Convention Report: GAMA Trade Show 2006 - March 13, 2006 (Day 1)

By Rick Thornquist
March 13, 2006

Yup, I’m on the road again to another game fair!  This time I’m in Las Vegas for the annual GAMA Trade Show. 

GAMA is the Game Manufacturers Association and they hold a yearly show for buyers and sellers of games.  Last month’s New York Toy Fair is mostly for toys and mass market games - the GAMA show is mostly for games and caters more to the hobby market.  It’s here that you’ll find your favorite boardgame companies - Fantasy Flight, Eagle Games, Face2Face Games, etc, along with other companies flogging RPGs, TCGs and various other three letter acronyms.  It’s here that the publishers and retailers come together to talk business (but they do take time to do some fun things as well).

What is my purpose then?  Well, I’m here to give you the inside scoop on what new games the boardgame companies have in store for us.  At the New York Toy Fair I was able to get the scoop on upcoming releases from a couple of the boardgame companies.  Many of the companies from the Toy Fair are also here - I’ll be getting update from them as well as the scoop from companies weren’t at the Toy Fair (Fantasy Flight, for example).

At the Toy Fair I was able to get some news but I didn’t get a chance to try any new games.  That’s really due to the way the fair is set up - it really isn’t a game playing convention.  GAMA has an exhibit hall like the Toy Fair but also has a room set aside for game playing.  I hope get in as many as I can.

I arrived here late last night.  I’m staying in the Riviera hotel, where the convention is taking place.  The Riviera is an older hotel and though the hotel itself isn’t too great, the convention facilities are quite good.  I actually heard today that next year the show is moving to Bally’s, which will probably be a good thing, and it’s also moving to April, which will probably be a bad thing - at least for me.  It’s likely that the show will conflict with the Gathering of Friends - my favorite gaming event of the year.  There’s no way I’d miss the Gathering - hopefully I’ll find a way to get to both.

I woke up early this morning and headed down to the convention area to see if anything was going on.  Right away I ran into some familiar faces including Will Niebling of Mayfair Games, Larry Whalen of Face2Face Games and Darcy Paulin of Drexoll Games - my local game store in Vancouver.  Darcy and I went to get our badges and, in what seems to be a yearly occurrence at the GAMA shows, my badge (and all the other press badges) were MIA.  I got a temporary badge to get me through the day and picked up my swag bag.

What’s a swag bag you ask?  Well, at these types of conventions all attendees get a bag full of goodies.  Most of the time the stuff is advertising - sell sheets and pamphlets, but you can some good stuff like promotional miniatures, promo trading cards, etc.  Most of the time the swag is of no interest to me but this time I actually got something very nice - a copy of Lord of the Rings - The Duel from Rio Grande Games.  Not bad at all!

In the swag bag there was a sheet with the nominees for the Origins awards.  In the categories of interest, the nominees are:

Board Game or Board Game Expansion of the Year
Amazonas (Mayfair Games)
Parthenon: Rise of the Aegean (Z-Man Games)
Rheinlander (Face2Face Games)
Shadows over Camelot (Days of Wonder)
Vegas Showdown (Avalon Hill)

Traditional Card Game or Card Game Expansion of the Year
Gloom (Atlas Games)
Oriente (Mayfair Games)
Paranoia (Mongoose Publishing)
Plunder (Laughing Pan Productions)
Poison (Playroom Entertainment)

After checking out my swag, I checked out the Hospitality Room or, as I call it, the Open Gaming room.  This is a big room with tables where people can bring out their games and play them.  I expect to be spending a lot of time in this room.

My next stop was the press room.  The press room is actually in a skybox that is above the main exhibition hall and it’s a great vantage point to take a picture (see the pictures below).  I took a picture of the hall, which was under construction all day (and I came back later in the day to take another picture of the progress). 

Last year there was only the main hall but this year things have overflowed into a smaller hall as well.  I headed down to the smaller hall and took a picture of that one as well.  Both halls will be under construction until they open tomorrow at noon.

With the halls closed, my plan today was to grab some new games and get in some playing.  Unfortunately, try as I might to find some publishers with games I could borrow, I couldn’t find any.  Darcy and I decided to pass some time by heading to the open gaming room and playing the Lord of the Rings - The Duel that we got in our swag bags.  I’d played the game before and thought it to be just okay - I felt pretty much the same after playing it again.

Pizza Box Football
Just as Darcy and I were finishing up our game, we spied Erik Smith who is one of the guys responsible for Pizza Box Football.  As I said in my column last week, this is a game that flew below my radar last year and I was keen to check it out.  Erik was kind enough to give me a quick demo of the game.  We were joined by Ted Alspach, of Board 2 Pieces fame (our comic on Boardgame News), sporting a very chic ‘Fear the Provost’ shirt.

As an aside: I had previously promised Erik I was going to check out the game at the New York Toy Fair, but when I was at the fair I couldn’t find their booth.  I couldn’t figure out what was the problem and felt bad when I finished up at the fair without seeing them.  Erik told me there was a mistake in one of the programs at the Toy Fair and their booth number was listed incorrectly.  No wonder I couldn’t find them - now I don’t feel so bad!

Back to the game!  Pizza Box Football is a fairly straightforward dice rolling game that simulates American football.  The board, which fits into an opened pizza box, shows the field with peg slots for the line of scrimmage, the first down line, and more.  The meat of the game is on a series of laminated reference cards.

There are three main kinds of plays that can be run - a run, a short pass or a long pass.  The defender selects secretly what he thinks the offense will do.  The offense then selects their play.  They both roll dice to see what the offense does and how the defender affects the play.  Yards are gained or lost, and there are many other effects - fumbles, interceptions, etc.

It’s all very light and fun.  I wouldn’t go expecting heavy strategy here, there’s lots of dice rolling and luck, but if you’re looking for a fun football game this might just be the ticket.  There is already an expansion which adds other plays, such as draw plays and screen passes, and also adds reference cards for particular teams - incorporating their strengths and weaknesses. 

Seismic
Darcy and I then headed out for lunch and after we got back we spied Ted Alspach int he open gaming room.  Ted kindly assented to teaching us his new game - Seismic, to be published by Atlas Games.  We were joined by the just arrived Ward Batty.  We played a full game using a prototype.

Seismic is a fairly simple tile laying game.  The components consist of a set of hexagonal tiles that are either roads, intersections (tiles with a number in a stop sign) or earthquakes.  Each player also gets a set of markers in his player color.

To start the game, the San Andreas intersection starts in the middle of the table.  On a player’s turn, he chooses one tile from a face-up set of three and places it on the table.  If it’s a road or an intersection, it must be placed so it matches up with adjacent roads.  The player can then place a marker on the just placed tile, signifying ownership of a road.

The idea is that you are trying to end up with roads that end with intersections at both ends.  At the end of the game you get points for the end intersections (the number in the intersection) plus one point for each road segment between them.  If you have a road that doesn’t have intersections at both ends that one is worth nothing!

To wreak havoc in the game there are the earthquakes.  When these come up, certain tiles are removed from the board.  It isn’t completely random, though, and with clever play you can avoid being affected by the earthquakes.

The game is fairly simple to teach, yet it has some nice strategy.  It sort of feels like the building of the roads in Carcassonne, but more involved.  I liked it and so did everyone else at the table - I look forward to getting a copy when it comes out.

After finishing up Seismic it was time for another game.  This time it was a prototype, courtesy of Larry Whalen of Face2Face games.  Unfortunately, I can’t discuss this one other to say that it was a fairly enjoyable light to middle weight game.

After heading back to my room for a bit of a break and then getting some dinner, it was time for one more game.  Larry had brought a copy of Royal Turf, which he is republishing as Winner’s Circle, and a group of us played a very fun game.  Go Caramello!  After Royal Turf, it was time for me to head up to my room to type up this report. 

Tomorrow is the second day of the show, and the first day the exhibition floor will be open.  I expect to get lots of scoop on new games plus I hope to get in a few games.  Talking about scoop, Fantasy Flight posted a pile of scoop on their upcoming games on their website - I should be reporting on these game tomorrow, but in the meantime, check out their FFG Rants page (scroll down to the ‘3/13 - Greg’ entry).

That’s it for today - more news tomorrow!

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	The Registration area
	Some of the technology driving the registration process
	Darcy Paulin of Drexoll Games takes a picture
	The Open Gaming room
	The main hall - under construction
	The smaller hall - under construction
	Darcy Paulin, Ted Alspach and Erik Smith play Pizza Box Football
	Pizza Box Football
	Ted Alspach explains Seismic
	A prototype of Seismic - early in the game
	A prototype of Seismic - late in the game
	The main hall - later in the day - still under construction

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

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