Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 252

Live From Gen Con, Favorite Boardgames, MechWarrior Pods and more!

This week Lara, Allen, Erik and Charlie talk about their experience at this year's Gen Con!

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

Sponsor

Tech Thing Daily
Game Thing Daily
Good Old Games

Brass & Steel
Leviathans
Geek Chic
Mesa Mundi
X-Wing by Fantasy Flight Games
The Walking Dead Board Game by Z-Man Games (Click News)
Dragon Age RPG by Green Ronin
True Dungeon

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Comments

So, if Kilts are skirts for men, and a woman is wearing one, does that mean she's cross dressing?

Battletech pods! Yay!!!!

I'm curious to see how edited (or unedited) this is.

Side note: Charlie and Allen are both large people. This song was in my head a lot.

Lara gets first chair!

Gah. X-Wing and Walking Dead? On top of my taking interest in Federation Commander?! Me wallet's hurting already.

mateo wrote:

Lara gets first chair!

Now Zoidberg is the popular one!

Rat Boy wrote:

Gah. X-Wing and Walking Dead? On top of my taking interest in Federation Commander?! Me wallet's hurting already.

See, the first problem is: you have money.

The next problem is: you listened to a podcast on board games. And you like board games. Bad idea.

I have neither of these problems, so I am safe.

For now.

Really? Patchoulian?

I thought Lara did a great job hosting, and it was fun to listen to some community members on the podcast. You managed to hold my attention without a strong prior interest in board games.

This turned out long. Sorry.

Gears of War boardgame was... ok. The main problem that game has is that it starts with dozens of enemies on the board and after you clean them out (shooting in face), the game stops being fun and begins just waiting for the exact right card to be pulled from the pile. I would avoid.

I also got to try Elder Sign which was the "hot new thing" from what I understand. It's Arkham Horror without the interesting decisions and the coop that is necessary to winning A.H. There are six cards on the table which has 3-9 symbols on them. You place your marker on the mission card you want to try to solve and roll a series of dice. If you manage to roll the symbols on the card you beat the mission and get the card. Every failure moves the "doom meter" up a notch until the Elder God is released. It has some mechanics of health and sanity, but the game was far too easy to become interesting.

A friend of mine bought Ninja and we tried it one night over some beers at a bar. The players who play the guards pull 2 cards from a deck. If the card shows a "move" they get to move any guard they want. The ninjas and the traitor samurai has a set number of cards in their hands and can play any card they want, but must discard the cards when they are used. I think the most interesting part is of the game was that the ninja / traitor get to put a "secret passageway" in two places on the board. If either of them use it, they MUST put a card on the table showing the guard players that they are in the passageway. A great cat / mouse game if you are so inclined. Looking forward to playing it again.

The best game I played during Gencon was Cadwallon. Absolutly stellar game. 4 player game where each player controls a gang of thieves. Each gang has 4 characters which each has a special ability. The game starts with each player going around the table and placing one character at a time in one of the 16 entrances to the city. The city is filled with loot which needs to be stolen. As you steal treasure you have 3 "missions" that you can trade the treasure you carry for. So... for example: One of the missions is a red gem. Each gem you collect on the board raises the reward for the mission. When you choose to finish a mission, you get a bunch of gold and the player with the most gold at the end wins.
Now... you get 10 tokens each turn. Movement costs 1 token. Stealing costs 2 and combat costs 1 token. So usually you don't get to a full round (move, steal, fight) with all the characters so you have to pick your fights. There are also 2 guards move around the board with a random dice roll (each player moves the guards on their turn). You can move into another players square and combat starts. A simple die roll decides who wins and the winner steals 1 treasure or 2 golds and get to move the loser 3 squares. This can create chain reactions where you fight a player and move him into another players character and another fight ensues and so forth. At the end of the 5th of 8 rounds the alarm sounds in the city and 12 of the 16 exits to the city are closed off. Now begins a mad scramble for the exits with people stealing treasures from eachother and trying to get their characters of the board. The person with the most gold at the end of round 8 wins. Such a fantastic game.

Best costume at gencon: Dr. McNinja.

KaterinLHC wrote:
mateo wrote:

Lara gets first chair!

Now Zoidberg is the popular one!

She says while driving the podcast into the ground in the final minutes. And you were doing so well, but you just had to mention him.

Kilt Purse = Sporran

Spoiler:

Even though they do look like scrotum hatches for the hairier gent.

I didn't get to play a whole lot but I'll write some quick notes on what I remember playing.

Food Fight Went to its booth because the art in the swag bag was cool. Stayed to demo because the girl running it was very attractive. Which was the high point because the game is only alright. It's War but with the ability to modify your attack and it's shorter. Much shorter.

Quarriors Dominion with dice. A sh*t ton of dice.

Blood Suckers From the same people as Castle Panic. It's Vampires vs. Vampire Hunters. You select a town location then fight over the civilians inside, either rescuing them or turning them based on whose attack card with mods is higher for each civilian. This wasn't half bad.

Summoner Wars iOs If you like Summoner Wars, you're gonna love this. Basic gameplay mechanics were already done. Lots of tweaks left to do since it was still a rough representation. Supports pass and play, which is how I demoed it against Colby, the freaking creator of Summoner Wars. Got my ass kicked because I haven't played in a while, have never played with the race I was given, and again, he's the freaking creator.

Ashen Star A patchulian rpg. Set in the future out in the far reaches of space called the Bleed. Law enforcement is a for hire game and you're a team of just that. Played this in the hotel with Katerin, TheOtherRob, E Hunnie, and wordsmythe. Really cool setting. Borrows a lot from various sci-fi franchises but still has its own unique flavor. Was lots of fun. Also got very dirty.

Dungeon Run Another game by Plaid Hat, makers of Summoner Wars. Game of the con for me. It's a dungeon crawler tile game with loose cooperation that eventually turns to backstabbing. So, a lot like Cutthroat Caverns but with a board, dice rolls, and you're not working as a party on every turn. Had a lot of fun demoing this with MisterMagnus and TheOtherRob. And to make things better, I won in a raffle one of six copies in existence since the game's not out till Sept/Oct.

BSG w/Pegasus and Exodus expansions Team Cylon! First time playing with the Exodus expansion. I highly recommend it. It didn't let us play a lot of other games in the hotel but it was a great game of BSG. President Cally shot the human Admiral in the gut so that I could survive to have a devastating reveal that screwed Team Human over. I then proceeded to blow my own brains out.

Fredrik_S wrote:

The best game I played during Gencon was Cadwallon.

We played this last year in rabbit's room. No one cared for it and the person who bought it gave it away later on for free. Obviously, we had two very different experiences. Though, I was the only one that reasonably enjoyed it because I was kicking everybody's ass.

McChuck wrote:

Also got very dirty.

We all know whose fault that was. Taking things to naughty places is pretty much my superpower.

AmazingZoidberg wrote:

She says while driving the podcast into the ground in the final minutes. And you were doing so well, but you just had to mention him.

To be fair, it was Erik who brought up He Who Shall Not Be Named. I merely apologized. Profusely.

Good show guys. One things about these con shows is I get insanely jealous of you guys for having an awesome time.

Nice job hosting, Lara! Board games aren't really my thing, but it was still a fun show!

However, your nerd cred is hereby revoked for not knowing what an "X-Wing" is.

I missed Cadwallon completely, but I feel like I've played something nearly identical. Anybody?

Full name is Cadwallon: City of Thieves. We played it last year.

Criticism is ok, but be constructive. - Certis

Dear Mr. Anderson: Thanks for your input. Your unflinching commitment to accurate spelling, the upholding of male dignity, and fairness in your critique are a shining example to us all.

IMAGE(http://media.ebaumsworld.com/picture/jesus93/elrond_smith.jpg)

McChuck wrote:

Full name is Cadwallon: City of Thieves. We played it last year.

That's it!

It was fun.

Pretty sure you and everyone else hated it. In fact, we didn't even finish it.

McChuck wrote:

I then proceeded to blow my own brains out.

Did you shout "FRAK!" before you pulled the trigger?

The Geek Chic furniture is drool-worthy. Maybe someday, I'll have a house with tables that keep big miniatures games safe between sessions... or maybe gamer furniture will catch on so successfully that IKEA will start offering it.

McChuck wrote:

Pretty sure you and everyone else hated it. In fact, we didn't even finish it.

What was it about it that you didn't like? I can't imagine that you guys played nice with eachother.

Thank you to Charlie for the shout-out about Brass & Steel. One thing that didn't get mentioned is that Brass & Steel is a hybrid table-top/LARP RPG with seamless transition between the two modes of gameplay. We demonstrated this feature at GenCon by running six tabletop sessions whose characters and plots converged into the big 45-person LARP which Charlie sheepishly admitted to attending. We've gotten great feedback so far from attendees and look forward to running our events at Teslacon in Madison, WI in November.

Fredrik_S wrote:
McChuck wrote:

Pretty sure you and everyone else hated it. In fact, we didn't even finish it.

What was it about it that you didn't like? I can't imagine that you guys played nice with eachother. :)

All I remember is no one was having much fun except right when we decided to quit I was because I was taking a commanding lead.

Still kicking myself for not sticking out the LARP. Next year have one on Friday to!