Trashfest: Tales of the Tape

Highlights:
Game Days attendance went up by about 50 people this year.
70 different people submitted Trash score sheets.
20 Hardcore Ameritrash gamers played 3 or more Ameritrash games.
66 Trash sheets were submitted but I had to throw out 6 sheets including 1 Blokus and 5 Race for Galaxy games (Sorry nice theme but...)

Winner of Trashfest 2008: IganiDitty by winning Caveman, Prophesy, Fury of Dracula (as Dracula)and Ti3 (as the Ember)and for playing Arkham Horror and American Megafauna.

Other F:AT members in the top 20:
Ubarose – won Warrior Knights by spending all her votes on the Admiral and beat Strange Aeon in Talisman.
Daveroswell – Beat me in StarCraft by 1 point and for being in the Arkham Horror game from Hell
Strange Ieon – For bringing and playing the best collection Ameritrash games ever
Zev – Wins in Last night on Earth and Nexus Ops by using the fire from above card on the last turn but at least I beat him in a 2 on 2 Battleball game.
KingPut – I got my ass kicked all weekend: Lost in Battlelore, Lost to Uba in 300 boardgame, lost to Uba in Warrior Knights, Lost as the Zombies, Lost StarCraft to Daveroswell, Lost in Ti3 to Iganiditty, Lost in Nexus Ops, Lost in Gangsters. My only wins: Maneuver, Arkham Horror and Battleball.

Some of the games played:
5 Battlelore
3 Warrior Knight
3 Prophesy
3 Last Night on Earth
2 Fury of Dracula
4 Arkham Horror (1 Aborted game)
1 Galaxy Storm (prototype game)
1 Roborally
2 StarCraft
3 Twilight Imperium
1 Stockcar Racing
1 Descent demo
1 Gangsters
2 Wings of War
3 Nexus Ops
1 Dungeon Quest
2 American Megafauna
1 Monsters menace America
1 Space Hulk
1 7 Ages
1 Doom
1 Caveman
2 Survive
3 Battleball
1 Order of the Stick
3 Maneuver
1 300 the Boardgame
1 Mall of Horror
1 Tale of the Arbian Nights (added)
2 House on the Hill (added)
Many, Many games of Rock em Sock em Robots

Highlight: Saturday about 10:00 PM after my public execution in Ti3. I looked all around the big noisy conference room and I saw 3 massive games of Ti3, 7 Ages, American Megafauna, Talisman or Space Hulk and Battleball going on at the same time. I went up to Malloc with his shiny new minis to borrow is bottle opener and crack up a beer and said "Isn’t this great, this is the Trashiest GameDays ever."

Lowlight: The Fun Murderers and cranky gamers(they're worse than Zombies they just keep coming). We had 1 Fun Murderer at Arkham Horror (cell phone guy) and cranky gamers at each of the following games: Warrior Knight (this game is so random guy), Prophesy (this game is so long guy) and Ti3 (I want to play Werewolf kid).

Changes for Euroquest and future GameDays: The Mid-Atlantic Ameritrash Sleeper cell will go underground again. The Fun Murderers and cranky gamers are everywhere at these cons they even followed Uba into the bathroom. We'll be there with our plastic, theme and dice but we just won't let them know.

I edited this from my original post. Fun Murderers should only be used for a person that ruins a game (we had 1 guy at Arkham Horror). We also had a number cranky gamers which I originally mis-labeled as Fun Murderers. These people brought the game fun down but didn't ruin the game.

I should like, try to come to this even though it's a million miles away. It sounds awesome. Maybe you could do specific F:AT games to ensure no dicks are playing?

I don't know Pete, I wouldn't want to get labeled as elitist. I say we just make a rule that if a fun murderer shows up everyone must for a pact and gang up on them so mercilessly that they quit gaming forever.

thanks for running the event, it was great and I know it was a ton of work. My sorry attendance was bordering on lame and I will try and carve out more time for this next year.

The Gold/Silver and Glow in the Dark Ti3 units will get some serious play time at the WBC!

-M

KingPut wrote:

Lowlight: The Fun Murderers (they're worse than Zombies they just keep coming). We had at least 1 Fun Murderer for each of the following games: Fury of Dracula (there's not enough fighting guy)

Wanting more fighting in a game is fun murdering? Tough crowd!

Trash Fest was probably one of the best con experiences outside of WBC I've had.

1) No werewolf. Thank God I've decided to quit that gaming; it actually takes most of the negative out of the con experience.

2) I actually get why people game with the same groups over time: because there is reduced risk of being in "funsucking" games. I'm happy to have found a new group of gamers I can safely and "fubly" (new word) play with.

3) I have a fear of "role-playing" type games; the Gangsters demo did help to allieviate some of my fear of this game. I still don't know if I'd play at WBC; I wanna play aa strategic game, not role play (at least not much) at WBC. But the game itself was more fun than I thought it would be: a lot of placement decisions.

I do have to say I don't care much for Fury of Dracula; I'm getting New York Chase in a trade, and hopefully I can get a game of that in soon. I didn't care about the lack of fighting, or even the gamelength EXCEPT for the fact that that these two factors combined diluted the tension and excitement of the game for me.

I'm happy to have found a new group of gamers I can safely and "fubly" (new word) play with.

Listen, you get "fubly" with whoever you feel like you need to and however suits you...don't let me stop you.

Folks, one of the main reasons I don't go to cons is because they are veritable hotbeds of fun murder. Fun at these things is like an altar boy at a NAMBLA meeting. The Fun Murderers lie in wait at every table, just waiting to jump out and rend your fun right there before your very eyes.

Gaming with strangers can be OK, but it has to be under very strict conditions that the convention environment is not conducive to, particularly if you're playing group games like WEREWOLF (Duck Duck Goose for nerds) or you let that mustachioed weirdo dressed in a 1988 style that comes wandering over muttering "Mind if I join you?" do so.

Sounds like you guys had a pretty good time though...

Shit. I meant "funly". (lol)

Michael, you hit the nail on the head about the negatives of cons. In the past, I have ruined my cons by playing Werewolf with nimrods I didn't know, willingly putting myself at the mercy of their bullshit and then getting upset. Completely my own fault, and thank God I have seen the error of my ways. After a few cons, I go mostly to play with people I know but rarely see. Meeting a new group (such as Peter and Uba) was a big bonus at this con.

Why do I compete at WBC? Yeah, there are jackasses there, but I tend to win against them, which I guess is half the fun. And I do a lot of open gaming.

I understand gaming at cons with new people can be a crapshoot, but for me the friends I have met at cons and can now play FUNLY with have been worth it.

Sounds like a brilliant weekend and the games played list is astouding ... I am already buying lottery tickets to prepare for Trashie 2009.

Well done to all those who supported it (physically and in spirit) and all those who had the privilege and pleasure of attending ...... BASTARDS !

Holy crap what an awesome weekend. Thanks, KingPut, for all your work. I was lucky enough to avoid all the fun murderers all weekend...although I must say that American Megafauna went on about 8 zillion times longer than it really needed to...but I had fun anyway.

> Prophesy (this game is so long guy)

I wonder if this was the same as "The 4-leaf clover sucks!" guy. At that point I should have just stopped the demo and told him he should leave as he was sure not to enjoy it anyway. Everyone knows it's the best card in the deck.

> the games played list is astouding

And it's even missing Liebe und Intrigue and Arabian Nights!
I laughed the hardest playing DungeonQuest, but I think my favorite game all weekend was Arabian Nights - I'm really looking forward to Zev's reprint, the changes he described were awesome.
I had a great time, met some great people (even people I didn't know!), got to hang out with uba which is always a time, and look forward to seeing everyone at WBC's open gaming, even if only for a day. And I got an awesome 50's robot that shoots sparks. What could be better than that?

God bless you one and all.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Folks, one of the main reasons I don't go to cons is because they are veritable hotbeds of fun murder. Fun at these things is like an altar boy at a NAMBLA meeting. The Fun Murderers lie in wait at every table, just waiting to jump out and rend your fun right there before your very eyes.

Sounds like you guys had a pretty good time though...

Monday, when I wrote the tale of tape I was still cranky from 3 1/2 days of lack of sleep, exercise, family, sunlight etc. I felt like I had just spent 4 day in Vegas drinking, gambling and watching strippers. Well, maybe not the strippers this was still a gaming con. I don't know how the Gathering of Friends people can keep it up for a whole week.

Actually, all in all there was probably only a couple Fun Murderers that slipped in. And I had a great time between doing shots of bourbon ever time we took a hit in Prophesy to the yelling match I had with the Mindnet about moving his ships out of my space in Ti3.

For me going to con is by definition Ameritrash in everyway. There's randomness and theme in every corner. It's like playing Prophesy or Talisman every game table you sit at might be a monster or treasure. That treasure might be discovering a great new or old game or great gamer that lives only 10 miles away. And the monsters might be a fun murderer but I'm sure you'd be able to spin a great story about the experience.

I had an absolute blast as well! It was great meeting and talking with people whose stuff I've been reading since the blog days! My list of played games left me sleeping well Sunday night--

Caveman
Valley of the Mammoths
Arkham Horror
Last Night on Earth
Talisman w/ Dungeon, Timescape, Adventure, and Expansion
Dungeonquest
Minion Hunter
Wits and Wagers--my team (Twitch and the Slimy Toads) won!
Mystic Wood
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel
Survive!
Space Hulk
Roborally

and then a few random euros with my friend Brad.

I'm so glad I went--maybe next year I'll actually fill out all my slips for the games I played. I'm definitely looking forward to playing with you all at WBC now!

My brother took a crap ton of pictures--I'll try to find the best ones and link to them.

Back to what Mr. Barnes was commenting on: is there any way to have a Fortress Americon? A "closed con" with known "non fun murderers." I don't know if the attendance numbers would be high enough, but it's a thought.

Aww Crap. I hate that I missed it. On the up side, two weeks and counting till summer break and Game-o-topia. I've already been baiting the usual suspect here in ATL to bring out that viscious streak in them I know and love.

So two quick questions: Anyone making it down to Atlanta (or vicinity) this summer and who is going to the WBC? I may try to get up there this time.

Steve"Party_like_a_Rock_Star"Avery

For WBC the ones I know of now: Ubarose and her man, Strange aeon and brother?, IganaDitty, Malloc, (me)KingPut and Daveroswell