BGG Con 2008

BGG Con made the news in DFW this year: Fox 4

What a great con this year! Robely and I headed over Wednesday evening to get things kicked off and try to catch up with some of our friends from out of state.Once Robely got settled into the room though, it was all over for her. (Sometimes I think she is solar powered)

I was amazed at how many people showed up prior to the con, and after a bit of catching up, set up a game of Jamaica with KA and two random passersby. I figured since I was demoing the game on Saturday, it would be good to have a few games under my belt. Mary and Paul proved to be good sports and my demo spiel. It was quick and easy enough that we got in a second game where JRod joined us. The game definitely seems to player with more players.

At this point I was about ready to call it a night and try and get an early start for Thursday's activities. As usual, JRod proved to be a bad influence, as we rounded up two other players for Hellgame. I managed to win this one because everyone else was convinced JRod was about to win. Somehow the clock had slid by and it was 3am and so I toodled off to bed before JRod could get me in anymore late night games.

8am seems to come awful early in the morning when you go to bed at 3. This turned out to be the trend for the con- meaning to go to bed early and finding out it was 3am. Ironically, the final night Saturday, turned out to be the night I did get to bed earlier. By Sunday I was worn out, but it was well worth it. But I get ahead of myself.

The next morning (did I mention it was early) JRod proved to be my hero of the con. He was able to get through registration faster than me and managed to snag the last copy of 2nd de Mayo as his entry prize. He knew I wanted it and snagged it for me. What a guy! I offered him my wife but we settled on my golden ticket. The way the con works is that you get a ticket you can redeem for one of the great games and items provided by the sponsors and you get a golden ticket for the prize drawings they do every night at midnight. This year they let you trade in your door prize ticket for yet another golden ticket. I was more than happy to trade one in the bush for the one in his hand, so to speak.

I've been out of the proverbial loop lately, as to the gaming world so I had no clue as to what had just been released at Essen and Ian was happy to fill me in as we waited in the registration line. But my philosophy has changed over the years. I have plenty of games in the closet that rarely see play, that I do not feel the need to get the latest and greatest. As a result I found myself not really drawn to the "Hot Release" room and ended up socializing more with DFW friends and friends I've made at other cons. People have been asking what my favorite game was and I have to admit it was the games themselves but seeing and meeting friends.

Some of the highlights:
Meeting and playing with Peter Hawes
Getting in some good old fashioned Ameritrash games
Spending some time with Eran, since he now lives in Israel
Seeing Robely having a good time at a gaming con
Robely doing well in the poker tournament (go girl!)
Demoing Jamaica for a largely receptive crowd.

Games played:
Jamaica (3x and demoed once)- pirates and racing- run out your guns
Hellgame- Jrod and I near to play this more often
Peter Hawes' new prototype- top secret
Battlestar Galactica- big disappointment for me
Heads of State- area control with some great card management involved
Weykick- Melby got me into this one. Sort of magnetic foosball
Risk 2210 (2x)- once with the Ames-Heinz total chaos option
Hill 218- great little card game filler
Schrille Stille- really interesting tool for this game involving secret balloting
Blood Bowl- humiliating loss to JJ for our league semi-final
Blood Feud in New York- cool economic engine for Ameritrash
Car Wars-good game for a brain dead Sunday morning

Hypocrisy in Austin

Below is an article that sort of got my fires going.

I don't agree with what he did, but it is sort of a case of "I don't agree with what you say, but I'll defend your right to say it"
The hypocrisy and troubling part is this the player was dismissed immediately, but yet between June and September of 2007, no less than 6 UT players were arrested (for various offenses). How many of them were kicked off the team?

It seems that you can break the law at UT and only get suspension. If you say the wrong thing, on the other hand, well the gloves come off.

Wonder if the ACLU will get involved...

Burnette apologizes to teammates for Facebook incident

By Suzanne Halliburton | Thursday, November 6, 2008, 04:33 PM

Updated with father’s comments: Backup center Buck Burnette has apologized to his now former teammates for posting an inflammatory text message regarding President-elect Barack Obama on his Facebook account.

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Other pieces of interest:

Texas player arrested for drug possession, another cited

Texas Player Becomes 6th Longhorn Arrested Since June

Brown institutes 'zero tolerance' policy as embroiled Texas opens camp

Fun Sunday

It was a good day today. It started with the extra hour granted by Daylight Savings. This gave Robely and I plenty of time to get ready to meet Dustin, Kevin and Kathryn for Dim Sum at a great place Dustin found called Kirin Court.



Dim Sum is the Chinese version of a taps bar. You go with in a bunch of friends (preferably 6-8 people) and the staff brings around carts of shumai, dumplings, tofu, soup and what not. And you have a huge lazy susan in the middle of the table so everyone can get some. Ummmm, so yummy.

Afterwards, it was off to Jrod's to meet up with Jrod, DH and Trimmer for a game of GMT's Successors. It was my first time playing the new and improved version, but not much had changed from the last version. While DH and Trimmer fought over control of Asia and Africa, I was able to quietly amass power in Greece and sneak in a win by the end of turn two.

And now the Simpson's Tree House of Horror. Me thinks my latest funk is come to a close.