A Stranger in a Strange Land - Origins 09

Ok this is old news by now. So sue me- I'm lazy.

First of all Tom Hancock Sucks for not playing some cool games with us. That being said he seemed like an ok guy. (though obviously a poor priority for fun  or perhaps he is a really excellent judge of character.)

 This was my 1st Origins. It was both bigger and and smaller than I expected. Bigger in that it was spread out along the length of the convention center which was a block long and each of the rooms was the size of small warehouse. Smaller in that most times it wasn't that crowded. You could negotiate the place fairly easily and at off times some of the rooms looked almost barren (I'm looking at you miniatures room.)

 I went up with a group of people who go every year for the past decade so it was all old hat to them. we stayed off site on the cheap. The sprawling convention center made it problematic hooking up with them and so after the 1st hour there I stopped even trying. I have the attention span of a hummingbird so I was distracted every two seconds anyway.  After an hour or two I got my bearings and it reminding me of an a moderlately large airport more than enything else. There was the same decor, same metal benches and kiosks, and the same signs (concourse D and baggage claim up ahead.)

So the 1st half a day I spent hitting the dealer room. I was anxious to scope deals on minis. The stuff I want no one is interested in so it was pretty easy to get some specific heroclix, old mage knight stuff and some terrain dirt cheap. After that I toured the other rooms and and hit the board game room. My Friend Janna Nelson had wandered in just about the same time so we registered and got our free Rio Grande games. 3 Commandments for me and Ysphathan for her.  I like her game slightly better and she already had both so we swapped. Thanks Janna!

 Before I go further let me mention that Rio Grande games Went WAY ABOVE AND BEYOND in sponsoring stuff. They offered free games (one upon registering, and raffling off hundreds more, the last day was stack of 10 games. Also they proivided free drinks.)  More than the freebie stuff though was the strong presence in the Dealer room when most larger companies have kinda written off Origins. Its too bad that I'm not into their games more- not enough giant robots with guns but otherwise I can't express how their presence really bolstered the board gaming community.

I played a few games with Janna (aka lawmamma) and shortly after tried out the new Arctic Scavengers. I mentioned before that I thought it was a solid dominion variant, but way underveloped. I like waht they they did but it needed more variety to make a really interesting game. Screw self restraint - they needed to dive in theme first and come out kicking in screaming. instead its a valiant but restrained stab at remaking dominion. I'm not knocking the designer though- just get started on an expansion ASAP.

 I don't record what I game- I'm more of an "in the moment" guy. Needless to say we played some good games but nothing new (well unless you count tales of Arabian nights new. its definately an improvement on the old one and worth getting if you liked the previous incarnation.)

 Day 2:

After checking out the auction room (stuff that didn't get bid on in auction) I decided to go hard core minis. The minis players are not overly engaging but I was determined to play something fun. 1st i jumped into a big WH seige. It was scheduled later in the day but I talked the guy running it to do a mini battle. It was tons of fun, though the actions never seems fast and furious enough. It also showed me how much I had forgotten. Like anything else with that level of detail there is a ton of minutiae that you can get into. 

Buzzing from the bloodlust that my Battleragers of Khorn evoked, I jumped into the biggest dungeon crawl I'd ever seen. The table was 10' completely crafted from the Hirst art molds and filled with lavish detail. The guys playing it were more outgoing and it had two GMs to run parts of the game seperately. None the less it took most of the rest of the day to run. the highpoint of the game was raiding the central treasure chamber and being beset upon by a gaint Dracolich. Thre was a lot of laughing while it gobbled down players characters while other went on a looting frenzy.

There was also a cool giant hot air balloon  game that I was dying to try but couldn't seem to find anyone who knew what was going on. The hot air ballons were 3' each and had cameras attached to them. they changed postions and altitude seeminly at random. They were too bizare not to try out. Aw well maybe next year.

 I finished up the night playing board games. I helped demo Richard Launius' latest offering. We've touted the game before as Game Z. I demoed it again this time with Tom Vassal and Eric Summers from the dice tower. I had never seen Vassal before and was expecting the protypical eurogamer- quiet, thoughtful, and ...boring. Despite all the trash talking Tom has endured around here, take my word that he was definately not boring. This guy is Fun. I know fun- probably the only thing I'm realy qualified to evaluate- and this guy is fun. Next time we meet I'm going to get him drunk and we're going to get tatoos and go whoring. We had a blast playing Game Z and both he and Summers came away from game Z wanting more. I even saw Summers drift over to another game of it later.

 Day 3

By now even the gallon of coffee I put down wasn't keeping up with my lack of sleep. I started off playing a battery of light games with Chris Tandimeier (a strange Aeon) his brother Matt and freind Ray.Talisman, Dungeonquest and some Thunder Road snapped me out of it. It was amazing how many people came by to see Thunder Road. Its friggin great game and NOBODY knows about it. Chris and both got into boardgaming after 30 years of RPGs and apparently have the exact same collection. Either that or he's just borrowing mine when I'm not looking. Later in the day I tracked down Chris (Lower??  A King in Yellow) and played  Last night on Earth. sometimes that game falls flat but this time it was exciting with some huge  sways of fortune and a slim margin of defeat. He played the game well as did his friends Regina and (Big humorous black guy??) After that I bugged out for a while to get some fresh air and wander Comfest.  Community Art Fest was a block away and had some really great bands. It was half hippie half college kid and half gawkers like me. Every other booth was some liberal organization or head shop.  I enjoyed looking around but all the idealism started to make my head swim. I coffeed up and headed back for more gaming. I hooked up with Janna for a few unremarkble light Euros. Out of the bucnh I liked "whitches brew" the best.  Chris was hating it and part of my enjoyement was watching him suffer through. The high point of the evening was another game of "Game Z" with two guys from  a up and coming company.The game is always tense but this one was particuliarly fun becuase I was giddy on two more ventis from Starbucks. They were was interested in looking at it further and we talked about the game dynamics for quite a while. It was interesting to hear the back side of the gaming industry as well as the trials and tribulations of the owners.

 Sunday morning I was ready for more shopping but everyone else wanted to go so all my wheeling and dealing for sunday clearance was for nought. on the upside I came home +$100 I had intended to spend. I had a great time and i'm definately going back. Hope to see ya there F:atties.

 Steve"You'd_be_amazed_at_what_you_can_Break_with_a_hammer"Avery