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Tucson’s RinCon 2019: Trains, skulls and a giant rhino

Tucson’s RinCon 2019: Trains, skulls and a giant rhino

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Two weekends ago, I went down to Tucson for their annual board game convention RinCon! I particularly love how a bunch of us from the Phoenix area all trek down south to Tucson to game nonstop for a few days. I also love all the unique perks that RinCon offers its convention-goers — from nightly midnight snacks to the wonderfully curated Women’s Space. 

Here’s one of the main rooms at RinCon. The tablecloths are color coded, so you’ll know if a table is reserved for scheduled gaming.

It’s the third year in a row I’ve gone, and the second year in a row I’ve been a special guest. About 600 people attended this year’s convention, which was held again at the Sheraton Tucson Hotel and Suites.

Gamers setting up giant Azul in the RinCon lobby.

Friday

My buddy Mark and I arrived Friday afternoon, and we dove immediately into a game of Mexica. I love, love this game, and it never fails to disappoint! Everyone always falls in love with the game’s components, and, for me personally, I enjoyed easing into a hectic convention with a game I’m quite familiar with. 

Mexica has such table presence! But it can be so mean! The new players in this game learned quickly that blocking people is the way to go.

I then taught a 4-player game of Irish Gauge, a stock-based cube-rail train game. It’s the first title in the Iron Rail series by Capstone Games, first published by Winsome games back in 2007.

These guys are always so fun to game with! I wish they all didn’t live clear across town and, for Mike, in Tucson!

It’s a 3-5 player game that plays in about 60 minutes. Learning the game is easy; there are 4 actions to choose from after the initial stock bidding around. Players are building track to expand their train company, auctioning of stocks, upgrading towns to cities, or calling dividends. When dividends are called, cubes are randomly pulled from a bag, and that determines which routes will pay out. It’s a very stripped down stock game — complete with adorable candy-like train pieces. Irish Gauge was the first of many train games I played during the weekend.

Irish Gauge is a quick 3-5 player stock–based train game.

I then taught a 3-player game Dead Man’s Cabal, a clever puzzly strategy game where players are trying to raise the dead. It has skulls, spells and zombie cards!  Players have a private action, and then everyone does a public action, based on the skulls in play, and each skull represents a board that has actions associated with it. If you don’t have a particular color of that skull in your supply, then you can’t take the action. I really enjoyed this midweight euro! 

So many skulls! This game has been delightful each time I’ve played it.

Next up was Tokyo Metro, an economic stock game from Jordan Draper games. This is probably the heaviest of his games — and a little busier and fiddly, too — where players are investing in stocks and working to increase the values of stocks, as trains pass through rail stations along a giant cloth map of the Japanese metro. Trains only move a certain number of spots, so you’ll have to calculate payout based on that train schedule, and only certain actions will come out each round, based on the action cards that are phased in. I’d love to try this again, as my train was totally melting down by this time of night.  

So many trains, and so many rail lines! Tokyo Metro is based on the Japanese metro.

Then at 11 p.m., I hosted a Mega Game of Welcome To. About 20 people came out, and we used the Halloween expansion pack for our game. Welcome To is a roll-and-write game that doesn’t involve dice but instead cards containing numbers and special abilities that players use to fill out a map of their city. Everyone selects a number simultaneously so it’s a game that can be played out on the big screen in a large group.

GloryHoundd took this photo of me hosting Welcome To on the big screen.

And even though I was nervous running my first mega game ever, I had a great time, and I think everyone did, too. The winner was GloryHoundd, and she received the game, as well as a couple expansion packs, and the second- and third-place winners received some Halloween candy. 

Winner winner chicken dinner! The winners of the Mega Welcome To game.

At midnight, RinCon served its first midnight snack of the convention: Eegee’s. For those unfamiliar, Eegee’s are Tucson-based frozen fruit drinks, and people lined up to get a cup of this sweet treat. All attendees get tickets with their badge, which they trade in for the midnight snacks on Friday and Saturday night. 

Saturday

I then started early on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. by teaching a 2P game of Abomination. I love this game so much, and I believe it’ll be more widely available now for more folks to check out! But I like to preface that this is not a short game by any means. Even with our 2P game, it took well over 2 hours. 

Building bodies early on a Saturday morning.

I then was invited to do a noon panel called “How to Teach a Game in 5 Mins.” Five us from the board game industry talked with a group of folks about methods that worked for us for teaching games, whether light or heavy. The discussion included how to teach teenagers how to win graciously as well as empowering new gamers to teach other gamers. Also, we had a legit space scientist Dante Lauretta among us panelists who is a board-game designer and does educational outreach at the Boys and Girls Club in Tucson.

GloryHoundd and I then hung out at the bar after our panel and caught up for a bit while drinking our respective signature drinks. Our drinks were super yummy and provided a midday breather to an already busy day.  

Drannnnkss! GloryHoundd and I both enjoyed our signature convention drinks.

My next game was The Soo Line, where I learned that it’s pronounced like the name Sue and not so. That’s the Valley girl in me coming out!

Always a fun time with Greg, Dr. GloryHogg and Brian!

Anywho, The Soo Line is a 45-minute pick-up-and-deliver stock train game. I made some poor choices for bidding in the beginning and never quite caught up again! How does the Soo Line actually made any money when it has to come all the way across the board? Tell me your secrets, folks!

It was so hard getting the Soo line all the way across the map!

I then joined a group of a dozen people to play Blood on the Clocktower, a giant social-deduction game described to me as similar toWerewolf but gamier. Benjamin led many, many games of this during the entire convention, and it was SUCH. A. BLAST.

Our fearless leader Benjamin running Blood on the Clocktower.

Unlike Werewolf, when you die in Clocktower, you can still have one vote for the rest of the game so that you can help your side win the game. It’s humans vs. demons, and there’s even a character sheet so you can deduce who is which character, and strategically reveal information about yourself or others. 

I was the ravenskeeper, and even though I died, I was instrumental in finding the imp, leading the humans to victory!

After a quick dinner break, I taught a 4P game of Tiny Towns. I was so involved in teaching this game that I completely forgot to take a photo, but friends, let me tell you that I crushed the game. I played a second game of Irish Gauge with 4 different players and immediately after a few games of Strike.

Strike is such a bar game, in which you’re tossing dice into the box stadium, and if there are any pairs, you take back dice into your hand. Players get eliminated when they run out of dice, and the last person standing wins the game. 

Throw in your dice to get more dice! Strike is a fun filler!

I then got to hang out with David Short and taught him and my buddy Rob Watergate. I always get kind of nervous getting games I love to game designers, because they know game mechanisms so well and I’m afraid they’ll find something really off or broken about said game. Luckily, everyone ended enjoying the game! 

The rest of the night was a series of shorter games. We played NMBR 9 (always a good time) and Illusion (I can’t for the life of me figure out these color percentages) before getting pizza for our midnight snack. 

And then some late-night shenanigans 1 a.m. happened with my buddies Mark, Greg and Brian.

We then played Giant Rhino Hero, Point Salad and Skulls. This was my first time playing Giant Rhino Hero and it was a riot! Players are basically stacking cards to build a giant tower for the Rhino Hero to move up in.

This is when it got called than me, though some people might say that it doesn’t take much to reach a height taller than 5’3″!

The tower eventually got much taller than me, and its ultimate demise was captured on video. (Notice that I am in fact standing on a chair!)

Point Salad is a quick card drafting game in which you’re collecting fruits and veggies to score objective cards. And Skulls is a fun bidding, bluffing game that has gorgeous artwork. 

Sunday

I began my day teaching Watergate at the Women’s Space. Folks, I cannot tell you how amazing this space is. I love that RinCon sets aside a suite for women to relax, get away from the crowd, and learn scheduled board games from female GMs. Mari runs the space, which is fully stocked with meeple cookies, snacks and drinks.

A nice couch to chillax on during the convention!
Here’s Mari, who keeps the lovely Women Space up and running.

Two ladies signed to learn Watergate, and they enjoyed the game so much that they switched sides and played again. The same player won both times!

These ladies are ready to go head-to-head in the battle for the White House.

I ended the convention playing another game of Mexica and Coimbra, which was the top game I played in 2018. And in case you were wondering, I crushed my two opponents in Coimbra. 

Coimbra is such a good game. We need to get to get it on table more often!

And just like that, another awesome time in Tucson was had at RinCon. This convention never disappoints, and I love how friendly everyone is here. Karen Arnold Ewing is the chair of the convention, and she succeeds in making this con inclusive and inviting, especially with the incredible women’s space. There are gamers of all ages, and there is definitely something for everyone! 

Here’s RinCon’s fearless leader Karen Arnold Ewing, who, along with an army of volunteers, works tirelessly to put on a wonderful convention.

And just like that, three days of gaming came and went. I had a lot of fun hanging out with friends and meeting new ones, and hosting/teaching games. Thank you so much for having me, RinCon, and I can’t wait to be back next year!

I love these pronoun badges that are provided at every RinCon convention.
Arizona Game Fair 2019: Meeting Vital Lacerda

Arizona Game Fair 2019: Meeting Vital Lacerda

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Arizona Game Fair took place recently at the Mesa Convention Center, and I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome the convention was! Now in its third year, the con had over 1,200 attendees. That’s pretty fantastic! Convention founder Andrew Long said the first year had over 300 gamers and the second had 785. I am constantly in awe at how wonderful the Arizona gaming community is.

The convention was one I had been excited about for many, many months. For starters, I never thought I’d ever in a million years meet the designer of one of my absolute favorite games, Lisboa: Vital Lacerda himself! I mean, dude is from Portugal and attends a lot of overseas conventions, which I obviously don’t attend. And they say never meet your heroes because they’re sure to disappoint, but, my friends, I was not disappointed at all. Lacerda is passionate about gaming, friendly, humble and just lovely to be around. He is all about making sure gamers have a good time playing his heavy, intricate games.

It was so freaking hard not to fangirl scream every two seconds when Vital Lacerda was teaching his game. You should all be proud of me, folks!

I arrived Friday afternoon at the convention after working a half day, and I had scheduled a game at 3 p.m. with Chris, Julie, Ken and me to learn On Mars, Lacerda’s upcoming game.

Here we are playing it cool as Vital Lacerda teaches us On Mars.

On Mars is by far his heaviest game, in which astronauts are trying to settle the red planet. This game is nothing like Terraforming Mars, other than the location of the game. Players are collecting resources to explore Mars, build buildings, improve their technologies and gathering scientists. There’s an added element of moving back and forth between the space station and on Mars – for free on the rocket ship that moves as the game progresses or using one of your ships, which can be expensive – which then enables you to take any action on that side of the board. The actions in itself are not hard; the challenge is figuring out how to make your actions work together, in a puzzly interconnectivity that is Lacerda’s signature style. I cannot wait for this game to come out!

I naturally had to bring out the giant tweezers for On Mars. I am so excited for this game!

Chris and I then ordered some Vital LaCider from @CiderCorp and attended a Q&A on Lacerda, with the wonderful special guest Suzanne hosting the panel. She asked some really cool questions about what it’s like to be a game designer all the way to what his favorite pie is. My favorite part of the conversation was when Lacerda said that he’s always learning about new stuff about designing games and that he doesn’t feel like a game designer completely yet. I beg to differ, sir!

I live-tweeted some of the conversation. You can read the whole thread below:

After the panel, there was a Hungry Hungry Hippos tournament. My blue hippo was defective, and I got knocked out in the first round. I did not win one of these cool meeple trophies. Womp womp.

Everyone’s getting ready to chomp down some marbles!

There were plenty of tournaments at all game levels happening throughout the convention, as well as a contest for miniatures painting.

Here’s Andrew, Lord of the Board, sitting with some of the cool meeple trophies for the tournaments.

On Saturday, Chris and I hit the ground running with a 6-player game of Flamme Rouge. These guys placed some chocolate eggs on the track so that we passed them, we got a candy treat.

Benjamin and Steve both run g3gamenight in the northwest Valley, while Scott and Mike live down in Tucson.

In Flamme Rouge, players simultaneously draw four cards and pick one to play for both of their cyclists, their Rouleur and Sprinteur, and you go through the course dealing with inclines and other areas, while utilizing slipstream and avoiding exhaustion if you’re in the front of the pack. I started out strong, but my cyclists lost steam halfway through the game. Super fun!

Flamme Rouge is a fun simultaneous-card-selection and deckbuildng game!

Next up, we played Imhotep. My buddy Mark loves to 3D print things to deluxify his games, and it was really satisfying dropping cubes into these structures. He found these files on Thingiverse.

These structures hold all the giant cubes. I probably should’ve taken a better photo from the side so you can see how they all stack up. Next time!

I then taught a game of Teotihuacan, which meant I busted out my giant tweezers. I’ve taught this game a few times, and I finally feel like I got the hang of this teaching this beast. We ended the game by building the pyramid, and Chris nearly lapped all of us. The worst.

We finished our pyramid, which ended the game a few rounds early.

We then played a quick game of Catch the Moon, which is always a hit with gamers!

Catch the Moon is another great filler that always looks great on table.

Afterwards, I joined 10-player game of Welcome To. I’m pretty bad at this game, but it was still fun to game with all these cool peeps.

My Welcome To neighborhood wasn’t well developed. People trigger those objectives so fast!

Chris and I got asked on Friday to take some photos in costume for a live game on Saturday of The Usual Suspects, hosted by the Game State Show. The suspects’ photos were all lined up in the hallway after their show. Who looks the most suspicious and is guilty? Indeed it is not I.

Look at all these suspicious people! I do love having giant mugshots at home now.

I then took a break to get ready for one of my favorite things to do at a convention: run a ginormous game of Sidereal Confluence. I was able to gather 9 players for this game, which uses ALL THE ALIEN FACTIONS. I had never run a game this large before, but luckily, a few had played it before I had some help in answering questions. There’s a trajectory at the start of the game where I start explaining the rules and then I get a lot of puzzled looks about this game, which makes me worry that I’ve accidentally dragged folks into a 2-hour grudge match, but then once the first round gets underway, things start sorta clicking and people embrace the absurdity of the game, and we just all start yelling at each other for cubes.

Here are all nine players for Sidereal Confluence. Everyone is still pretty relaxed since we haven’t started yet, except GloryHoundd and me, who are already uber excited.

Luckily, we were seated in the far end of the convention floor, as we were all pretty loud, and lots of folks stopped by to see what the game was all about. And they’d see me standing with giant tweezers in hand counting down which players can take a colony they’ve successfully bid on. One person said it sounded like a craps table was happening on the convention floor. That is exactly what it look like – yelling, people throwing cubes, and hands going everywhere on a giant table with a million cards on it.

Sidereal Confluence is such a table hog!

We ended the night talking with Ferdinand of Cardboard Stacker and playing Filipino Fruit Market, which is a unique area-control, trick-taking card game with fruit.

This game by Peer Sylvester is a neat twist on trick taking. I wish it was widely available!

On Sunday, we began the day playing Passing Through Petra, which is a neat puzzly tile/trading game from J. Alex Kevern, who has designed crunchy one-hour games like Gold West and Sentient. Traders travel on a caravan through the desert, and you can welcome various traders into your market and facilitate trade with people who have the goods they want. But filling your market happens in a specific order, so timing your market with the appropriate tiles at the right time for maximum trades is just delightful. I just wish the caravan on the board wasn’t so fiddly though.

I enjoyed the puzzly aspect of Passing Through Petra but not the fiddly caravan mechanism.

I then taught a game of Mexica, which is always a hit with people and has such table presence that people stop by to take a look at the game.

I love how Mexica gets all kinds of mean!

I ended Arizona Game Fair chilling with Kevin Russ and Suzanne, and we played a first games. First up was Krass Kariert.

Chris, Kevin, Suzanne and I all hung out until it was about closing time on Sunday.

Krass Kariert is a quick fun card game in which you’re trying to beat what’s already played, through a simple hierarchy of singles, pairs, runs and triples. But you cannot rearrange your cards! If you need to play a pair, they have to be sitting next to each other. But as you pull cards from your hand, naturally, the gap closes, and you can find new combinations with the cards remaining. Super fun!

Krass Kariert is a fun quick card game from Amigo where everyone wins except the last player to clear their cards.

We of course played some roll-and-writes, too! I did spectacularly horrible in Metro X, but won Cartographer! Suzanne said there’s a bunch of roll-and-writes out there, and it’s all a matter of finding one that you resonate with. I guess I do better with placing tetris tiles and completing objective ones than filling numbers on subway routes.

Cartographer is a puzzle style roll-and-write set in the Roll Player world. It has four objectives for each game, with two scoring during each of the four seasons.

Lastly, there was a special tribute at the entrance for my buddy Tom Wells who had passed away recently at an all-too-young age of 50. I had fond memories playing Arkwright and The Colonists with him in previous conventions, as well as gaming with him on the occasional Saturday morning. His badge was hanging up all weekend.

We’ll miss you, Tom. I still can’t believe you’re gone.

And just like that, three games of gaming came and went. The chill atmosphere, friendly volunteers and wide open space made the convention a pleasure to attend. There were also vendors there such as Eagle-Gryphon Games and Gamelyn Games, as well as wood workers and artists. The convention also had a designated women’s space, which is pretty fantastic, and a separate area for RPGs. There was plenty to do for all the different types of gamers!

There was a lovely space for female gamers who were more comfortable away from the main convention floor, and lots of games scheduled in the space, too.

Thanks again Arizona Game Fair for having me as a guest. I can’t wait to see what’s in store next year. And folks, save the date for next year’s convention: March 20-22, 2020. Hope to see here! We’ve got sunny skies, perfect for outside gaming, and giant cactus!

Chris and I visited the Desert Botanical Gardens after the convention. Fun times!


Strategicon Gateway 2018: Meeting more L.A. gamers and some alien trading

Strategicon Gateway 2018: Meeting more L.A. gamers and some alien trading

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I had the pleasure of dropping into one day of Strategicon in Los Angeles this past weekend. I love going to this convention, as I can visit family while board gaming, to make for a really productive weekend. I arrived early on Saturday morning ready to start gaming with wonderful folks from the board-gaming community. I was very excited to meet Jac, Ben and Albert, as well as see Ruel again, all of whom I had scheduled various games with.

We’re gaming early! Well, at 10 a.m. It was wonderful meeting Jac, Albert and Ben, who just moved to the U.S. recently, in real life!

Our first game for the day was Newton with Jac, Ben and Albert. Even though I had played this game already at Gila Monster, I totally didn’t mind playing it again. This game is super combo-tastic! Jac did an excellent job teaching Newton, and I loved being around her positive and enthusiastic energy. Albert and Ben were also equally fun to hang out with, as all of us ended up gaming together the entire day!

In this game of Newton, I didn’t do as well as my first play of it. My cards did not work as well together this time. We decided to draft cards for our masters, and it really helps even the playing field. (We didn’t draft in my first game of it.) So if you get a chance to play Newton, I highly recommend drafting so that no one player can be overpowered.

Newton is a great midweight game by the same designer who did Lorenzo Il Magnifico, which I love, and Grand Austria Hotel.

Next up was Trickerion, which I volunteered to teach. Ruel was supposed to join us, but his previous game and math trade ran long so he was unable to make it. I brought my beloved copy from home, which includes a gorgeous Meeple Realty insert. This game is a beast to teach, and I’m lucky that the group was patient with me, as there are so many things to remember. I do love this game so much.

Trickerion is one of my absolute favorite games! It’s a heavy worker-placement game that has programming and puzzly aspects. And the board is just gorgeous.

During our game of Trickerion, I ran into Michael of Unfiltered Gamers. We first met at Arizona Game Fair, where we were both part of the “So you want to be a game reviewer?” panel. Michael is a veteran content creator, and it’s always great talking shop with him and learning from him.

Got a chance to catch up with Michael of Unfiltered Gamers, who is based in Southern California, since meeting for the first time in February at Arizona Game Fair.

The gang and I then took a quick dinner break in shifts, as we didn’t want to lose our table in the basement. I love going to Strategicon, but my only complaint is that the basement is HOT AS BALLS. Either the air-conditioning isn’t as strong downstairs or the lack of air circulation, combined with the size of the crowds, makes the entire basement level really, really uncomfortable.

We found ourselves surfacing to the main level to get stronger air-conditioning and fresh air. The basement level holds open gaming and some RPGs, while the main convention floor is strictly for the scheduled gaming. That floor, by the way, is absolutely freezing. I hope the folks who run the convention either get fans in the basement or boost the air-conditioning down there. And this is coming from a person who says 100 degrees in Phoenix is a nice day!

The insanely warm and stuffy basement, in an otherwise wonderful and fun convention.

I then reconnected with Ruel, as our gaming schedules finally aligned, and he taught Welcome To … to me and five other folks.

I love meeting and hanging out with all these cool folks from board-gaming community!

Welcome To is a fun roll-and-write where you’re trying to place numbers into your neighborhood, score objectives and maximize your points, but instead of using dice, the game uses three different decks of cards that are flipped over at each turn. What a neat little game! We played it twice, and it’s a nice short game can play a bunch of folks. The box actually says 1-100 people!

Building my neighborhood in Welcome To. I didn’t realize the blank space is for the name of your city, not your name. Welcome to Meeple Lady sounds a bit odd …

After Welcome To, I impromptu taught a game of Gunkimono, a new retheme of an underrated game I adore, Heartland, which is a cut-throat tile-laying game about farming. Gunkimono uses samurais instead, but I personally love the look and theme of Heartland.

Gunkimono is a retheme of an old classic I love, Heartland. You’re trying to score victory points or honor points based on tiles you put on the board.

I wanted to grab some air and get a drink so I resurfaced up to the ground floor. I ran into the Brothers Murph, who are on one of my favorite podcasts, This Game Is Broken. I completely fangirled out and told them how much I enjoy their antics on the show. They were both super nice!

It’s me and the Brothers Murph! (This is me totally trying to be chill but secretly fangirling inside.)

Lastly, I had time for one more game and busted out Sidereal Confluence. This game is absolute bonkers, and I’ve secretly been wanting to play this at a convention so I wrangle up a lot of folks to play with me! It’s a live trading/negotiation game that plays up to nine players in about two hours. Each player is a unique asymmetrical alien race trying to use their technology converters to create resources.

The thing is, though, you don’t have the resources to run your converters, but the other aliens do. And this is where trading comes into play. Sidereal Confluence plays through six rounds, with each round comprised of 10 minutes of trading, as well as an economy phase and confluence phase. Anything goes during trading, and agreements are binding or else you’ll lose victory points.

Sidereal Confluence is an asymmetrical live-trading card game. And yep, it’s just as fun as it sounds!

If you like trading games, this game is soooo much fun! And while the game is strictly just cards, Sidereal grows into quite a table hog as more converters come into play. In each round, alien races can also research technologies, which will net victory points for the researcher, and then that technology will be available for all players in the next round. When I first stated teaching the game, I could see some confused looks and, to be honest, I wasn’t 100 percent sure folks would be down for it. But they assured me they wanted to play, and everyone ended up having a good time. I know I sure did!

I got to run a seven-player Sidereal Confluence game at Strategicon. Achievement unlocked!

Note to self: I am definitely bringing Sidereal to every convention I now to go. It’s so much fun! I also believe that a higher player count makes for a better experience, as the resource economy isn’t so starved. And with that, my very full day of hanging out with amazing gamers came to an end. I know I say it often, but I’m truly lucky to be part of such an awesome community. I can’t wait to hit up Strategicon next year!