Origins 2011

[Pentegarn]

So the first day was a bit uneventful, the vendor hall does not open till day 2 (which is today) so there was nothing exciting to take pictures of. I spent most of the day teaching people to play Thunderstone and Defenders of the Realm. There should be all sorts of things to take pictures of today though.

So more to come

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Patiently waiting.

[Pentegarn]

So I had pics of the vendor hall, but the stupid camera phone I was using erased all but 2 of them so I will have to try and retake the better ones again, for now though here's the 2 I took of the AEG booth

AEG makes a lot of non collectable deck building games like Thunderstone, this year they were demoing the 2 newest Thunderstone expansions and a game called Nightfall where you can chain play off of others cards as long as your cards color matches their card's secondary color

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110623_112449.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110623_112459.jpg

I did win a prize for winning a game of Innovation also, but those pics disappeared

Also the way Steve Jackson Games are doing the qualifiers for the Munchkin US nationals this year was a lame cash grab. The qualifier used to be a series of 16 preliminaries, the top 2 players from each qualifier moved on to the semifinals. This year however, you get a score based off of your level when the game ends, if you win, you get 20 points, everyone else gets a point for each level they gained in play. In order to qualify, you have to pay more than one entry fee to accumulate points because they are letting the top 32 cumulative scores in, so a bad player could still qualify for the finals if they entered and paid for all 16 qualifiers. So in essence they can buy themselves a spot in the semifinals. I refuse to do that, so this will be the first time since I started going to Origins that I did not qualify for the semifinals in Munchkin :(

Hopefully I get some non erased Loony Labs pics because you have to see these kooks in action. It is like the Woodstock wannabee convention got lost and wandered into Origins :lol

EDIT: I think as soon as I take todays pics I will send the straight to my FB account so they don't get deleted

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

I'm going to log on later and give them some zugs.

[Pentegarn]

More pics

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110624_103635.jpg

This sign just made me laugh "Hooker Dice" :lol

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110624_104236.jpg

Rob Baldur, the writer of the Erfworld (http://www.erfworld.com/) webcomic (above signing my Erfworld books) was a pretty cool guy, we talked about what a cesspool the internet is :lol

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110624_111753.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110624_111735.jpg

Imma call it now, this is the best game of Origins, a velvety smooth easy to play deck building game called Ascension, now go out and play it... now!

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110624_152744.jpg

This was the Andy versus Everybody event at Loony Labs, just look at these guys, and yes, the faint smell of pot is detectable from many of the people volunteering there

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110624_144755.jpg

(center) Andy Looney himself, creator of Fluxx, Chrononauts, Aquarius, many Icehouse games, and so on. Nice guy who pretty much does admit he likes the weed

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110624_123635.jpg

Mayfare Games literally took up about 20% of the vendor hall, and they are always crowded because people get ribbon mania and try to get all the ribbons that have the materials from Cataan on them.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110624_113322.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110624_113234.jpg

These games are iffy to me because some of them end up so imbalanced, but this one was drawing a crowd, and I saw several people had bought copies at the event to play in open gaming and the board room



So these 2 were posing for pictures and I had to get in on that

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110624_181331.jpg

Then this guy suddenly also had to get involved too!

I am going to hopefully grab some more pics of what I try out and of the Board Room today.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

I want a fez

[executioneer]

we should all get fezzes before comicon 2012

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

We should get half fez half world war 1 german helmet hats.

[Pentegarn]

FRAG is a first person shooter board game by Steve Jackson

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q1/Pentegarn/IMG_20110625_193246.jpg

[OxBlood]

Did you catch a glimpse of Quarriors! by any chance? Wizkids publishes that one, I think that´s the game I´m excited about the most right now :)

Thanks for the pics by the way :)

[Pentegarn]

I did but I forgot to get a pic of it in all the fun, it will win an Origins award next year I would dare say though. I demo'd a 3 player game of it and it was pretty great

[OxBlood]

Good to hear that, can´t wait for August...IF it ships to my country then...hope so.