it in the wake of Gen Con, and its BGG page has slowed down to crickets. That's troubling for a game that already sounded kind of mechanically awkward to begin with.

I was very much on the fence with this one....it's like R-Type on a board. Very odd choice, but I was over at Z-Man a lot and people were having a blast with it. Lots of hooting and hollering. I watched 20 minutes of the game and it seemed really legit. Not my kind of game, but I can totally see some people having an awesome time with it. It did look like a lot of little bits moving around, but not too terribly many. I don't think it's as "fiddly" as people might be inclined to believe.

I didn't buy it or photograph it. By the time I got around to it, I was already at -$100 from budget and my phone battery AND ITS BACKUP were long dead.

Yes, it looks fiddly but it's not that bad. Some people won't like it also because it doesn't use dice, you simply make attacks and kill things which can lack tension. Energy management is important and damage is applied to your energy - if you run out I think you die and restart.

There is some PVP, but it doesn't do much unless the person actually dies, then you score. It's a neat game and I'm hoping to hear more as review copies start getting mailed out (I think I'm too far down the list to get one).

Glad to hear that this one seems like the Real Deal. The "scrolling" aspect of the gameplay sounded potentially clunky when I first read about it, but hey - y'all have just reaffirmed its place on the purchase list. I love what they're trying to do with this thing, both thematically and mechanically.

GW had a booth. It didn't do much to distinguish itself, really.

I'll second the remarks about Pathfinder. From my perspective, it was FAR bigger than D&D at the con. Not even close, really.

wadenels wrote:

Gary Sax wrote: I am still intrigued by the Witcher adventure game. Was it playable?

This is all I've seen of it. Just a demo with no actual game play. Looks odd. I'd like to hear more about it too.

I played a session of it. I don't know the videogames at all but I'm a big fan of Ignacy, so I signed up.

It's not good. It's pretty long: you play until someone completes 3 quests, and our two hour session we saw everyone complete 1 and 1 person get the second (some were close on the second). The quests are pretty similar so you're just doing the same sort of thing over and over. We played with 4 and downtime was a problem. Other players' actions don't affect you except that they will draw "foul fate" cards that can fuck over everyone. There's just not much of anything going on.

Many actions will give you those foul fate cards, which are just a pain in the balls. So it's essentially just "I move here and see what shitty thing happens."

It was a two hour session and after the first hour I was ready to bail, but I stuck it out. As I say, I don't know anything about the videogames it's based on but a couple of the other players did. No one playing seemed overly wowed by it.

Everything had "BETA" stamped on it so maybe a bunch of stuff will change. (Like, in the final game, maybe you won't be attacked, as I was, by a "Rouge".) If it doesn't, this is a forgettable yawner.

My first GenCon. It was somehow simultaneously over- and under-whelming. Probably won't do it again.

I'm writing up a report now and will link when it's done.

It was cool meeting Pete and Dave Roswell at Steak And. Thanks for the burger, Pete!

wait, you ATE a free burger offered to you by PETE?
you're a brave man Dave

Is his wallet a spare dice cup from Stone Age. Please tell me that it is!

(seriously, I am sure hanging out with those two was awesome).

Legomancer wrote:

wadenels wrote:

Gary Sax wrote: I am still intrigued by the Witcher adventure game. Was it playable?

This is all I've seen of it. Just a demo with no actual game play. Looks odd. I'd like to hear more about it too.

I played a session of it. I don't know the videogames at all but I'm a big fan of Ignacy, so I signed up.

It's not good. It's pretty long: you play until someone completes 3 quests, and our two hour session we saw everyone complete 1 and 1 person get the second (some were close on the second). The quests are pretty similar so you're just doing the same sort of thing over and over. We played with 4 and downtime was a problem. Other players' actions don't affect you except that they will draw "foul fate" cards that can fuck over everyone. There's just not much of anything going on.

Many actions will give you those foul fate cards, which are just a pain in the balls. So it's essentially just "I move here and see what shitty thing happens."

It was a two hour session and after the first hour I was ready to bail, but I stuck it out. As I say, I don't know anything about the videogames it's based on but a couple of the other players did. No one playing seemed overly wowed by it.

Everything had "BETA" stamped on it so maybe a bunch of stuff will change. (Like, in the final game, maybe you won't be attacked, as I was, by a "Rouge".) If it doesn't, this is a forgettable yawner.

Thanks!

So going into this GenCon the games I were most excited about related to the FlightPath system. My favorite system and games I've played scores of times. I eagerly awaited news about XWing, ST:AW and D&D:AW.

Thursday morning I watched the interview with Scott from Wizkids as he was interviewed and previewed D&D:AW. My excitement for the game couldn't have been bigger, I was ready to run out to my shop and offer my services to run their OP events like I've been doing for Star Trek.

By the time the weekend was over, I did a complete 180 as I watched the news coming from both FFG and Wizkids.

FFG announced a new faction. A set that allowed you to use existing models in the new faction. Interviews with the designers that show their obvious love for the setting and game, their excitement to be doing what they're doing and addressing topics that are important to me like minimizing power creep, keeping tabs on trends and making sure exploits or power-builds don't evolve.

Then there is Wizkids with no new announcements on ST:AW, just a case full of up coming ships - Which included a DS9 model for retail release (which I already have from The Dominion War) but included new rule cards, a movement template and movement dial. I wait with not so optimistic breath to see if those will be available separately. Then I was reading reports about a pack of cloaked ships with promotional crew cards being pretty much sold out before the doors opened to the general public. Meaning the VIG's and other exhibitors were able to buy up virtually all the promos, including these ships, only to have the rest sell out within 15 mins or so of the doors opening. And that included my local shop owner that was going to work another retail booth, he was kicked out of line three days in a row because he had a vendor badge.

So at the end of the day I know both FFG and Wizkids wants my money but at least with FFG I won't feel like I'm getting jerked around. I'll still play and follow ST:AW but as far as D&D:AW goes, I'm out.

Yeah, FFG is far more forward and less sleazy than Wizkids.

Now this may just be overreaction and chatter from people, but it sounds like this weekend was the last straw so to speak for some. Following up on The Borg changing the game the way they did, Wizkids lack of communication once Andrew Parks left to focus on D&D:AW, the aggressive release schedule, I've been hearing of a handful of people dropping the game. I just traded for a big lot from a guy at my local store and another was planning on giving away most of his stuff to another dude. And though I haven't been keeping close tabs I've seen a few big lots for the game pop up on eBay in the past few days.

And deep down I guess there is part of me that hopes when FFG's license to them of the Flight Path system ends they don't renew it.

I wasn't able to go this year, but it sounds like it is getting way overcrowded. The official attendance numbers are out, and it was 56,614 people, up 14% from last year. I'm wondering if there is a point where they have to cap attendance?

The NRA had a big event at the same convention center earlier this year, with approximately 70,000 in attendance. That might be the upper limit for a convention in Indianapolis, in terms of available hotel capacity in the area. The Indy 500 has even higher attendance, but that's a one-day event and also not at the convention center.

So what's the deal with companies not having product at this show? It makes the industry look unprofessional when they can't get more than ~100 copies of games they've been hyping.

Shellhead wrote: The NRA had a big event at the same convention center earlier this year, with approximately 70,000 in attendance. That might be the upper limit for a convention in Indianapolis, in terms of available hotel capacity in the area. The Indy 500 has even higher attendance, but that's a one-day event and also not at the convention center.

"In the Area" being the operative phrase. There's lots of hotel room but not all of it is connected to the ICC, obviously. There was a big thread about this on the GenCon forums. The results were that Indy is the best place if you want the con "tight" with hotel space and still leverage the midwest people density.

GenCon has had a shuttle bus program the last couple of years. I think they had one in Milwaukee as well for a few years? It looks like they are thinking ahead and trying to work out the growth kinks before they hit hard.