Brent Mair: Coverage of the 2007 GAMA Trade Show

This year I was able to attend the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas for a few hours, and I have finally gotten around to writing a report for you.  This was my third trip to GTS in the last five years and unfortunately my shortest trip as I had only one day off of work with which to make my visit.  At five p.m. Monday afternoon, I got off work, jumped in the car, and headed for sunny Vegas.  I arrived well after the sun went down and finally reached my room at midnight.  On my most recent previous trip, I had not attended any seminars so I hoped this year I might be able to attend a few before the halls opened at noon.  I got up after fewer than six hours of sleep in order to get my badge early and see what was going on in the hospitality suite.  The result? Not much at that early hour.

At nine I was able to attend a session by Michael Stackpole entitled “Breaking into Freelance Writing.” It was an informative 50 minutes and if I heard correctly, that presentation and others will be available through the Pulp Gamer podcasts.

It appeared the show was less attended than last year, likely due to a number of retailers attending Games Expo in March.  There were still enough retailers to crowd the two halls early on, especially in the larger booths.

I was able to spend only four hours on the floors before I left the convention center, but I did get a chance to look at most of the booths.  Here are details, with pictures below for some of the items mentioned:

Looney Labs announced a new game, Zombie Fluxx, due in the fall of this year.  The game is still in early prototype form, and I got to play a quick two-player game.  If you already like Fluxx, and you like Zombies, then you’ll likely enjoy their combination in this game.

Golden Laurel Entertainment was showing off Galactic Destiny, which was explained as a game of diplomatic relations and backstabbing.  The game is for 3-6 players and will likely last 3-4 hours.  They also had a preproduction map of an upcoming game, Skull and Bones, due this summer.

I was amused to see the presenter at the Grape Games booth wearing his game on his head.  He was showing off Flip Floggs, a memory game made with ten thick, short dowels, and the baseball cap on his head was adorned with the dowels.  The game is pretty straightforward.  There are five symbols in the game, each represented four different times amongst the ten dowels.  Each player takes turns flipping over two of the dowels and trying to match the symbols that are now on top of the two dowels.  When each dowel is turned the symbol that was on top is now hidden.  When a match is made that symbol is marked on the scorepad.  Once a player has matched and marked off all the symbols, he or she wins.

I stopped at the Chessex booth to look at the thousands of dice they had on display.  They had information on two reprints.  Plague and Pestilence should be out by fall since there are few, if any, changes.  Tom Jolly’s Wiz War 8th edition might take longer than that since there are changes to both rules and artwork.  The Chessex representative assured me that the game is coming out this time.  I have never played the game but did pick up a copy of the 8th edition rules to peruse.

Immortal Eyes Games did not have any new games to show since they showed their three games at the show last year.  They did have information about the Atlantis expansion for Conquest of Pangea.  This expansion will be distributed free of charge to those retailers who carry the game as a thanks to those that have bought the game.

The Fantasy Flight booth was one big tease with a number of boxes without final artwork adorning the various tables.  Fantasy Flight had so much information they handed out a twenty page pamphlet with information about their upcoming titles.

Beowulf the Board Game will be released in November to coincide with the release of the movie.  The game, by Reiner Knizia, will be based on the Fantasy Flight silver line game Kingdoms, but will have multiple board shapes and new special powers.

I had heard of a warping problem with the Tide of Iron game boards, but that has now been fixed.  I was shown the new board and it is very thick—no chance of that warping.  They already announced an expansion for Tide of Iron, Days of the Fox, due in Winter of 2007.

The Burning Crusades expansion for the World of Warcraft Board Game is due out in September.  Fantasy Flight also announced the World of Warcraft Adventure Game.  The original game is meant to simulate the computer experience.  The Adventure Game, for 2-6 players, will be more accessible and play quicker and is incompatible with the original game.  It will allow adventuring in the World of Warcraft without being a simulation of the computer game.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark will soon have its third expansion in Road to Legend which will allow for campaign play.  It will include tuck boxes in which players will store their characters, skills, and equipment.  But it isn’t only the Heroes that will grow between games—the Overload will also increase in power.

Fantasy Flight had additional information on even more releases and has now posted a comprehensive list on its website.

Valley Games released a large amount of information about a number of new and old games that will be released through 2008.  The company had already received a fair amount of buzz with its announcement of the upcoming re-release of Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage and Big City.  The big news from Valley Games was its plans to release Titan within the next year.  Titan had long been considered a game that would never be reprinted.  I tried to get more information on how they obtained the rights but received no helpful info.

That wasn’t the only reprint that Valley Games announced.  They also have plans to release Extrablatt by Karl-Heinz Schmiel, Republic of Rome by Robert Haines and Richard Berthold, and Librté by Martin Wallace.

Reprints weren’t the only games announced by Valley Games, which also released information on three original games to be released within the same time period: Containers, Supernova, and a new game from Reiner Knizia.

I had a chance to sit down for a demonstration of the anthology board game, Stonehenge, from Titantic Games shown at the Paizo Publishing booth.  This game is really five different games in one box.  Five well-known designers have each made their own set of rules to be played with the different components in the box.  The demo I sat down to turned out to be a full game of alien chariot racing, by Mike Selinker.  I enjoyed the game overall even though some of the components got in the way of easy play.  There were five players in the game and we were all pretty close up to the end.  I enjoyed the gameplay, but I really enjoyed the concept of the anthology.

TableStar Games was showing off its four existing HeroCard games along with two upcoming releases: OrcWar and Nightmare.  All six of these games have the same game engine which is a card combat system.  Each player gets his own set of 33 cards that are unique to the character he represents.  These character decks are interchangeable between the different boxed sets.  The games are non-collectible but a few of the titles have expansion decks.  OrcWar, which will be released in the next few months, allows an Elf Paladin to battle a group of Orcs in five different scenarios.

Your Move Games, which had a prominent booth at the front of the smaller hall, was promoting a yet unreleased game, The Battle for Hill 218, for two players.  It was also offering demonstrations of its miniature card game, Battleground: Fantasy Warfare.  B:FW is a miniature game without the miniatures since all the units are represented on cards.  The company had just received a few advanced copies of the newest faction, Umenzi Tribesmen and was also showing off Terrain Packs which will allow for more advanced games.  Your Move Games also has plans to release an affordable scenario book which will also allow players to try its games without buying other packs.

Jeff Siadek from Gorilla Games was showing off his The Planet of Dr. Moreau expansion for Battlestations.  He also is publishing Lifeboat, a game for 4-6 players, previously published by Fat Messiah Games.

A few of the other usual suspects were there.  Days of Wonder was showing off Colosseum and the new Battlelore expansions.  Rio Grande had a great playing area, and Mayfair’s booth was always busy.  Unfortunately time did not allow me to explore these booths like I would have liked.  Face 2 Face was showing off the reprint of Can’t Stop along with its full line of games.

After four hours on the floor, I needed to start the long trip back home so I would be able to work the next day.  The trip to GTS was a whirlwind tour.  I was glad I had made the trip but regretted having to decline all the invitations to play prototypes and other games during the off hours, especially the chance to play Cheeky Monkey which will soon be out by Face 2 Face Games.

The next morning I again woke up early and greeted my children who were also waking up.  My four-year-old looked at the huge Descent bag that Fantasy Flight was giving out at its booth and he immediately asked, “Daddy, can I sleep in it tonight?” I didn’t let him sleep in it, but I did take a picture of him in the bag.

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	Galactic Destiny
	Flip Floggs
	Battleground: Fatntasy Warfare
	Stonehenge
	“Limit one child per customer.”

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