Origins, Day 4: Sunday

On this last day of the convention, I took Henry down for his traditional Sunday visit. He definitely got more out of it this year than last -- instead of 90 minutes, we were together there for over four hours, including a lunch at (yet again) North Market.

Thanks to a tip from Kristin, I steered him to the table of a small company called GameBrotherz, which makes games for small children and operates out of Quebec. (The accents of the people at the booth were all that you could have hoped for, as were their side comments to each other en francais.) We tried two of their games, "Boo" and "Spuzzle"; Henry liked both of them, but neither one really got me fired up, since both are as completely luck-based as Candyland. (They are also not listed on boardgamegeek.com.) Henry is agitating for me to order "Boo" for him (the company brought no stock to the convention, and fulfills orders only online, which I believe is a fatally flawed model since it eliminates buys in the heat of the moment), but I'm going to drag my feet until he forgets. Here he is playing the game with la femme quebecois:

 

After lunch, we attended the final raffle drawing from the Dice Tower podcast. I'm thrilled to have won the Civilization board game, but I'm not sure what I will do with it, since four-hour games really aren't my thing. Then we closed out the day by meeting up with Kristin for a game of Forbidden Island, which is one of Henry's favorites to play with grownups. Appropriately for our last activity at the convention, we won a narrow, last-minute victory.

Thanks to the schedule change, there are just eleven months until next year's Origins . . . but if we could avoid losing Looney Labs, Tom Vasel and Comfest, I would gladly wait the extra month. I hope this year's Origins is not looked back on as The Last Good One.

Origins, Day 3: Saturday

Today, for the first time in many years, I was able to enjoy Origins surrounded by friends -- Bill and Bruce both decided to take in the show via the reasonably priced day pass, and Bruce brought his daughter Catherine as well. We couldn't resist the offer of a demo of WizKids' new game Star Trek: Expeditions, a co-op game in which the players act as characters from J.J. Abrams' recent film (I was Bones) and work together to fulfill missions on a planet that may or may not join the Federation. (Yes, Kirk is called upon to seduce people.) Repeated shameless name-dropping: Tom Vasel stopped briefly at our table to ask what we thought about it.

The trade room and North Market took up the middle of our day. Bruce and Catherine had to leave for the afternoon, so Bill and I learned to play Agricola from my friend Kristin, then tried a couple of Looney Labs demos.

Side note: I'm not the hugest fan of Looney Labs games who ever lived, but I will sorely miss the spirit they brought to Origins when they stop participating next year due to the schedule change.

Games played: Star Trek: Expeditions, Agricola, Pirate Fluxx, Seven Dragons
Games won: Star Trek: Expeditions

Origins, Day 2: Friday

Today was a shortened day, with a quick game of Pandemic in the morning, barbecue chicken for lunch at North Market, and the beginning of a demo of Mayfair's upcoming Discworld game Ankh-Morpork. I'm a huge fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and with poor Sir Terry's deteriorating health, I will take new Discworld material where I can get it. The game seems promising, but I had to leave during the first round, so I have no informed opinion yet.

Games Played: Pandemic, Ankh-Morpork (kind of)
Games Won: Pandemic, thanks to near-optimal roles for all players -- chosen at random, yet! Dispatcher plus Medic plus Scientist equals a fighting chance.

Origins, Day 1: Thursday

Today I was back on much more familiar ground. I knew where the Board Room was, so I headed there first, just in time to get in on a game of Battlestar Galactica. This game defies the rule that Licensed Games Must Suck. The goal for most of the players to to work together to get the fleet safely to Earth, but much of the game consists of trying to determine which of the players is secretly a Cylon trying to undermine their efforts. I was at a real disadvantage -- I had never played before, the explanation was cursory (sorry, Chuck Whatever-Your-Name-Was, but it's true), and the board was even upside down from my perspective. It was actually a relief when we realized that the dealer had dealt out too many Cylon cards and we had to abandon the game. Now that I know how the mechanics work, though, I would gladly try it again.

Then came the Great Trade Room Unveiling. I sought out Tom Vasel, who hosts the Dice Tower podcast, and who was manning a booth along with what seemed to be a dozen of the podcast's contributors. I had never seen any of these people's faces before, except for a still photo of Tom, and not one of them looked the way I expected. I later happened to be looking at the selection in a booth that sold games by Reiner Knizia, and Tom was there also, with fellow podcaster Joe Steadman:

 

Apparently the lady who worked at the booth sneezed as she took this photo. Must have been Tom's shirt. Anyway, it was surreal to have the actual voice of the actual Tom Vasel in my right ear as we looked through the games, instead of just coming through the speaker of my car as he talked about games.

Another chunk of my time was spent in pounding out demos of Mayfair games to earn resource ribbons in their annual Catan-themed ribbon quest. I did much the same thing with a few new games from Looney Labs.

Games played: Battlestar Galactica, Elk Fest, Station Master, Megastar, Catan Dice Game, Alhambra, Pirate Fluxx, Back to the Future: The Card Game
Games won: Catan Dice Game, Pirate Fluxx

Origins, Day 0: Wednesday

Welcome to Origins 2011!

Origins officially starts on a Wednesday, but the legendary trade room at Origins does not open until Thursday. So in the past few years when I have taken days off from work to attend during the week, I have let non-trade-room Wednesday take care of itself without me. This year, since I'm lucky enough to have the vacation days for it, I decided to go on Wednesday as well, trusting that the selection of games in the Board Room would be enough to keep me busy in the morning, and signing up for a GURPS event in the afternoon.

The morning plan probably would have worked better if I had checked to see where the Board Room is actually located this year. Instead, I went to the old place, saw no activity, and assumed that it wasn't running yet. So I consoled myself with just a game of Star Munchkin in the Steve Jackson section of the Open Gaming area. Note to self for next year: If I go on Wednesday again next year, I will make sure I know where I'm going and what I'm doing.

The GURPS event was enjoyable, but a bit unsettling. The story featured almost-normal (and in some cases entirely normal) humans working in a funeral home on Halloween Night, fending off a zombie attack. We played the game on a blueprint of the funeral home:

 

There are blueprints of the funeral home because it is an actual, real-world funeral home. And the PCs were based on people who actually work there, photo portraits and all. And the woman who ran the game also works at the funeral home as her real-life day job. Seriously, if you work around dead people all the time, and you pour this much work and imagination into pretending that they stand up and attack you, couldn't that start to seriously mess with your head?

Games played: Star Munchkin, GURPS
Games won: None, unless you count having your character barely survive the end of the adventure as "winning."

Origins, Day 4

Games Played:
None. This was just a quick drive-through with Henry so he could see where Daddy has been for the last three days, and so he knows what he can look forward to when he's a couple of years older. Heck, next year he could be big enough to handle the Kids' Room for a few hours -- but since we live just a few miles up the street from the event, it's easier for him just to have a normal Saturday until he's old enough to do the real events instead of doing time in the kiddie lockup.

But as for this year, he enjoyed some of the hard work that the event-runners put into their miniatures, such as the very accommodating Ghostbusters people who let Henry hold Mr. Stay-Puft:

 

He also liked this undead dragon from the dragons-siege-the-castle game, though his expression is a bit quizzical here:

 

And finally, he enjoyed solving the maze in the big Alice in Wonderland game:

 

(I was very proud that he never strayed from my instructions that he not touch anything unless he was invited to do so.)

So long, Origins. See you next year.

Origins, Day 3

Games Played:
Smallworld (a very interesting take on a type of game that doesn't interest me much),
Pandemic once again (still excellent),
Martian Fluxx (the jokes are nice, but sadly, it's still Fluxx), and
Castle Panic (a good game, but too simple to play with my friends and too complicated to play with my son).

Games Won:
Smallworld (how nice of those veteran players to give a first-timer like me such good advice!). Also, our group defeated the Castle Panic game itself, but I had the lowest score out of the four of us. Frankly, this is a game that requires teamwork first, then punishes it later.

My play of Castle Panic was a full-length demo at the booth; it included me, the demonstrator, and two other guys I didn't know. We were halfway through the game before I realized that the demonstrator was actually Justin De Witt, the game's designer -- and I probably wouldn't have realized it at all if the other people working at the booth weren't making a bit of a fuss.

Just plain forgot to take any pictures today -- even though that learn-it-from-the-designer moment might have been a good time to remember to take out the camera.

Game-playing at Origins is over for me this year, though I'm taking Henry down tomorrow morning so he can see the trade room.

Origins, Day 2

Games Played:
The Stars Are Right (too much of a brain-bender),
Zombie Dice (light, quick and fun),
Power Grid: Factory Manager (unsurprisingly, a bit dry),
Pandemic (I love this game and never get to play it), and
Dominion (not my thing -- too Magic-like).

Games Won: Pandemic and Dominion.

And I'm not positive, but I believe this is one tricked-out version of Agricola.

 

 

 

 

Origins, Day 1

Out of the whole group, it's just me here -- they're all more RPGers and video gamers these days (at least the Columbus ones), leaving me as the sole board gamer.

Anyway:
Games Played:
Nuns on the Run (excellent),
Elk Fest (twice, just for quick-and-easy Mayfair ribbons),
Family Business (ditto),
Catan Dice Game (Roll Through the Ages is better).
Knight me, Mayfair booth!

Games Won: Zero.

And even though there is no such thing as a good photograph taken in convention-center lighting (especially with an iPhone):

The nice people with whom I played Nuns on the Run:

 

Ghostbusters game!