grodog's fun at DunDraCon 2008! • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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grodog's fun at DunDraCon 2008!
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grodog
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 3:09 am

I was in CA again for work this past week, and was able to stay through the weekend to attend DunDraCon on Satuday. I had a great time

Run down of the day:

9am arrive @ DDC, hit the flea market, score a bunch of old TDs including #s 3 and 4, for $2 each (most have some wear, but many in excellent or even NM- condition!)
9:30am register finally (badge printer was down), then wander dealer hall; I missed the only copy of Rappan Athuk Reloaded in the hall by about 10 minutes, it seems....
11am: Tadashi and I bump into each other, then wander around looking for games; we bump into a guy in Open Gaming who's going to be running Cosmic Encounter at 1pm, and arrange to join his game
Noon: Tadashi and I meet up with Larry "Masks of Nyarlathotep" DiTillio for lunch, and have fun eating some Mexican nearby, catching up (Tadashi)/meeting Larry (me)
1pm: All three of us return for Cosmic Encounter; we play for about 4 1/2 hours, about 6 games or so, and have a great time. More details @
viewtopic.php?t=6749
5:30: We head to dinner with three other friends of Larry's, and eat at a good Indian restaurant.
7pm or so: back to DDC for more gaming! We played Incan Gold (cards, and this was excellent too and should still be in print since it was released in 2006 by Funagain One; designed by Alan Moon and Bruno Faidutti) about three times, then Groo the Game (dice/cards combo; also fun; IIRC this is pretty collectable??) about four or five times. Tadashi leaves after he wins a Groo game, but I stick around for a few more.
10:00pm: I head off to locate my hotel (it's nearby, I didn't snag a room in the con hotel, alas, though I did find a great parking spot, which was very nice), but get Larry to sign my Masks 1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions, as well as Terror Australis before I leave
10:30: I'm pretty much settled into the hotel, and begin to re-arrange my luggage for my return on Sunday morning (including the snagged-from-work stationary box for the additional books and game stuff I picked up on the trip).

Much fun was had by all, and I found at least two new games to try to pick up.

I'm off to bed soon, have to drive back to San Jose to catch my flight ~10:45am or so.

If anyone has good info on the games we played, I'd love some pointers about scarcity, prices, etc. (the CE stuff could go in the other thread, though, so it'll be better-searchable later!).

Hasta!

Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
Greyhawk, grodog Style

Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
https://www.facebook.com/BlackBladePublishing/

killjoy32
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:20 am

sounds like a blast Al!

never seen or played that Cosmic Encounter thing, but it sounds really cool and the kinda thing that i like.....should maybe take a look for some of that stuff when funds permit.

Al

Are we nearly there yet?

Blackmoor
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 1:05 pm

sounds like a great trip

Games can get you through times of no money but money can not get you through times of no games!!

Xaxaxe
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:23 pm

Allan, which version did you guys play? And do you remember which aliens you got to play?**

And Al, I'm sure you've seen Cosmic a thousand times over the years ... it sounds like it just never registered with you. My guess is when you see it next time, you'll say, "Oh, that thing?"

+++++

**Warning: CE "alien" stories can be almost, but not quite, as bad as "my D&D character" stories.

killjoy32
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:28 pm

defo like the idea of it, so might try and pick some up cheapish and have a read methinks.

Al

Are we nearly there yet?

Badmike
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:33 pm

Xaxaxe wrote:Allan, which version did you guys play? And do you remember which aliens you got to play?**

And Al, I'm sure you've seen Cosmic a thousand times over the years ... it sounds like it just never registered with you. My guess is when you see it next time, you'll say, "Oh, that thing?"

+++++

**Warning: CE "alien" stories can be almost, but not quite, as bad as "my D&D character" stories.

I'll be bringing an older CE boxed set for the Gencon auction looks like (plug, plug, plug).

Gro, Your post got me thinking about non-rpg gaming. I wish I did more of it, some of the newer games out now look really great. We actually play Dungeon with my grandson (a bastardized version) every weekend when he comes to visit, but that's about it. Back in the day, on weekends when we weren't playing D&D (rarely), we could always get 5-6 guys up for a game of Divine Right, Squad Leader, Search for the Emperor's Treasure (from Dragon magazine), Awful Green Things from Outer Space, or something similiar. Even had one spring break in college where I brought a bunch of TSR mini games (Vampyre, Saga) and they were a real hit (yes we were nerds we were playing TSR mini-games on spring break in college!) Anyway just got me thinking it would be cool to get a nice board game going at Gencon if we had the time, but I don't think it'll be possible with everything going on already.

Larry Freaking DiTillio!!! He's the man! Did you know he was going to be there or did you just "happen" to have all three versions of Masks with you by accident????? :wink:

Mike B.

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grodog
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Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:20 am

Xaxaxe wrote:Allan, which version did you guys play? And do you remember which aliens you got to play?**

I think we played with all 9 of the expansions. We played with moons and flares, and talked about playing with lucre, but didn't; I only recall some of the names of aliens I played: Terrorist (I nailed 3 planets with my bombs in a six-player round!), Macho or something like that (my army chits counted as 4:1 in attack or defense), and several others. Is there a list of aliens and powers somewhere that I can read to ID them?

Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
Greyhawk, grodog Style

Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
https://www.facebook.com/BlackBladePublishing/

grodog
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Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:27 am

Badmike wrote:I'll be bringing an older CE boxed set for the Gencon auction looks like (plug, plug, plug).

I'd be happy to discuss a pre-GC purchase if you're interested, Mike

Badmike wrote:Gro, Your post got me thinking about non-rpg gaming. I wish I did more of it, some of the newer games out now look really great.

We play games regularly at dinner (cards usually, sometimes Carcassone: Hunters & Gatherers, which is our favorite flavor of Carc for the past year+), and I've definitely enjoyed getting my feet wet with some new games at DunDraCon---it's what attending cons was all about for me as a kid: go and play stuff you've never played before (then come back home and teach everyone else!).

Badmike wrote:Anyway just got me thinking it would be cool to get a nice board game going at Gencon if we had the time, but I don't think it'll be possible with everything going on already.

Depends on the game, but if we've got some folks with CE sets, we played the games quickly: folks could cycle in and out if we had an afternoon or evening slot going. They only took about 30-50 minutes each game, generally more in the 45-ish range. That's what really caught my eye about the game, actually: we played with 7-8 people, and had 3 100% newbies and 1 guy (Larry) who hadn't played actively in 20 years, and 3 guys who were into it, and the play was fast and smooth, and easy to pick up, and we still wrapped the games up in under an hour (can't really do that with Settlers...).

Badmike wrote:Larry Freaking DiTillio!!! He's the man! Did you know he was going to be there or did you just "happen" to have all three versions of Masks with you by accident?????

Yeah, we already had lunch plans to meet up with him, and we ended up spending the entire day from lunch onward together. He's a fun guy (no pun intended

Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
Greyhawk, grodog Style

Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
https://www.facebook.com/BlackBladePublishing/

Xaxaxe
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Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:46 am

grodog wrote:Macho or something like that (my army chits counted as 4:1 in attack or defense) ...

Macron!

Your description sounds right for Terrorist. Interesting note: that name will be changed for the FFG edition (for obvious reasons).

grodog wrote:Is there a list of aliens and powers somewhere that I can read to ID them?

Here's all 75 of the Eon powers, courtesy of The Warp website.

http://redamedia.com/warp/eonpowers.php

jasonw1239
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Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:53 am

Hey Allen,

Does Larry DiTillio have any movie/tv projects of note coming up?
The last entries for him on IMDB is for Babylon 5, Beast Wars: Transformers and Kong: The Animated Series.

Of course it would be nice if he were to be doing some more RPG work!

Check out my Chaosium sourcebook.
Secrets of Tibet

grodog
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Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:09 am

I'll see what Tadashi and I can whip together for some rpg work for Larry, though he did comment that he doesn't have a lot of time to play rpgs (it's been hard to gather their regular group of folks).

re: his TV/film writing projects, he mentioned working on a new Transformers TV cartoon series (I think it's a cartoon), but that was about it.

Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
Greyhawk, grodog Style

Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
https://www.facebook.com/BlackBladePublishing/

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