I had the opportunity to attend a gaming convention for the first time. I’ve usually attended anime conventions, teaching conventions, or writing conventions in the past. While working with friends at their game booth, I was able to enjoy conversations with people who have passions. I don’t have to be passionate about miniatures to appreciate the time and attention to detail. I was very impressed with the dedication that everyone had to their niche games. Most were willing to explore other games, but were more comfortable with their specialty.
I was helping demonstrate a miniatures game Fields of Fire and a role playing game that will be released in the future, called 1740 released by Proving Ground Games. Fields of Fire was pretty fun to play because I could use strategy to determine where my tanks would move (behind terrain to block line of sight, or shoot for the enemy) and if they fired upon me, I had simultaneous fire options. I love the idea of going down fighting. They had simplified the rules from using math and coordinates with angles, to line of sight, distance, and rolling a die to determine if it hit, and how much damage. Granted, I know nothing about tanks, so it was pretty fun to see people geek out and name the different tanks on display. I’d never played a miniatures game before, but this was pretty quick to play, less than 10 minutes a turn, and you could see the results on the field before you. The scale of the battle in the demo was small for the booth at about 2 feet, but there was an impressive larger scale in another area, which was about 8 feet. Once again, I am fairly new to the miniatures realm, but there is a great amount of pride in players and in game creators. The attention to accuracy and historical detail in all of the games I viewed from all exhibitors were impressive.
I think this is another example of how research and passion can create something to enjoy, and not just a research paper.
1740 is a role playing board game, in which you are a chieftain in the highlands of Scotland. It’s similar to Risk in that you acquire land and send your troops about to claim other lands or into scuffles with your neighbors. There were a lot of fun cards to play to help with offense and defense. The first time I played, I was attracted to the Isle of Skye, for obvious historical reasons, and chose Inverness as my home turf. I was in last place after a terrible beating, but I was within 20 points of winning. Depending on strategy, you can think you’re losing because of lost warriors, and actually win because of accumulated points.
The prototype doesn’t have the family name or tartans, but the released version will likely have more information and tartans on the pieces that fits their area. It’s actually on a Kickstarter to help develop and produce the full game. We were demonstrating it to find out what additions we could include on the final version and spread the word.
It was a great deal of fun to explore new worlds that others create and appreciate their efforts for entertainment. I played Catan for the first time, and it was a special Star Trek version, which was extremely fun to play. It was the only game I won the entire weekend. The other game I tried and failed miserably was Nuns on the Run, in which you are a novice who has a secret wish and are attempting to sneak past the Abbess and Prioress to retrieve something and get back to your room without being caught. There was a whole lot of sneaking going on, but I was terribly unlucky or failed in my sneaky strategy.
It’s refreshing to explore other worlds and meet new people. I’m looking forward to working on writing a game in the next year.
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