Day Two

I apologize for the late post on Day Two of GenCon, but sometimes gaming sessions go late. Deel Widdit.

I had one goal for today: Get Wil Wheaton's autograph on my laptop.  I figured this wasn't a request he received on a regular basis, so I brought a white paint pen with me.

That is my autograph on the pen.  My gift to Wil, if you will.  (Sorry, I hate myself for that)

I chatted briefly to Wil while he graciously signed my laptop.  If any of you are wondering what Mr. Wheaton is like in real life he is a super chill dude and an all around excellent human being.  A little bit of chit chat, he commented on my Penny Arcade hoodie and then started to hand the pen back.  I explained that it was his to keep and I had autographed it for him.  He looked at it and said, "Of course you did."  We fist bumped and I departed.  Before any of you dickbags start griping about the fist bump let me explain something to you.  I am a big fan of the fist bump over the handshake.  It is more sanitary.  I assume Mr. Wheaton washes his hands after he touches his dick, but I have no proof of this.  So the fist bump is the perfect replacement for the handshake.

Here is the laptop.

I have no goddamn idea why blogspot is insisting this pic be vertical.  I attempted to upload a vertical copy assuming it would go landscape, since the landscape version went portrait, but no such luck.  Just tilt your head to the right.


I demoed quite a few games today.  I tried Travesty Games newest game "DeathFear".  I have KillBall and PsiDuel from travesty and those are two solid games.  PsiDuel is an excellent card game that plays very quickly, check it out if you can find a copy.  DeathFear was alright, nothing special.  To be perfectly honest the best part of it was the packaging.  It came in a distressed wooden box with arcane symbols on the top.  The board itself was cloth.  The rest of the pieces were serviceable, but nothing special.  Kind of like the game itself.  You play as crypt robbers collecting parts of a long dead demon, collect 6 parts and you become the demon.  The demon countdown then begins as the demon tries to kill the rest of the party within a time limit.  The combat is simple and done purely through cards.  If any of you readers are fans of Travesty Games it may be worth a spin, if you have never heard of Travesty Games, you should probably skip it.

They did have an interesting game concept at their booth called "Shindig Machine"  I didn't play this, but may pick up a deck (it is in alpha) just because the concept seemed interesting.  The cards are nothing but pictures and playing through the game tells a visual story. No idea if it is any good, but it was certainly intriguing.

The star of the day,(with the exception of Mr. Wheaton.) and the reason this post is so late is a game called Leviathans.

It is an alternate history hex grid based strategic naval battle game with a twist. (fuck you m. night) In this alternate history a Polish scientist discovers a goo that levitates objects when electrified.  Kind of steam punk warships that fly.  This is the first game that I purchased immediately after demoing.

The minis are quite detailed and rather large.

The base game is England vs. France with four ships per side.  A battleship, a cruiser and two destroyers each.  There are several different stat cards that add variety to the ships and require different play styles.  The two available expansions (one English, one French) double the ships for each side and add even more ship stat cards.  Planned expansions are Germany and Italy next, with Russia, America and an advanced Captain's rule book coming after that.  There is a preview of some of the advanced Captain's rules included in the base game.

A nice addition to the game is the lore, the box comes with two novellas, and plenty of flavor.

All the dice are 12 sided, but some function as d4, d6, d8 and d10 as well as d12.  The string is for line of sight and even though it is just a piece of string, it was a nice inclusion.

The quality and artwork are excellent, and the game itself is a blast to play.  Plenty of depth and strategy without becoming overly complicated.

On a completely unrelated note, the first season of Power Rangers has 60 damn episodes.

Quite a few more people today.

Gotta love a Dalek

Not enough Farscape cosplay going on.

Not sure about this, might be Halo, might be something else. Whatever it was the quality was excellent. If you know let me know.

The Dungeons & Dragons booth (WotC) is all Underdark themed this year.  Here is a little Drizzt.

Warmachine is kind of like 40k, but steam powered and far more affordable to play.  I haven't played it yet but the steam mech was wicked awesome.

I haven't seen a lot of quality costumes yet, but the costume contest is on Saturday so I expect to have plenty of cosplay pictures tomorrow.