OwlCon: Day 2
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February 16, 2006:
Sorry it took me so long to update this, I've been quite busy since I finished the Con.
Saturday morning, Conan was still there and had been up all night. I decided I didn't really feel like playing Diplomacy, so Conan and I removed our registration.
The first game I played was Munchkin, by Steve Jackson Games. I had seen this game at every convention I had ever been to, but I never got around to playing it until now. It was a fairly simple-to-learn card game in which your goal was to achieve level 10 for your character before anyone else does. On your turn you kick down a door (by flipping a door card). If it's a monster, you have to fight it. The other players can help you in order to share in the treasure, or even help the monster to keep you from gaining levels. If you beat the monster, you go up a level and get a treasure card. Treasure can be special events, curses, equipment, or more. Then that's it; first to level 10 wins. We played two games and I lost both games, but it was a fun game.
Next up I played in the Uberplay Games block, while Conan went off to play an unscheduled war game. During this block, I played three games: Ra, For Sale, and Buy Low, Sell High.
First was Ra. Ra was a complicated bidding game, which I thought was similar to Goa. There are three rounds and every round you get bidding tiles with numbers on them (from 1 to 16). Every turn in the round a person pulls a random tile from the tile bag and puts it on the board. Instead of drawing, you can invoke Ra (i.e. start a bidding war). Also, if you draw a Ra tile, bidding starts immediately. The person that wins the bid gets to take all of the tiles that have been placed out. Once so many Ra tiles have been drawn, the round ends. Of course each of the tiles count for points depending on what types of combinations you can make, but that's too much to go into for a general review. The person with the most points at the end of the three rounds wins.
Next we played another bidding game, For Sale. This game was incredibly simple to learn and play. Everyone starts out with $14,000 and property cards are flipped over one round at a time. Each player then can bid on the properties with their money. The property cards all have numbers on them (from 1 to 32), which are used to bid on checks in the next phase of the game. During the next phase, the same play happens, but instead of bidding with money for property, you bid with properties for checks (based on the number on the property card). Whoever has the most money at the end (by adding up checks and leftover money from the first round), wins.
The final game I played in the Ubergames block was Buy Low, Sell High. It is basically a stock game. There is a stock ticker for one of three types: commodity, oil, and tech. On each player's turn, they can buy or sell stock (if they buy, the price goes up slightly, and selling makes the price go down slightly), then they play a card from their hand, which can make the stocks go up or down or pay divdends (at the end of the round), or charge fees (immediately). Once three rounds pass, everyone sells their stocks off one by one, and whoever has the most cash wins.
Luckily, I was the only person to stay for the entire Ubergames block, so I got a prize: Cloud 9 by Out of the Box Games. I had played this game last year with Pam and I loved it. It's basically a big game of chicken. Everyone gets dealt cards with colored balloons on them. Then the pilot rolls the dice, which have colored balloons on them. Each person clockwise then decides whether they want to stay on the balloon to possibly score more points, or jump off and take the points they have now. If the pilot does not have the cards he or she needs, then no one left on the balloon gets any points, and the balloon goes back to the ground. Of course the pilot wouldn't tell you if they have the right cards because they want everyone but them to jump off so they can get the most points. Once a pilot pays the cards they need to, the pilot passes to the person on left, who becomes the new pilot. First to 50 points wins!
For the last game of the day, I played one of my old favorites, Settlers of Catan. The twist to this one is it was completely custom made and 10 times the size of a normal board :) I won't get into the description of Settlers of Catan too much, because it wasn't really a new game to me or most people I know, I'll just give a brief overview. The board is random, made with tiles, and each tile gives resources. You use those resources to trade with other players, and to build stuff. Once you build enough stuff, you win :) It's a great game because there is a lot of strategy, but even beginners can with with the right die rolls. So it's fun for the whole family. The game I played tonight I wiped the floor with the other players. I had 8 points (10 needed to win) within 15 minutes of the start of the game. The game usually takes 60-90 minutes to finish. Of course it took me another 20 minutes to get those last two points because everyone ganged up on me.
Being late, we went down to the bar for beer and pretzels. While there, we played the other game I won, Easy Come, Easy Go. It was an extremely simple game. It's basically Yahtzee where you can steal goals from other people. Great game because it's easy to learn and easy to play, and beginners can jump right in and win their first game.
I have to get going now, so stay tuned for a short Day 3 recap later today (I didn't stay very long the third day). I'll also upload pictures for everything tonight.
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