After starting to get more and more interested in board
games in the previous couple of months, the timing was perfect for a local
min-convention to get me more exposure to the games, people, and possibilities.
I was able to get out of work early due to having worked
some extra time over the last couple of weeks and walked home. I grabbed some lunch then a few items and
headed out on foot to The Hyatt.
I knew I was in the right place when I saw the LARPers out
front smoking in their strange attire.
I made my way up to the convention area, checked in, and
walked around. I strolled through the
vendor area, checked out the gaming and light LARP fighting in the atrium, and
poked around in the gaming room.
After a short time, I found the table for my first game and
sat down to play Elder Sign. This was my
most anticipated game of the convention and it was fun. The best part, though was meeting Sam and Ana
from Illinois. Sam was more of a heavy
historical gamer normally and Ana seemed to be more of an open for anything
gamer (although Sam seemed to be pretty open to play a variety of things as
well). I also found in Ana a smoking
buddy for a day and a half. Her multicolored
hair was pretty awesome as well.
So, after the first game, with some time to spare, we played
a card game they brought, Evil Baby Orphanage, which ended up being one of the
more comical and fun games I played over the two days.
After this, we had to part ways as I needed to grab a bite
to eat before heading over to my final game of the day, Tales of the Arabian
Nights.
The game ended up being a little bit of a letdown for me,
but the players were fun to game with and overall, the day was pretty awesome.
I made my way over to the vendor area and grabbed Dixit and
Dixit: Odyssey before grabbing a bus back to my apartment.
Day 2
Saturday started really well. I got more sleep than I expected and was up
and moving quickly. I managed to stop by
the grocery store as I walked to the convention and grabbed some fruit to snack
on during the day.
My first game was Amun-Re which was a good way to start the
day. It finished pretty quickly and I
was able to fit in a first time play of 7 Wonders for me, which was more of a
learning experience than anything else.
Next up was one of the most fun games for me, Ra, which was
a great experience.
Originally, after this was going to be Eclipse, but I backed
out as it would overlap another game I had scheduled. So, I walked a block over to Subway, ate
lunch, and called back my dad who had left a message. We talked a little NFL and a little college
basketball. This was a very good break
as I got food and got away for a bit to let my head clear.
Once I returned, I had another couple of hours until my next
game, so I walked around some more. I
placed some bids on the silent auction, bought some raffle tickets, bought
Tentacle Bento, bought some cheap shirts in the vendor area, and walked around
the atrium.
Then came my biggest surprise of the Con. I walked in to the medieval LARP room to
check it out. I looked at some of the
cool items and clothing. As I was nearly
finished walking through the clothing tent, a woman approached me and asked
what period was my favorite.
I told her that I was just looking, but she told me not to
worry. Before I knew it, she and her
assistant had me in all sorts of clothes.
I was then gently nudged out to the main section where a few people
spent the next half an hour describing their group, what type of LARP they do,
how it differs from other types, where they practice, and where they perform.
I was incredibly nervous and felt out of place at first, but
the people were really nice and seemed to enjoy just letting others know what
they did and that they weren’t crazy (at least not much more than the rest of
us.)
After a while, I told them that I had to go as I had a game
starting up soon and after a few minutes, I was out of the medieval garb and on
my way back to the gaming room.
Once there, I found out that the silent auction was almost
over and placed some last minute bids.
It then ended and the bid off began on all but one of the items I was
bidding on in the end. No action
occurred on any of them, so the ones I bid on last I won and those I had been
outbid on late, I did not rebid on and therefore lost.
I ended up with a nice little haul for not too much
money. The big win for me was the $21
Amun-Re I won.
I then made my way over to the City of Horror table and
after a while of shuffling late players in and out, we started. The game was a little tough to pick up on in
the end and got a bit stand offish, which didn’t work great for our table.
After this, we went directly into Super Dungeon Explore,
which did not work for our group. It had
a setup time, and ran very slowly. We
ended up playing for almost 4 hours and after the first hour to hour and a half
it would have been nearly impossible for us to win, so it really dragged and
got very frustrating.
It didn’t help that we finished late and I still had not
eaten dinner. So, my final game, Power
Grid never got setup, which was fine with me as I needed to shut things down
anyway. I gathered my things and walked
outside where the temperature had dropped and the wind was going crazy.
I walked to the bus stop, just to see the bus go by a minute
before I got there. So, I walked the half
hour or so back to the apartment, ate some late diner, had a couple of drinks,
and crashed.
Overall, I had allot of fun at the convention. I think of it in three parts now, Friday,
Saturday pre-lunch and Saturday post-lunch.
The first two segments were great and the third was ok.
I ended up playing a bunch of new games and a few for the 2nd
time. I came out with a haul of new
games, t-shirts, and a small bag. I met
a bunch of new people that seem to do allot of gaming. I am very thankful to Aaron, Eric, and the
others who ran games at the convention and allow me to have so much fun.
I’m looking forward to MidWinter 2014 next year and the fun
I had here made me know for sure that I wanted to go to GenCon later this year.
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