Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2008: Pre-Gathering Gaming

By W. Eric Martin
April 4, 2008

Alan Moon’s Gathering of Friends, a small convention that attracts dozens of game designers and publishers, takes place early each April in Columbus, Ohio – so what am I doing in Dayton? Did Mapquest give me bum directions? Is Ohio too big for its own good?!

In fact, I’m in Dayton to speak at the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, an annual event meant to educate humor writers, perfect their craft and find markets for their work. I do little humor writing in the traditional sense (essays, personal columns), but the conference organizers invited my wife Linda and me to speak on generating ideas and writing query letters, and that topic is easy-peasy for pros like us. Since the timing meshed with the Gathering, we agreed to do the talk.

Then Linda fell sick, so I’m here on my own. We’ve spoken together previously in Sante Fe, Tucson, Austin, Washington DC, and other locations, and I’m used to playing off Linda and making her the fall guy for my silly remarks. This time, I had to do both sides of the talk, but the crowd of 50-60 aspiring and burgeoning writers seemed to like it. I’m still alive, in any case.

Take your seats, please – the talk will start in just a few minutes

Coincidentally, Jamie McQuinn from the Dayton Area Boardgaming Society had contacted me a few weeks ago about having his group listed on BGN’s Club Info page. I mentioned my trip, he directed me to the DABS’ calendar, and a Thursday, April 3rd gaming night just happened to pop up. Thus, when I got off the plane in Dayton yesterday, I headed out to meet some new gamers. It’s amazing how many game groups exist around the country and how welcoming they are to newcomers. (I even met a gamer who lives in NW Massachusetts during my Friday talk and directed him to the Spielbany group in Albany, NY since his group likes to playtest.)

When I arrived at DABS, I became the seventh on hand for History of the World, which had just gotten under way. Since seven can’t play HotW – I told you I was coming, guys! – they graciously packed it in and brought out Win, Place & Show, an oldie from Avalon Hill.

Win, Place & Show
Win, Place & Show is a horseracing game with six horses running six races. Players bid on horses to start each round, with each horse having odds based on its movement numbers. Once the horses are purchased, players place hidden bets on up to three horses to (duh) win, place or show.

For movement, you roll two dice: the first die shows which horse moves first; the second die adds movement points to the horse’s base number for that turn. Each horse’s movement numbers vary as the turns progress, with some fading and some coming on stronger. Jeff threw $40,000 (out of a $50k initial stash) on the favorite horse to show in the first round, and it did, giving him a $60,000 payout. He repeated the trick in the second race, netting $90,000 this time – then we discovered a betting limit of $5,000 per horse. And another error when playing with more than six people. Soon we had asterisks piling up all over the place, and with Jeff sitting on a mound of money, we thought it best to award him a tainted trophy and move on.

Power Grid+
One person left, so the half-dozen who remained tackles Power Grid, with me pushing for the Benelux map since I hadn’t played on it previously. We also decided to use the new Power Grid Expansion Deck, which by chance I had encountered once in playtest form at the Gathering last April. Now I’d finally get to give those new plants another try.

As sometimes happens with six players, the last player to claim cities fell in the rock-or-a-hard-place position, with the option to go south of me (who had claimed two cities in central Belgium) and or northwest of Steve (who was in northern Netherlands). Jeff chose the city next to me – apparently because I sounded confident, maybe even cocky, while setting up – and we proceded to butt heads for the rest of the game, with Steve and his dad Russ left to explore the upper Netherlands on their own. Naturally they finished 1-2.

For two turns in step 2, we waited for the 40 plant, which serves 5 or 6 cities for only one oil, to fall into the market, but lower-valued plants kept turning up. Jeff let Steve win a uranium-fueled plant that powers seven cities near the end of this period, then saw nothing turn up afterward, effectively shutting him down. Steve powered a ton of cities that turn with cheap nukes and was flush on the path towards building and powering 15 cities.

Gisborne
With time for one more, I had a few titles that I really wanted to play and Gisborne – and since all the other games peaked at four players, Gisborne won out. Gisborne isn’t a bad game, but it does have issues that have frustrated people who I’ve taught. For details, head to my stand-alone review, based on five playings of the game.

Okay, one talk is over with another talk on Saturday morning before I head to Columbus. I pimped games a lot in my talk, so at the book-signing event this evening, I plan to put down the pen and make room on the table for Time’s Up and Party Pooper, a new one from Out of the Box. Here’s hoping I can get in a few games before all the writers are too drunk to play…

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	From left to right, Arnie, Steve, Russ, Garry, Jamie, and Jeff’s disembodied hands, who romped to an illegal Win without use deciding who was Place & Show
	My green plants are getting squeezed, and despite the cheap oil, I couldn’t eke out an advantage from my low placement in the turn order. I am, in other words, inept at Power Grid.

---

Comments:

You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free, but if you appreciate the news, previews, reviews and other material posted on Boardgame News, please consider becoming a member to keep the info flowing to your screen!

Wrong Account...History of the World can play 7.  all you need is extra pieces from any game. Posted by Ted Cheatham on Apr 5, 2008 at 09:41 PM | #

< Back Home