Who's Yer Con: Day 2

Saturday was the longest and busiest day of the convention. I hosted a workshop and ran two sessions of a card game, plus participated in another six hours of gaming.

The day began at 10:00am as I kicked off the host block with a workshop about Habitica - an online role play game system designed to help people organize and improve their life.

Only three people had preregistered but after volunteering at the registration tables, I know there were several attendees who could walk in. I ended up with five participants, two of which were looking for another session but decided to stay anyways.

Photosynthesis is not as hard as it sounds.

After a lunch break, I tried a table top game called Photosynthesis. It was easy to learn and one that I could probably convince my family to try. Players plant, grow and harvest trees to collect points. It's a type of resource management game where the resource points are always changing based on the sun's location. By the time I figured out a strategy, it was too late to implement.

Running my first session

Next I was slated to run back to back sessions of a fun party game called The Great Dalmuti. I've had this game for over a decade. It had been a parting gift when I left OrthoIndy, where we used to play it at lunch time. The game is easy to learn and quick to play. The pace and strategy is always changing.

I was worried going in because only one or two people had registered to play and the game requires at least four. So I made my way into the hallway and asked total strangers if they were interested in joining our game. Much to my introverted surprise, several people took up my offer and both sessions were well attended.

In each session, at least one person had played before and had fond memories. One young lady remembered playing on an 18 hour bus ride! The second session was an eclectic mix of  Millennials who were shocked to learn that the game was copyrighted in 1995. They were a lot of fun to play with and I enjoyed their easy banter throughout the game.

Drop It: Learning to Connect

Another table top game I tried with a different group of young people was Drop It. Each player has a selection of shapes and take turns dropping them into a clear plastic tower. Points are scored based on where the piece lands but zero points are awarded if it touches the same shape or color.

By this time in the evening I was starting to feel like one of those older gamers, not quite fitting in with the hip young crowd. There were also families there with their excited kids and the old guard swapping tales of fictional battles from back in the old days. I was enjoying the convention and the games I had chosen, but it may have been more fun if I could have occasionally met up with friends.

As my own kids move into adulthood, one thing I would like to do is pursue gaming more as a hobby. I know a few local friends who enjoy games, but not enough to have a regular night for playing games. Sometimes I feel like local clubs are too focused on a single game, but one thing that became clear: I need to be willing to open up and engage with strangers more.

Pirate Kitties and Monkeys, Oh My!

My final session of the evening was a four hour game of 28mm miniatures with ships, islands and treasure.  I like the idea of a large table top seafaring game, and once tried running one. But sometimes the level of accuracy and detail can be overwhelming. 

I don't play the system enough to understand the nuances and modifiers. But this particular game replaced the pirates with a giant pink galleon with skull and crossbones Hello Kitty on the sail. It's hard to be serious about pink pirates.

I played on the side of the Dutch and we were often too distracted by side quests to truly pursue the treasure. For example, as my two men approached the rope bridge to Monkey island, we decided to cut the ropes, hoping to send the large gorilla plummeting to the sea. Instead I rolled high and we only manged to cut one rope before the beast hurled my men to their watery grave.

Eventually the Dutch prevailed and vanquished all the pink pirates but it took the entire four hours to accomplish. By the time we finished the game, it was 11:00 pm, well past my normal bedtime.

It was probably a good thing the game stopped when it did, because a large pastel kraken was a mere few turns away from destroying my sloop in its powerful grip.