Origins Game Fair Report Part 1

This weekend I headed out to the Origins Game Fair with Tim of Gothridge and Dan from the Monday night gaming group. The drive was about 3.5 hours and we got into check-in around 10am. Word to the wise, PRE-REGISTER. The line was a killer and it took us an hour to get through it. By the time we checked in the line has grown to probably a two hour wait.

Dan grabbed some card game events he wanted and we all signed up for a 8pm DnD Next event. Another word for the wise. Don't sign up for a 8pm event when you have a 3 hour+ drive afterwards.  Then we went to the dealer's area to see what could be had. The first booth we stumbled on was SJ Games and Dan roped me into a munchkin demo game. It was Dan, a nice SJ Games rep, a little girl, and I playing the game. Tim wanted to stretch his legs continued further into the vendor area.

Just before another SJ Games staffer handed me a couple of munchkin bookmarks. If you don't know, these bookmarks are also Munchkin game pieces. The rules are printed on them and you can use them in a variety of way. One of the bookmarks was an Adventure Time! bookmark. The idea was to ask them the time and if they gave an expected answer "It 11:00am" Then you can shout No it is Adventure Time! Mathematica! You then get a Door and Treasure card to put into your hand. But if the person says "It's Adventure Time!" you lose a level.

Figuring that the SJ Game rep was very aware of this, I decided to play a long con. We started playing around 11:15 and Dan had to leave for an event at noon. Shortly in the game I asked Dan about this and got him to tell everybody what time he needed to leave. I noticed that Dan didn't have a watch or his cell phone handy but the SJ Games staffer had a watch. During the next 15 minute I checked my cell phone and reminded Dan about the time. Then 20 minutes I played my initial cards and figured I could stock up with two money. I brought up Dan's deadline and causally asked the SJ Games staffer the time. He looked at the his watch and said it was 11:35. I slapped my hand on the table and loudly announced "No! It adventure time! Mathematica!"

The look on his face was precious when he realized I played him. And then he broke out in a big smile. When I showed Dan and the girl the bookmark they all busted laughing. With a grin I collected my door card and treasure. However don't feel bad for the staffer as it was he who won the game in the end.

After that Dan went to his event and I went shopping. Early on I ran into the Gamescience booth and Lou Zocchi. I filled him in on what was going at Judges Guild and gave him one of my test printouts of the new Wilderlands Map 1. I think he got a kick out of my story about how the Roll20 Virtual Tabletop is using a quantum noise generator as a source for random numbers. I picked up a package of huge numbered 3/8" hex sheets that included some blank wargame chits. In addition to dice the Gamescience booth has an assortment of older material including some Judges Guild. If you are looking for some mint copies he has both the original CSIO and the CS of the World Emperor for a pricey $200.

Continuing on, I ran across the KenzerCo booth. I finally picked the copy of Bag War Saga I wanted. I also admired the sheer awesomeness of their 5th edition Hackmaster books. I passed on buying them. I could afford them but I knew the chances of me using them were near nil.

Then I picked up some pretty dice for my wife, Kelly Anne. Some she keeps for herself and other she will use as toppers on the hair sticks she makes for sale. I found some Lego mini-figures for Gregory my youngest, and bought some Star Trek Heroclixs for my Jamie my oldest son.

At my first Origins I bought some miniature walls and fencing from Acheson Creations. They make their miniatures out of  tough plastic that holds a lot of detail. I looked at their booth again and found they had a bunch of medieval buildings this time. I bought a couple and under pressure from Tim bought some yurt. He said I got to have yurts in my game. Actually they are Pictish round houses but still.

I found a couple of vendors selling D&D and Pathfinder miniatures and bought a couple. I finally have a set of figures I can use for animated statues. It was probably way too expensive I bought one of larger miniatures to surprise the J Squad with at the Gold Star Anime.

Finally in the last rows I found the Columba Games booth. As readers know, Harn is one of my guilty pleasures. I been collecting Harn stuff since 1985. Not only that Columbia Games is always outstanding to deal with. Grant Dalgliesh was there and graciously let me prattle on about Harn for a few minutes. I thanked him for all the great work he and his dad has done over the years. It was a interesting conversation and it was great to see the human side of a company that I been dealing with for a long time.I aided their cause by getting Dan and Tim to buy a couple of the Harn books Columbia Games had at their booth.

The next post will be about DnD Next.