paulygcon3: pauly3con (17th - 19th November 2017)

I have a recent kick starter arrival that I haven't played yet.
Dutch east Indies.
Sailing ships trading resources collecting spices and avoiding or fighting each other and pirates.
No idea what it will be like. But it looks pretty.
Plays upto 4

Lizzy wrote:There are loads of games I've missed out on this year as I'm always playing campaign games on Tuesdays.

I'd love to play any of these if people have them and bring them:

Anachrony
La Granja
Isle of Skye
Agra
Terraforming Mars
First Martians
Too Many Bones
Lisboa

What else have I missed?

Happy to play La Granja or Isle of Skye anytime. They're both good.

Hi Paul is it OK if I bring a friend with me?

RikTheChief wrote:Hi Paul is it OK if I bring a friend with me?

Sure thing!

I'll try an come if I'm still welcome to come along

Would love to get some more plays of Agra in - it can be a long one though

AndyM wrote:I'll try an come if I'm still welcome to come along

Would love to get some more plays of Agra in - it can be a long one though

Of course, Andy. Be good to have you here!

Anyone have the gaia project or do I need to get spending?

Paul. Do you need anything fetching over for the weekend. I have a couple of folding market tables and 5 folding chairs.

Ianm wrote:Paul. Do you need anything fetching over for the weekend. I have a couple of folding market tables and 5 folding chairs.

Those chairs would be smashing if you don’t mind bringing them. Hoping that Dave B might be able to lend me a couple too which should then be plenty. I’m ok for tables. Cheers!

Paul, I have a couple of folding chairs too. Even if I'm not coming at all over the weekend I could drop them in on Friday for you.

Looks like I'll be coming over on the saturday afternoon/evening this year... Looking forward to it!

karl_b wrote:Paul, I have a couple of folding chairs too. Even if I'm not coming at all over the weekend I could drop them in on Friday for you.

Thanks Karl. Appreciate the offer but with Ian’s and Dave’s we’ll be up to 24 which should be enough!

Evilevan wrote:Looks like I'll be coming over on the saturday afternoon/evening this year... Looking forward to it!

Excellent! First time Saturday attendance :-)

I'll not be along on the Friday now, but should be there for most if not all of Saturday and Sunday.

ADMIN TIME!

1) As we get closer to the event, I've set up a WhatsApp group to discuss who's playing what, who's on their way, is there any pizza left, etc. I've added the people who've said they're definite or maybes for whom I had a phone number. If you want to be added then PM me your phone number.

2) Official times are as mentioned in the top post. If you need to arrive earlier on any day then that's probably fine but let me know and I'll make sure there's someone in / awake.
Friday 18:00 - 00:00
Saturday 12:00 - 00:00
Sunday 12:00 - 21:00

3) If you don't have my address then PM me and I'll send it to you.

Pauly3 has authorised me to arrange a 'try & buy' table, so if you'd like to move some games on, feel free to bring them along. I'll keep some cash / change handy so I can act as purser for sales in absentia.

Please provide:
name
phone number
games fs w/ prices
expected attendance times
Purser authorised as proxy? (Y/N)

If you can easily provide a sheet with that on then go ahead and DIY. If you'd rather send me those details, I'll put them on a sheet and print out. If you can't do it in advance, I'll have some blank sheets on the table.

Might look at a 10% to charity option if anyone interested.

psychomansam wrote:Pauly3 has authorised me to arrange a 'try & buy' table, so if you'd like to move some games on, feel free to bring them along. I'll keep some cash / change handy so I can act as purser for sales in absentia.

Wow, it's becoming even more like a real convention!

Please don't all queue up 2 hours early and run to the try & buy table when the doors open though. ;-)

New for this year, we're going to have a game of Pretense running on each day of pauly3con. This is a metagame, designed to be played as you play other games. There will be posters up explaining the (very simple) rules and showing the role cards that might be in play.

Goal: Obtain the most role cards over the course of the day.
How to play:
1) Each attendee is given a role card when they arrive which has a secret objective.
2) If you complete your objective, reveal your card and announce it was completed. You then take another player's card (as directed on your role card) and take on the role of that new card.
3) If you think you know another player's role you may challenge them and they must reveal their role. If you were correct then they are eliminated. If you were wrong then you must give that player your role card, they assume your role, and you are eliminated.
4) Eliminated players can still win if they have obtained the most role cards.

A couple of examples of role cards:
- Klutz: If another play comments about the number of times you rolled dice off of the table, you may take their role card.
- Crafter: If you convince the group to play a game with a house rule, you may take any other player's role card.

paulyg wrote:New for this year, we're going to have a game of Pretense running on each day of pauly3con.

Oh no. That sounds like the kind of game that I'll try to strategize about far more than it deserves. (I've already thought up at least three ambiguous cases that may or may not count as "house rules" for the Crafter role. It probably needs a clause about "Disagreements are resolved by PaulyG / popular vote / fisticuffs.") One clarification: I assume that rule 3 is missing a "take their card, but do not assume their role" if you successfully challenge someone.

Also, I predict that I will lose to the inevitable "Analysis Paralysis" card and complain about the luck involved in drawing the right role, while never admitting that I secretly enjoyed the (meta)game.

swilbur wrote:

paulyg wrote:New for this year, we're going to have a game of Pretense running on each day of pauly3con.

Oh no.  That sounds like the kind of game that I'll try to strategize about far more than it deserves.  (I've already thought up at least three ambiguous cases that may or may not count as "house rules" for the Crafter role.  It probably needs a clause about "Disagreements are resolved by PaulyG / popular vote / fisticuffs.") One clarification: I assume that rule 3 is missing a "take their card, but do not assume their role" if you successfully challenge someone.

Also, I predict that I will lose to the inevitable "Analysis Paralysis" card and complain about the luck involved in drawing the right role, while never admitting that I secretly enjoyed the (meta)game.

Yes, there has already been a lot of over-thinking of this game on the WhatsApp thread too...

I'm happy to resolve disputes (though what if I have the role whose objective is to resolve a dispute between two players...?)

Under rule 3, if you make a successful challenge, you do not get the card (rather, it is removed from the game). I agree it seems slightly odd, but I suppose it's meant mainly as a defensive play if you think you're about to be targeted by someone completing their objective.

Apart from trying to complete your current objective the other main play that I can think of, particularly if you have a difficult role, is trying to telegraph that you're one of the other roles so that someone incorrectly challenges you (remove competition from the game and get a new role which might be easier to complete).

Oh, I also meant to add (based on a couple of bits of feedback)... Pretense is supposed to be fun and not stressful. If anybody would rather not play then that is absolutely fine!

Also also! The full rules for Pretense (which I summarised above) are here should anyone wish to study them!

(Because we don't know exactly how many people will be here each day, and because people will show up at different times, I've elected just to select 18 roles which could be in play. I excluded the 3 that I considered the most boring / actively annoying. And, instead of the tokens to show which roles might be in play, there will be some posters up around the con showing the roles which you can attempt to memorise.)

Thank you to everyone for coming; I had a great weekend!

Special thanks must go to Kes for logo design (and to Lizzy and Kes for the outstanding playmat), Ian and Dave for lending us furniture, Sam S for arranging and running the try 'n' buy corner, everyone who gave people lifts and made it easier for them to get here / get home and, of course, to Kat for letting me do this stupid thing and for generally looking after people and sorting out food and being amazing. And a big thanks to everyone who came and played games and read rules and taught games and made me cups of tea and made it a fun weekend.

I'm super interested in your feedback (either in this thread or in private) if there's anything you particularly liked or thought could have been better.

I had a great time, and thanks again for hosting. Far as I'm concerned you and Kat go above and beyond to make sure everyone is well-catered for and having a good time. Can't wait for next year, quite frankly

My weekend in games:

Isle of Skye - I loved this tile-laying game because of the really clever buying/selling mechanic. Would definitely like to play this more more.

Menu Masters - Very 'meh' collection game with a semi-interesting queuing mechanic. Will be selling...

Shadows over the Empire - I think there's something there in this control grid-based card game, but the way our game panned out seemed incredibly unbalanced. Would like to give this another go some time.

Utopia - Very 'meh' area control and building game. Going on the sale pile.

Turbo Drift - About as much as I expected from a game that fits in a bus pass wallet. It's a racing game using a few cards and a slightly flawed selection system. Admittedly the idea of using the nitro, crashing, and exploding did make me laugh quite a bit. To be sold.

Battleship Galaxies - Sort of interesting space combat tactics game. Very much let down by a lack of dynamism (we just moved into a static position and blasted each other), probably due to the 360 firing arcs on all ships. Not terrible by any means, but I'll probably sell this.

Diamant - One of my favourite push your luck games where you're journeying into a dangerous trap-filled temple looking to get more loot than your fellow explorers. Always enjoy playing this!

Battlestations 2nd Edition - This is a game where you both control a starship and the crew on board that starship. Exciting! We played through two tutorial missions that were, er, a little unexciting and overly long for being a tutorial. The first introduced the on-board tactics bit and the second introduced how to use the various stations on the ship. I think things will actually get interesting when you have to do both together. Looking forward to playing the more exciting missions.

Desert Island - Unnecessarily longer and more complex sequel to Lifeboat. A game of survival, jostling for position, saving your love and sacrificing your enemy. I definitely don't need to own both of these!

Illimat - A game in the style of a classic card game with a touch of the occult. I like this, but no-one that I played with seemed to enjoy it much. I will hope to find other people to play it with!

Homo Sapiens (Samuel's prototype) - Extremely promising prototype, which I enjoyed playing very much (even though my huts kept getting attacked by the local wildlife). Samuel can no doubt explain it to anyone interested much better, but I really liked the core mechanic (of pointing and blocking) and found it really unique.

Progress: Evolution of Technology - Tableau building game of advancing your tech tree. I enjoyed this (I love a good tech tree) and the build up of 'skills' (letting you draw cards in different ways, for example) is interesting. There is a real lack of player interaction, but I'll certainly play this again.

Shogun - One of the best games I played all weekend, I think. On the face of it, it appears to be a Risk-style war-game but it's actually significantly deeper than that. The amount of fighting that you can do is limited, and expansion has its costs. You really have to pick your battles and get your timing right. The way you have to fully plan your turn in advance, without knowing what anyone else will do or fully what order things will happen in, is excellent. Really, really keen to play some more games of this.

Tragedy Looper - A one vs many game of investigation, deduction and trying to solve a puzzle whilst the Mastermind is actively changing it. I think this nearly melted my brain, as I played it on Sunday evening, but I loved it! There was an almost audible 'click' as I went from being utterly confused about what was going on to understanding the different elements. I love that each turn is a puzzle. I love that you can find out key information and use that on a future attempt. Very keen to play this again as well!

Rumplestiltskin - A 2-player game very much along the lines of Love Letter. You have to guess the card on the bottom of your opponent's deck, but each card has a power to let you do things like reverse the order of your deck, draw the bottom card, search for a card, etc. Not exactly deep, but not a bad little game.

Pretense - We played this throughout the weekend and I think it was ok! It's a social meta game where each person is given a role with an objective that they need to complete to steal a role card off somebody else. I did rubbish and didn't manage to legitimately steal cards, but I think it added some fun, some notable 'incidents' and some running jokes through the weekend without being too intrusive on the playing of actual games. I'm really interested in what other people thought of this.

paulyg wrote:Shogun - One of the best games I played all weekend, I think. On the face of it, it appears to be a Risk-style war-game but it's actually significantly deeper than that. The amount of fighting that you can do is limited, and expansion has its costs. You really have to pick your battles and get your timing right. The way you have to fully plan your turn in advance, without knowing what anyone else will do or fully what order things will happen in, is excellent. Really, really keen to play some more games of this.

I'd be happy to play that again.