my GenCon haul
It seems like many bloggers who attended GenCon this year are posting their lists of what they picked up. Since it's easier to post a list than to try to sum up the experience of the convention itself, I'll do the same.
Evil Vendetta Pie Fight, a game where the participants all play B-movie-style monsters throwing various pies at each other. It's a little, currently hand-made game that won me over with the simple phrase "targeted pie."
Campaign Coins, which I will use as counters in other games, like Cosmic Wimpout, and not as their original purpose as monetary game prop in fantasy and SF RPGs.
Terra Nova, a quick-playing colonization game where you try to wall off as much of a strange new land for yourself while preventing your competitors from doing likewise.
Wizard's Gambit, a game of collecting components and casting spells. The "gambit" in question is your ability to block off stacks of cards so that no one else can use them.
Wits and Wagers, a trivia game that's more about betting intelligently than it is about being knowledgeable. We played a full game with half a dozen strangers in 20 minutes. It's an ideal party game.
Burning Wheel, a fantasy RPG that I picked up because it was so raved about by the guys on the Podgecast. It ties roleplaying to the mechanics of the game almost directly, so your game sessions and character progression make more sense.
Villainy, a card game that we picked up because the art on the box looked cool and because Studio 2 was selling it so cheaply. No idea if it's any good or not.
RedHurst Academy of Magic, a magician's school setting using D&D 3.5 as a base. As with Villainy, I have no idea if it's any good--I picked it up from Studio 2 because the price was right.
Don't Lose Your Mind, the first major supplement to Don't Rest Your Head, the psychological sleep-deprived freakout RPG.
The quickstart rules for Hellas, an RPG that crosses Greek mythology with powered-armor combat. It looked cool, but I wasn't ready at the convention to pony up the $50 for the main book.
The Shab-al-Hiri Roach. A strange little RPG that I've heard a lot about. From the back cover of the book: "The Shab-al-Hiri Roach is a dark comedy of manners, lampooning academia and asking players to answer a difficult question - are you willing to swallow a soul-eating telepathic insect bent on destroying human civilization? No? Even if it will get you tenure?"
The Gamers: Dorkness Rising DVD. Based on how much I loved the first Gamers movie, I had to pick up this sequel.
Dust Devils, an indie western RPG. The game is designed for single sessions, rather than long campaigns, so it plays more like a movie than an epic series. The guy who created this game gave me the demo himself.
Misspent Youth, a punk-rock near-future RPG. The version I picked up was an ashcan, because the thing is still in beta. The book looks like a zine with better art.
Mechaton: Giant Fighty Robots, a game of mech combat, where the mechs and terrain are all small-scale and built with Lego bricks.
a/state, a dark future RPG. The tagline alone nearly sold me on the game: "You will never forget the City. But the City will forget you."
How to Host a Dungeon, an elaborate solo game of dungeon creation. It tries to duplicate the admittedly pathetic activity of sitting by yourself and creating a dungeon for your high-school gaming group back in 1986. What makes the game interesting is the way it builds a playable dungeon slowly and with logical progression rather than just throwing something together on a piece of graph paper.
A solo RPG adventure from Dark City Games. I'm intrigued by the idea of a pen-and-paper RPG that you can play by yourself, so I picked up one of their games.
Evil Vendetta Pie Fight, a game where the participants all play B-movie-style monsters throwing various pies at each other. It's a little, currently hand-made game that won me over with the simple phrase "targeted pie."
Campaign Coins, which I will use as counters in other games, like Cosmic Wimpout, and not as their original purpose as monetary game prop in fantasy and SF RPGs.
Terra Nova, a quick-playing colonization game where you try to wall off as much of a strange new land for yourself while preventing your competitors from doing likewise.
Wizard's Gambit, a game of collecting components and casting spells. The "gambit" in question is your ability to block off stacks of cards so that no one else can use them.
Wits and Wagers, a trivia game that's more about betting intelligently than it is about being knowledgeable. We played a full game with half a dozen strangers in 20 minutes. It's an ideal party game.
Burning Wheel, a fantasy RPG that I picked up because it was so raved about by the guys on the Podgecast. It ties roleplaying to the mechanics of the game almost directly, so your game sessions and character progression make more sense.
Villainy, a card game that we picked up because the art on the box looked cool and because Studio 2 was selling it so cheaply. No idea if it's any good or not.
RedHurst Academy of Magic, a magician's school setting using D&D 3.5 as a base. As with Villainy, I have no idea if it's any good--I picked it up from Studio 2 because the price was right.
Don't Lose Your Mind, the first major supplement to Don't Rest Your Head, the psychological sleep-deprived freakout RPG.
The quickstart rules for Hellas, an RPG that crosses Greek mythology with powered-armor combat. It looked cool, but I wasn't ready at the convention to pony up the $50 for the main book.
The Shab-al-Hiri Roach. A strange little RPG that I've heard a lot about. From the back cover of the book: "The Shab-al-Hiri Roach is a dark comedy of manners, lampooning academia and asking players to answer a difficult question - are you willing to swallow a soul-eating telepathic insect bent on destroying human civilization? No? Even if it will get you tenure?"
The Gamers: Dorkness Rising DVD. Based on how much I loved the first Gamers movie, I had to pick up this sequel.
Dust Devils, an indie western RPG. The game is designed for single sessions, rather than long campaigns, so it plays more like a movie than an epic series. The guy who created this game gave me the demo himself.
Misspent Youth, a punk-rock near-future RPG. The version I picked up was an ashcan, because the thing is still in beta. The book looks like a zine with better art.
Mechaton: Giant Fighty Robots, a game of mech combat, where the mechs and terrain are all small-scale and built with Lego bricks.
a/state, a dark future RPG. The tagline alone nearly sold me on the game: "You will never forget the City. But the City will forget you."
How to Host a Dungeon, an elaborate solo game of dungeon creation. It tries to duplicate the admittedly pathetic activity of sitting by yourself and creating a dungeon for your high-school gaming group back in 1986. What makes the game interesting is the way it builds a playable dungeon slowly and with logical progression rather than just throwing something together on a piece of graph paper.
A solo RPG adventure from Dark City Games. I'm intrigued by the idea of a pen-and-paper RPG that you can play by yourself, so I picked up one of their games.