Sorry for the delay on this one – my Internet connectivity was a bit spotty! Day 3 was my last day due to other obligations, but Origins really busts wide open on Friday – the crowds come out in force and nearly all of the events are in full swing. If you could only make one day of Origins, Friday is definitely the day – the crowds are large, but still manageable, there are still good deals in the exhibition hall and if you can’t find a game, you’re just not keeping your eyes open. So what was new on Friday?

• Live Auction – Troll & Toad ran the auction at Origins this year and they seem to have been taken aback by the sheer number of entries into the auction (we caught the line extending the length of two exhibition halls at one point), but they managed to get things up and running after a three hour delay
• Consignment Store – The consignment store also opened late this year and seemed to suffer from a lack of material when compared to the massive auction
• The Spiel Dinner – Steve Conway of the Spiel podcast held a dinner on Friday and then brought folks back to demo the Spiel des Jahres nominee, Fauna (which is actually pretty cool – can we get this one in the US? Please?)
• The Dice Tower Memoir ‘44 Challenge – Several stalwarts from the Dice Tower podcast took on all-comers in an overlord game of Memoir ‘44 – including our own David! Needless to say, David and his companions soundly routed their Dice Tower opponents 13-9 (seriously, it was a really close game that was well played by all – sometimes those dice just don’t like you!)
• The Smithee Awards – Like B-grade, camp movies? Then check out the Smithee Awards for all of the “pun”ishment you can handle…

Overall, I had a blast at Origins this year and my wife and I are already making plans to attend next year. Thanks to all of the new people I met (special shout outs to Sydney, Nate, Nick and Mike!) and we’ll see you next year!

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Gamers can be an odd bunch – let’s face it: most of us are a wee-bit quirky. It is with this in mind (and with the admission that we totally could be guilty of nearly any of these comments), that we present to you our favorite overheard conversations at Origins 2009:

• “If I had the budget, I would totally have an augmented LED eye”
• “There are a ton of girls at Subway who want me”
• “See – here are the other two paragraphs of rules they couldn’t fit on the card”
• “He’s definitely 50% human” (in all fairness, this was during a game of Battlestar Galactica: the Board Game by FFG)
• “And by chicks, you mean dudes in drag”
• “Eight is part of twenty-two <squeal>!”
• “Because I will kill you. And then you will be dead.”
• “He’s been waiting since puberty for someone to acknowledge that beard”
• “I’m not sandbagging – I don’t even know what sandbagging is!”
• “The rest of them are here – they’re just hiding from you and asked me not to say anything”
• “Protesting causes hair loss! And bad breath!” – claims from a group of protestors…

What were the best lines you heard?

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Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers have been morphin’ to games for over 15 years, none too successfully. To continue that tradition, Bandai released Power Rangers CCG last year to no particular fanfare or notice.

The artwork comes from the somewhat more successful Rangers Strike TCG, which is only in Japanese.

The game: each player has exactly 20 cards, which require you to discard cards to use and which deal damage in making your opp discard cards. First player to run out of cards loses. Play simultaneous: count to three and play a card. Higher power wins. You can bluff by not playing a card on three, in which case you simply lose.

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In Drowning and Falling, from Bully Pulpit Games, you get to play a character who must fall. Or drown. I believe that these terms can be taken figuratively, so the game does not necessarily end with the death of your character, but then where’s the fun in that?

All profits are donated to ORBIS International, whose mission is to eliminate avoidable blindness and restore sight in the developing world, where 90% of the world’s blind live.

Another fun-looking Bully Pulpit game is Fiasco, wherein you play the protagonist in a scene out of something like Fargo or Blood Simple: grand ambitions, with poor impulse control.

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