Sunday, February 25, 2007

DunDraCon XXXI!


This is one of the wonderful things I saw at the last gaming convention I went to: DunDraCon 31 in San Ramon, CA. A dude called 'Scott' made this game board/map for A Game of Thrones boardgame. He had plastic horsemen with domino bases that worked very well. All the pieces were huge and easily handled by the players. It looked like it would have been a blast to play. I watched it for about an hour then went on to other things...


The topmost picture is of one of the legends of 1st edition Dungeons and Dragons, Erol Otis! His artistry graced almost every adventure module in 1st ed. D&D and some of his best remembered pictures were in the Monster Manual and Fiend Folio. I didn't have a chance to talk to him, this one guy that was up there was hogging his time, but it was nice to finally, after a couple decades, put a face to the name!


The convention lasted from the 16th of February to the 19th. I was only there for a couple days, the 17th and 18th. On Saturday, I played a great game of Power Grid (first time I played it, and though I keep hearing how this game sucks I couldn't help but have fun playing it). I jumped immediately from coal power plants to nuclear which raised a few eyebrows. I also tried to corner the market on coal which worked until Phase II. Needless to say, I lost, but I had a lot of fun, as usual.


I then played some Risk: Star Wars which totally sucked. Avoid this game at all costs. I guess it didn't help that with one exception I was playing with retards, but even sans retardation, just keep this game on the store shelf. A game cannot exist on theme alone.


I jumped in on a game of Arkham Horror (one of my faves!) and played Monterey Jack, the Indiana Jones wannabe.









Here is the game layout during a critical phase in the game. You will notice that my cardboard pawn is in 'Lost in Space and Time' with the Scientist. Wunderbar! For those who aren't in the know, Arkham Horror is a Lovecraftian boardgame that hangs very close to a role-playing game in that it is cooperative. i.e. all the players are trying to beat the game rather than each other, which I love. I am really starting to appreciate cooperative games more and more. Games like Doom: The Boardgame, Arkham Horror, Shadows Over Camelot (which I experienced later that Sunday and finally bought). I just think they rock. I am a social gamer as I have said before, and there is no more of a party atmosphere than a crowd of good-natured people having a go at one of the Ancient Ones in 1927 with a bottle of whiskey and a Remington rifle. :-)


After that I hosted a five-player game of Caylus which would have been more fun had not one of the players (Tim, I believe) acted like a total ass for the latter half of the game. He lapsed in and out of interest in the game. Maybe he was off his medication or something -- who knows?



The next day I came in to see if my friend Jonathan was going to play some Dreamblade with me, but I later learned, he had already left almost as I was coming in. I played another game of Caylus with this guy named Sam (I think he was Russian due to his accent) and Steve (who was really cool). It was a very long game. Too long. Sam had us whupped and he was taking forever to figure out his strategy and squeeze an extra few prestige points. Overkill...



Oh, I almost forgot, we also played a game of El Grande which I totally lagged at.



Then me and Steve played a game of Shadows Over Camelot with a full house of 7 players. Though this was my first time playing it, this game was total blast. I played Sir Kay and sat back, gathered white cards and finally tried to deal with the Black Knight and then the Saxons. We nearly lost the Grail Quest and after a couple false accusations, the traitor was discovered to be Sir Palomides the Saracen Knight. By the time that game ended it was already past 11:00pm. I wanted so much to stay and play Drunken Pirate Bar Fight, but I had to work the next day (I didn't get President's Day off), so that sucked.


I drove home and wondered when I would get off my lazy ass and finally blog this stuff.



Just so ya know...
















2 Comments:

Blogger Brian W. Barringer said...

I went to that a few times many years ago. I used to love to play warhammer4oK and especally Necromunda. We played the entire time, never slept the entire 3 days, ahh good times.

11:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You Fuckin’ Asshole! I was just checkin’ out our Campaign page, and it totally seems to have slipped your fuckin’ mind to set that puppy up, so that we can leave our thoughts and comments…….. So naturally, I’m leaving my comments here. Also naturally, I’ve got some complaints.

In detailing the personalities that comprise our little world, You list the following:

Junior as Ucill the Last Fairy Cocksucker
Mike as Xysus the rogue mage mercenary
Glen as Olidon the Priest of St. Vitus
Seth as Celadon the archer mage
Willie as Lorian the Wood Elf Ranger
Gary as the erstwhile half-orc barbarian, Klel
and Spaz-Mo Perez as the Dungeon Master...


Who the fuck is missing here? You limp wristed, cross-dressing, ANIMAL HATING, moron. Where the fuck is Fluffy the Forest Wolf? When Fluffy read this, he was so crushed that your sorry ass didn’t even think highly enough of him to acknowledge his faux existence, that all he could do is cry at the moon for six straight hours. After that, he was still so upset that he partially bit his own nuts off. I had to take Fluffy to the vet last night, and unfortunately, the vet couldn’t save the ‘nads. Fluffy is now neutered due to your thoughtlessness! This may be a good thing however. The vet was able to equip Fluffy with a new set of “+5 Neuticles Of Control” which I purchased here: http://www.neuticles.com/

The vet assures me that Fluffy will be much less prone to roaming and starching Ucil’s socks! The new ‘nads also grant me a +5 to all handle animal checks in regards to Fluffy. Excellent! Fluffy is so impressed with how the new ‘nads look, he wants to go back next week and get some of those really slick silicone ear implants that he saw the vet install in a Basset Hound while he was getting his ‘nad work done.


The Savior of Blind Sheeople and Purveyor of the Truth

6:12 PM  

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