How was origins and what did you play?

[Bryan Stewart]

So, how was origins and what did you play?

[Mistress Lilac]

I went with my husband, son and four of our friends in a caravan. We stayed at the Red Roof Inn. I played D20 Pro - One in a Minnion, Artemis, Red Dragon Inn, Dawn of the Dead, play tested fifth edition D&D, Astro Smash, Sparks and Tumbling Dice. We won the costume contest by default for best group because only two other people showed up. They got prizes too. Loot was all from Barleys Brewing Co. Parking was great this year. We frugalized by taking stuff for sandwiches, chips, and water. I forgot the bread but one of our friends came up with the idea of buying bagels from Einsteins. We had a blast and plan to continue going every year!

[Charlie Davis]

Ann, thanks for the answer. Any thoughts on those games you played?

[jroman]

I had a great time at Origins this year and it was the first year I got to really play a lot of games. The Indie Press Revolution room was my favorite and I ended up spending a lot of time there. From them, I got to play:

Inspectres - Our group of down on our luck ghost hunters managed to get warped back in time, mess with one PC's past and the time space continuity, tangle with a vampire and completely annoy the neighborhood at the same time.
Fiasco - played with three players and it was my favorite game of the convention. I'm considering running it at Charcon. The setting was an isolated research station in Antarctica with smugglers, backstabbing and a team of killers flying in to eliminate my character in 30 hours. It went gloriously downhill from there.
Dresden Files - The PCs were very colorful members of a paranormal society out to solve a murder. Throw in cultists, a black court vampire, and a lot of laughing and you have a well-run Dresden game.

I also had a great time playing a demo of Legend of the Five Rings and Deadlands Reloaded. Every GM I played with was great.

I normally run a lot of games and those I did seemed to go pretty well: Fist Full of Zombies, Unhallowed Met, Kult (my favorite one), Marshal Law vs. The Hateful (high powered superheroes smashing zombified super heroes), Dark Heresy and Deathwatch.

How was Origins for everyone else?

[merb101]

I went with a group Saturday and just shopped. I took part in a BGG game trade and came away with a suitcase full of DnD 4E books, then bought a few more to round out my collection. Somehow along the way I hurt my back and am still feelin it today.

The vendor area where I spent most of my time seemed a bit more sparse. Though they had filled the whole area with vendors, there was a lot more space between them, so at best it was an illusion. I did encounter several vendors with very interesting looking games that directed potential buyers to Kickstarter. I found that a bit annoying. I don't fault those people for getting the word out about their games, I just hate being told "Here is this cool thing you can't have right now and here are some hoops for you to jump through to maybe get it later."

It also seemed there were fewer vendors actually demoing games. The ones that were tended to have a crowd. Someone on BGG posted something similar, that many vendors seemed hesitant to demo anything at their booths.

BTW, did anyone notice the absence of a lot of big name vendors, like Paizo and Privateer Press? I was kinda shocked that only one booth seemed to be selling Hordes stuff, and not very much. Miniatures gaming in general seemed to be down, as a quick walk through of the miniatures area showed very few of the large terrain setups.

I did not make it to Games on Demand (the indie games area where they run sessions of Fiasco and Apocalypse World). I actually felt like I didn't have enough time to do the stuff I wanted to do. Next year I plan on getting a full weekend pass and spending the night so I can get in on some actual games. Shopping is fun, but I did leave feeling I had missed out on a bunch of cool opportunities.

[Mistress Lilac]

Charlie, we liked the D20 Pro so much that we plan to buy it. Artemis was cool if you like to co-op play with others and pretend to fly a starship. I was the communications officer. Red Dragon Inn is one of our favorites and Slugfest will be premiering two new character decks at Gencon. The decks will each cost $15.00 Doug has downloaded the rules for Dawn of the Dead online. It was an old board game from the 70's that the gamemaster blew up the board and had painted minis. We absolutely loved this game! The play test for fifth edition D&D has things I like and things I would miss from 4E. Astro Smash was cool. I definately plan to play Sparks again. I am considering buying Tumbling Dice. Good game to play while standing around talking.