The Trip to Arkham Nights – Day Three: Fun in a Box

This was it, the big day.  If I was going to get some quality gaming in, it needed to be Saturday.  We arrived just in time for our “How to play Call of Cthulhu: LCG” session with our very capable and friendly host Jeff.  My son Matt and I faced off, and I did end up beating him.  It was an enjoyable game, however I’m not sure if I really want to get back into the 2 player card game world.  Even though it is not a collectible card game, there are still expansion packs released every few months requiring more and more cash.  I’m past that phase in my life, but I will have a full review soon.

Then the family decided to leave me to my own devices.  The kids were tired (I keep them up late playing games and up early to get free breakfast), the baby was bored, so I took them back to the hotel so they could relax.

I got back in time for the discussion on the upcoming “Order of the Silver Twilight” release for CoC:LCG.  This release will add a new human faction to the game, the “Cultists without a Cause” will infiltrate every other faction in the game.  Plus you will need to sacrifice your lower cost minions in order to bring out the big guns in this expansion.  It will also feature ritual cards.  These will be support cards that can build up over the course of a game and lead to a big payoff at the end.  The final bit of news is that many of the early expansions are being re-printed as a write this, and have been updated to format 3.0.  So those of you who missed them will have a second chance.

Then it was time for my interview with game designer Corey Konieczka regarding his new “Mansions of Madness” game.  Corey came out and met me, then we went into a room where he was setting up Mansions of Madness for the lucky few who get to playtest the game during the day.  The interview went great and you’ll be able to hear it on our next podcast.  Corey was very nice, and I’m very glad I got a chance to talk to him.

What I really wanted however, was to get a chance to play Mansions of Madness.  They were ony offering chances by lottery to people who pre-registered for the event.  So they had a box that they pulled names out of, and your intrepid reporter received no special consideration (I didn’t ask for any, and they didn’t offer) so it was up to fate to see if I would get a chance to play.  They drew names for all of the demo games, and I was not one of them. In fact, no one in my Gaming Gang was selected.  We had four chances to win and not one of us was picked. Sigh.

So I stuck around to see if someone wouldn’t show for the 2:00 demo, and a lot of people didn’t so they drew more names.  Again I wasn’t picked.  I decided to say the heck with it and head back to the hotel when they announced that they were looking for players for a game of Arkham Horror.  I really did want to play some games at this gaming weekend, so I joined the group.  It turned out that this was a game of Arkham Horror with the original designer of the Chaosium version of the game, Richard Launius.  How cool is that?

I have never played a game of Arkham Horror where we didn’t spend a significant amount of time reviewing the rules.  This was great.  Richard was so on top of this game, and he kept the play flowing at a great pace.  I learned some tips in playing the game, and it was the most fun I ever had playing AH.

But, 4:00 came around and they began to call names for Mansions of Madness again, to replace the people who didn’t show up.  I listened with one ear while playing Arkham Horror and lo and behold they finally called my name.  I threw my hands in the air in triumph, apologized to everyone else because I had to abandon my game of Arkham Horror, and headed down to play Mansions of Madness.  I will get a detailed post about the game out soon, but it was a lot of fun.  Corey ran the demo for me and three others, and he pulled no punches.  We lost, but it was very close.  A few more turns and we would have had him.  I can’t wait for the game to be released sometime in “Winter 2010”.

I picked up a few purchases in the store.  Just the “Lurker at the Threshold” expansion for Arkham Horror, and some AH dice. Then headed back to the hotel.  We hit Mall of America for dinner, and found “Games by James” in the mall.  I wanted a game for us to play that night in our room, so I bit the bullet and picked up “Betrayal at House on the Hill”.

We went back to the room and played our first game, which was fun, but we ended up all getting killed and the traitor won.  Grrr.  It turned into the movie “Saw”, and we all had our heads chopped off before we could get the boxes off our heads.  My wife even wanted to play another game right away, but it was really late so we hit the sack.

That is pretty much the weekend.  We are heading home on Sunday, so I don’t plan on going back to FFG for more gaming.  You’ll hear more details on the podcast, and my reviews will be up soon.  It turned into a fun, successful weekend, with gaming and family time all mixed in together.  What more could you ask for?

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Elliott Miller

Elliott is well versed in all tabletop gaming subjects and brings his expertise mostly to bear on strategy, family, and Euro-style gaming.

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