Convention Report: DunDraCon 40

Mark and I went to a board game convention over Valentine's/President's Day Weekend (February 12-15, 2016) called DunDraCon. This was the largest board game convention I've ever been to. All of the name tags were numbered and the largest number I saw was over 2300. There were a LOT of people there! We promptly signed up for several games, but were only able to get into a few simply because of the large number of attendees all vying for access to the same small pool of game events.

My first game was a role-playing game called Dread. This particular story was called Mission to L5. The participants played a group of investigators who were sent to investigate why a space station between the Earth and the Moon had stopped communicating with Earth. The Dread game system has a way, if done correctly - and this was - of building tension in the group. By the end of the story everyone is feeling the strain and is just trying to get out of the story alive. This was a great experience. I'm running my own Dread game at ConQuest SAC in April.

We did some pick-up games in the Open Gaming Room. I sat down to play a game called Birds of a Feather. The game designer, Teale Fristoe, was demonstrating it. The theme of this game is bird watching. There are a variety of terrains where you see different types of birds. You are trying to collect all of the birds that can be seen in any one terrain. The added bonus to this fun little filler game is that the designer also created a scoring phone app and provided it for free. I quickly downloaded this and used it instead of the scoring sheet that is provided with the game. It made scoring so much faster and easier and the game even more fun because the scores were instantly available rather than having to take time to calculate it. I was impressed enough to pick up this game from the Dealer's Room. However, if you find it intriguing enough, you can find it here.

My friend, Dave Mitchell, loaned me a game called Leaving Earth. I had not yet had a chance to figure out this game when I discovered that the game designer, Joe Fatula, was demonstrating the game at DunDraCon. I signed up for the game and was able to get in to his second demo. This game is a brain burner, but very fun and challenging. The players are members of the space programs of various countries beginning in 1956. I played the USSR. The USA, China, Japan, and France were all represented. The object of the game is to be the first country to achieve specific goals like landing on the moon, or sending a probe to Mars or Venus. This game has a very strong math component to it. You have to calculate weight and thrust to get your ships off of the ground and into orbit and then on to the destination and ultimate goal of your mission. Now that I've played this game, I'm very much looking forward to playing it with Dave and Mark and perhaps a few other of my friends. I bought my own copy straight from the designer once he told me that this has a solo-play option. That way I can practice so I have a chance of winning.

My last game was Battlestar Galactica, which I have played many times before. However, the game master for this event was playing with a component of one expansion that I had never played before called the Ionian Nebula. I was intrigued and wanted to give it a try so I could introduce it the next time my friends decide to play. This was an epic 6.5 hour game and the Cylons won when a card I was forced to play lost the game for the humans.

I had a great time playing it however. The group was fun and experienced with this game and it made the time fly by. It's fun to see how others play a game that I have played many times with my regular group. I got to see different perspectives and game play techniques that I may have to try in my own games going forward.

This convention was quite an experience. There were a lot of people, but everyone was very friendly and well-behaved. It was good to see a larger and older convention as I'm now on the committee that helps to put together a couple of smaller conventions here in Sacramento - ConQuest SAC and ConQuest Avalon. I will definitely be going back again - hopefully next year. This was a lot of fun and I learned a lot.