One of the benefits of attending a game convention is the chance to play games one otherwise does not have the opportunity to play. Toward that end, I spent a good part of the first day of Gen Con trying out a few of the so-called “indie” RPGs. At the Forge/IPR booth, I benefited from a demonstration of Thou Art But A Warrior by the designer, Anna Kreider. This game is actually an alternative setting for Polaris, where instead of the default high-fantasy background, players take on the role of Muslim knights in the Moorish kingdom of Spain. Two things were striking about this experience. First, when a scene in the game is focused on one player’s primary character, the mechanics of the game dictate which players represent which specific supporting characters. But because the roles are determined by position at the gaming table, it’s quite possible that a player will be opposed by a rival character in one scene, only to be responsible for playing that character in the next scene. Second, the actions taken by characters must be heavily influenced by the overarching imperative that Moorish society will fall to conquest by the Christians. For me, these two factors make for a unique roleplaying experience.

After that, I participated in a short demonstration of Vincent Baker’s game, In a Wicked Age. This one presents players a pretty open-ended story-telling opportunity, except that the starting point is set with four specific oracles chosen at random. Then during play, when the evolution of the story brings the GM into conflict with a player, if the player loses the conflict, a debt is recorded to the player. The debt can later be used to either augment position during a subsequent conflict or guarantee that the player’s character survives to the next play session.

My final RPG experience for the day was a full session of a fascinating game by Joe McDonald called Perfect—”This society is perfect, except for you.” The game is set in an imagined dystopian version of Victorian England and encourages players to commit subversive acts in the face of a highly repressive government. The twist is that no matter how elaborate or unlikely, a character’s crimes-against-the-state are always successful. Tension comes from seeing how long before the character is caught and from dealing with the consequences of reeducation. Our group of players had a rollicking good time with Perfect, devising elaborate criminal acts and methods of escape. A special thanks goes to game master Darcy for seeing exactly what types of plot twists would add the most fun for each players.

Another potential benefit of the convention experience is getting the opportunity to playtest game prototypes, as well as play already released games but with special versions brought to the convention by the publishers. An night, I was able to do this with a unique super-sized 3-D version of the board game Wealth of Nations. The game play is the same, but it just adds a level of fun moving around those large sculpted tiles on a 3 foot board. Thank you to Tablestar Games’ representative for spending more hours in the open gaming room after a long day at the booth!

• 0 Comments

Chicago, IL: Two 19 year olds shot at a dice game. (source)

Rochester, NY: Guy punches girl, who picks up knife and slashes him in the nose at a card game which turned violent. (source)

Montreal, CA: Two shot at a dice game by police. The community responds with molitov cocktails, tank fireballs, and gunfire. Chaos descends on the city of Montreal. (source)

Baton Rouge, LA: Man shot playing dominoes with friends. (source)

• 0 Comments

Serge Pierro has created a card game with pictures of his home town: Shelter Island, the Card Game.

Serge describes himself as having significant experience in the field as a play tester for many companies, and he wrote a book about strategy when he was ranked 7th in the world at Legend of the Sword, a video game.

“What I do is design a game engine,” said Mr. Pierro, which he describes as “the core of the game.” Essentially, Mr. Pierro designs the rules of the game, and then images of any theme can be put on the cards. The engine for “Shelter Island: The Card Game” could be applied to any theme, but in the end, the Shelter Island cards were manufactured.

He took all the pictures himself.

The goal of the game is to put together sets of cards. Each card has either a number one or a number three in the top left-hand corner of the card. That number is on top of the outline of Shelter Island, which is a different color depending on the set. The sets can be identified by their number, Shelter Island color and the content of the photograph on the card. For example, the cards in the “blue-one” set all have photos of sunsets on them, while the cards in the “green-three” set have photos of animals. Other sets include photos of Island buildings, flowers, boats and birds. There is also a “Town Board Ruling” card and a “Local Paper” card that influence the outcome of the game.

(source)

• 0 Comments

The Columbia Flier has a piece on how Chess is being used in jails to help prisoners overcome obstacles, facilitate communication, or simply give them something to do.

Russell Davis, 24, learned to play chess in jail.

Now, the inmate at the Howard County Detention Center, facing an armed robbery charge, is hoping the game will help keep him out of jail in the future.

“It reflects life,” Davis said of chess. “If you can learn to get over some of the obstacles on a chess board, you can get over some of the obstacles in life.”

“It forces you to think in difficult situations, you can’t just react,” Davis said.

(source)

• 0 Comments