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[BattleMonkey]

All the side stuff would be fine if the con could support it. Its sadly not, and you have the gaming industry turning away from the con because of all the issues and because of the loss of focus. Other gaming console are growing in large part because of Gencon turning into another big nerd fest when it used to be the place to go for all things gaming. Indy and the con have grown out of it, its just going to keep losing its identity as a gaming con and continue to be another generic big con, or it needs to trim the fat and return to its roots.

Gencon was unique, now its been slowly turning into just another con that tries to cater to everyone. I just for see more gaming companies abandoning it for the real gaming cons which are seeing increase in industry participation.

 

[AstroLad]

Well if GenCon moves there's a chance I might get to go to it. I'm not looking to go to Comicon though so personally would favor more of a gaming focus. I'm open to your pitches gaming cons! Ever since I decided to ditch BGG this year.

 

[Affeinvasion]

Origins is the new (old) GenCon.

 

[Ohnonono]

My wife, who has no interest at all in my board games, suddenly got excited when I showed her that I have to sticker blocks for C&C Ancients. I opened the stuff then went to give my kid a tub, read him a book, and put him to bed. I come downstairs and she did the entire Roman army for me lol. They looked fantastic too! She said she was done for the night. I spent the next hour and a half and still have Carthage units to do tonight, and hers look better than mine! Its official, girls like stickers and have magic sticker powers.

At least I know when I get expansions I have a sticker partner. MAYBE after putting some time in she may want to play the actual game... not likely... but maybe... Hopefully playing my first battle tonight, very pumped!

 

[joelseph]

Origins is the new (old) GenCon.

I have read Origins slipped a little last year. Hoping they can come back strong this year we may be ditching GenCon for it.

Geekway capped at 1300 this year. This will be my first year and I am pumped. If everything goes well I think my crew will be doing Geekway/Origins in the future.

 

[joelseph]

My wife, who has no interest at all in my board games, suddenly got excited when I showed her that I have to sticker blocks for C&C Ancients. I opened the stuff then went to give my kid a tub, read him a book, and put him to bed. I come downstairs and she did the entire Roman army for me lol. They looked fantastic too! She said she was done for the night. I spent the next hour and a half and still have Carthage units to do tonight, and hers look better than mine! Its official, girls like stickers and have magic sticker powers.

At least I know when I get expansions I have a sticker partner. MAYBE after putting some time in she may want to play the actual game... not likely... but maybe... Hopefully playing my first battle tonight, very pumped!

Painting miniatures is fun too! Take your wife to a free paint-and-take event at a FLGS!

 

[BattleMonkey]

Origins is the new (old) GenCon.

Yea we are considering going there since we are ditching Gencon this year and probably in the future too after seeing the housing situation

 

[UpperCaseN]

So what's everyone's current jam for board games? And what is the old staple with your group? My current jam right now is Betrayal at the House on the Hill. I've owned it for like 3 years but never tried getting it to the table till this past Halloween. Now I'm trying to play it every damn time; it helps that it's an easy sell. My group's old staple is probably King of Tokyo. It's easy to learn and fun, plus we all know the rules by now.

 

[Gaming Truth]

Yea we are considering going there since we are ditching Gencon this year and probably in the future too after seeing the housing situation

I'm hoping that despite this year's fiasco, GenCon is still awesome. Doubling up with Origins might be an interesting idea this year, since I've never been and you guys are making me a little worried about things.

 

[joelseph]

So what's everyone's current jam for board games? And what is the old staple with your group? My current jam right now is Betrayal at the House on the Hill. I've owned it for like 3 years but never tried getting it to the table till this past Halloween. Now I'm trying to play it every damn time; it helps that it's an easy sell. My group's old staple is probably King of Tokyo. It's easy to learn and fun, plus we all know the rules by now.

I'm stuck on Imperial Settlers. I can play this game back-to-back-to-back. Even getting blown out I'm ready for another. The card play, tableau building mix is perfect with just the right amount of player interaction. Plus the art is wonderful.

The other hotness for me right now is Scott Alme's Harbour. "Tiny Epic Le Havre" The amount of strategy in that tiny box is great.

 

[Draxal]

Did Gencon start as a game con?

Gencon was the convention for gamers (pretty much all announcements and champions were released here in the past) and Origins was the convention for retailers/distributors.

I'm one of those who would love to have Gencon return to its roots.

 

[SillyEskimo]

So what's everyone's current jam for board games? And what is the old staple with your group? My current jam right now is Betrayal at the House on the Hill. I've owned it for like 3 years but never tried getting it to the table till this past Halloween. Now I'm trying to play it every damn time; it helps that it's an easy sell. My group's old staple is probably King of Tokyo. It's easy to learn and fun, plus we all know the rules by now.

My family's current game is Sushi Go. Everyone's kind if addicted to it at the momment. It's a fun, fast card game.

Our staples are easily Survive: Escape From Atlantis! and King of Tokyo.

I'm going to get Mice & Mystics on the table soon though. I just have to finish painting the minis.

 

[Ohnonono]

Painting miniatures is fun too! Take your wife to a free paint-and-take event at a FLGS!

She has painted one once. I used to paint a whole bunch, I took some commissions and stuff at one point. I burnt out on it though, don't get a whole lot of joy from it anymore.

 

[mercviper]

So what's everyone's current jam for board games? And what is the old staple with your group? My current jam right now is Betrayal at the House on the Hill. I've owned it for like 3 years but never tried getting it to the table till this past Halloween. Now I'm trying to play it every damn time; it helps that it's an easy sell. My group's old staple is probably King of Tokyo. It's easy to learn and fun, plus we all know the rules by now.

I can always always always play Ricochet Robots. It's a bit too much brainwork for most of my friends though so I never get it to the table unless I'm with a select few. And for those we toss out the silver robot and any paths that are 5 or less.

The games that see the most play (requests) recently are Telestrations with CAH cards, Zombicide, and One Night Ultimate Werewolf when we have a larger game night; Compounded, Ticket to Ride and Sushi Go get requested on smaller game nights.

 

[UpperCaseN]

sounds like Sushi Go is a winner. I might have to look into it

Telestrations with CAH cards

I've heard of this, what are the rules exactly? There is a 100% chance that this will end up happening with my group. I assume you just do it however you want. I would probably deal 3 cards to each person and let them pick? or maybe roll a D3 to decide

 

[mercviper]

sounds like Sushi Go is a winner. I might have to look into it


I've heard of this, what are the rules exactly? There is a 100% chance that this will end up happening with my group. I assume you just do it however you want. I would probably deal 3 cards to each person and let them pick? or maybe roll a D3 to decide

IMO, the best way is to not play with any rules that make it competitive such as points/time. We just do a simple grab 5-10 cards and pick one you feel would be fun to draw/make other people draw. Once everyone has their sketchpad back we present one by one and laugh. I also stop playing after 3-4 rounds so I don't get sick of it since it's really easy to play it continuously when everyone's having fun.

 

[UpperCaseN]

IMO, the best way is to not play with any rules that make it competitive such as points/time. We just do a simple grab 5-10 cards and pick one you feel would be fun to draw/make other people draw. Once everyone has their sketchpad back we present one by one and laugh. I also stop playing after 3-4 rounds so I don't get sick of it since it's really easy to play it continuously when everyone's having fun.

yeah, we cut out the scoring as well for regular games. we'll also switch directions and eventually have people change seats to mix up the order. After seat changing we're usually ready to move to another game

 

[Experien]

Any thoughts out there on Realm of Heroes?

 

[Dreavus]

We often bust out Telephone pictionary just for a laugh with a big group, and recently got the Telestrations 'hardware' to play it on (instead of making pads for everyone). Alternate drawing the previous phrase and describing the previous drawing, pass it around sequentially until you get your own back, then go through and see how ridiculous some of the changes are as it passed along.

We don't try and score anything either, just purely for amusement, but some of the pictures that people come up with are amazing. I find that being a little more vague, or focusing in on a small detail in the previous picture gets the best results. Super iconic stuff like "santa claus" doesn't work too well because it's hard to mistake him for anything else.

Using CAH cards as starters sounds like a fantastic idea! I've got one friend with the whole big box so we'll have to try that sometime too.

 

[Experien]

We often bust out Telephone pictionary just for a laugh with a big group, and recently got the Telestrations 'hardware' to play it on (instead of making pads for everyone). Alternate drawing the previous phrase and describing the previous drawing, pass it around sequentially until you get your own back, then go through and see how ridiculous some of the changes are as it passed along.

We don't try and score anything either, just purely for amusement, but some of the pictures that people come up with are amazing. I find that being a little more vague, or focusing in on a small detail in the previous picture gets the best results. Super iconic stuff like "santa claus" doesn't work too well because it's hard to mistake him for anything else.

Using CAH cards as starters sounds like a fantastic idea! I've got one friend with the whole big box so we'll have to try that sometime too.

Been using the White cards from CAH to Telestrations and it is the only way I want to play CAH. Loved it so much that I bought the 12 pack which in hindsight seems like too much.

 

[joelseph]

Omg Baseball Highlights 2045. Soooo good.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Just finished our first game of Kemet. Oh god it was horrible, so very horrible! The aggressive nature of the game was too much for us, and things got a little heated. One player tried to screw with me and dedicate himself to making me lose and another player win. Their vile scheme failed and in the end I won with eight permanent points, six of which where battle, and two pyramid points.

In the end I have to admit I had a lot of fun but this game is something else. Not even at our most competitive in fighting games did we get so mad with one another.

So...did anyone else get feeling like that in a board game? Or do you all keep things in good spirit and fun?

 

[Palmer_v1]

Just finished our first game of Kemet. Oh god it was horrible, so very horrible! The aggressive nature of the game was too much for us, and things got a little heated. One player tried to screw with me and dedicate himself to making me lose and another player win. Their vile scheme failed and in the end I won with eight permanent points, six of which where battle, and two pyramid points.

In the end I have to admit I had a lot of fun but this game is something else. Not even at our most competitive in fighting games did we get so mad with one another.

So...did anyone else get feeling like that in a board game? Or do you all keep things in good spirit and fun?

Spartacus. I will tank an entire game to fuck someone over if they attack me when I'm clearly not in the lead.

 

[mercviper]

Just finished our first game of Kemet. Oh god it was horrible, so very horrible! The aggressive nature of the game was too much for us, and things got a little heated. One player tried to screw with me and dedicate himself to making me lose and another player win. Their vile scheme failed and in the end I won with eight permanent points, six of which where battle, and two pyramid points.

In the end I have to admit I had a lot of fun but this game is something else. Not even at our most competitive in fighting games did we get so mad with one another.

So...did anyone else get feeling like that in a board game? Or do you all keep things in good spirit and fun?

I was really far behind in robo rally once so I sat on the last flag acting as a bouncer for anyone who got far enough. Pissed off one of my friends real fierce lol.

 

[Neverfade]

Just finished our first game of Kemet. Oh god it was horrible, so very horrible! The aggressive nature of the game was too much for us, and things got a little heated. One player tried to screw with me and dedicate himself to making me lose and another player win. Their vile scheme failed and in the end I won with eight permanent points, six of which where battle, and two pyramid points.

In the end I have to admit I had a lot of fun but this game is something else. Not even at our most competitive in fighting games did we get so mad with one another.

So...did anyone else get feeling like that in a board game? Or do you all keep things in good spirit and fun?

Vindictive assholes don't get invited back at my place. It's just a game. We keep it light.

 

[antiquegamer]

Gencon was the convention for gamers (pretty much all announcements and champions were released here in the past) and Origins was the convention for retailers/distributors.

I'm one of those who would love to have Gencon return to its roots.

So back to War gaming only?

This overcrowded problem is not limited to GenCon , all geek conventions have become popular place to go and not limited to just nerd and geeks. PAX, ComicCon all suffered the same. I stop attending Comic Con years ago but they have grown from comic convention to much more and i long for it to go back but that will not happen. As someone else said these other things might be distraction to us but it help attract the none core people for good or bad it is what need to grow the industry. I would never have got into boardgames if it weren't for PAX including many analog gaming as part of the show even of majority of the show have become more about video game. I think solution really should be better organization by people that host the con and work out hotel logistic. If any of you have attend SD ComicCon as massive as it is, it's a pretty well run for the most part.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Spartacus. I will tank an entire game to fuck someone over if they attack me when I'm clearly not in the lead.

I can see that. Feeling attacked when you're in a point of weakness is really annoying. Didn't happen to me here but happened to me a few times in Catan.

Vindictive assholes don't get invited back at my place. It's just a game. We keep it light.

I wonder why he decided to target me. I mean I can understand trying to keep the one in the lead from winning (even though most of us were close to each other) but him trying to prop another player was what bothered me. And in a game like this it can be easy to boost another player if you want.

Also, it was getting late and I could have needed the game early but he made me lose a temple in the end and so had to play another night and day phase. I was so sleepy but the end.

I was really far behind in robo rally once so I sat on the last flag acting as a bouncer for anyone who got far enough. Pissed off one of my friends real fierce lol.

You're a jerk

 

[BattleMonkey]

So back to War gaming only?

This overcrowded problem is not limited to GenCon , all geek conventions have become popular place to go and not limited to just nerd and geeks. PAX, ComicCon all suffered the same. I stop attending Comic Con years ago but they have grown from comic convention to much more and i long for it to go back but that will not happen. As someone else said these other things might be distraction to us but it help attract the none core people for good or bad it is what need to grow the industry. I would never have got into boardgames if it weren't for PAX including many analog gaming as part of the show even of majority of the show have become more about video game. I think solution really should be better organization by people that host the con and work out hotel logistic. If any of you have attend SD ComicCon as massive as it is, it's a pretty well run for the most part.

Gencon is stuck, despite better organization there is little they can do because Indy restricts them. They are past capacity, they need to go to a different location , cap the entire event, or just keep letting the problems mount. And as the problems mount they are just losing more and more of their core supporters.

 

[TumblingHippo]

Reposting from the Infomercial People thread:

This got me wondering, ever see anyone get so upset at a board game that they ever just tossed the whole board?

I've seen it once.

It was Monopoly...

With the free parking rule...

 

[Icefire1424]

Reposting from the Infomercial People thread:

This got me wondering, ever see anyone get so upset at a board game that they ever just tossed the whole board?

I've seen it once.

It was Monopoly...

With the free parking rule...

Said it before, and will say it again. Monopoly destroys families. Just as Risk destroys friendships.

And while I'm at it, Clue kicked my dog once. And Scrabble bit my sister.

 

[SillyEskimo]

This got me wondering, ever see anyone get so upset at a board game that they ever just tossed the whole board?

My mother flipped a chess board when I beat her when I was 12.

 

[Ohnonono]

When playing tabletop games (Warmachine) that can take a long time to set up and play I got pretty heated once because a player WAY past my level decided instead of just winning he wanted to table my whole army. The game took like 3 hours which was all of my time I had at the store that night. I tried to stay calm but it totally burned me out of playing that game competitively EVER. If the game is competitive I like it to be shorter games, like card games and stuff. Board games in general I just don't ever take seriously, I just enjoy playing.

 

[ultron87]

When playing tabletop games (Warmachine) that can take a long time to set up and play I got pretty heated once because a player WAY past my level decided instead of just winning he wanted to table my whole army. The game took like 3 hours which was all of my time I had at the store that night. I tried to stay calm but it totally burned me out of playing that game competitively EVER. If the game is competitive I like it to be shorter games, like card games and stuff. Board games in general I just don't ever take seriously, I just enjoy playing.

Is conceding in Warmachine something that isn't regularly practiced? Seems like that would be a good idea as soon as it is clear they're toying with you.

 

[BattleMonkey]

When playing tabletop games (Warmachine) that can take a long time to set up and play I got pretty heated once because a player WAY past my level decided instead of just winning he wanted to table my whole army. The game took like 3 hours which was all of my time I had at the store that night. I tried to stay calm but it totally burned me out of playing that game competitively EVER. If the game is competitive I like it to be shorter games, like card games and stuff. Board games in general I just don't ever take seriously, I just enjoy playing.

I would have just called it, I got other things to do. Whats a person going to do? He clearly won and you quit, he has to let you go. Even in a tourny setting, if you quit it's over.

 

[mercviper]

You're a jerk

In my defense, it was not purely out of spite. If you're trying to win then knocking everyone else out is a path to victory in that game.

I've also burned someone's compound in compounded after trading them the elements needed to complete it >_>

I think the worst case I've ever experienced was playing Red November, one of my friends (person A) refused to continue playing because we had to deal with a kraken and didn't agree with the strategy someone else (person B) had for it. Person B had 2 sets of scuba gear and person A had the harpoon. B had 5 minutes or something to get the harpoon and get to the door and roughly 40% chance to kill the kraken in one go, with the leaving him an escape route if it failed. A wanted the scuba gear himself to try to give us a 40% chance + 10% chance on the kraken but B wouldn't trade it, and A wouldnt give up the harpoon. The obvious choice after negotiations fail is for B to just go out the door and try the 20 or 30% chance and leave us all to drown if it fails but A wasn't having any of that either. The game stopped as A started shouting about how stupid it was for B not to take the 'best' move with the most chances to win and I had to just end the game there because it got so awkward. I love the game but at that moment all I wanted to do was toss the box and all the components out the window. I never bring the game and person A to the same spot now.

 

[Ohnonono]

Yeah it was supposed to be a friendly game and the guy was a buddy of mine. I just found out that night that when it comes to a game of Warmachine he takes stuff to seriously. I did not want to seem salty about losing. I should have just conceded ultimately but I was trying to be a good sport.

 

[joelseph]

Sparticus is always a great way to ruin a friendship for an evening in our group.

 

[UpperCaseN]

I wasn't there, but there's a tale of one of my friends getting angry over MtG once. Out of rage he full on slapped his deck (with sleeves, so taller and slippery) from the side splashing them everywhere

 

[Palmer_v1]

Is conceding in Warmachine something that isn't regularly practiced? Seems like that would be a good idea as soon as it is clear they're toying with you.

The trick with warmachine is you can assassinate your opponents leader to win regardless of the rest of the game. There's been times I've lost 75% of an army while opponent is only down 10%, but they left an opening that let me get the win. There are times though where it's obvious you're not going to win, and call it early.

Edit: Ive also been maliciously crowbarred in red October when I was the only chance against a kraken. To be fair, I was totally gonna bail on the sub, but they didn't know that.

 

[Karkador]

I've also burned someone's compound in compounded after trading them the elements needed to complete it >_>

You monster

 

[Phthisis]

So what's everyone's current jam for board games? And what is the old staple with your group? My current jam right now is Betrayal at the House on the Hill. I've owned it for like 3 years but never tried getting it to the table till this past Halloween. Now I'm trying to play it every damn time; it helps that it's an easy sell. My group's old staple is probably King of Tokyo. It's easy to learn and fun, plus we all know the rules by now.

Historical wargames. They usually have really interesting mechanics. I also really like open-ended strategy, and I also learn a lot (more so than I ever did in school) by playing them. My favorite genre, to be honest. I'm kind of fading out of Euros and lightweight fare. Was disappointed with Harbour :-/

 

[Gaming Truth]

I've also burned someone's compound in compounded after trading them the elements needed to complete it >_>

You monster

Slick. I've definitely known for that. More on this below.

I think the worst case I've ever experienced was playing Red November, one of my friends (person A) refused to continue playing because we had to deal with a kraken and didn't agree with the strategy someone else (person B) had for it. Person B had 2 sets of scuba gear and person A had the harpoon. B had 5 minutes or something to get the harpoon and get to the door and roughly 40% chance to kill the kraken in one go, with the leaving him an escape route if it failed. A wanted the scuba gear himself to try to give us a 40% chance + 10% chance on the kraken but B wouldn't trade it, and A wouldnt give up the harpoon. The obvious choice after negotiations fail is for B to just go out the door and try the 20 or 30% chance and leave us all to drown if it fails but A wasn't having any of that either. The game stopped as A started shouting about how stupid it was for B not to take the 'best' move with the most chances to win and I had to just end the game there because it got so awkward.

Yeah, I totally understand attempting to min/max, but I play board games for the enjoyment too. Winning is just a bonus. So part of why I do things that definitely aren't the norm is to reintroduce randomness to something that should have been random in the first place. I'll act like a Cylon in BSG, even though I'm perfectly human. I'll gang up on a fellow outlaw in Bang! because I need to shift attention from myself. I'll ask to borrow resources one turn, only to remind you that should never trust me in games the very next turn. =)

If I wanted to play a board game one-player (scripted, min-maxing, whatever), why go through the hassle of organzing, driving out to, and playing games with others?

 

[JSR_Cube]

One of the guys I was playing with pulled out a kitchen knife during a game. I'm serious. Funny thing was, we were playing one of the D&D board games. One guy was just pissing him off so much that he snapped. It was crazy. They're still friends but it was a story to tell the rest of the group who missed gaming that night.

On another note, it's stupid to me that Days of Wonder buckled over the 'slave' controversy in Five Tribes. It isn't a big deal but I just feel like it's pandering to the vocal minority.

 

[Flynn]

I hear lots of stories about people getting heated over Catan, which I just don't get.

 

[ultron87]

On another note, it's stupid to me that Days of Wonder buckled over the 'slave' controversy in Five Tribes. It isn't a big deal but I just feel like it's pandering to the vocal minority.

There was a group of people that wouldn't buy their game due to it. I was one of them. Makes sense for them to try and open it up to more people by dropping an entirely unnecessary part of the theme and replacing it with something else that works just as well.

 

[AstroLad]

I hear lots of stories about people getting heated over Catan, which I just don't get.

I think it's the passive-aggressive behavior the game brings out. It's not much in the way of direct conflict, but has some serious passive-aggressive opportunities. Games like Power Grid and even Agricola are like this too, though with the trading element in Catan you get the added chance for people to feel screwed by the trading. I can't believe they have tournaments for Catan -- that seems completely insane to me and I can't even imagine how pissed off tournament players get because Catan is ripe with kingmaking opportunities.

 

[daevv]

Playing against couples in Catan can get tangly. Especially when they trade with each other through out the game and one of them seems to win most nights.

 

[AstroLad]

Playing against couples in Catan can get tangly. Especially when they trade with each other through out the game and one of them seems to win most nights.

There's also that unwritten rule where nobody can trade with the leader. I actually kind of get it most of the time -- you can't just hand someone the win (unless you're actively kingmaking or just don't care -- both bad) but it makes everyone miserable.

 

[antiquegamer]

I think it's the passive-aggressive behavior the game brings out. It's not much in the way of direct conflict, but has some serious passive-aggressive opportunities. Games like Power Grid and even Agricola are like this too, though with the trading element in Catan you get the added chance for people to feel screwed by the trading. I can't believe they have tournaments for Catan -- that seems completely insane to me and I can't even imagine how pissed off tournament players get because Catan is ripe with kingmaking opportunities.

We had an in-law throw down her trains and walk off during a game of Ticket to Ride.

Any of you guys picking up Armada?

 

[NEO0MJ]

Our second Kemet game went much smoother with not much incidents, which is nice. Also ended much earlier.