PinkFae Archive #38: Board Game Review: Steve Jackson Games Triple Threat

This week's entry is another board game review from the PinkFae archives. It is also an entry in the series of articles on Gen Con 2016. It was originally published on 22 October 2016.

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For my last entry about Gen Con, I'm going to do three board game reviews in one article. Why? Partly because the games are all short and simple. Partly because they're all from Steve Jackson Games. Partly because it's time to finish up the Gen Con posts and get on to something else! So we're going to look at the three games they demoed at their 'Play New Releases' table: Simon's Cat Card Game, I Hate Zombies, and Bill & Ted's Excellent Board Game.

The Ratings

Here are the ratings for all three games.

PinkFae Archive #36: ZOE (Zombie Orpheus Entertainment) - A Great Little Company

This article is another entry from the PinkFae Archives. It is another in the series I wrote about Gen Con 2016. It was originally published on 8 October 2016.

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One of the booths I stopped at whilst I was at Gen Con was the Zombie Orpheus Entertainment booth. I knew I wanted to see what they had, because I'd enjoyed Dark Dungeons so much. ZOE was the company that had produced that particular film. So I stopped by and talked to one of the representatives for a moment. This is what they had to say.

PinkFae Archive #35: Board Game Review: Tell Me a Story

This week's entry is another PinkFae Archive, this one being a review of the game Tell Me a Story from Escape Hatch Games, by Kirby Atwood, Cody Faulk, Brent Woodside, and Kayla Woodside. It is also an installment in the series I wrote about Gen Con 2016. This article first appeared on 1 October 2016.

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A brand new company called Escape Hatch Games had just released their first game a month or so before Gen Con. As I was wandering around the exhibit hall, I saw their booth, with the name of this first game proudly displayed on a banner behind them, and I knew I had to check it out. I stopped to ask them about it, and they did a quick one-round demo with me, and I knew I had to have it. Last week, I finally got to play a full game for the first time with three of my friends. It was epic. So now I shall review for you, my loyal readers, the wonderful game called Tell Me a Story.

PinkFae Archive #34: MetaArcade: A New Frontier in Roleplaying Games.

This week's entry is another PinkFae archive from the series I wrote about Gen Con 2016. This article is a look at MetaArcade, an online platform allowing solo gaming using the Tunnels & Trolls system. This article was originally published on 23 September, 2016.

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One of the more interesting things that I got to see at Gen Con was the MetaArcade booth. They're working on an interesting new concept: digital roleplaying. That sounds like computer or console-based RPGs, like the Final Fantasy series or Secret of Mana. But it's not. Here, let me explain. In order to explain, we'll need to go back in time to 1975, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Tunnels and Trolls

A librarian by the name of Ken St Andre read a friend's copy of Dungeons and Dragons, and loved the idea of fantasy roleplaying. However, he thought that D&D's rules were too complex, and the need for multiple polyhedral dice would intimidate new players. So he wrote his own game in the same genre, calling it Tunnels and Trolls. Although it was very similar to D&D in feel and style, the rules were more straightforward, and it only required six-sided dice. St Andre self-published the first edition, and in July of that year, Flying Buffalo mass produced the first commercial edition.

PinkFae Archive #33: Diversity Panel at Gen Con 2016: A Review

This week's entry is another installment from the PinkFae Archives. This one was first published on 11 September 2016.

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One of the panels I attended at Gen Con was 'Diversity in Gaming.' I expected it to be about ensuring an inclusive environment for all people in the games industry. Instead, it was three staffers from Paizo, the company that publishes the Pathfinder roleplaying game, discussing their company's policies on inclusiveness.

Not what I expected, but still worthwhile.

PinkFae Archive #32: Board Game Review: Oceanos

This week is another PinkFae Archive. It is the fourth of the articles I wrote about Gen Con 49, which took place in August 2016. This article is a board game review of one of the new games that was debuting at that Gen Con. It was originally published on 5 September 2016.

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One of the great things about attending Gen Con was getting to play new releases, or preview games that were about to be released. Oceanos is one of those games. It's a new release from Iello, the company that publishes the King of Tokyo line. In this game, players control whimsical submarines exploring the depths of the ocean to collect animals for their aquariums. You also gain points for other items, such as treasure chests and coral reefs.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning, by looking at the numbers for Oceanos.

PinkFae Archive #31: Crossplay: A New Adventure in Geekdom

This week's entry is another PinkFae archive. The article is another entry in my series that I wrote on Gen Con 49 in 2016. It was a fascinating look at an interesting phenomenon in the geek community: crossplay and gender bending cosplay. It was originally published on 27 August 2016.

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Gender identity is a hot topic at the moment. With issues like the current assault on the rights of transgender individuals in Texas, the nature of gender is at the forefront of socio-political discourse at the moment. This points to a current major trend in modern culture, with gender at the centre of that trend. Many people still firmly believe that sex and gender are binaries, and equivalent binaries at that. However, others realise that sex and gender are spectra which do not always correspond to one another. One of the more fascinating phenomena resulting from this is the concept of crossplay.

PinkFae Archive #30: Interview with Emily Whitehouse of On the Lamb Games

This week's installment of the PinkFae Archives is the second of the articles I wrote about Gen Con 49 in August of 2016. This article is an interview with Emily Whitehouse, one of the founders of On the Lamb Games, which sadly closed their doors in November of 2017. Hopefully, this interview (which was originally published on 20 August, 2016) will serve as a bit of a reminder of who and what they once were.

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One of the things I was most looking forward to at Gen Con was getting to meet Emily Whitehouse. She's one of the co-founders of On the Lamb Games, a small company which is probably best known for their miniatures game Endless: Fantasy Tactics. I went by the On the Lamb Games booth and was delighted to meet Emily, whom I had until that point known as Emily Fontana. I would later learn that she had been married in June, so it's Emily Whitehouse now!

But we were able to find some time to conduct an interview. Now I will share with you, my faithful readers, the wisdom that she has imparted unto me.

PinkFae Archive #29: Gen Con: An Overview of an Awesome Convention

As a result of my association with PinkFae, I was able to attend the 2016 Gen Con on a press pass. I wrote a series of articles based on my time there. This is the first of them. It was originally published on 13 August 2016.

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As most of you know, I was able to attend Gen Con last week. It was my first time ever to attend a convention (apart from the small local one that doesn't really count). I had no idea what to expect from conventions in general, nor from Gen Con in particular. Needless to say, I had ridiculous amounts of fun. I got to play lots of games, see lots of panels, learn lots of things, and of course, buy lots of games. I have a lot of ideas for articles about my time at Gen Con, so look for those in upcoming weeks. Just a small sample of some of the entries I'll be writing include:

• An interview with Emily Whitehouse of On the Lamb Games
• An article about crossplay and genderbending
• Reviews of some new release games that debuted at the con
• A discussion of Zombie Orpheus Entertainment

And more! So this space is going to be pretty busy over the next couple of months. Be sure to check back weekly to see if I've managed to get something new up.

Streaming Changeling Is a Go!

I've just finished recording a test run at twitch.tv. Ok, technically, I've recorded several test runs, but the last one was the only one that worked as I had intended, so the others have been deleted.

But the point is, it looks like we're a go for streaming our first Changeling session this coming Tuesday! That's the 23rd of August, 2016, just in case you're reading this post in the future and the date has already passed. Sorry, future boy, you missed it. But you can watch the archived video for as long as twitch.tv keeps it up!

Anyway. This session will be chargen. The group will discuss how their characters are connected, and then I will guide them through the process of creating those characters. If you're interested in watching this video, you can tune in at 6:00 PM CDT (on the off-chance that you're watching from somewhere else in the world, you can check this handy time converter to see what time that will be for you).

Upcoming events and ...things

This summer kicked my butt. It's nearly over, but there's no end in sight for the butt-kicking. Which is not the same as the Butt-Kicker player type... anyway. My summer job did not go as planned, and I ended up having many other obligations on top of that. Most notably, a trip to Denver to see the Sting/Peter Gabriel concert (which was amazing, by the way). Next week, I'll be in Indianapolis for GenCon (about which I'm both excited and terrified). The week after, I start back at my normal job. This year, my responsibilities at this job will be expanded. Needless to say, I'm very scared of what this will entail.

In addition to all of this, I've started a new Changeling group. It's hard to make our schedules meet; too many people have had too many things going on this summer. Trips and holidays and family get-togethers and other similar obligations... we started back in May, and have had three total gaming sessions so far (not counting the chargen session). But it's still been a challenge to prepare the story for them.

And now, I've apparently decided to show just how crazy I really am, by starting up a second Changeling group. Two of my co-workers at my summer job have gamed with me before, and really enjoyed it, and wanted to start gaming with me again. Plus, a new person at the summer job that wasn't there last year has expressed interest, as has his wife (whom I've met and thought was pretty awesome). So we began discussing getting a new group going.

But wait! There's more!

Road Trip to GenCon!

As most of you know by now, I've been writing for PinkFae for several months. This wonderfully progressive gaming site is in the process of becoming even more respectable and noteworthy, as the director intends to apply for non-profit status. To that end, I've been given the title of 'senior writer,' as well as a stack of business cards (which I've been passing out like candy, sheerly for the novelty of it). In fact, the director wants me to go to GenCon.

I applied for a press pass under the PinkFae banner, and was issued one. And last week, a friend and I booked a hotel together. Since the Dork Wife will not be attending (she is, after all, not as obsessed with gaming as I, and she looked into other attractions in the Indianapolis area, and decided that she was not interested in doing anything else there whilst I was at the convention), I needed to find someone to go with me so that I'm not making the 12 hour drive alone.

At any rate, the hotel has been booked and paid for, so this is something that is going to happen.