Playing "Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule!" at Vegas Game Day.
Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending Vegas Game Day. This event was held at the /usr/lib Tech Library on the second floor of the Emergency Arts building in downtown Las Vegas. The VGD is a monthly gathering of local gamers, who game the day and night away to their hearts’ content. When I got there, board games, card games, and RPGs were being played on multiple tables spanning two rooms. The /usr/lib Tech Library is a very comfortable venue for gaming, and features a collection of board games that anyone can crack open and play. The atmosphere is fun and friendly, so it’s easy to start making new friends and jump into a game, even if you haven’t played it before.
I showed up for a few hours, and during that time there were at least four different Role-Playing Game sessions running simultaneously, which I found pretty impressive. The games I saw played were Shadowrun, Pathfinder, World of Darkness, and an interesting game which I hadn’t heard of previously, Hellas. A game of 7 Wonders was wrapping up as well, so I was able to jump into the next game being played at that table: Citadels.
Deciding our next moves in "Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule!"
Citadels is a really fun card game of strategy and deception. Players take on alternating roles as important characters living in a fantasy city, and compete in a race to build signature districts of that city, such as temples, taverns, and schools of magic. It’s been a while since I had the opportunity to play this game, so I was very happy for this chance. What I really enjoy about the game is the psychological aspect. Each character has an important function which can be used to the player’s advantage if played wisely, and which sometimes can screw over other players. Psychology comes into play because the players do not know which characters their opponents have chosen to be when a new round begins. Correctly guessing which character each of the other players has chosen, while being clever about your own choices, can mean the difference between a successful round or a disastrous one. The true genius of Citadels is how tricky and fun that guessing game is.
Choose wisely, or you might get stuck with more Goblins than you started with!
After that game was over (I won! Just 1 point above second place… 
), we played a few rounds of Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule! This included a two-player round and a four-player round which I participated in. The rounds went smoothly and the players who joined in picked up the rules very quickly. The four-player game was especially fun, with the player who went last actually winning, despite all our best efforts to block him from doing so… :p The artwork was talked about very positively, even more so at another gaming meetup this past Wednesday. I’m very proud of the artwork in this game, and Mike should be too. The photos you are seeing here are from Saturday at Vegas Game Day.
Mid-game, each player has a few Goblins and a few Fairies. The first player to send all of his Goblins to the Fairy Circle (the middle of the table) is the winner!
The last image was provided by Dave MacKenzie, who hosted a play session in Washington on behalf of Game Salute last Saturday as well. According to Dave, “I brought GDFR to the table last weekend with four strategy gamers. They were hesitant at first but in very short order they were giggling and flipping, and throwing gang-signs around. :-)”
A half-dozen Fairies, but no Goblins... he wins!
I will be attending the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), held in San Francisco, next week from March 7th to March 9th. I have been in the game industry for over thirteen years, but this will be my first time at GDC. So needless to say (but I’m going to say it anyway… wait for it…) I am really excited about it!!! This will also be my first time in San Francisco, so double whammy.
