Gamex/Strategicon Report

Warning: This is really long and gaming-related, so most non-gamers will want to skip this post.

I left my apartment around 4:40 PM on Friday and arrived at the hotel before 6 PM, so I was pleased with that. I was worried it take like 2 hours to get down there. Once I checked in, I went downstairs to check everything out.

One of the first people I ran into was Jay Tummelson, owner of Rio Grande Games. I got to play the first copy of Notre Dame that was opened at the con! Jay wasn't going to open any til Saturday, but when I showed up and he offered to show me If Wishes were Fishes, I said, "I really want to play Notre Dame!" He went and found a copy, opened it up and taught myself, Devi Hughes, Brad Parker and a couple others how to play. It was fun!

On Friday night, I ran a game of Liar's Dice and then ended up playing a few games of Werewolf that evening. In all the WW games I played at the con, I was never any of the special role cards. See Ron? I'm not *always* a werewolf! I was chosen as one of the lovers during two of the games I played during the weekend.

The highlights for me were: meeting Jay - SUPER nice guy and every time I walked by he'd say, "Wanna play a game?" with a great smile! :-) I'm bummed that I missed his talk. I didn't realize there was a talk scheduled! I got the highlights from someone at the con and his story is cool!

Starting around 11 PM every night, there were constant games of Werewolf (I think I ended up playing 5-6 times and moderated once) and lots of Time's Up. There was a Rio Grande-a-thon on Saturday from 9 AM - 7 PM which Travis won by a landslide. He had 139 points(!) and Chris took second place with 96 points. Third place went to Mike with 91 points. Travis was a frenetic game playin' fool!! First price in the marathon was 70 dealer dollars, so not too shabby! I gave up about after a few hours and still managed to land in the middle of the pack with only 5 games played. I think next time I'll stick in there for the long haul. Just for fun if nothing else.

I won the Ingenious tournament (and now I wish I hadn't traded it away!) and placed 2nd with Roderick in the Tichu tournament. Overall I earned 15 dealer dollars, whoopee!

I did meet some cool people at the con. Some were local (I definitely have a new guy to add to my sporadic game nights at home), while a couple of the people were from out of town. They were here FROM DALLAS and had never even *heard* of BGG!! So I spread the love! They are going to sign up for the BGG.con and meet up with us there. We're going to get a driving tour from one of them who lives in that area by the custard shop we went to last year (remember how I loved those houses Dave?).

Here is their story: Apparently, they were here about 4 years ago for an NBA All-Stars game and work and were staying at the Westin while OrcCon was going on there. They were curious about the LARPers they saw walking around the hotel and found out about the con and have been flying out here for all the cons since. They're out here all the time anyway since they are computer consultants and are out here anyway to visit clients. They were fun!

On Sunday, Travis and Mike ran some playing of prototypes from about noon til 8 PM. I didn't participate in this, but I saw the more finished copy of Travis & Mike's game called A Day at the Races. I saw the cards and boards that Nikki did the art for and they are awesome!!!

Overall, it was fun, but I think I prefer the open gaming format to the scheduled gaming. It seems like the scheduled games never start when they're supposed to, they always last longer than they should and you just get randomized with people who (at least some of them), I'd rather not play with. There were some of the stereotypical stinky people there too. Is it *that* hard to, I don't know, TAKE A SHOWER? I think women have a better sense of smell than men do in general, but still! Not an excuse!

I saw the LARPers playing Vampire, but didn't get over there to really check it out. I didn't venture to the flea market or the RPG area either. I ran into a lot of regulars from SCGD and played some Guitar Hero in the computer room with the teens.

I think that hits most of the stuff I did. I am planning on going to the September one, unless I'm doing something else for some reason. There's talk of a Guitar Hero tournament and that would be cool. I think I'd have more fun though at the next one. I didn't realize what it would be like, so now I know, I'll adjust my expectations.