Tri-Games rocks (5th Saturday summary)

Last Saturday, I headed out to Tri-Games, up on the northwest side of Houston near Highway 249 and FM 1960. Tri-Games, a.k.a. Games Games Games, was the site of the 5th Saturday's Houston Gamers meeting. I've met Joy, the owner, before, both when she was an employee at another store, and also as one of the playtesters Kevin Nunn brought to my house when he was playtesting the Chinese artisan game Zhong Shi.

This will probably end up as a longer post later, but the short version is: this is possibly the best game store experience I have ever had. Wow, Joy is doing SO MUCH RIGHT I cannot stop grinning about how awesome it was to see a game store run well by an enthusiastic, friendly owner. Next Saturday, she has a release party for the Order of the Stick game, which was designed by my fellow Houston Gamer Kevin Brusky, not to be confused with Kevin Nunn or Kevin Horovitz. I hope I get to make it - I hear a rumor that this first printing is going to sell out very quickly.

I also got to hang out a lot with James Spurney, up to and including playing his latest prototype, which I liked quite a bit. It was a card game with trading goods to build up a civilization by buying various advances - much like the classic board game Civilization, except that James has made his game :

1. a card game, so it's smaller, easier to transport, and will be cheaper.
2. take about an hour, in contrast to Civilization's 4-6 hour duration.
3. fun, unlike Civilization, which has never done it for me, perhaps because I have never come close to winning a game.

He also taught me MetroMania, which I thought had great bits but didn't like the game much, and Dead Money. Dead Money was a card game with a cool concept that failed in execution and seemed to be a step backwards from the earlier card game Give Me the Brain: Deluxe Color Edition. The zombie theme and mechanics are still used in Dead Money, but this time, it's now a poker tournament with zombies. It went on too long and someone finally played a card that made another player win, just to have the game end. Not a good sign.

Gamecount: Individual game sessions played for the year = 156, New game titles played for the year = 31.