Nuke Con Wrap Up

Last weekend was Nuke Con 2010, and I'm still trying to catch up on sleep, chores, how to talk to non-gamers, stuff like that. The BFF and I wondered if it seemed lighter in turnout than other years, but chatting with others, we discovered that turnout was still strong. He and I figured out later that it what seemed different was less miniature war gaming. Other years, there are several tables completely decked out with homemade displays, suitcases full of miniatures, and people with measuring tapes walking around the table looking for the best angle. This year, there only seemed to be a few of these kinds of tables, I think that was the only difference.
And more diversity in games, it seemed. I did my part in stretching the diversity, volunteering to lead two newish European games. I had to sign up to GM a month early to get in the program, so I've been thinking about teaching games, and how (and why) we all learn games, and I'll go on more on that thinking in another post or three, but now the play-by-play (pun intended) of my weekend at Nuke Con 2010!
Cast of characters on this trip: Me. The BFF (that's Boy Friend Forever). Dawn Child, my 19-year-old, almost too old for me to still state his age, doesn't live at home anymore, but still games a lot! and The Munchkin, my 17-year-old who does still live at home.
First thing, straight after check-in, I rushed to the concession stand to buy a t-shirt. I had procrastinated through the on-line purchase time, and didn't want to miss out. This year is the 20th anniversary, so the theme was "It Was 20 Years Ago Today..." with a cute Sgt. Pepper's done in gaming logo. I had to have one!
Friday night, The BFF and I pretty much stuck together, starting with Temple of the Beastmen. Out-of-print old, but still very enjoyable. Searching for treasures and avoiding the beastmen through five levels, where the beastmen are x times more plentiful on each lower level (so level 5 with ten beastmen, makes them actually fifty), and each character having specific strengths and a specific goal. I won, thanks to the kind player who traded me some treasure for my 'boy'.
Side note: The prizes were awesome this year! I don't remember having second and third place prizes on very many games other years, this year, I think all games did.
So when I was victorious in the game of Beastmen, I won Warhammer Invasion! Quite a prize. The kids tried it out sometime over the weekend.
Next, The BFF and I went to a panel on Zombie Defense and Education put on by the Omaha Chapter of the Zombie Research Society. If you're interested in anything Zombie, check out their site, their Facebook, and their podcast. But since it's not specifically game related, I won't go into great details, but just to sum up: Awesome panel!
After that, we playtested The Nightly Misadventures of Pizza Guy. I love playtesting. A few years ago, I got to playtest a couple new games in development by the creator of House on Haunted Hill. His games were scribbles on index cards, Pizza Guy was very well fleshed out, lots of nicely typed and well-thought-out playsheets, cards, tip charts. My favorite part was the hilarious descriptions of the art that is hoped to be on each card, I LOL-ed. There were great ideas in Pizza Guy, and some parts that need to be worked through more. As a good playtester, I gave all my ideas and opinions to the designer. I hope to someday buy the finished product.
Then it was on to Fiasco, a GM-less RPG. Dawn Child, a very seasoned RPG-er, joined The BFF and I along with three others. I always play one RPG at Nuke Con, despite feeling like I'm not very good at it. How will I improve if I avoid it? Being GM-less, and the unique way that it is able to be GM-less, made it easier for me to get into it. I did still get the bad RPG-er blues about 2/3 into it, when I just ran out of ideas and steam. We bought the pdf, and are going to try it at our family game day this weekend. I think I will be able to get into it a bit more with just family, but we'll see.
While the three of us were RPG-ing, The Munchkin was Zombie LARPing, which he said was great fun, and he won a cool t-shirt.
Saturday started with Mythos, a Collectable Card Game, luckily with pre-made decks. I am on record as not liking CCGs, but it's not the game play (usually) that I don't like, it's trying to build a deck. I have no idea how to do that. But since the decks were pre-made, I was happy to try it out (or again, I think I played it a few years ago). I really liked how this played, when you have a properly made deck, you're trying to bring out specific things for victory points, and you fight with the other players. We had six people ready to play, so the GM put us in two groups of three, and The BFF and I each won in our trio. Since we already have a bunch of the cards, we're going to find the pre-made deck lists on-line, because I will definitely
play this again.
Next, we tried out Ruin by Buffalo Games. It would be good for a younger crowd, or party gamers. It was a fun twist on the Sorry type of game.
Saturday, I didn't do as much gaming myself, since I was leading games at different times, and I didn't want to be late for my own game!
I GM-ed Fresco, ironically being all the way in Omaha, to teach the game to two of our buddies from our Lincoln FLGS. Later, I GM-ed Dixit, and I was happy to find people excited about playing, and they loved it!
Sunday, The BFF and I joined in a huge game of Zombies!!! with three home grown expansions we play tested. My favorite was the Zoo. This game took most of the part of the day that we were awake and not driving! Then the pooped out gamers headed back home.
Can't wait for next year!!