Thursday, August 14, 2008

Gen Con 2008 Thursday

Today was my long day of running Commodore games and Cosmic Encounter. Had a bit of a hiccup finding my tables and getting set up; I had missed the location of an outlet that was behind the Train gamers' booth, partially because they had run their power over to the Rogue Judges' area and partially because I didn't search hard enough.

After that, though, everything went swimmingly. For M.U.L.E. I had 6 players and an observer in the early session and 7 players and an observer in the afternoon. Everyone seemed to have a good time, even the player who accidentally lost a M.U.L.E. in round 1 and was pretty much out of the game afterwards. I need to work on my instructions a bit. (I think an intro video would be cool.)

Sadly, nobody came to play Oil Barons. I may have to leave it out next year in favor of something like Archon.

CE Thursday was a reasonable success, but only 9 of my 16 players showed up for it. One of them brought his EON set, which was very cool. I played with three other guys on my half-built Mayfair set.

The only blemish on the day was that I was scheduled to play in this year's edition of Paranoia Trek after running all of these events but fell asleep back in the room after getting some dinner. I missed one of my favorite ongoing Gen Con events! :(

New Rule: No gaming after running eight hours, even if it's just board and computer games.

Big thanks to Odie and Brian for helping me haul stuff to and from the con. I think it's time to look into a sturdier folding dolly, though. And more bungees/straps.

Tomorrow: A glimpse of the Dealer's Room, Car Wars, Robo Rally, and perhaps some actual Paranoia...?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We missed you at Paranoia Trek! Though we did see you on the local news. They were interviewing the guys dressed as Jack Sparrow and a stormtrooper and you were walking in the background.

This year the clones were being evaluated by the Don-U-LLD, who gave them various projects - er, missions. The losing team went to the boardroom, where one clone was vaporized.

The most popular part of the adventure was when the Away Team had to go the GSN sector. Here's a cut and paste from the text:

“One hundred clones were surveyed. Top six answers on the board to this question: Name a fun activity you would do a lot more of if it wasn’t so treasonous.”

The captain with the highest rated correct answer will get to go first with their team. The game will be like Family Feud, with a couple of differences. After a wrong answer, or “strike”, the other team gets control of the board, and can keep guessing answers until they get them all or get a “Strike”. When one team has three strikes, the other team gets one more chance to get a correct answer. Oh, and “strikes” are literal – in the form of a wound from Klin-G-ONN truncheons. Come to think of it, they’ll probably get a wound for any correct answer other than #1.

The answers on the board are:

1. No treasonous activity is fun (90)
2. Secret society meetings (2)
3. Using my mutant power (2)
4. Spreading rumors (2)
5. Sabotage (2)
6. Self-abuse (2)

After someone gives a variation of the #1 answer, Daws-O-NNN will exclaim, “#1 answer with 90 respondents – coincidentally, the same number of clones who survived the survey!”

When the Feud is over, it’s time for Match Game! Daws-O-NNN will explain that each captain must pick one team member to supply an answer, while their teammates and their opponents will each try to match the answer. Each team will get points for a correct match. As on Match Game, there will be questions A and B:

A. When the beautiful Vulcan clone was exposed to radiation, I had to cover her entire body with _____.

B. The Internal Security officer arrested Sulu for smuggling when he discovered a tribble in his _____.

Correct answers get points, losing answers get truncheons, funny answers will probably get both.

The final round is the 25,000 Credit Square (only four categories instead of six for the pyramid.) The team captains must decide who partners with whom, and which member will give/receive clues. Teams have 60 seconds to complete the category. (Note: I actually let them go for as long as it was funny.) The categories are:

A. Seven of 69 (“Describe these words or phrases that sound obscene but aren’t”)
1. Captain’s Log
2. Wormhole
3. Jeffries Tube
4. Saucer Separation
5. Warp Core Breach
6. Four Q
7. Guinancologist

B. Demolition Derby (“Describe these pilots or drivers who have destroyed fewer vehicles than Commander Riker”)
1. Toonces
2. Amelia Earhart
3. Snoopy
4. Crash Test Dummy
5. Blues Brothers
6. Dale Ernhart Sr.
7. Nick Nolte

C. U.S.S and Them (“Name these Federation Starships. All names begin with U.S.S.”)
1. U.S.S. Britney Spears
2. U.S.S. Ann Coulter
3. U.S.S. Michael Vick
4. U.S.S. George Lucas
5. U.S.S. Heather Mills
6. U.S.S. Osama Bin Laden
7. U.S.S. Pol Pot

When time expires, the host will apologize for not reading the entire question “Name these Federation Starships in the Mirror Universe”.

D. Fire Ants of Death (“Describe these things that you’d find at a Klin-G-ONN picnic.”)
1. Potato salad
2. Brie
3. Teacups
4. Spinach quiche
5. Moist towelettes
6. Chocolate mousse
7. Harvey’s Bristol Cream

As the answers are given, the Klin-G-ONN guards will become more and more agitated, thumping their truncheons into their palms. When it’s over, Daws-O-NNN will say that it appears the Klin-G-ONNs want to give a special prize backstage to this couple. After they are beaten to incapacitation, total up the scores.

Hope we see you next year for Paranoia Trek!

David Wulatin
Evil Fleet Productions

Michael Miller said...

::sniffle::

Sounds awesome, as usual. I love doing the game show thing. (I played in a game called "25,000 Gold Piece Ziggurat" one year, part of which was Pyramid in 2nd Ed. AD&D. A buddy and I took the prize with clues like: "I regenerate and I hate adventurers." (What a Troll says.)

Next year I think I'll make Thursday "buy stuff and play Paranoia" day. :)

Thanks for the description! See you next year!