|
|
Marcon 42 - May 25 to May 27, 2007
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
Marcon is a science fiction convention in Columbus, Ohio. Usually, I don't do a lot of gaming at Marcon, but this year's Gaming Guests of Honor were the folks from Looney Labs. All but one of my game plays over the weekend were of Looney Labs games (so those of you who don't like their games can feel free to move along now). Most of my time was spent demoing games for others, but I did manage to play two yet-to-be-released games, plus a couple of "Giant" games and an " Ãœber" game. Rather than list them in chronological order, for this list I'm going to list them somewhat arbitrarily, so hopefully the more interesting things will bubble to the top. So, without further ado....
|
|
|
Posted Wed May 30, 2007 1:07 am
Edited Fri Jun 1, 2007 7:39 am
|
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
Zombie Fluxx is (unsurprisingly) a zombie-themed version of Fluxx due out this fall. It introduces a new type of card, the Creeper, which works sort of like a bad Keeper. It's played in front of you, and in most cases it keeps you from winning. There's a New Rule that lets you ignore them and a couple of Goals that require you to have them, but in most cases they are Bad Things to have.
I played Zombie Fluxx once on Friday and once on Saturday. As I write this, those two plays are more than anyone else on the Geek has logged.
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
The other unpublished game I played over the weekend is what Andy Looney is currently calling "Secret Project 3H-1". It has a name, but as that name is still subject to change, I will not repeat it here.
For similar reasons, I'm not going to say too much about the game itself. It's an interesting game designed to be played with 3 Treehouse sets. As far as I know, it's the first game designed to be played with multiple Treehouse sets (as opposed to multiple monochrome stashes), and it uses all the pieces, including all 3 dice. It uses the pyramids in a couple of novel ways, including the requirement that some of the pieces be opaque.
I played "Secret Project 3H-1" three times on Saturday. It's scheduled for release as part of the 3House booklet, which I believe is going to be unveiled at Origins.
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
I've long wanted to play ÜberChrononauts, a game played by combining Early American Chrononauts and Chrononauts. It lasts a lot longer than either game by itself, since the winner has to meet all three victory conditions (though not necessarily all at once). That, and the fact that I don't actually own Early American, has so far stymied my attempts to get it to the table. That is, until this weekend, when someone invited me to join their game on Saturday.
I played ÜberChrononauts once on Saturday, and regular Chrononauts once on Friday.
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
Gnostica is a game played with Icehouse pieces and a tarot deck. The tarot cards are laid out as territories on the board, and the pyramids are "minions" used to battle the other player's minions for control of the territories.
Rather than use a regular tarot deck marked with stickers to play this game, I created my own custom set of Gnostica cards (an example of which is in the image section). For Marcon, I printed up "Giant" versions of the cards, to be played with the Giant pyramids that were there. As far as I know, this was the first-ever game of "Giant Gnostica".
I played Giant Gnostica once on Saturday.
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
After Giant Gnostica, and while the giant pyramids were out, a couple of people taught me IceTowers with them. It turns out I'm not a very good IceTowers player, because I finished a distant last both times I played.
I played Giant IceTowers twice on Saturday.
|
6.
Board Game: Zendo
[Average Rating:7.30 Overall Rank:218]
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
No weekend of Looney Labs gaming would be complete without some Zendo. I taught it to a few people, so hopefully the legion of Zendo players will increase.
I played Zendo four times on Friday and once on Sunday.
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
After "the Lab" closed on Friday night, I wandered over to the regular gaming area, where a couple of fellow CABS members invited me to join a group playing Hex Hex. This is my only non-Looney game of the weekend.
I played Hex Hex once on Friday.
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
I recently got my own copy of Martian Coasters (to go with the expansion coaster I got in December), but I hadn't yet had the opportunity to play it.
I played Martian Coasters once on Saturday.
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
Martian Chess is one of the games in Playing with Pyramids that I hadn't yet played.
I played Martian Chess once on Saturday.
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
Along with Zombie Fluxx, EcoFluxx is one of two Fluxx variants I played for the first time over the weekend.
I played EcoFluxx once on Friday.
|
11.
Board Game: Fluxx
[Average Rating:5.74 Overall Rank:3598]
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
Of course, in a weekend of Looney Labs gaming, Fluxx is going to appear somewhere. People who came into the lab were given a sticker for each different game they played, with five stickers earning them a prize. Many people wanted to start with Fluxx, because that was a game they knew. Some brought in friends or family to learn the game.
I played Fluxx once on Friday, three times on Saturday, and once on Sunday.
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
Treehouse is another popular starter game. It's a very quick game that's rapidly climbing my list of most-played games. Even if I didn't enjoy playing it, I would be grateful to Treehouse for finally giving Looney Labs a successful model for selling icehouse pieces. But I do find it to be a fun game. I enjoy playing it during the downtime in longer games (which we did while we were playing Martian Chess).
I played Treehouse once on Friday, 5 times on Saturday, and 3 times on Sunday.
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
Are You a Werewolf? is the Looney Labs version of Werewolf. Last year at Origins, I played several games of AYAW that were extremely long and ponderous. The games I played at Marcon were exactly the opposite: they were very short and random.
I played Are You a Werewolf? once on Saturday and once on Sunday.
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
I would probably play Volcano more if I knew some Volcano players, but I managed a couple of teaching games over the weekend. In retrospect, I probably should have been nicer to the newbies, because I ran away with both games.
I played Volcano twice on Saturday.
|
|
|
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
|
The thing about teaching lots of different games is that I always forget how many cards are supposed to be dealt for a particular game. I'm amazed at how hard some games make it to look up that basic piece of information. Aquarius isn't one of those games, except when, as happened this weekend, the rules are left out of the box. I don't suppose it instills much confidence when the teacher of a game asks a table of newbies how many cards to deal out. But someone went and asked one of the Looneys and disaster was averted.
I played Aquarius once on Saturday and once on Sunday.
|
|
|
Posted Tue May 29, 2007 11:33 pm
Well, Zombie Fluxx has been released and lots of people have now logged it (I'm no longer on top, alas). I have not yet played the released game (though I have seen it), but several things were changed (for the better) from the prototype, and I'm looking forward to getting in a game.