Where2Game Goes to Skycon 2018

Disclaimer: I was provided a free pass to Saturday’s Skycon in exchange for an honest review of Skycon event. All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are my own and not influenced by Skycon, and/or its affiliates, in any way

When I first spoke with Robert Morris about Skycon 2018, I was amazed at the level of enthusiasm he had for the whole convention. Arranging an event like this is no small feat, and yet he still had plenty of energy to discuss in detail with me how he saw the event now and how it will grow.

At 5:30 am on Saturday, Oct 13, 2018, I began the short drive to the Holiday Inn Hotel & Conference Centre in Kitchener, Ontario from our office in Hamilton. It was a short drive with a short rest at the OnRoute rest stop for a caffeine fill-up before the last leg of the journey.

I arrived at 8 AM. There was only one game scheduled to be run first thing on the Saturday. The attendance was sparse, but I can imagine it’s hard to garner interest at the end of a shortened week which often means longer work weeks for the Monday to Friday crowd. Vendors were still setting up and the badge table was not set up, so I sat in the lobby of the Holiday Inn charging my phone in their luxurious lounge with complementary WiFi and people watched as the odd person checking in and out came in.

At about 8:40 AM, I made my way through the conference centre rooms taking in the sights. It often helps me to know the layout beforehand, and I didn’t see any maps available. With that said, the space was small enough that I could quickly do a circuit identifying the bathrooms, table spaces, and games that were to be run shortly. At this time, badges were starting to become available, so I queued for mine, found it quickly, and hurried over to the vendor’s lane to find how I could spend some hard earned coin.

The select few vendors were a fantastic assortment of role-playing game (RPG) vendors, hobby shops, artisans, and Funk-pop retailers. If you were looking for something special or generic, you could find it here. Dice, crocheted figures, and an RPG known as Fate of the Norns was present and ready to lighten my purse. Before committing, I delved into the main ballroom to discover what lay in wait for Skycon attendees.

The ballroom contained everything needed for the 10 AM and later games and by 9 AM people were setting up for their war games, board games, and tournaments. Table placards on the tables denoted the location of games making your table easy to find.

As I was there as a casual observer instead of a game reviewer, I didn’t get a chance to play the games I was drooling over. There were hundreds of games to choose from, but my need to walk around kept me away. Everyone looked like they came ready for fun.

While I don’t want to give too much content away, the panels had a star studded amount of power behind them and are a must attend. With panels, board games, RPGs, and more here, I will be attending Skycon 2019 to continue to grow along with them!

Child’s Play: Top 5 Games for Young Children

The juvenile stage of human growth known as childhood is a brief and fleeting one. Parents, guardians, teachers, and people who support children are overwhelmed with a rush of options on what to do with the children they share their lives with. To make your life easier, I present my top 5 picks that I have observed being an uncle to four wonderful children in no particular order.

Go Fish

Go Fish and other classic card games like Crazy Eights and Memory are great teaching tools for children. They are quick to play, cheap to buy as most dollar stores have cards now, and teach things such as memory, sportsmanship, strategy, and the importance of weighing risks.

What’s more it can also teach the importance of rules and how to look them up. For example, think about getting yourself a Hoyle’s Rules of Games from your local bookstore. Beyond having hundreds of games to play, you can teach good reading and comprehension. Win-win!

Skipbo

Yes, it’s another card game, but it uses a specialized deck so I’m keeping it off the list as Go Fish, et al.

Skipbo is game that involves counting, sequences, and chance. The rules are simple to pick up as it largely just involves counting. For additional challenges, try throwing in different languages you want to teach and are interested in.

Catan Junior

I’ve done my best to try and keep away from branded games here, but Catan is just a classic resource management game to teach children that it is worth looking into.

It functions very much like regular Catan where you build resources to try and earn victory points, but the game play is a lot more simple and streamlined. Think of it like Catan Light!

For more information on the rules and playing, I highly recommend checking out Geek & Sundry’s Tabletop.

Checkers

Another classic game that can be played with minimal cost effective pieces is checkers. Checkers involves strategic moving of pieces with a simple mechanic: you move diagonally.

Easy and quick to play. This is definitely worth a play with the young children in your life, especially if you want to start leading them into chess.

Monopoly

One of my favourite games growing up was Monopoly Jr. It inspired me to want to become a landlord when I was younger, and taught me hard lessons in my teenage years about the roll of capitalism in the land markets.

What this game teaches is the importance of wise decision making, the scarcity of resources (like money and time), and how to lose gracefully. After all, the game is about bankrupting your fellow players and putting them into difficult financial situations. This game is all about conflict and how to handle it (along with your money) which is why I put this often hated game into my top 5.

Thank you for making it this far. I’m glad you have visited our fair site, and hope that you’ll continue to come back for more!

Game Review: Big Bang Theory Trivia Game – Fan Edition

Players: 2-8
Game Length: 60+
Recommended Ages: 12+

I’m always a little hesitant when I pick up a licensed game from a TV show. The reason? I’m hesitant that the game won’t capture the spirit of the show thus leading to disappointment and heartbreak. When I was told that there was a Big Bang Theory trivia game, I immediately pictured the characters from the show playing it and said – sure, I’ll give it a try.

Box for the game

The goal of the game is to collect 5 unique personas from the show by rolling a die and landing on a Fact or Fiction card. Each time you get a question correct, you get to draw from the persona deck. This means you may end up with multiples of the same character, but you can win if your trivia game is strong. Alternatively, if the trivia about the show is not your strong suit, you can steal existing cards by winning a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock.

The game board is unique, but confusing

Going through the rules, the rules seem to make it sound like it’s about geeky things like comics, games, science, etc. I was seriously mislead when every single question was about minute trivia from the show. Further to that, it seems that the questions were written by fans (short for fanatics) of the show. For someone who has only seen a few episodes, it was not at all fun for me. This game is for superfans who can remember very small minutia from the show.

This was a miss for me, but perhaps you’re the superfan that needs to play this game. Check in with your local gaming venues to see how you can get your hands on a copy.

Top 5 Games to Play on Father’s Day

When I was growing up, there was nothing more exciting than playing games with my Dad. I can remember the excitement when he would say yes and the mad scramble to list what games we could play. Perhaps you’re at a loss for what games to play, or are looking for last minute gift ideas. Whatever the case, these are the games I’d recommend to have a wonderful Father’s Day in 2018.

1. Mice & Mystics

Mice & Mystics was introduced to me by Tabletop and blew me away with how simple of an introduction to tabletop roleplaying games it is. If you have a father who is looking to develop a new generation of roleplayers, this would be my recommendation. The game controls the enemies through a set of rules which means that everyone can play to work together on your given scenario.

Full review here: Mice & Mystics.

2. Takenoko

A competitive bamboo growing game where you have to tend your bamboo garden and avoid the ravenous panda? This is a cute game that can appeal to a wide audience and doesn’t take too long to play. Plus, the panda is adorable with his hunger for more bamboo.

Full review here: Takenoko

3. Star Trek Catan

This resource generating game is one of my nemeses. It is addictive and very easy to learn, but can take a while to master. For that reason, I often lose. With that said, this is a fun game and this variation is a refreshing change to the original board and adds some exciting new elements such as personae. This game would be great for the strategist in your life who enjoys boldly going where no one has gone before.

Full review here: Star Trek Catan.

4. Dragon Slayer

If you’ve already got a full day but still want to squeeze in a game, try Dragon Slayer. It’s a dice-based game where you press your luck to slay more dragons without being knocked out. The rules are simple to learn for all ages and a game can take as little as 20 min. Would highly recommend for any time you need a quick game while waiting for other gaming partners to arrive.

Full review here: Dragon Slayer.

5. Dungeons and Dragons – Fifth Edition

If you have a thirst for adventure and 3-5 hours to spare, play some Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). To say this is one of my all-time favourite games is an understatement. I’m practically obsessed. This is a game that needs some preparation, but can be started easily with free basic rules on the Wizards website.

In D&D, it’s a tabletop roleplaying game where players control special heroes called player characters (PCs), and one player acts as a game master called a Dungeon Master (DM) who controls every other character. What happens next is up to the DM who tells a story with the PCs’ actions guiding the story.

Perfect for anyone who enjoys roleplaying, slaying monsters, levelling, and has a love of fantasy.

Full review here: Dungeons and Dragons

Game Review: Over|Under

# of Players: 2+
Age: 12+
Time: Approximately 30 minutes

While in Terra, the purpose of the game was to approximate using a series of scales and geography. Over-Under takes a different approach by simplifying down to whether a given number provided by a card is either over or understated. It’s like a less thought intensive trivia game. This is understandable given that this is also a drinking game.

Over Under board game

I’ve struggled a little bit on whether to review this because there are so many brilliant games out there that we could review. Of the three that we reviewed at Mancala Monk, this one was my least favourite. It wasn’t because of the drinking elements (we were sipping on water, tea, and soda – #partyanimals), but the game’s premise just never really spoke to me.

 

Over Under board game layout

A round goes something like this. The active player’s turn rolls a die. On the die there are four colours, ‘+2’, and ‘-2’. If you roll a +2, you move ahead on the board 2 squares, the inverse if you roll a -2. If you roll a colour, the player reads a card to the other player(s). The box has a good example of how it goes: “Over under on the longest ear hair ever grown. The line is 3 inches.” The opposite players not make votes using tokens on whether they think the answer is over three inches or under three inches. Their level of certainty is also added to the token (1 is the lowest level of certainty, and 5 is the highest). If you are right, then you move that number of squares forward along the board. If you are wrong, you move back that number of squares.

Our game took us about half an hour with three players.

This game is great for gaining a bit of knowledge, having a few laughs, and is great for larger groups such as classrooms (less the drinking) or a BBQ in your backyard on a sunny day.