Out of the Box...

Just a super quickie before my Battletech players arrive. Ken Hite made a really nice mention of us in his most recent Out of the Box column. So, thank you Ken, I only wish you had said Hi ;)
He mentions a Dogs in the Vineyard game run by Carl Rigney quite favorably in the article. That same gentleman will be running two sessions of Dogs at the store during our Mini Con. Drop by if you get a chance!

Thanks again, Ken!

Don't anybody move! A fuse is out....

Today, one of my favorite actors past away. Normally, people passing that I don't know really doesn't affect me that much...Darren Mcgavin is different. "The Old Man", a character he played in "A Christmas Story" meant very much to me. I will miss him, a lot. Here's to you, Old Man...you finally have won your Major Award.

Two down, some to go...

Well for now anyway. I am deep in the middle of Convention season. We were at the The Shield Conference from 2/10 - 2/12, then out at Dundracon from 2/17 - 2/20. On 3/3 we have a small Independent Warhammer Fantasy Battle Tourney (small meaning 80 players) that we are sponsoring in San Francisco. On the heals of that I head off to the Gama "Trade Show" (airquotes in full effect.) And finally our own RPG.net Mini Con on April Fool's Day.

Yeah.

To add a cherry on that Sunday, Yesterday, I spent a majority of my day preparing events for Kublacon on Memorial Day Weekend. I am a little conned out at this point...and there isn't really an eye to this storm coming up. My con experiences are generally a great source of amusement to the people I know, because I never seem to get a single game in, but have organized at least a hand-full of tournaments at each one I attend. I think at Dundracon I left at 7pm Saturday, and was out the backdoor loading dock right on the nose at 5.30pm Sunday. It's funny. I was talking with another store owner who was just attending the con rather than working at it. I asked her if she was planning on playing in any games. She told me that she found herself to be too much of a distraction during games. (After a brief moment of fearing I had managed to jump into a decent sized social faux pax somehow) She told me that she couldn't sit down at a table for 5 mins without someone coming up and wanting to talk to her. She didn't feel it was fair to the other players to have the game interrupted that often.

Hmm. That what was weird about DDC for me this year. Melly helped me nail it. See, I am only slightly an extrovert. If you are a fan of the Myers Briggs Personality test^tm, you should know I am only 6 points into my "E." I am pretty happy being around people, and then all of a sudden, I need to hide and recharge my batteries. When I am at a local con, I don't get that luxury. I have been working at a fairly popular store long enough now that I constantly run into people. Honestly, I am flattered that they wanna know what I think of the show, and want to tell me a little about what they are doing there. The only negative effect is, between the dealers room for 8 hours, and trips through the common areas, I am constantly in front of people. Sunday, I started to use the service hallways to stay out of the common areas, and left through them when it was time to go home. That may sound really ostentatious, but man was I a little more rested Sunday, than I was Saturday. Anywho, I suppose the main body of this post, is you learn something new about yourself all the time. I now really understand how my retailer position is going to affect my mental con preparations for the next foreseeable future. I love going to them, and now I know I just need to hide for a little while.

On a whole nother note, the game I saw played oodles at Dundra, was Battletstations. It got me interested in trying it. We shall see if I can make the time, considering the volume of games I have picked up of late...but we'll save that for the next post.

Neat stuff from Toy Fair...

I found some photos from Toy Fair in New York.

Here is also a shot of the new Rocketville game from Avalon Hill.







Finally, it looks like we now know why the Basic Set has been out of print for so long....










I don't even play D&D minis, but sign me up for some dragons!!



All fer now, but pretty neat!
(Thanks to Figures.com for the pics)

Infinity: The Game...

After my buddy Anthony was kind enough to help me pin some incredibly tiny parts onto my Pan Oceana minis, and a marathon build session to get the rest of the parts put together...I finally got to play Infinity: The Game. I give it two big thumbs up for sure. I think for quite a while I have been looking for something in terms of minis gaming that hasn't been out there. I have wanted something with super nice figures akin to the quality Rackham has been putting out for ages. Something skirmish, cause as I get older more is not necessarily better. Something Sci-fi, cause well..I like it. Something not overly complex, cause well..I don't like rules all that much. FInally I wanted it to be cinematic, cause I like my games to have a little flavor to them. I thought i was going to get that in Abberant's Rezolution game, but in the end, the figures stink on ice, and the rules-set was just plain not edited at all. Infinity has all the above and a tropical punch flavored juice box thrown in for good measure.

So far the game is only in quick start rules, as they are translating it from Spanish. Over time they have been adding more and more to these rules, and have done so in a very clean way. Generally, you are only going to have a handful of minis per side as the game stands now. I think I had 7 and my opponent (who was also teaching me the game) had 6. The game itself works off a d20, but has nothing to do with the "d20 system." Each player is given one "order" per figure on your team. Some figures also give additional specific orders. These orders are used to move a model in full run, move and fire, activate camo, etc. Even more interesting is the fact that you can devote all these orders to one single model. I liked the "eggs in one basket" type situation you can take chances with. It is also one of the new generation of minis games that isn't a simple "I go, you go, I go, you go" type model. Infinity also allows you to react to to what your opponent is doing. In some cases that might be trying to spot a figure using active camo (think Predator suit), shot back at someone shooting at you, or dodge out of the way of fire. The game itself is brutal, and straying away from cover usually means you go down fast. I think our demo only took about 30 mins.

I am really riding loose and fast with how I am describing the game. Hopefully I have done it some justice. In any case, if you live near a store selling and playing the game, try and get yourself a demo. I think you will enjoy it.