Gathering Report - Day 6

I started the day writing up yesterday. Thanks for all the nice comments. To the individual asking about RSS feeds, I don't know Atom from Eve. All I've done is copy some code and found that if I clicked on the little live-feed symbol on the net address in Firefox it gave me an option to put it on my watch list. If you want to send me more direct information on what is needed I'll try to set it up.

Yspahan - This game is destined towards my Top of the Gathering list for this year. Arriving downstairs I ran into Rachel, Silvio and Mick and we agreed to teach Rachel this fine game. In this play both the strategy and luck aspects of the play became more apparent to me and I like the proportion of both. It has a lot of things going on, but by the 1/3 mark you have seen it all and really understand how it works. An experienced player can still take advantage though. A solid eight at least and may move up to a nine for me.



Take it the the Limit - After a bit of poking around and conversing about a prototype with the talented Greg Daigle we ended up pulling out this sequel to Take it Easy (otherwise known as Bingo for Gamers). David, Greg, Larry and Jared joined with me in this massive, and slightly more complex version of that game. I enjoyed it , although the full Nexus board game was a slight bit long for my tastes. I'd vote to try the Orchid side of the boards (fewer tiles = quicker game) next time we try this one. If you like Take it Easy and want more, this game has it.

Prototype - Here are three very talented guys, James Droscha, Stephen Glenn and Kory Heath, working on a new game. Well really just James and Stephen were working on it. They let me give it a working title though. If you see something come out with these guys as co-authors in a couple years, you'll know it might have started here. We played a quick mock-up and it has definite potential. As you can see, game design is a true joy for the designers.

On the Underground - I taught Greg Daigle and Becky this game so we could try it with three players. I had previously purchased a copy sight unseen and wanted to figure out if it was something Becky and I should keep or destined for the prize table. It turned out not to be Greg's sort of game, although he won. We are keeping our copy for now.

Yspahan - I wanted Becky to try this as well, so I taught her and Greg and we were joined by Larry Levy for the play. As noted above, this game is holding up to repeated plays and Becky enjoyed it as well. This game I was able to pursue a building strategy and hold off on purchasing my last building so as to go first on the final scoring day. The plan was to use my numerous districts and control of the dice to vault into the lead at the end. As it turned out I had a spectacularly awful role, but that control wasn't needed as I just squeaked by to win anyway.


Bolide - After dinner we ran into James Davis who was teaching this vector based racing game with real momentum. Joining in were Dug, Angela, Sheila, Jim, Richard and Becky to bring our group to eight. This game isn't quick, but it is fun as you attempt to manage your momentum to maintain speed through the corners. We only played one lap which also gave us plenty of option to use hard braking. This proved to be a key way to change direction in the two hairpin corners on the course.

You can see our positions after three turns and heading into the first corner. The cars show current position and the round markers show relative momentum. I am in the unfortunate orange car. I thought I had a good line and purple blocked it, so I challenged him. I figured that starting out in fourth position I needed to make a move early to contend for the win. As you will notice, orange is facing the wrong way and has no momentum. That is what happens when you miss a challenge. I did manage to turn around, catch up to the pack, and finish third out of seven (Purple had to drop out to make it to the free poker tournament). All in all a fun game, and could lend itself to home courses laid out on a Chessex Mat.

Prototype - I ended the evening playing a three player prototype. It seems to be reaching the end of its development cycle and just waiting for the right folks to pick it up. It is tough for a designer at that point, because now it just becomes the cycle of presentation until you find the right match between publisher, market and timing.

One thing that is both fun and interesting is knowing about so many games and investing yourself with the designer and their quest to bring a cherished idea to market. It has been a good year for me in that regard, as several close friends have had success in finding companies to take their games for consideration. It may not lead to anything, but it is a big step on the path and I know how good it feels to at least have your foot in the door. One wonderful aspect of that experience here is that there is a cooperative sense of encouragement. I have never heard a complaint that a publisher was considering another game as well. It may just go with the territory, but the sense of friendly competition to simply impress is wonderful.

Three more days to go, but the mood here is starting to change a bit. Most people leave Sunday and Saturday has several big events in it, so tomorrow will be the last full day of uninterrupted gaming. It lasts such a long time and yet goes so fast. Still Alan manages to keep finding excuses to extend the welcome, so who knows what future years hold? In the meantime I'm looking forward to trying a few more new games from my list and savoring the next few days.