DAY 1 – Saturday, June 12

On Saturday, we got a couple of Neuroshima Hex! games in with Steve from my local brick-and-mortar store, Toys on Fire. He was participating in a Warhammer 40K Kill-team Tournament, so we had to rush the second game a little bit. We almost managed a three way tie (this only days after the three of us, plus Al, managed a four way tie). But the game was a heck of a lot closer than the pounding Steve gave us in the first game (with The Outpost faction, no less)!

Shortly after Steve entered his tournament, Lara and I started to learn Dungeon Lords. And I say started because we were staring at over 21 pages of rules, in a limited time frame. But the timing of that attempt was very fortunate, because we had just spent the previous night writing up a Quick Start Guide for our prototype of Crystal Core. Our thinking was that our 36 page rulebook might be too daunting for some players (although, to be fair, only about 13 of those pages are for core rules). So we wrote up a 2 page ruleset, which was designed to get players into the game as quickly as possible, by teaching all the basics they would need to setup a game and to start playing. More on that below, but suffice it to say that our decision to create this Quick Start Guide was validated by our failed attempt to learn Dungeon Lords. Mind you, we grabbed a copy of the game this week, and are looking forward to learning it!

After that, Lara and I decided to play a quick game: Dominion fit the bill just right. We’ve had a copy of the game for a while, and really enjoyed it, but hadn’t played in quite some time. We refreshed our memories on the gameplay, then got right into it. I went after gold early and often, and after a while that strategy paid dividends. I started to get 8+ treasure on hand after hand after hand, and went after the Provinces. It resulted in a decisive victory for me, which would prove to be ironic the following day.

Unfortunately, we had to leave early on Saturday because of a previous engagement, but I came back for open play once that engagement was cancelled. I met a great group of people from Ludo-Outaouais, and they introduced me to the colourful world of Coloretto. I had a horrendous second round, which I indirectly blame on Lucie for successfully employing a strategy of getting every colour in the first round. For some reason, I decided that it would be a good idea to emulate that strategy. Seventeen points later, I found out I was wrong. But I compensated with a huge third round (40-some points), and the game ended up being quite close. Thank you Romaine, Marc, and Lucie for teaching me the game.

After that, I played my first game of Imperial with these same fine folks, plus Pascal and Eric. Turns out, being in charge of France without knowing how to play the game is NOT such a good idea! Who knew?!? In hindsight, a Brazilian being in charge of France was never going to end up well (especially when coupled with control of England). I ended up being saddled with control of France for the whole game, which prevented me from buying into quality nations. Well, I did a solid job of getting control of England just before taxation (twice), and did a decent job of running it. But I did not have enough (read: any) stock in other of the top nations at the end of the game. And I could not get enough investor actions to diversify my stocks. Lesson learned. Overall, that was a solid medium-heavy weight game, and I’m looking forward to trying the 2030 version.

DAY 2 – Sunday, June 13

We started the day thinking of focusing on promoting Crystal Core and trying to arrange a playtest session. But early in the day we met one of two really nice couples we would meet that day: David and Julie. They were looking to play a game, so Lara and I decided to join them. We ended up playing Puerto Rico, which we own but had not played much (to my dismay). Steve, one of the several event volunteers we met that weekend, ran us through the entire game, which was as enjoyable as I recalled. Both David and Julie were forced to discard a good chunk of goods (in separate turns) near the end of the game, which proved to be costly. I was able to buy 2 of the large VP buildings, which proved to be the winning move. Although, if I recall correctly, Lara and David were not far off from my points total, with Julie being slightly behind the group. A solid first game by our new friends. Now I’m just hoping that we can make it to some of those east-end game nights to play with them again!

After that game, Lara decided to join the Tri-Game-Athon, a competition involving Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Carcassonne. In the meantime, I met up with my friend Al, and we decided to play a game that I had spotted on day one of the summit and was dying to try: Battlefields of Olympus, a beautiful card game from Smartass Games. The designer, Peter Grant, is an internet friend of mine, and a fellow member of the Game Artisans of Canada. Anyhow, Al and I were initially confused about a couple of things in the rules, but once we got going, we both really enjoyed the game. We loved the combat system, which was an elegant mix of the Blue Moon approach, and Rock-Paper-Scissors. We missed the part that explained how to draw a battle, but we discussed what seemed like good and bad strategies throughout. Al won the game by a good few points, even before a final battle that was unnecessary (only because we had not realised that Al had won the game at the time, until after he had won that last battle as well). Overall, I think we barely scratched the surface of the strategy that goes into the game.

Afterwards, I was introduced to Andrea and Terry, the second of the nice couples we met that weekend. Al and I joined them for their first game of Dominion, while Lara was on the final leg of her competition. Steve once again was kind enough to run us through the game, though both Al and I were familiar with it. We also openly discussed strategy, to help even the odds between the experienced players and the Dominion newcomers. Turns out, we were excellent teachers! That gold-rush strategy I had employed so well only the night before was mentioned to Andrea and Terry, and the latter followed it so well that we started to call him Fort Knox. I missed an opportunity to buy a gold card early own, and didn’t jump on the combo-action card bandwagon early enough. In the end, Andrea and I tied for last place, Al came in second, and Terry taught the veterans a thing or two about efficient deck building (cleaning up his Province-full hands with a couple of Cellar cards). It was a great match, and I hope to see Andrea and Terry, who are just getting into these kinds of games, at one of the local game nights!

THE AFTER-PARTY

As the scheduled programing was coming to a close, I started to generate some interest on the Crystal Core prototype I had laid out near the board games all weekend long. In fact, there had been interest all weekend long, but some folks were asking for a rundown of the game. I started teaching the rules to Bill, a fellow game designer I met that Sunday. He was a fountain of knowledge. For instance, when I brought up transport vehicles, he asked how the game dealt with them being destroyed while transporting units. After my response, he explained to me how a single bullet could get into a tank and bounce around until no soldier was left alive. Grisly stuff, to be sure.

Anyhow, so I’m explaining the game to Bill, and some of the fine folks from Toys on Fire, and everyone seems just about ready to get a game going. Unfortunately, some potentially bored kids decided that it would be fun to pull the fire alarm. But fear not! After a modest delay, we got back in the building, and were finally able to start gaming. We decided to have a blind test session, so I had to bite my tongue whenever the players were trying to figure anything out from the rules. And I did (with perhaps one or at most two exceptions), while discovering that watching your game being tested is actually quite interesting. In fact, it was quite rewarding when the players were able to arrive on the correct answer to their questions using the rules Lara and I had written.

The players decided to learn the game using the brand new Quick Start Guide, which was a 2 page pamphlet packed with the essential rules needed to setup and start playing the game. One of the reasons why we decided to write this short ruleset, aside from making the game more accessible than a 36 page rulebook would allow it to be, was because Crystal Core lends itself to learning hands-on. That’s because the game contains a great deal of reference material that does not all need to be memorised, as well as specific situations that do not need to be addressed until they come up mid-game. For instance, you do not need to know what the “Transport” special ability does, nor how to get into our out of a transport vehicle, unless you are using a unit with that ability. The same goes for any of the other 44 special abilities (a few of which are not used in the original game, but will be used in the expansions). Luckily, the players quite enjoyed the quick start rules, and though the rules as a whole were quite smooth and easy to follow. And if you’ve ever tried to write a rulebook you know how great a success that is.

Unfortunately, due to the timing of when we started the session and the fact that it came at the tail-end of a long weekend, we only made it two rounds into the game (out of six rounds). But the players gave me some wonderful feedback and suggestions, but really enjoyed the game from what they saw up to that point. One of my designer friends once said that you know your game is ready once people are asking to play it. And while Crystal Core is not perfect yet (to my definition), it seems that we are well on our way to capturing those elements that make players come back to a great game. Thank you Bill, Erick, Gray, Keegan, and Steve for your time, efforts, and feedback so far, and I hope we can get a full test session in shortly!

As a final note, I must thank Marquis for all the help and support he has given us. A big thanks goes out to you, Amy, Cory, and all the people that made this great event possible! I’m already pumped for the next one!

Until next time!
~L