Day 2 of GenCon has come and gone, marking the half way point of the convention. The wife and I set out with the plan to finish up our Cheese Weasel con-quest, and made extra efforts to speak with the people at all the booths we attended. Here's some games and systems that really stood out for us.
Filsinger Games - Champions of the Galaxy
When first walking up to the booth, we saw this to be a game about wrestling. These have never caught my eye before, but for journalism and my own (non existent) cred as a game reviewer, we went up and asked for a demo. The next 15 minutes were by far the most fun I had playing anything at the con. Champions of the Galaxy captures wrestling's essence, and presents it in a very well designed very well thought out, very FUN game. You pick a character, either based on an actual wrestling legend, or a fictional one created by the designers depending on what system you're playing under, and proceed to roll dice against another wrestler while referencing tables for what kind of move was performed, and how much, if at all, it hurt. Momentum carries through the match but things can quickly turn around leading to fantastic upsets. Go seek this one out and give it a try, and tell them we sent you over. www.cotgonline.com
K Studio
If you want a graphic way to represent something in your game, you can commision K Studio to create works of art for you. They seem to specialize in creating character portraits, but stressed to me that they also do things like environments, space ships, creatures, basically anything that you can describe to them. After filling out a description sheet, they will email you to let you know they have begun working on it, and in 7 - 14 days and a very low fee of $30, you'll have your very own digitally created representation. Some of their work was very impressive, while others looked a little off in their facial features. Swing by and check them out.
Lone Wolf Development - Army Builder / Card Vault
I wanted to like these guys. Their software looks very slick, and what they show looks very impressive. But after speaking with one of their staff running a demo machine, it became apparent that some of their databases were running behind and they didn't know a whole lot about the games they were advertising as being supported. We asked specifically about Magic: The Gathering and Warmachine for the two programs, two of which we are very familiar with. They admitted to me that the person who creates the Warmachine database was behind on his entry, so it was not up to date. We weren't able to get a clear answer as to how out of date it was, but they didn't seem happy about it. They told us that MTG could potentially be updated within hours of being made public information, but weren't able to tell me how quickly the last set was updated because they didn't work on that particular game. From what I saw, it takes a lot of setup to teach the program what can and can't be included in an army, and they weren't able to tell me what kind of rules were already setup in the program. Basically, if you already have something out there that does this all for you, there's no reason to even check these people out. Stay away.
D20 Pro - Gaming Software
These guys, on the other side of the booth, knew exactly what they were talking about and put on a very neat demo of combat for us in their GM / Player Interface software. The software allows a GM to take a picture (say, from Google Earth, or a scanned map or anything), lay a customizable grid on top of it, place monsters that are pre-programmed into the game from the D&D 3.5 Monster Manual, and then allow players to connect and interact with his world. The setup process didn't look all that bad, and the software handles all the numbers for you once you get them setup. If you're looking for something to run an adventure on and be in a computer enviornment with your players (say, to play over the internet), check these guys out at www.d20pro.com.
Table Top Adventures
Speaking of DM tools, we also found Tabletop Adventures, a company that makes its living by helping game masters with all the little details, literally. They put out books that have descriptions of various locales such as dungeon rooms, cities, taverns, and caves, providing a better atmosphere to bring your players deeper into your story. Instead of walking down a dimly lit corridor, Tabletop Adventures adds rotting carpets growing with pungent mildew, adding something your players can imagine to smell, drawing them in. They had materials available in both book and digital formats, and even soundtracks to add a bustling city to the background. Visit their side at www.tabletopadventures.com.
That's all for tonight, folks. Tomorrow We'll be delving into True Dungeon and hope to check out a few of the Saturday events, so check back in with us here and on Twitter @videogamingat30 to see the latest neat stuff we find. Happy Gaming!
