Easter... Egg? Gothcon

Brains...?

So Easter have come and gone and for me that most of the time means spending time in Gotheburg attending the Swedish boardgame/miniture/TCCG/RPG convention Gothcon. Now as far as international cons goes this is a small one with around 2000 people (that can be reliably tracked). But as far as this type of conventions goes in the Nordic region it is one of the larger. Beyond that things would feel fairly similar to other cons, you play games, hang out with people you only see once or twice a year and spend money on stuff you probably should not spend money on like... well..more games. 

But first and foremost it is the atmosphere that gets me every time. Because no matter how protective and elitist different sub-factions of physical gaming culture can get (and trust me... it can) once you set foot inside the con, you are at home. Around you are people who are as if not more geeky and nerdy as you are and nobody judge you for it. This of course rings true for any sub-culture con but since i am a gamer and i this is my hobby. This is where i call home 

So what did i do over these four days? Well apart from having a look at a metric ton of stuff i liked to buy i took the time to sit down with some games i was unable or unlikely to be able to play at home. It was nice to be able to play games and not mind the real world outside. The highlight of the weekend was oddly enough a tiny storytelling RPG. One of those that you pick a random scenario and just roll with it. Ours was a team of the most failed superheroes this side of the Great Lake Avengers. But it is a type of game i really enjoy when i am in the right mode because it lets me flex my storytelling muscles. I think the game it self was called Followers or some such. Anyway getting to sit down with a table of people and together weave a story is something that always have and i hope always will bring warmth to my heart. 

Now fortunate enough for me i do not have to wait very long for the next con as we have one coming up in my home town in about a month. expect a more in-depth write up of that one as i can get some decent sleep during that con. The perks of being withing walking distance. 

Anyway, that was just a quick update on what i have been up to. For a review of the games i played head over to spelkult.se in the coming week or so. 

Until next time

Stay safe, be kind and play fair. 

Bye. 

A Link to the dynasties and the horror of an old god.

I sometimes wonder if I am the only one who do not give a flying fuck about Hyrule Warriors…? The media sure seems to like it and some of my online friends talk about it like it is the second coming of Christ, but I just cannot get the old blood pumping. Maybe this is because I never cared much for the dynasty warrior’s series. They are good for a short burst of omgwtfbbqfordfocus of plowing through massive amounts of minions but it fails to capture me in a long run. Painting a Zelda skin on to it does not really help either as the only thing that does is to remind me of a much better game I could be playing. Not that is not to say it is without merits, it looks stunning and each character is detailed and has a nice variety of attacks from the looks of it. But still I rather hold out for a real Zelda game.

Now something that actually has my blood pumping is the new Eldritch Horror from FF games, yes this is a board game in the same vein as Arkham Horrors for reworked and in my mind vastly improved. Of course I am not Arkham Horrors expert or aficionado but I have played it a few times and found it to be fairly slow and clunky and from what people tell me the expansions can if not used correct utterly break it. So Eldritch Horrors move you out of the city and in to the world as your group of investigators cross the globe to stop the usually very messy invasion from an elder god. As I am not that particularly familiar with the Arkham games (Horror that is, not Asylum…) I did not catch all the things that were different but it is shorter and a tad bit less stuff to keep track of. An average play session should take about four hours and should offer up a decent challenge for up to 8 players. We were four and it did at times become a tad bit hectic getting from one place to another. But at no time did we feel absolute hopelessness. Each elder god now have their own deck so all the events in game are pretty much tailored to that particular god, we had a asshat by the name of Azathoth whom when he is summoned pretty much ends the world, no if and buts. So we had a very sharp timer because unlike some lesser asshats there is no chance to stop him once he summoned… the game simply ends. Now our small band of paranormal investigators to the slow start of just faffing about foing non-critical stuff such as our astronomer taking some time off to go read strange old books in the library of the Miskatonic University. It went about as well as expected. Unlike the old games there is no real problem with letting the doom counter rise, in the old games things started to get boarded up and people simply ran away. So we keep our heads down and tugged away at closing portals and scoring phat loot…. As one tend to do. With the world halfway to absolute oblivion T pointed out that we perhaps should start trying to solve the actual missions before the entire world went to hell. Now my character by this time had a nice little assortment of spells, was paranoid and had hallucinations. He also for some odd reason was stuck in Buenos Aires. But seeing as he had the spell to teleport other characters anywhere on the globe (for the tiny price of going insane at best) that did not bother him… Although I sort of have to ask why someone who twice have been caught in police stings would actually still try to buy stolen goods… But hey that is random event cards for you.

Now time was catching up to us and we thought everything was up, but with some quick thinking we realized that given that the doom counter did not get pushed ahead we could actually save the world with one turn to spare. It was a nail biter down to the finish and R who had some problem with clue in Helsinki at the start of the game got some sweet redemption by securing our last needed clue with a successful roll on a clue in Helsinki. All in all much jubilation was had and some spiteful remarks were made towards the game for its inability to kick our arses. We all made it out alive… Apart from T whom got sucked in to the void as part of a dark pact made earlier. But at least we saved the world.

So I would have to say we had a fun time and the game felt a lot faster than the old Arkham game. I would absolutely recommend this for others who like a bit of tactical co-op gameplay and the potential of being eaten by a elder god.