Convention Report: Origins 2006: June 28, 2006 (Setup Day)

By Rick Thornquist
June 28, 2006

It’s time for yet another game convention and this time it’s Origins 2006, which is taking place from June 29th to July 2nd 2006 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.  This is one of the biggies and it hosts many different types of hobby games - collectible card games, live action roleplaying games, miniatures, roleplaying games, wargames and, of course, boardgames (known at Origins as ‘Tabletop Games’). 

Today is not really an official day of the convention (it really starts tomorrow), but I had arrived last night and took the time to come down today to check out what was happening.  I’m conveniently located at a hotel across the street from the convention center and around noon I wandered over.

After getting into the convention center, the first thing I encountered was the registration area.  Registration was open so early attendees could get a jump on the long lines that are sure to be here tomorrow.  There were already a few people in line getting their badges.  I took a few minutes to get a Board Room ribbon which will allow me unlimited play in the new open boardgaming area.

After Registration, I explored a few of the halls.  I checked out the massive Board Games / Miniatures Games Hall where most of the boardgaming events are going to take place.  It really is huge - an airplane hanger sized area filled with tables and chairs.

I then headed over to the Exhibit Hall where the publishers are to show their wares.  Fortunately for me, there wasn’t a sentinel at the door so I was able to wander in and check it out.  Most of the booths were well on their way to being completed but there were a couple - Days of Wonder for example - that were still empty and waiting to be set up.

I ran into the Asmodée guys including Dungeon Twister designer Christophe Boelinger - they were hard at work setting up their booth. 

I also ran into the Mayfair people including Mayfair head honcho Will Niebling.  Will procured me a copy of the new Kramer / Kiesling Phalanx game Bison along with a deck of the news Settlers of Catan Event Cards.  These cards are the ones that were available in German at Essen - Mayfair has translated them and added some has some new features.  Basically, you use the cards instead of rolling the dice.  The cards each have a production number on them and some of them have events that do different things - give a resource to the player with the most harbours, move the robber to the desert, etc.  The set also comes with some Victory Point cards so players can keep track of their victory points.  I have recently had a renewed interest in Settlers and am looking forward giving these new cards a try.

After leaving the Exhibit Hall (which now was being guarded - got in just in the nick of time!), I headed upstairs to the Board Room.  The Board Room is actually a new feature of Origins.  In the past, open boardgaming has been a bit of a bastard stepchild of the convention which usually prefers scheduled events.  In years past those of us who like open boardgaming have had to scrounge up space to play wherever we could.  Now, thanks to Origins and especially to the Columbus Area Boardgaming Society (CABS) and Bud Sauer, we now have a home.  I checked it out and it’s great - a nice big well-lit room with rectangular tables plus some big round tables for big games.  I intend to spend most of my time playing in the Board Room.

While in the Board Room I encountered none other that Mr. Tom Vasel.  Tom is again here at Origins and we spent some time catching up.  Tom gave me a copy of Gemblo Light plus a Reiner Knizia game from Korea that I’ve never heard of - Dragon Master.  Dragon Master looks like a simple tile laying game - I’ll have to give it a try in the next few days.

Before too long, a few others started trickling into the Board Room.  It was time to start the gaming!  I joined into two starter games - a game of Liar’s Dice followed by a game of my newly acquired Gemblo Light. 

Gemblo Light
Gemblo is basically Blokus using hexagons instead of squares.  It’s an abstract that is easy to teach and plays nicely, though does require some good strategy.  Tom says that one of Gemblo’s claims to fame is that it plays well with three players - something that Blokus doesn’t do as well - and Gemblo also plays up to six.  Gemblo Light is exactly the same as the regular Gemblo, it’s just smaller (so the ‘Light’ really refers to the actual physical weight of the game and not the gameplay).  Having a smaller version is a good thing because the original Gemblo box is pretty unwieldy - this smaller version will be much easier to find space for on the gaming shelves.  I like the game and though I would probably still play Blokus if I had two or four players, I’d definitely play Gemblo with three, five or six.

After Gemblo, Tom and I met up with Chris Brooks.  You may know Chris from his weblog or as one of the people running Sunriver Games.  After chatting for a while we hopped in Chris’s car and headed for Boardgame News columnist Valerie Putman’s place.  Valerie lives right here in Columbus and was hosting a soiree for those of us here for Origins.  When we arrived we found Valerie there with her husband Tyler already grilling some burgers and hot dogs.  True to form, a game was already in progress.  Jay Tummelson of Rio Grande was there and we spent some time discussing his games.  I’ll be sitting down with Jay sometime in the next few days and will get the scoop on all his upcoming games.  We hung out for a few hours eating and carousing before heading back to the convention for more gaming.

Bison
After getting back to the Board Room, Chris and I hooked Michael Pennisi to play my newly acquired copy of Bison.  Here’s a description of the game that I wrote when I played the prototype at the GAMA Trade Show.

Bison is an area majority game.  The board is made up of tiles and each tile has three areas of terrain - plains, rivers and mountains.  Each type of terrain gives up a different type of food - bison in the plains, fish in the rivers and birds in the mountains. The game starts with just a few tiles making up the board.  There are a number of ‘seasons’ in the game and in each season each player gets four turns.  In each season, each player will add one more tile to the board and, along with it, some of their Hunter pieces.  On a player’s turn, he can add a tile to the board (along with some of his Hunters), move his Hunters, build teepees (in the plains and mountains) or build canoes (in the rivers). The whole idea is to have the majority in each of the areas at the end of each season when the scoring takes place.  Having the most Hunters in an area is good, but building teepees is better and is worth more when determining majorities (it’s the same with canoes in rivers).  Whoever gets the majority in an area gets food in the area - the bison, fish or birds.  The second player gets half the food, etc. Players have a limited number of actions.  You can only do each type of action once per season so you have to plan carefully exactly when you use it.  Also, you have to pay for your actions with food so you have to manage your food supply to make sure you have enough to do what you want to do.

The game is slightly on the dry side and a bit of a thinker.  I found it interesting, though, there are some neat strategies that may be used.  Though the game world is crowded with area majority games, I thought this one was pretty good.

After Bison I played a nice prototype of Chris’s.  After that it was getting late and I was ready to hit the sack.  Before I left I surveyed the Board Room - it was only Wednesday night, very early in the convention, and there was already almost 50 people in the room played.  It looks like the Board Room is going to be a hit!

Tomorrow I’ll be back with my report on the first full day of the convention plus, if everything goes well, some video coverage.  See you then!

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	Entering the Convention Center
	The Registration area - the calm before the storm
	The Board Games / Miniatures Games Hall
	The Exhibit Hall under construction
	Mayfair Games - under construction
	The Board Room - the home for the boardgamers
	The Board Room
	Games Played - Liar’s Dice with Chris Oberst, Bus Sauer, Thomas Rebovich, Tom Vasel and Jim Reasner
	Gemblo Light with Mike Pennisi, Ray Petersen, June King and Tom Vasel
	Gemblo Light
	Bison with Chris Brooks and Michael Pennisi
	Bison towards the beginning of the game
	Bison towards the end of the game
	The Board Room at around 10:00pm - already quite a few gamers there

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

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Comments:

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Thanks for the update! I’m a big fan of Gemblo, any idea as to when the “Light” version will be available? Posted by Mark Haigh-Hutchinson on Jun 29, 2006 at 08:11 AM | #

Hmm, why aren’t you getting a free ride at Valerie and Tyler’s?  Afraid the all-night games of Carrousel will keep you awake?  :-) Thanks for the report on Bison.  I’ve been very encouraged from the early notices I’ve heard on this one.  I have no problem with “yet another” area majority game as long as it’s done well and has something new to offer and Kramer and Kiesling’s past record on that score is excellent.  I’m looking forward to trying the game out myself. Posted by Larry Levy on Jun 29, 2006 at 08:43 AM | #

It looks like the board room is set up well.  Most of the tables, from what I can tell, are rectangular and long but there are a few round tables which are usefull in some situations. Posted by Brent Mair on Jun 30, 2006 at 09:05 AM | #

Mark - I don’t know about the distribution of Gemblo in North America.  That’s a good question. - Rick Posted by Rick Thornquist on Jul 3, 2006 at 10:07 AM | #

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