RogerBW's Blog

Back to Dragonmeet, since it was happening (and I was being paid). All images are cc-by-sa.

I was demonstrating for Wotan Games again; we were selling War of the Nine Realms.

It's a surprisingly effective game, sitting in that hybrid space between chess-like war-ish games and more conventional dudes-on-a-map. (I first demonstrated it at Expo last year, and liked it enough that I backed the Kickstarter; I seem to be responsible for 57 out of the 81 recorded plays on BoardGameGeek.)

This chap was carrying a clamshell package full of… official Fallout™ bottle caps. Yes, really.

I played or supervised several games, including this four-player setup.

The Blood Cauldron rule is particularly good for games with more than two players: while it's always tempting to let the other players beat each other up and then finish off the winner, with the Blood Cauldron (you gain a point for each wound you do, and you win when you get to 18) a player who sits out will find the others have won even without getting as far as killing each other's leaders.

The Svartalfar player came from behind to a runaway win, especially once she got the hang of combining her forces' special abilities.

We were set up right next to the Bring and Buy, which was doing great business.

The trade hall had wider aisles than last time, with attendance up by 50% from last year; it never felt empty, but it also never felt crowded. The venue isn't great; it's very obvious that the hotel could easily fill its conference space even if Dragonmeet weren't there, so they make very little effort to accommodate the show. Everyone has to pay full whack for parking, wifi is hugely expensive (and so goes unused), the most basic bar meals start at £15, and so on. There's talk of moving to Olympia in 2020, in which case the hotel really won't be trying next year.

Hmm, didn't I just see this in the Bundle of Holding's Indie Cornucopia 6? Yeah, $25 in PDF (or the same price for it and a whole bunch of other indie games while the Bundle is still going, until 10 December I think). Still, I suppose you might decide it's the Best Game Ever.

A Best of Essen section like last year… but with none of the games I would have considered "best". Still, there weren't really games at Essen this year which were being widely lauded the way there have been before.

If I weren't working I don't think I'd bother, but then I've been to Essen and bought the recent boardgame releases that I want there. And if I wanted new role-playing material I'd come here anyway.