I get to go to this yearly event which ATers and everyone like to trash. I like it. It is a like a summer camp filled with reasonably nice people who for some reason are overly fond of Euros. 

The good news is at item 3 on.  

 But there is a quite strong Tichu fanbase, and AT games are definitely beginning to take  a significant share of the event. 

1. D&D. There are two giant tables dedicated to D&D, as well as a few pickup games during the week. Steffan O' Sullivan (who created the predecessor to FATE called Fudge) is also running a 3 Musketeers RPG session. The D&D tables have been running since Saturday, one of them firmly claimed by Derk and Aldie. The only time I've seen them away from the table is....Tichu. And beer. 

 The Descent table is also around with Alan Moon's funky 3D set on it. Not much play there, which tends to indicate that D&D 4e has supplanted Descent as the dungeon crawl of choice. FFG just needs to work Descent into a full RPG if they want their table back. 

 2. I played some Euros.  Nothing awful, but a lot of superfluous stuff. Cubes, VP, yada yada. 

 The good ones so far are:

 Fits (Ravensburger): By Reiner Knizia. This is Tetris converted to a boardgame. You play four rounds of placing Blokus pieces on a board in a random sequence, having to leave certain holes or cover certain other spots for points. This is abstract, fluffy, puzzle-y, completely non-interactive. Also, addictive. 

 Tintenblut (Kosmos): Puzzle-y pick up things to trade for other things game based on the really impressive Inkheart series of books. This is based on the second book (Inkblood....called Inkspell in the English translation for some reason.) The charm here is that they did an ok job with the theme, and the bad guys periodically savage one of the players. And they threw in some action cards. 

 Fauna (some German edu company): Friedemann Friese did an animal trivia game for a company. It is quite playable with only fractional german. You have a freakishly obscure animal presented with scant details beyond a picture, the German and latin names. You then place bets on where the beast lives, how much it weighs, how long it is, and the length of its tail. It cribs a bit from Wits and Wagers, but the animal thing seems more compelling than Wits and Wagers.

A bar game prototype. This is by Kris Gould. It is obviously descended from the excellent classic Sid Sackson game Bazaar. Kris added interaction to this old puzzle game, and the prototype  uses 24 tiny airport liquor bottles. I love Bazaar....but this might actually be better. 

 3. AT-ish stuff. 

Z-man has a new prototype on offer. I have some reservations about acquiring a copy. Only because Steve Avery will keep coming over to my house to try and have sex with it.

 It is pretty much Death Race 2000: the boardgame. Go fast, run over pedestrians (children and senior citizens are worth more, of course) and shoot at the other drivers. 

 The thing that is unique about this is that any game with that cool a theme created by an unknown designer will automatically completely suck. This is quite good. 

 It has all the right parts. Weapons, armor, and upgrades for your cars. Curves that randomly abuse your car. Exploding pedestrians. Wacky action cards. Dice with symbols. 

 But it also is a solid design, even at this fairly early stage. It uses a Speed Circuit basis for movement. Damage is tied to your hand of action cards. You never roll to hit---only damage. Resolution of attacks is swift. You cannot see very far up the road. The road tiles also include little events...like the dreaded cow herd in the middle of the road. 

 Every time Avery has tried to get people to play Roadkill or Race Knight of Falconus, this is probably the game he's been seeing in his head. Zev claimed to me that there hasn't been a good racing blow things up game since Car Wars, and so he'll try to make this into reality in early 2010. I agree with this---but would love to hear of good counter examples to this statement.  

 4. Vlaada Chvatil (The divine being who gave us Prophecy, Through the Ages, and Galaxy Trucker) has a new prototype called Dungeon Lords (booze is clearly wearing off.)

 It is inspired by the classic computer game Dungeon Keeper. You have a dungeon. Heroes some in and try to wreck it. 

It is structured a bit like Galaxy Trucker. You build up, and then the heroes tear through it in a battle. It is a heavier game than Galaxy Trucker. It also currently feels much trickier to play.

Vlaada is currently my favorite game designer. And this is why. He uses Euro mechanics, AT mechnanics, and his own unusual ideas to make games that don't fit into a particular niche.

-------------------------------

 Tales of the Arabian Nights is going to print this week--hopefully. And should make Origins. The Book of Tales is 300 pages. It has something like 3000 paragraphs, which is nearly 3x the original. 

 Zev apparently got annoyed that the original game's paragraphs only rarely matched up with the type of encounter on your card. 

So he rewrote, added essentially another game's worth of paragraphs to the base game, to the extent of adding a new matrix to cover Efreets.

 He doesn't have a proto available. I've already pestered him at least three times for an early copy. I'd beg him more often, but he told me he'd publish Battle Beyond Space hopefully early next year, so I'll should probably be nice.  

 5. Todo:

There is a  early copy of a strange toy Ninja game lurking on one side of the room.

 There is a crazy insane game called Power that NO ONE has ever heard of.

The rules are half Ayn Rand inspired, and read a bit like Dr. Brauner's Liquid Soap labels. 

 There is also an obscure AT-ish game from Finland that bears some similarities to Quest of the Dragonlords. It looks promising. 

I brought a game called Pentantastar. It is from the 80's, but the rules read like a rough draft of War of the Ring. The last page includes a diagram for making a replica of the magical Pendant Pentantastar from drinking straws, paper clips, and liquid soap. Seriously. I want to play this game quite badly.  

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Gary Sax said:

... Dungeon Lords sounds super cool!

April 08, 2009

jeb said:

... BATTLE BEYOND SPACE in 2010 (mebbe)--that's shit hot, congrats, Frank. I actually was thinking about modding up some rules to SPEED CIRCUIT to make it less gearhead, more DR2K--so there's that. That said-- I can't imagine traveling all that way and paying all that money for some TICHU games.

April 08, 2009

Aarontu said:

... Dungeon Lords sounds sweet. I've been wondering if there was a game out there with this theme/idea. Something like Dungeon Quest, but from the dungeon's point of view. Looking forward to seeing more about this game.

April 08, 2009

mjl1783 said:

... It is pretty much Death Race 2000: the boardgame. Go fast, run over pedestrians (children and senior citizens are worth more, of course) and shoot at the other drivers. Awesome. Tales of the Arabian Nights is going to print this week--hopefully. And should make Origins. The Book of Tales is 300 pages. It has something like 3000 paragraphs, which is nearly 3x the original. Awesome! he told me he'd publish Battle Beyond Space hopefully early next year *HEAD ASPLODES!*

April 08, 2009

Mr MOTO said:

... I don't know if I should be delighted or dejected about Dungeon Lords as it sounds like precisely what I've been developing and PMing a few people here about... argh. The idea sounds great and comes from a good designer too. I may have to pry a few more details out of your brain Frank to see if it will be different enough from my idea to continue on my path to completion. I'm pretty sure that if this idea is done well it will be a big success.

April 08, 2009

JoelCFC25 said:

... The car game sounds wicked. Exploding pedestrians! Nice report, thanks for sharing it.

April 08, 2009

sydo said:

... Yay! Carmageddon: the Boardgame! Dungeon Lords sound cool too and I can't wait to get Battle Beyond Space! Congratulations Frank!

April 08, 2009

dclose said:

... The road tiles also include little events...like the dreaded cow herd in the middle of the road. Cow herds?! I'm there!!! Sounds fabulous!

April 08, 2009

generalpf said:

... Like Barnes once said -- and I fully agree -- the Gathering of Friends is where integrity goes to die. I can't see him attending.

April 08, 2009

ubarose said:

... Thanks for the report. Sounds like there are some fun and exciting games on the horizon. Good to hear that Tales has finally going to print.

April 08, 2009

metalface13 said:

... But how was Game Z? Dungeon Lords sounds good. There have been quite a few Dungeon Keeper-ish video games of late. Makes sense it translates into a board game.

April 08, 2009

Jason Lutes said:

... I brought a game called Pentantastar. It is from the 80's, but the rules read like a rough draft of War of the Ring. The last page includes a diagram for making a replica of the magical Pendant Pentantastar from drinking straws, paper clips, and liquid soap. Seriously. I want to play this game quite badly. Me too! I picked up a pristine copy for 75 cents a long time ago and I've been dying t give it a whirl ever since. It has a lot of funky charm out of the box. Definitely let us know how it goes if you manage to get it on the table.

April 08, 2009

Bulwyf said:

... Thanks for the report. The new Deathrace game sounds like it could be fun. Vlaada's new game also sounds like it has potential. His last two designs were big winners in my book. Derk and Aldie are all about their website. They are playing D&D to try to build up some momentum in role playing prior to the launch of Role Playing Geek. Sorry, won't work. Bullshit. They like D&D 4th ed and are enjoying themselves, nothing more. You need to put your conspiracy crackpipe down and back away slowly. -Will

April 08, 2009

Mad Dog said:

... Thanks for the report. :-)

April 08, 2009

SusanR said:

... Congrats, Frank, on finally finding a publisher (and a good one) for Battle Beyond Space! There's hope I'll finally get to play it. I've heard so much about it now. So sad that the Descent table is empty :( As much as I like D&D4e, I'd play Descent over it any day of the week, especially given that these would be one-off games and not an ongoing campaign where a true RPG can really shine. Is Alan Moon still besotted with Descent? Dungeon Keeper sounds really promising.

April 08, 2009

Michael Barnes said:

... Only because Steve Avery will keep coming over to my house to try and have sex with it. I thought this was going to be THE TRAGIC LAST DAYS OF ANNA NICOLE SMITH: THE BOARD GAME. The AT stuff sounds great...some fresh ideas in there, thank fucking Crom. I passed on Richard's copy of PENTANTASTAR. I feel dumb for doing so, it looked cool. And that title is awesome. I'm intrigued by POWER just because. It's POWER, dude. The cited Eurogames sound...terrible. If those are any indication, I think the next trend is going to be toward pure multiplayer puzzles. FAUNA sounds oddly interesting to me, if only because I love animals. I don't think there's a copy of GAME Z at the Gathering, not that I know of at least. But beware of imposters. Undoubtedly a red-badger is going to start posting "impressions" of some oh-boy-you're-gonna-love-this game to build up hype but do not be fooled. You will know GAME Z when you see it. I am surprised that Barnes doesn't attent The Gathering, I would have figured Branham would have got him in years ago. He kindly offered to "see" if I could be invited years ago. This was before I pissed off the churchgoers, so to speak. I thought it was ludicrous that he was going to have to check to see if I could come to begin with since there are plenty of other gaming events I can freely attend without a sponsor, but I also had no interest in a two week long, out-of-town gaming event that turns out is actually like the Bohemian Grove of the hobby. I'll just reap the benefit of my friendship with Branham when he returns home with a copy of POWER and the Ninja game. Make it happen.

April 08, 2009

Mad Dog said:

... The AT stuff sounds great...some fresh ideas in there, thank fucking Crom. Except those fresh ideas will surely be replaced with more elegant and time-proven mechanisms by the Gathering playtesters. More F:ATties need to attend, imo.

April 08, 2009

Mr MOTO said:

... metalface, Help a down and out ATer here.. :) What computer games like DK OR DK2 have come out recently? I would like to play them. :) I thought the concept behind DK and DK2 was a good one but the game didn't live up to what I thought it could be, if someone has improved or evolved that concept I'll pick those titles up in a flash! :)

April 08, 2009

Space Ghost said:

... event that turns out is actually like the Bohemian Grove of the hobby. This is my favorite tangential reference you have ever made. LOL.

April 09, 2009

Jarvis said:

... He doesn't have a proto available. I've already pestered him at least three times for an early copy. I'd beg him more often, but he told me he'd publish Battle Beyond Space hopefully early next year, so I'll should probably be nice. Awesome news! Congrats!

April 09, 2009

metalface13 said:

... Help a down and out ATer here.. :) What computer games like DK OR DK2 have come out recently? I would like to play them. :) I thought the concept behind DK and DK2 was a good one but the game didn't live up to what I thought it could be, if someone has improved or evolved that concept I'll pick those titles up in a flash! :) There's a game for PSP called Dungeon Maker, then I could swear there was a similar game for DS. The twist is you build the dungeon so monsters will populate it then you go in and kill the monsters. But I can't remember what it is called.

April 09, 2009

Mr MOTO said:

... Ahh... Ok I don't own either a PSP or DS but that helps my search. Thanks! :)

April 09, 2009

Last Alchemist said:

... My information on Power!

April 09, 2009

bobby_5150 said:

... One thing I don't understand. Why are children and old people worth so much? The're slow and can't get out of the way. Olympic athletes should be worth the most points.

April 09, 2009

mjl1783 said:

... Because it's more fun to watch old people get hit, man. Didn't you see Death Race 2000?

April 10, 2009

Mr MOTO said:

... Thanks for the report Frank! I'm pressing full steam ahead with my prototype anyway as we are having too much of a blast nearing a fully playable game that nails my initial vision of it and the theme is likely the only thing in common between the two games anyway.

April 10, 2009