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So, I attended Midsouth Con 29 this past weekend. This convention is very different from the conventions that I usually attend however. This one is a full fledged Sci-Fi/Fantasy Convention though. You know the type. The ones where there are people dressing up in Costumes, and Dealer Rooms, and Panels, etc. There is also gaming of all kinds, of course, as most of you know, I go there for the board games.

Also, because I’ve done quite a bit of gaming with the Memphis Gaming community over the years, there are lots of old friends there that are always fun to see and play games with.

FRIDAY
Because I am down to one vacation day at work, which I HAVE to save for the day before the Country Music Marathon on April 30th, I had decided to leave immediately after work on Friday, which ended up being really tight.

I had signed up to run a couple of games at Midsouth Con. Midsouth Con uses a schedule of games rather than the open gaming, shelves along the outside of the room style gaming that is typical of the more focused boardgaming cons. So I decided to ‘officially’ run two games. This mainly means that I need to be able to teach and referee these games for anyone signing up to play them.

I had decided to run Age of Steam at 7:00 PM on Friday. I arrived at the hotel about 6:00, got registered, and headed into the game room. We had a little bit of time, before we started, and were waiting on a couple of players anyway, so we played a quick game of Carcassonne to kick things off.

It’s been a little while since I’ve played Carcassonne. (Well, I guess I played a couple of “Carcassonne with Friends” type games with MJ of Boardgames to go, and KF a few months ago, but that quickly fell out of favor.) Setting it up though drew in a few players, so we went from three players when it was suggested to five players.

I much prefer Carcassonne with a fewer number of players, but never deny anyone at a convention from joining a game. In the end, it was still very much an enjoyable game, that ended up going just barely to MH with one well placed farm. I think I finished second with a second slightly less productive farm and a couple of well done cities.

After that, I went ahead and set up Age of Steam. Specifically the Ireland Map. We had three players. I thought I was doing pretty well, when a well timed de-urbanization nailed a key cube and left another person to connect the west coast of Ireland from top to bottom. After that, it was really futile as I and the other player tried to keep the mega corp of West Ireland in Check, but in the end, could not beat out his money machine.

After Age of Steam. I walked around the dealer room seeing if there was anything that screamed out at me. I am quite satisfied with my current collection though, and didn’t see anything that was an unbelievably good deal. I do keep talking myself out of buying that hero pack for last night on earth. I’m not really interested in Growing Hunger due to my ‘anti-expansion’ tendencies. But the hero pack qualifies for my exemption in that it just adds a little variety, without anything that changes any core game mechanisms at all. Gamerz Depot didn’t have it, I did see it at some other random vendor. But I wasn’t going to spend FLGS money if it wasn’t going to the only FLGS I’ve got.

Went back into the gameroom shortly thereafter to set up the last game of the weekend I was scheduled to run. (I wanted to get them out of the way quick and leave Saturday and Sunday for open gaming). I met an a couple of friends from Oxford, and there was a little bit of time before my scheduled game, so I tried to send them through a quick game of Puzzle Strike.

I like Puzzle Strike, scratches an itch for me that dominion doesn’t, but still has very similar gameplay. This one didn’t go over so well, whenever I teach new players, I don’t think they get the importance is really the purple chips, and combining and crashing, not the other 10 chips available to buy. I think over time, this may actually be a detriment of the game. I’ve played it a few times now. Despite the character differences, I don’t think there is really that much difference in the game play. I think I’ll break it out a few times this week with Sarah and see if I can flesh it out a bit more.

Then I started my last scheduled game. Last Night on Earth. I like Last Night on Earth a lot as well, this time we played the truck scenario. The game went a good while, and there was one character death (me ) and ended up being really close. But in the end, the track star managed to find the keys, and my priest had filled up the truck earlier sacrificing himself for the good of the town. The track star met up with the drifter and they rode out of town just before nightfall.

I went and hung out with some friends in the Con Suite after this game, then played one game of Werewolf before heading to bed.

SATURDAY
Woke myself up early Saturday and got in a stationary bike workout. Then cleaned up and headed down to the game room.

I was trying to make a 9:00 am Twilight Struggle game. I didn’t sign up for it because I wasn’t sure I could make it, but I managed to squeak in just in time. Every time I play this game, I love it more and more. We played a variant designed to make the game more apt to go into the later rounds. I suppose this was alright for me, in that I ended up playing the USA with one extra victory point due to the auction.

It was a long game, as I am unfamiliar with most of the cards, coupled with the fact it went all 10 turns. I was in really good looking shape in Turn 8, but managed to lose about 10 or so points between Turn 8 and Turn 10. In the end, going into final Scoring, it looked bleak, as I was down about 6. Turns out, I gained 6 points in Final Scoring, so four hours of Twilight Struggle resulted in an exact Tie. Great, Great, Game. I shoulda held out for two points on the side bid auction :p

The game took a lot out of me, so I spent the next couple of hours wandering, chatting with people, looking at costumes, going to lunch, etc. Eventually teamed up with GW and KH and played a game of Thunderstone. I have to teach this game in a couple of weeks at the OMGA Gameday, and wanted to give it a few games before then.

I really enjoyed the game. It is way better than Dominion. It actually has a purpose to the deckbuilding besides the victory points. I’ll have to check out Nightfall as well, since I think it has the deckbuilding with the fighting of Puzzle Strike. It might be the one I end up keeping. We’ll see when it gets here *whistle*.

Played one more game of Puzzle Strike shortly after this, then ended up heading to the Con Suite and hanging out before the Masquerade.

I really enjoyed the Masquerade. I guess it is the one con sort of thing I actually sort of like besides the gaming. The bioshock costume I think was the best, and I really like that magic guy they have between the costumes and the judging. They also have The Great Luke Ski sing a few geek style parody comedy songs. I saw him a few years ago, and ended up buying a couple of his discs. They are pretty good.

After this, went in the werewolf room to play a game of Werewolf, but the group circle started to get to big, and the mod wasn’t cutting it off to start the game, so I ended up borrowing some cards and starting my own smaller circle (with more strict rules for cutting off the numbers.) In my Opinion, Werewolf works better and is a better experience for everyone when it’s a smaller game and they play quicker. Anyway, I ended up running about three or four games well into the night.

Then I stumbled across the hall into the Con Suite and played a game or two of Cthulhu Dice. I won’t say much about this game other than it’s not worth looking into. There is no game there, but if you’re drinking, it is something to do while you’re sitting at the table.

Afterwards, I stumbled up to my room and went to bed. I think it was sometime around 3 or so?!?

SUNDAY
Woke up early again *uggh* on Sunday because I had scheduled a 1 hr / 6 mile run for the weekend. Ended up doing it on the treadmill in the hotel, mainly because I don’t like to run in strange cities, in places I don’t know and might get lost. Plus it was darn cold.

After cleaning up, packing my stuff and running it out to the car, I headed down into the con area. I wanted one last perusal through the dealer room, but nothing really caught my eye. I did end up buying a Battlestar Galactica patch for my disc golf bag. I also found a retailer that had a Vcube 6 marked at $32. I offered him $25 for it and he took it. So I got one of those to play with, but that was the extent of my weekend purchases.

Shortly after, I headed into the game room and met up with SA and MA. They are on the newer end of the gaming spectrum, and they wanted to play something, so I ended up teaching them Dominion. (apparently I was on a deckbuilding kick all weekend) They really liked the game. I still feel about the same about it. I like it alright, but it’s not something I’ll typically suggest or anything.

Finished up my Mid South Con by running a game of Small World for them and a few others as well. That game is wearing out a bit, and honestly, with the iPad version and two players, I’m not sure I’d ever play a game on the board anymore.

Met up with Val and the Kids who had come to Memphis to shop right after and ate dinner before heading home and going to sleep. Another Midsouthcon is in the books; Not a long list of games that got played unfortunately, but like I said, this is a full scifi/fantasy con, so there is a lot of other stuff to do. I still had a blast.

I didn’t take many pictures, you can get to the entire album by clicking on the picture below.

written by Chris \\ tags: Battlestar Galactica, Boardgames, Boardgamestogo, Cthulhu Dice, Dominion, Gamerz Depot, Memphis, MidsouthCon, Pictures, Puzzle Strike, Small World, Tennessee, Thunderstone, Twilight Struggle, VCube, VCube 6, werewolf

So, in accordance with the popular activity among the board gaming crowd, I hereby present to you my Five & Dime list for 2010.

One word of warning, they kinda suck. Apparently I spent the bulk of 2010 playing new games, or light games, and not playing nearly as many as I usually do. I went through a pretty serious funk from around March to about November or so. I don’t think I bought more than two games in all that time, I didn’t play many.

Our local game group kind of stagnated at some point during the year. Besides a couple of events I attended I didn’t play very many ‘gamery’ type games during the year at all.

To be honest, at some of those gaming events, I spent a whole lot more time socializing and visiting with friends than I did playing games.

All of this is in an effort to make me feel better about my five & dime list that I’m about to present, because you’re not going to believe how bad it is.

Well anyway here goes.

My 2010 Board Game Five & Dime List!

Crokinole – 12 plays – I’m guessing a good portion of that was my visit with friends for a football game in September along with entry into the Crokinole Tournament at Tennessee Game Days. I love this game though. It’s a great game, even if I quit playing boardgames altogether I’m pretty sure I would still hang on to this.

Werewolf – 11 plays – A good portion of this was likely at BGG.con, there might have been a game or two of it played at Midsouth Con as well, but I don’t remember and don’t care enough to look up dates. I really like Werewolf. If the fact that you needed 9 players to really play it wasn’t a concern, it would probably get played a lot more. I can’t wait till I get my copy of the Resistance. Going to love getting that one in. I predict that will be on this list in some form or fashion next year.

Scrabble – 10 plays – Haha, This is sort of a fudge I think. I don’t log all my plays of it, but occasionally I do log a couple of plays of Words with Friends as plays of Scrabble. I play Words with Friends a lot. I have about 5 friends that we are constantly rematching with. My friends are very good at the game, (or else were all equally bad at it) because most of the times our games are extremely competitive. At least one of these plays was played scrabble on an iPad using the iPhones as tile racks. That is so cool.

Small World – 10 plays – This is another half and half type of number. Half of these plays were played on the board, but I’m guessing a few of these were played on the iPad as a two player game as well. I don’t log plays against AI’s which I do often, but against an opponent I most certainly do, if I think about it. There are times my daughter and I have played this that I didn’t log it, and forgot about the play shortly after, I’d say we’ve played closer to 30 games of this over the past year.

King’s Breakfast – 5 plays – I love this light fluffy game, it’s quick, and easy to teach, yet gives many interesting decisions. Every once in a while, I’ll bring it out and it’ll get a couple of plays, but often I forget it’s on the shelf.

Tichu – 5 plays – Three of these plays were at the BGG.con Tichu Tournament. All very competitive games that we played. I can’t remember where the other two occurred, but I imagine it was here and there. I love Tichu as well, one of my favorite ‘trick taking card games’

And, that’s it. There you have it. That’s all I got. I told you it was sad!!!

For the curious, here are my other plays above 1 for the year 2010. Last year, I didn’t talk about these games or list them at all because I wanted to respect the Five & Dime Format. This year, I’ve decided that I have to list these, otherwise, I won’t have any Geek Cred. At least some of the stuff on this list will go a long way toward reestablishing a smidge of that Cred.

The Adventurers 4
Hacienda 4
Löwenherz 4
Neuroshima Hex! 4
Pandemic 4
The Resistance 4
Telestrations 4
Bananagrams 3
Battlestar Galactica 3
Ca$h ‘n Gun$ 3
Carcassonne 3
Dungeon Lords 3
Go 3
Hive 3
Loot 3
M 3
Ninja versus Ninja 3
Poker 3
Race for the Galaxy 3
Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age 3
Zendo 3
10 Days in the USA 2
Battling Gladiators 2
Chaos in the Old World 2
Cosmic Encounter 2
Traumfabrik 2
Eat Poop You Cat 2
Goa 2
El Grande 2
In the Year of the Dragon 2
Liar’s Dice 2
Liberté 2
Lord of the Rings 2
Manila 2
No Thanks! 2
Polarity 2
The Princes of Florence 2
Railways of the World: The Card Game 2
San Juan 2
Schrille Stille 2
Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit 2
Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization 2
Trendy 2
Word on the Street 2

I won’t list the 1 plays as that would be really, really, really, long. If you’re interested in that, click here!

written by Chris \\ tags: BGG.con, Boardgames, iPad, iPhone, MidsouthCon, Pictures, Play Statistics

Back from Midsouth Con. I’m tired, but not terribly tired. I unfortunately do not have all that much to report.

I went to the con, but didn’t really have much interest in playing many games. I’ve been kind of meh on new games lately and haven’t really been interested in anything. And the games I’m really interested in getting played. (Age of Steam/Power Grid/Tigris & Euphrates) It seems like nobody wants to play those anymore. At least, in my area and at this con.

I didn’t even see a single game of Battlestar Galactica get played this year.

So, what did I play… Well let’s see.

Friday, I played one game of Race for the Galaxy. A game I really like but hardly ever play here in Oxford, I believe mainly because I don’t have it in the box, and when I go to look for what to play, I don’t see it. (I really need to print some game sheets with my new database of games).

I played one game of Cosmic Encounter with the new Races and Tech Cards. It was a full six player game, which can kinda make Cosmic Encounter drag a little, and basically makes the tech cards worthless anyway, since it takes to many turns to get around to you.

And I played one game of Werewolf. Then I went to bed around 12:00. (I actually went to bed quite early both nights, if you can call 12:00 early)

Saturday, I woke up having to run one of my only two scheduled games for the Con. I ran Dungeon Lords, a game I have been quite enamored with lately. It’s a really good game, one of the few new games I’m actually interested in playing. I don’t know how long it will stay that way, but it’s still going strong for now.

After that, I wandered the dealer room for a little while and goofed off looking at people, popping in to the art room, etc. I picked up a copy of Are you the Traitor? in the dealer room because I had been wanting to try it as it had some roots in Covert Action, a game I enjoyed but kind of thought got broken by the fact that there was no known information at all in the game before you played.

I wandered back into the Boardgame room and found a few people that were willing to give it a shot with me. After one small restart when we discovered we were playing one rule wrong that broke the game, we started again and I had a pretty nice time with the game. I’ll give it a few more plays, but I still am not sure it’s worth the $15 bucks that this game will cost you. It will probably end up on my trade pile eventually, but alas, so having problems finding that ‘small group’ werewolf style game. If only I had liked Shadow Hunters… Maybe I should give that game another shot.

After this the same group of players decided to play a game of Small World. It’s an alright game, I tend to play it quite a bit, and bought a copy because of circumstances, but I’ve never been all that thrilled with the game. I have a nice time playing it, but the game always feels to samey to me, and there are no tactics at all with map locations and the like. I really want to print out that variable map, I want to bring location strategies and bottlenecks etc into this game, which doesn’t exist out of the box.

I had wanted to get in on a game of Stronghold which was being demoed later on Saturday, but got caught up after Small World wandering the halls and such instead of in the boardgame room. By the time I went back, it was time for me to run my last scheduled game of the Con: Last Night on Earth.

We ran the ‘Get in the Truck’ Scenario. I actually didn’t play the game, I only moderated because five people showed up to play and the game is better with five than with six. So I gave up my seat (as a good con GM should) and ran the game with the better player number. The game ended up being a pretty tough one for the Humans. They went through at least half the deck but could never seem to find the keys to the truck. In the end, the Zombies got to the third human one turn before the end anyway.

I played a quick game of Bang before heading down to the Masquerade which was so fun last year I wanted to see it again. This years Masquerade had some nice costumes, but I think last years was a little bit stronger.

After the Masquerade I went down and Moderated about two or three games of Werewolf before going to bed sometime around 2:00 I think.

On Sunday, I woke up kinda tired, wandered down to the boardgame room which was dead, and mostly played a game of Medici. We had to call it a tad bit early because some scheduled games that players were in were starting up and some players had to check out of the hotel. But I was in a solid third out of four places after the second boat and wasn’t to broken up about having to stop the game.

I played another game of Race for the Galaxy then to kill a little bit of time before wandering back down to the dealer room to try to see if anything was there or pick up any games I wanted. It was a futile effort because I just don’t see any games out there that I really want. New or Old. I’m becoming jaded with my purchases… So Jaded.

I went back up to Boardgame room where a friend taught me Ninja vs Ninja. A game I needed to learn because I’m teaching it at OMGA Gameday pretty soon. It was a quite nice little filler game, would work quite well with children. We’re giving a copy away at OMGA Gameday if you’re interested.

After that, we pulled out the Library copy of Polarity and gave that a whirl. I’ve seen the game before and it always seemed so gimmicky but I rather enjoyed the game and the owner of the library copy said he wanted to sell it and gave me a really good price, so I bought it from him on the spot. I still owe him two dollars too, because I didn’t happen to have all of his asking price in my wallet, thankfully he knows I’m good for it. I’m kind of excited to try it out with Val or Sarah and see what they think. Or even KF or CA.

After this, I sat around and talked for a bit before heading home.

So in the whole con, I only picked up two games. Polarity, and Are you the traitor?
Oh well, it was a pretty fun con, a little light on the gaming, and nil on the pictures as I didn’t take any. I took a little bit of video at the ‘Great Luke Ski’ Concert but that was essentially it. I’ll try to grab some stills of whatever I did take and maybe some other friends pictures and get at least a couple of things on here later. But for right now this will have to do.

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, Masquerade, Medici, Memphis, MidsouthCon, Polarity, Race for the Galaxy, werewolf

Just wanted to do an official recap to MidsouthCon 27.

Day 1
Took half a day off Friday and headed up around 2:00. Got there and checked in by 3:30. My first scheduled game of the night wasn’t Battlestar Galactica until something like 7:00, so we grabbed a couple of hand games and went to the Con Suite to check it out.

With the Premium Sticker (Always recommended for MSC) I grabbed a Killians and sat down with some more of the Oxford Contingent and played a few games of ‘No Thanks’ while we were killing time and reading through the Program Book. Had maybe another beer or two, and went back to the Boardgame Room to set up for Battlestar.

The Boardgame Room was kind of nice this year. It was a narrow but deep room, which allowed for two roomy rows of tables. Found my table, setup Battlestar Galactica and got ready to play. There were no new players at my game, so we got to jump right in and play (Always Nice). I ended up being a human, and despite it looking good early on, we ended up losing on Fuel. The funniest thing about this game was the number of people that came by asking us why we were playing BSG while the Series Finale was going on?

After BSG, I found some Dinner, and started lining people up for Werewolf. I love Werewolf, and will play it for the rest of my life. It has become very popular at Midsouthcon, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why they won’t schedule us our own room for it. Two rooms, that are quiet and close to each other are perfect. Even if it’s one big room. But I don’t think people that don’t play understand how loud the game can get. So, plugging two games into one small room just doesn’t make anyone happy.

Past years were almost perfect. Usually there was a large ballroom with a high ceiling that we would sit on two ends of. This worked well, because the high ceiling kept noise down, but you could see the other game going on as well, so you knew when there was a new one starting up.

Anyway, we made due with what we had the first night. We found a quiet room, albeit a little bit small. And we had two circles going at one time for some of it. I ended up running games until about 4:00 am. I did try to sit down and play two games. But I was lynched D1 in one of the games, and I was taken out by the vigilante on D1 in the other.

Day 2
I had to wake up around 9:00 in the morning after going to bed. I was running Age of Steam at 10:00 am and I’m not allowed to miss, (or I get in lots of trouble), so, after Shower, etc. I was down there about 15 minutes prior. To a nearly empty room. There were a few, but mainly I sat in the front of the room chatting with some of the Memphis Strategy Board Game Club Regulars (MSBGC). Nobody wanted to play Age of Steam that early in the morning, and there were about five of us, so I ran up to the room to grab Red November. When I got back, I started pulling it out, and one of the players said, “I thought we were playing Age of Steam”. Since he was the only one that wanted to play, and two player Age of Steam wasn’t really on anybody’s want to play list, it kind of killed the game, and a group spurted off to play Through the Ages.

I decided to take the time to instead clean up a little, get something to eat in the Con Suite, etc. By the time I got back, I had brought Manoeuvre, and got in a couple of quick games of this one. I love this game more and more, but I am coming to the realization that I really suck at it.

After Manoeuvre, I had promised to play Ticket to Ride with KF and MD. So we set that one up and played a quick game of that one. I always hope to make new gamers, and will never begrudge teaching someone a game I know that they have a good chance of liking.

After Ticket to Ride and some incidentals (I think I snuck a game of Race for the Galaxy in). I had to set up for my next scheduled game of the day, which was Last Night on Earth. I started setting it up, but didn’t really have any takers, until I persuaded a group near me trying to get a munchkin game in to try it out.

Now, I’m not a Zombie game Fan. Hardly watch the movies etc. But Last Night on Earth is fun. We played with KF’s copy which is all painted and has a model truck in it, which kind of made the game a little bit. All the players enjoyed. Even though the humans were killed so close to finishing their goal.

Put up the game, grabbed something to eat in the Con Suite, and went back to the Con. I had promised KF that I would play less games and experience more of the Con this year. I decided I would give the Masquerade a shot, and we went to secure seats for that.

I had an enjoyable time, there were some great costumes (Some of which I have pictures of) and the ‘Halftime Entertainment’ was awesome. There was a “Mad Scientist” (Magician, but he called his tricks science) I can’t remember his web site, something about global world domination .com or something. And there was also The Great Luke Ski. A parody song artist who sings Sci Fi remixes of lots of songs. Thought both of them were fun, and enjoyed it enough that I bought two of his CD’s the next day in the dealer room. If you’ve never heard him before. I’d recommend starting out with Grease Wars and Battlestar Rhapsody. Spock Star is also great, and can be picked up for free here (for a limited time).

After the Masquerade, went back to the Board Game Room and ran Werewolf until 6:00 am. Actually ran it until about 5:30, then proceeded to play one game, which I finally got to live past D1 in and played a nice part in helping the village win. Had to give it up at this point, and went to bed.

Of note, I lost my werewolf cards. They were playing with them when I left. But I didn’t get them back the next day. I’m not terribly upset, we were using my old Lupus in Tabula cards which was a frankendeck that had been through a lot in 5 years or so. I have a deck of Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition but I had not brought it. This was fine except when the little 19 year old girl complained when she came to my circle to play in my game after the other circle had given up and she complained about using the crappy cards (The other game was running with Ultimate WW: Ultimate Edition). Umm, Listen Little Girl. I was playing Werewolf when you were in diapers (probably an exaggeration) and these cards have been through 5 or 6 MSC’s and a dozen or so other Con’s. But I digress…

Day 3
Had to wake up to Check out by 11:00, just barely made it. Packed the car, Got a Shower, and Checked out. Went to ConSuite to get some Breakfast, then headed to Boardgame Room.

Here is where I discovered I had wanted to play Amyitis at 9:00 am Sunday morning. (What was I thinking?!?). Completely had forgotten about it. Ended up playing a game of Red November (finally) and I liked it. Going to have to bring that one out a bit more at home.

After Red November, played a game of Amyitis (Also loved it). Our group has had a copy for a while, but we’ve been unable to break it out. The rules are not so well written on that one. But it’s a pretty simple game when you break it down.

Conclusion
After that, I headed home. Another great year. Hotel had its quirks, and there were some restrictions that I didn’t agree with. Heck, all of the Memphis Cons have some restrictions I don’t necessarily agree with, but I can get on board with them since they do so many other things right.

I did take a few pictures. I’ve uploaded those to the fileserver and I will attach the directory here. Some of these are mine, a couple of them I snagged from other friends that took photos to get you a general idea of the convention. Since my camera (Val’s Camera) ran out of battery halfway through I was relegated to using my Video Camera and extracting stills for most of my stuff.

Here’s a link to the Gallery:

written by Chris \\ tags: Age of Steam, Amyitis, Battlestar Galactica, Beer, Killians, Last Night on Earth, Lupus in Tabula, MidsouthCon, MSBGC, Munchkin, No Thanks, Pictures, rant, Red November, The Great Luke Ski, Through the Ages, Ticket to Ride, Ultimate Werewolf, werewolf

I’m packing up the car right now, getting ready to head out tomorrow afternoon to MidSouthCon. I’m taking clothes, toothbrush, CAMERA’s (I promise promise promise to actually take some pictures), Video Camera, and GAMES.

I’m running a few games, I have to pack these

• Werewolf (I’m running lots of werewolf)
• Battlestar Galactica
• Last Night on Earth (KF’s copy since his is painted)
• Age of Steam

Other than that, I’m packing the stuff I might really want to play, but which might not be in the library. However, I don’t want to pack too much crap to take up there. So, that probably means things like Um Reifenbrite, Tinners Trail, Pandemic, Galaxy Trucker, Schrille Stille, Steel Driver, Bolide, Traumfabrik, Manila, Ghost Stories.

That sounds like a pretty good start, but I really don’t know what will finally end up in the car. I would imagine that a lot of my collection (which is pretty standard, since I’m the main game buyer in the group.) will already be in the library. I’ll probably also throw my emergency game kit in the car as well, simply because it fills so many different niches in such a small amount of space.

If you haven’t been to Midsouthcon, and you live in driving distance, you really are kind of missing out. It’s a growing con, it has a very good boardgame contingent these days. I’d say a good 150 to 200. And the last couple of years, they’ve done lots of good things regarding having a con library etc, that some of the other cons are doing.

They still stick pretty heavily to scheduled gaming sessions, but, there is a fair amount of open gaming as well, I typically run a few games, but try to leave the bulk of Saturday afternoon, and evening being open games. My scheduled games are Friday night, and Saturday morning…

Alright, my Non-Werewolf Scheduled games…

Which brings me to the Werewolf. That has definitely been growing the last few years at Midsouthcon. It has gotten more and more popular every year. I am one of several people that will help run werewolf at the con. Although there are a few new players which might perform a few sub optimal plays, toward the end of the weekend, you can pinpoint a few players that are beginning to get it, and then, the next year, when those players come back and sit in your ring, you get a little smile on your face.

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, Game Collection, MidsouthCon, werewolf