Origins Game Fair: Which Ribbons to Buy

Gamers, have you made your reservations for Origins Game Fair yet? If not, it's not too late. The gaming convention is being held (as usual) in Columbus, OH from June 22-26. Hotel rooms are still available (I should know, I just switched hotels yesterday.), and it is a ton of concentrated, crazy gaming for people who are dying to try new games, meet new people, and see what's new in the gaming world. The Greatest Husband in the World (GHITW) and I had so much fun last year, we're already counting down the days until we boot Lily and her cute little Barbie suitcase over to my mom's house and hit the road to Columbus!

This is our second year attending, and I know that for Origins first-timers, it can be a bit tricky figuring out which badges to buy, or how many generic tokens ("generics") or events to sign up for. Here's a run-down based on my experience from Origins 2010. I can't say for sure that it will be just the same in 2011, so don't egg me if you see me in the halls of the Columbus Convention Center just because a few things have changed.

Ribbon Run-Down:

Board Room Ribbon - This is a giant section of the main hall that requires a Board Room Ribbon to access. The area is lined with dozens (maybe even hundreds?) of gaming tables waiting to be used by patrons who check out games from the massive library that sits just inside the Board Room entry. All day long gamers can play as many or as few games as they please with whomever they please, and just have fun. Game selection is excellent...but has some gaps. Food concessions are nearby (if only open occasionally, and usually packed), and raffle tickets are handed out at random throughout the gaming day by event organizers to anyone gaming in the Board Room. At the end of Origins, dozens and dozens of these tickets are pulled for board game prizes. I didn't win anything last year...but that was a statistical wonder I didn't. So many games! Oh, and did I mention that just for entering the Board Room for the first time, I was handed two free board games in shrink? Yeah, free games. The only bummer is it closes a bit on the early side (we're remembering about 10:00pm?) compared to, say, the Mayfair Room. Word on the street (ie the Origins official website) is that the War Room has been combined with the Board Room this year, so it should be a pretty packed house. VERDICT: Definitely worthwhile, get this ribbon!

Big Experiment Ribbon - This is the room off of the main concourse that is set up for Looney Labs games. They have a library of games, events, and tournaments. Meh, it's a great room for kids, but I'm not a huge Looney Labs fan. The premise of their games is a little...wacky and juvenile for my tastes. I played one event in there last year, and that was enough for me. But families seem to have a really good time, and first-timers will want to at least pop in and check it out. Fluxx seems to be popular with the teen-boppers nowadays. Down side? The ribbon doesn't qualify you to play in any of the Looney Labs werewolf games...for that you need to buy an extra ribbon. Weak. VERDICT: Maybe pass on this one unless you're traveling with kids or you really love Looney Labs.

Werewolf Ribbon - Entitles you to play in any of Looney Labs' "Are You the Werewolf?" games. This is a great game for group interaction, and is a fun diversion if you want a change of pace. But...I never was interested in playing enough "Werewolf" to make it worthwhile. VERDICT: Make sure you're a Werewolf fan.

Mayfair Ribbon - This gives you access into a room off the main concourse that is set up for Mayfair Games (ya know, the peeps who make Settlers of Catan, Pillars of the Earth, Hey That's My Fish!, etc.). Their full library of currently available games are ready for playing. Last year they had several custom-made GIANT 3-D versions of games set up, like GIANT Pompeii, and GIANT Settlers. Plus they have the usual tournaments and special events. They're also known for holding special ribbon collecting contests and giving away prizes. And as of 2010, they toted out bowls of chips each evening for late-night gamers, and always had pros on-hand to teach the games. As a bonus, they're open just about the latest of any room (midnight each night). VERDICT: It's a really popular ribbon, and an excellent place to game if you even remotely like Mayfair's style of games. I'm already signed up for this ribbon, and you should, too.

Origins After Dark Ribbon - The "after dark" room was upstairs last year in a little area with a bar and plenty of gaming for peeps 18+. The late-night availability is nice for some people, but I found it wasn't very hopping last year...or maybe I popped in at the wrong times. Either way I won't be getting this ribbon, but may use a few generics in there if the mood strikes me. VERDICT: If you're a night owl and want some cocktails, this might be for you. Otherwise, you might want to wait and just check it out casually your first time through.

Puffing Billy Ribbon - The train game room. VERDICT: Listen, if you know you're nuts about train games, get it. If not, you'll probably never step toe inside. Train game people tend to know who they are.

Amtgard Ribbon, War College Ribbon, & HOT Ribbon - If you know what "boffer combat" is, or have a hard-on for war games or historical miniatures, please check out the Origins website for more info on these ribbons. Go on. It's okay. I have nothing for you here. VERDICT: Phthbbttttt.

As for the rest of the signing up you'll need to do? Sign up for a handful of events you're reeeeally excited about, but leave your schedule pretty loose and open (dirty!). You'll want a lot of time just to cruise around and check things out...plus, you can use generics to buy into most game events you come across (the ones that aren't full). How many generics should you buy? Don't be like 2010 us and load up on generics. That was silly. You really probably only need about 1-5 generics per person (they cost $2 each). The good news is you can buy more at the event, or you can cash them out if you have unused ones. The bad news is that means waiting in lines. Bummer. Or you can be like me and just trade in all your excess generics for D&D minis at the mini painting booth. Ha.

Well, phew! That's a lot to take in. If you're still not certain, feel free to ask questions either here in the comments section, or head over to the Origins Facebook page where you can find all sorts of nuts with opinions.

Hopefully I'll see many of you at Origins. If you recognize me or my name badge (Katie Schumm), be sure to say hello and get a pic so I can share all the cool people I met at Origins here on the blog!

Origins Update: Goodbye, Mr. Fun Bus

Attention, attention! Only 29 days until Origins Game Fair commences! I am amazingly stoked for this year's marathon of gaming fun. My Board Room pass is all set (because you have to have access to that beautiful library of games), my Mayfair Room pass is all set (because it's just plain fun in there, and they have snacks!), and I'm about ready to rock.

I did get some interesting, if disturbing, news though today from the Origins Facebook page. It seems the beloved "Fun Bus" shuttle will not be running this year. In previous years, the Fun Bus was free bus transpo to all the major surrounding hotels and the convention center. It ran every 15 min. or so and kept on truckin' until 1:00am. I think some of the sweetest memories from last year are the 1:00 rides back to the hotel, packed elbow-to-elbow on the Fun Bus with people drunk from gaming. We'd all share our purchases of the day and recommend games to everyone else. Good times. But alas, we must say goodbye to Mr. Fun Bus. According to one source, the Fun Bus's sponsor, "Experience Columbus," faced budget cuts and decided to dump the shuttle.

As a result, my lazy ass has already switched my hotel reservations over to a facility with an enclosed walkway to the convention center. I had a lovely time staying at the Doubletree last year, and would recommend it to anybody, but it's a hike. And the Doubletree <snooty voice> "never provides any form of shuttle service for any events"</snooty voice>. Well then, ta-ta!

If you are lucky enough to attend Origins this year, it might be worth checking your transportation plans given the lack of shuttle...'cause, you know, your ass will be walking in the middle of a midnight thunderstorm if you decide to take your chances. That's what would happen to me, anyway.

By the way, don't ask why there's a Victorian era toddler crying over the Fun Bus above. It was just the creepiest crying baby picture I could find, and I had to have it. Besides, if creepy Victorian babies went to Origins, I'm sure they would cry over the loss of the Fun Bus, so it makes sense, right?

Building a Jenga Dice Tower

Let's start with the obvious question: What in tarnation is a Jenga dice tower? For those of you not in the know, a dice tower is any kind of small tower (usually made of cardboard or wood), in which you place dice in the top of the tower, and they roll out the bottom, effectively rolling the dice for you. Because, ya know, it's a lot of work to roll those dice. All those days playing Alien Frontiers or Risk, I've been thinking "Blast! If only there was some way--SOME WAY!--I could relieve this dice-rolling wrist stress and still have a perfectly random outcome." Well, a dice tower is the answer.

So granted, I rebuffed, rejected, and roundly mocked the idea of making (or worse, buying) a dice tower for a long time, but the greatest husband in the world persisted. Stubborn monkey. And thank goodness he did; It turns out that the function of a dice tower is to be just plain FUN! It's another cool useless gadget that makes people smile. So consider me pro-dice tower from here on out.

Now to get ourselves a dice tower, we turned to a particularly creative mind over at BGG: user BadgerWithAGun. He has posted a brilliantly created PDF mock-up of directions for building a cheap and awesome dice tower using Jenga blocks (view the plans HERE).Yes, Jenga--that game that no one plays anymore, and dumps off at every thrift shop in the world.

Here is the story of how we sat down last night and decided it was time to build our dice tower, and hopefully you'll see how fabulous and easy it is. Maybe you'll be making one of your own this weekend (If so, we want to see pictures! )

Step 1: Gather Your Dice Tower Materials

You'll need the following items to build your Jenga dice tower:

• 30 Jenga blocks (one complete game set comes with more than 30)
• Wood glue
• Foam board, or game board that you'd like to chop up
• 3 wooden clothespins
• Sharp scissors 
• Paper towel
• Felt (optional)

All of this is going to be uber cheap. Check at a couple thrift stores and garage sales, and you should be able to get a used Jenga set for about $1.00-4.00. A new bottle of wood glue cost us $3.00. Felt costs you pennies, and the rest we had on-hand. So the total cost of this dice tower, for us, was just over $5.00.

Step 2: Start Gluing Your Jenga Blocks

Per the instruction sheet, use the wood glue to start assembling pairs of Jenga blocks into "Ls", and then glue together the "Ls" (as shown in pics) to form 1 Jenga block x 1 Jenga block squares.

These will be the levels of your tower. In total, you will need 6 of these squares. Hold off on stacking them on attaching the squares to each other--it's not time to stack the tower just yet. (In the pic below, I've just stacked them to make sure they're all coming out even, I haven't attached the squares together yet.)

 

Tip: Make sure you keep a small sheet of paper towel on-hand, and keep wiping away excess glue before it dries. And remember, since the blocks are sitting on their sides, and will eventually be stacked on top of each other, "Jenga" logo orientation doesn't matter. 

Once you have all 6 of your Jenga block squares glued and dried, you're ready to move on to Step 3.

Step 3: Glue Together the Tower Base

Now it's time to assemble 6 Jenga blocks into a 2 block x 1 block rectangle. This is going to be your base, your tray that the dice roll out into. At this point in our building process, it was getting a little late at night, hence the goofy shadows in this picture above. There was glue everywhere, and the cats were campaigning to go to bed. But no one can thwart us when we decide to build a dice tower late at night! Good thing our wood glue dries really quickly, though.

Step 4: Cut Out Your Ramps and Base

Set aside your Jenga blocks for now, and pull out that foam board you set aside for this project. Or, if you're crazy like us, you can butcher an old game board for this purpose. We chose an old Stratego board whose pieces had long ago been discarded. Using the scissors, we cut out two identical pieces of the game board that are just wide enough to fit inside one of the Jenga squares, and just long enough to extend from the top edge of the blocks to the bottom edge, so as to form a ramp. You'll have to gauge the angle the best you can. 

You'll glue these in place, and then grab those wooden clothespins mentioned in the materials section. Snip off small little wooden bits of the clothespins to use as braces for the ramps to sit on. Above is what the underside looks like once it's all been cut, assembled, and glued. You'll need to make a total of 2 of these, and these will become Layer #1 (top layer of the tower), and Layer #3. 

For the final ramp, we cut a piece of game board big enough to create a ramp from the top of Layer #6 to the bottom of the dice tray (so it'll be almost twice as big as the other ramps, since it spans two layers). Here is a sneak peek at the diagram from the PDF instruction sheet over at BGG. 

Notice in this diagram that there's also a piece of game board that is cut to the size of the base and attached as the bottom of the dice tray. This is the step where you should go ahead and cut out this base piece and glue it to the bottom of the tray.

I'd have more personal pictures to show of this step, but this is where it started to get really late, and I started to get easily distracted playing with the cats or doing other important things while the greatest husband in the world (GHITW) did all of this part. Here's a pic of the final result. In the center is the base tray, with the bottom piece of the Stratego board attached underneath, and Layer #6 on top, with ramp in place.

Step 5: Assemble Your Tower!

Zzzzzz. Zzzzzz. Mememememe. Zzzzzzz. What? What's going on? Oh, that's right. I was off, um, not paying attention while GHITW fidgeted with the ramps for a needless amount of time. Okay, it was really only about 20 minutes, but it felt like a really long time.

But now it's time to BUILD THE TOWER! Yeaaa! Before you bust out the glue, practice stacking the layers together (staggering each layer so its block formation alternates), with ramps in proper place, facing the proper direction. Once you think you have it right, do some test rolls of the dice. Try a few different sizes of dice just to make sure everything's lined up and working right.

Once you're satisfied, apply a generous amount of glue in between the layers to stack your tower up. Be sure to wipe excess glue away with your paper towel.

Once it dries, you're ready to let the dice roll! That's all it takes. 

Now, some people find dice towers a little noisy, and suggest gluing in mats of felt on the ramps and the bottom tray. I don't know. The sound with the game board ramps and the Jenga blocks is kind of neat, I think--sort of a fun wooden tinkle that sounds like a steam punk wooden gadget (or so I imagine). We'll be skipping the felt.

After that, the tower is yours to decorate. Leave it plain, if that's your bag. I plan to do some elaborate sketching and painting all over this one (photos to come at a later date if it turns out well!). Or, you might want to just grab a can of spray paint and go to town.

The most important thing is to have fun with this contraption. I've heard stories of these towers being built double-sided so that a D&D Dungeon Master can choose which slot to drop the dice into--one so the dice rolls out to a tray facing the players, and one so the dice rolls out to a tray concealed behind the DM's screen. Brilliant. Unnecessary, maybe, but brilliant. Make this tower your own, make it interesting, make it unique, and add a little extra fun to your gaming experience

And don't forget to share those photos of your own dice tower!

Settlers of Catan Game at McDonald's?

If the world was a just and true place, this game would be real at a fast food restaurant near you. McDonald's, listen up, you need to dump that shabby game of yours. You know the one. The one where no one ever wins anything but a hashbrown, small coffee, or small french fries. After years of boredom and disappointment, I'd be happy if I never found another orange St. James Place sticker under the seats in my car.

Let's try this instead. Screw it if most people are too confused--that's just separating the wheat from the chaff. Let's start awarding prizes to people who actually like board games or know board games. And those of us who do, vote that Settlers would, indeed, be an excellent choice. Although...knowing my luck though, I'd just end up with a game sheet full of soldiers.



What other games are ripe for a McDonald's promotion? I'm thinking the Puerto Rico board game might be decent--not only do you have to collect that indigo and coffee, but you have to have colonists for them to count. Bohnanza's another prime candidate--just imagine having to buy a third bean field in order to win upper level prizes. Eh? Eh?

Anyway, I'd like to thank not only CollegeHumor.com for making this beauty of a dream video, but also BWE for bringing it to my attention today. It made a morning of parent-teacher conferences much more enjoyable. Sigh.

Early Adventures in Board Gaming, and Mom

Mother's Day yesterday just reminded me how much parents can really influence our hobbies and passions early in life. Today I am an avid board gamer, at least in part, due to my parents always holding "family fun nights" with snacks and Monopoly or Clue or jigsaw puzzles. My mom always understood the fundamental truth that board games can bridge age gaps, arguments, and can bring people together. We've played board games on holidays, we've played on road trips, and we even played board games in the hospital room when my mom had kidney stones, and later, breast cancer. Games connected us. This all came to me as I was sorting through old photos of me with my mom for a Facebook salute to the ol' bird (sorry, mom, that's not nice, I take it back). Here is one of the photos I found, and well, it just explains a lot.

My first board game, with my mom showing me the way. Early 1981.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there who like to share the simple pleasures of life and fun with their children.