Once again I went to Gateway board game convention in Los Angeles. It’s one of the highlights of the year for me. Unlike other conventions where I am working and selling my books, this is a time to relax, play tons of new boardgames, and RPGs and meet new people and friends.
One the way you gotta stop at Melodies.
Once there I got my GM badge, I have been running a Battletech miniature and RPG hybrid for the last 5 years and have been loving it. It’s called the Samba Saints and since I volunteer to run the game (8 hours!) I get a badge.
The other reason to come is to play Werewolf and share my current kickstarter project of Werewolf Tokens with the masses of players.
That Friday night, the highlight of the convention was possibly the discovery of a new RPG called Dread. It’s a free form story-telling RPG that used JENGA as the mechanic for actions. So you want to do something, fine, pull a few blocks. If the tower falls… your character dies. I loved it! Yes I will be running this game often!
Going to bed at 2am and then starting a 9 hour Battletech game on Saturday is par for the course.
My trusted players of years now, we love blowing up some Clan mechs!
It’s also a good time to discover new games, so I got to play Robotech RPG tactics and this really cool Star Wars X-Wing attack.
At 10 pm we played some Werewolf Tokens, a 17 player game. The werewolves won, pretty handedly. Then at Midnight another game started… The 2 villager game of Werewolf. I’ve thought about doing this for a few years and looks like I wasn’t the only person with the idea and now I got to actually play! two rooms, with 25 players each started the game. Then at random times players were switching rooms, and in that process obtained new powers. I was a WEREWOLF. I was trusted in my village and killed a fellow werewolf. Then I was selected to travel to the other village and I obtained the Hunter power. In the new village I did my best to get their trust and I was down to the last 4 people. 2 were cleared by the seer and I ALMOST made it out. They killed me. 5:30am and the game was over, I was emotionally spent and exhausted, but it was fun!
Sunday played some more miniature game of Star Trek Attack Wing (VERY similar to the X-wing game) I joined up on a tourney and won a battle, got 4th place and took home some new miniatures. Very fun and quick game.
So that was my quick re-cap. Wish I could have played more, but driving home at 10:30pm on Sunday and I felt I had a great convention!
LAST DAY for WEREWOLF TOKENS!
KICKSTARTER