Origins Game Fair 2008

[CandidGamera]

Columbus, Ohio plays host to the Origins Game Fair in late June.

http://www.originsgamefair.com

Board games, Wargames, CCGs, RPGs.. all manner of games are showcased.

I go every year (and have gone every year, with one exception, since 1998) and always spend too much money and have a great time.

Anybody else going?

I'll also take questions, if anyone has any..

[Just Some Guy]

Yep, I love my trips to Origins. It has become the definitive board gaming con in the US since Gencon's board gaming is not done as smoothly despite the better dealer room. I'll be spending the majority of the time in the CABs room which has become a mini-con to itself, but I've decided this year to enter the Settlers of Catan nation championship just to say I've done it. The other big event I want to do is play something with Dr. Reiner Knizia, one of the great board abstract board game designers and guest of honor again this year.

So Gamera, with the bankruptcy of Gencon do you expect the importance of Origins to increase?

They've expanded to a full day on Wednesday this year! I'm not sure how much more gaming I can fit in then since Wednesday is usually a quiet day where people just kind of hang out but I'm going for it.

[Lok]

I am planning on being there. My nephew may be joining me, I have been getting him and his brother into board games. Most of my time will be at the Puffing Billy tournament. 5 days of intensive train games. I will be totally fried by Sunday. :D

I also try to learn or at least try one new game each year, so I may be elsewhere occasionally.

[DSYoungEsq]

Fittingly, just as I'm about to leave Ohio, I think I'll end up going for the first time. :smack: If Dr. Knizia is there, I'm going, cause I love his games, even if it DOES usually take about 5 times through to really learn the rules. :D

[Just Some Guy]

I met Dr. Knizia once for about three seconds at a previous Origins (my first one, as a matter of fact). Unfortunately I was tied up with another game so I didn't get to say much to him. A couple of years ago he was going to do a seminar on mathematics in game design that was canceled at the last minute to my disappointment.

I was doing my pre-registration the other day and noticed that there weren't any "Play with the pros" events which had been a great way to meet some of the guests of honor. For some reason they never send me a preregistration booklet no matter how many times I fill out the form for it so I don't know if they're gone or not but keep an eye out for that, DSYoungEsq. I've heard that the Doctor is a blast to play Lord of the Rings against (with him as Sauron, of course).

So, Lok, which style train games for you? 18xx? Crayon rails? Every possible Age of Steam map?

[CandidGamera]

So Gamera, with the bankruptcy of Gencon do you expect the importance of Origins to increase?

No, I really don't - WotC just announced that it is going to be an official sponsor of GenCon this year, and I'd say that GenCon's future outlook has improved considerably because of that. I am hoping Origins effort to re-brand itself will pick up attendance a little.

Not that there aren't loads of people that come already, but it's always nice to have more.

I look forward to attending the Smithee Awards for many years to come.

[Just Some Guy]

No, I really don't - WotC just announced that it is going to be an official sponsor of GenCon this year, and I'd say that GenCon's future outlook has improved considerably because of that. I am hoping Origins effort to re-brand itself will pick up attendance a little.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I could have sworn that WotC (and by extension Hasbro) was one of the major investors in GenCon growing out of the old TSR connection (I think I've seen tax evasion scams with a less complicated maze of companies...). They've certainly been a show sponsor for a a while time. I don't see this as a real change yet; a year or two down the road is where I suspect we'll see the real problems depending on how things go with their creditors. I'm not certain if that's going to translate to some companies refocusing their energy toward Origins as their American centerpiece or if they're going to try to ride out Gencon's bankruptcy.

[Lok]

So, Lok, which style train games for you? 18xx? Crayon rails? Every possible Age of Steam map?
Mostly crayon games, although about the only railroad games I don't play are the 18xx. The one kind of game I am consistently bad at is stock manipulation, so I have never tried those. I am actually pretty good at the other rail games, but not quite good enough to win the Puffing Billy championship.

[CandidGamera]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I could have sworn that WotC (and by extension Hasbro) was one of the major investors in GenCon growing out of the old TSR connection (I think I've seen tax evasion scams with a less complicated maze of companies...). They've certainly been a show sponsor for a a while time. I don't see this as a real change yet; a year or two down the road is where I suspect we'll see the real problems depending on how things go with their creditors. I'm not certain if that's going to translate to some companies refocusing their energy toward Origins as their American centerpiece or if they're going to try to ride out Gencon's bankruptcy.

I thought WotC had let their official sponsorship lapse since Peter Adkison left WotC to run GenCon. I may be misremembering.

[Hoopy Frood]

I'll be at Origins, and I convinced my girlfriend to come along as well.

I haven't actually registered for events yet, I need to that. We're planning on doing that tomorrow.

[MsWhatsit]

Just Some Guy, are you a regular CABS attendee? (I have no idea if you're local or not, but you mentioned the CABS room at Origins, so I thought I'd ask...)

MrWhatsit and I have been CABS members for a few years now. He's there for pretty much every meeting. Not sure if we'll be able to make it to Origins this year, though.

[Just Some Guy]

I'm not and there's nobody local for me to play with, unfortunately. I just acknowledge that they have the best set up for board gamers at Origins by far.

Well, except for train gamers; it's hard to beat that Puffing Billy set up since they've got their area running like the Italian railroads under Mussolini.

[CandidGamera]

Heading up there tomorrow - maybe I'll bump into one of you folks up there. I'll be the guy hauling around a dark blue backpack with the initials 'JRF' on it.

[Hoopy Frood]

Heading up there tomorrow - maybe I'll bump into one of you folks up there. I'll be the guy hauling around a dark blue backpack with the initials 'JRF' on it.

We're heading out tomorrow as well. (We'll be leaving ChiTown at about 10:00 AM or so.) I don't know how to describe myself in any way in particular but we are doing the Last Man Standing Cthulhu LARP, the paranoia LARP, and Karaoke on Friday night, so if your any of those, we might run into each other. We're also doing some tabletops RPG's, but I can't remember when and since they've closed down registration, I can't see what we're registered for anymore.

Most of the people I know at the con will be doing RPGA events. I decided to do other things. A bunch of us were all Living Greyhawk players, but since I never played too many core modules, I didn't have a lot of desire to finish up the core arc since I wouldn't know any of the background story. Also, since my girlfriend wasn't involved in LG, I'd be basically abandoning her for a good portion of the con. Not that it'd be that big of a deal, but since I'm the one who got her back into gaming, it'd be nice to actually game with her.

(She's was an English major, so most of her geek pursuits were literary based--i.e. graphic novels, online comics. As far as gaming, she was pretty casual. In college she did tabletop Vampire. However, the GM had a thing for her so he would always have his NPC's hit on her. It got so bad she created a lesbian just so his NPC's would leave her alone. Of course, the GM just created a lesbian NPC who oddly enough had a thing for my girlfriend's character.... Needless to say, she basically swore off gaming at that point, but I got her back into it, even though due to me living 50 miles away, I've never actually gamed with her.)

[CandidGamera]

We're heading out tomorrow as well. (We'll be leaving ChiTown at about 10:00 AM or so.) I don't know how to describe myself in any way in particular but we are doing the Last Man Standing Cthulhu LARP, the paranoia LARP, and Karaoke on Friday night, so if your any of those, we might run into each other. We're also doing some tabletops RPG's, but I can't remember when and since they've closed down registration, I can't see what we're registered for anymore.

Most of the people I know at the con will be doing RPGA events. I decided to do other things. A bunch of us were all Living Greyhawk players, but since I never played too many core modules, I didn't have a lot of desire to finish up the core arc since I wouldn't know any of the background story. Also, since my girlfriend wasn't involved in LG, I'd be basically abandoning her for a good portion of the con. Not that it'd be that big of a deal, but since I'm the one who got her back into gaming, it'd be nice to actually game with her.

(She's was an English major, so most of her geek pursuits were literary based--i.e. graphic novels, online comics. As far as gaming, she was pretty casual. In college she did tabletop Vampire. However, the GM had a thing for her so he would always have his NPC's hit on her. It got so bad she created a lesbian just so his NPC's would leave her alone. Of course, the GM just created a lesbian NPC who oddly enough had a thing for my girlfriend's character.... Needless to say, she basically swore off gaming at that point, but I got her back into it, even though due to me living 50 miles away, I've never actually gamed with her.)

I don't usually get anywhere near Karaoke or LARP, so we may not run into one another. ;) I'm mostly doing boardgames and Superhero RPGs, though my one guaranteed event is the Smithee Awards on Saturday night. Probably won't haul the backpack to that, but I plan to wear my spankin'-new Guild of Calamitous Intent t-shirt..

[Marjorie]

I am in a minivan on I75 heading to Columbus from Atlanta. My fiance and I are primarily board gamers and will mostly be found in the CABS room. Also, eating wonderful nummy ice cream at North Market.

I have red hair and glasses, and will hopefully be playing long, thinky Martin Wallace games and lots of Tichu. Come say hello!

[Lok]

Going down tomorrow morning myself. Nice being only 2 1/2 hours away. Just wish the people I was going to room with hadn't all had to cancel. :p

I will mostly be in Puffing Billy, big guy with a beard and a brown leather hat. And the occasional Hawaiian shirt.

[Just Some Guy]

I start my drive in about an hour. I'm just burning some CD's so I'll have something to listen to on the way and waiting for some dinner to show up.

As stated I'll be in the CABS room the bulk of the time. I'll be wearing my Schlock Mercenary t-shirt tomorrow and I'll be hauling a blue cooler around with me all weekend (sodas in the hall are way too expensive). I'm also going to continue my habit from previous years of getting pictures of the games I'm playing as a photo journal of the con.

[MsWhatsit]

MrWhatsit has been making noises about not going, but I think I am going to kick his butt out of the house and tell him to just go already. Perhaps Friday or Saturday night... He's a tall guy with extremely long strawberry blond hair. If I can find my SDMB t-shirt, I'll have him wear it for ease of identification! If he does go, he'll most likely spend his time in the CABS board room.

[CandidGamera]

Ah, hell, I figure I can trust you guys not to murder me.

Here's a photo, for easy identification :

http://www.elvenempire.com/jrfnow.JPG

[Just Some Guy]

Candid, I'm about 75% certain that I played a game with you but you meet so many people at the con who can tell except about the most eccentric. If some large crazy guy offered you candy then it was me.

[CandidGamera]

Heheh. No, no offers of candy that I recollect - my path didn't cross with any Dopers of which I am aware...

[Lok]

I spent far too much time at Puffing Billy trying to win at Eurorails. Never did manage to even get 3rd at it. :p Otherwise it was a pretty good con. Had some good games, made a couple of finals, and made the top 10 of the Puffing Billy list.

But I never did make it up to the CABS room.

[Hoopy Frood]

I exposed myself to three new tabletop systems, two of which (Candlewick Manor and Demon Hunters) I particularly enjoyed.

First, I had never done Call of Cthulhu. It's an interesting system, though, from what little I played it seems to spend a significant portion on the puzzle solving/survival aspect of a tabletop RPG and sacrifices the role-play a bit.

I also played the "Candlewick Manor" subset of the "Monsters and Other Childish Things" system. In the original Monsters system, you play as children that control monsters with unique powers. However, the monsters sometimes have ideas of their own (frequently involving eating people). In Candlewick Manor, the powers that monsters have are instead given to the children directly, and the children themselves are orphans who don't remember their lives before they were orphaned, save some echoes of memory. Think Little Orphan Annie meets Call of Cthulhu. I got to play a girl who sees dead people (and is kind of sick of it) and can order them around. We discovered a decade-old coverup of murder and attempted genetic experimentation. My character ended up being kind of the de facto lead since I was the only one who could interact with (and for that matter see) the ghost of the person who was murdered.

Then there was Demon Hunters, a system using the Cortex core system. I had played Cortex in the guise of the Serenity system once at a con, and even have the Serenity RPG book, so I was pretty familiar with how the system worked (though, they've tweaked Cortex a bit since then). The main premise is the struggle between the agents of Heaven and Hell and the two major mortal groups that work for each side. It's kind of an In Nomine meets Call of Cthulhu meets Kung Fu cinema meets Men In Black meets Get Smart meets Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It contains everything from awakened trees to syphilitic vampires to junk monks (i.e. they're preferred method of fighting is punches to the 'nads) to the more mundane normal (but well trained) humans.