Journaling With Tweets: GameStorm Day 3

Conventions Games GeekMom
Cathé Post

Dear Internet Diary,

Today my husband and I get a full day of gaming without kids! I’m a little excited. The only thing I hope happens today is lots of new games getting played…and maybe figuring out how to play the My Little Pony TCG. After the last two days of gaming, today has a lot to live up to.

Success! I convinced Tim to go over the rules for the My Little Pony TCG. This sight of seeing someone with their nose in a rule book is common place at a convention like this. Bonus: We figured out how to play the game!

It was nice to play Lords of Waterdeep again. The last time was at PAX over four years ago. This time we had the added bonus of the expansion.

I sometimes need to remind myself that I play games because they are fun, not because of winning, though those times are few and far between since becoming a parent. Most of the people I play games with play for fun; winning is just an added bonus or a forgotten addition to the act of playing.

Arena is a game that has been on my list since last GameStorm. So cute. So feisty. So…much like Final Fantasy Tactics and Pokemon Conquest which my husband and I both really enjoy. The idea of putting tutorials in the rules so the game can be learned in stages is an amazing idea.

 

Even playing with more difficult rules, this game failed to offer much in the way of challenge. It wasn’t very interesting. For the first time at the con, I said, “meh” about a game.

 

…and then came Gravwell. There is bluffing and card play similar to Love Letter and Eggs and Empires we previously played, except there are numbers and Periodic Table elements used to determine gravitational pull on ships. I was surprised how easy and kid-friendly the game was since the game is packaged to look like it is either for hardcore gamers or engineers.

Gravwell was popular enough we played it more than once. This was a game that was fun to lose. That doesn’t happen often.

Yes, flinging little meeples onto a card to score points is an excellent use for the little wooden characters. The game would take awhile to master…or would make an interesting drinking game.

One area that I have always visited (until this year) was the Cryptozoic area. Cryptozoic wasn’t there this year, but the guy who normally represents Cryptozoic started his own gaming company and had his own game, Event Horizon, to playtest in the GameLab. It was a miniatures game in the same vein as Warhammer, but with a space element. Considering part of the development input was done by an engineer, it should be no surprise that there is a lot of physics to take into account when playing this game: When a ship is in motion it stays in motion going the same direction as the previous turn. It was a difficult game, but still fun (I do like the miniatures).

This was a great day of gaming. Tomorrow is the last day. I’ll be glad to catch up on sleep, but sad this gaming extravaganza will be over.

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