Open Gaming Session Report

***This post is about our last Open Gaming Meeting. Our next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 20 at the Astoria Senior Citizen Center.***

This weekend, we had our Open Gaming event at the Astoria, IL. Senior Citizen's Center. Games played included Arkham Horror (with the Dunwich Horror Expansion), Pirate's Cove, A Game of Thrones, Dominion, and BuzzTime.

Altogether there were twelve people who came in: Me, Bo, Kevin, Devin, Steve, Erica, Jordy, Shelby, Bruce, Esther, Luke and Kyle, though not everyone played games.

Arkham Horror

We started the event with Arkham Horror. Bo, Kevin, Devin, Luke, and I started the game, though later Kevin had to drop out to talk to his friends, Bruce and Esther. Shortly thereafter, Steve joined in. In this game, we must have been identifying with our feminine side, for of the six men who played the game, only three picked male characters. We had Diana Stanley, the redeemed cultist, Carolyn Fern, the psychologist, Kate Winthrop, the scientist, Wilson Richards, the Handyman, Darrell Simmons, the photographer, and Michael McGlen, the Gangster. We were able to win this game as our combined effort sealed six gates before the ancient horror escaped from its bonds. I was very lucky--shopping twice at the curiosity shop and buying two Elder Signs, so I sealed two gates--and I saw a lot of really lucky rolls here and there. There was only one monster surge, and we never even saw movement on the terror track, or the Dunwich Horror Track.

Intermission

Around four to five o'clock, other people were meandering in, and we had the difficulty of too many people for one game, but not quite enough people for two. There seemed to be six people ready to play another game, but the only six player games available were games none of us really wanted to play.

I also realized that I didn't have much in the way of "filler" games. Most of the games I brought were ideally played by five people who were ready to sit down to a minimum of 90 minutes, while others were up to four or five hour games.

I MOST wanted to play "A Game of Thrones" but though I had read the rules, I could only formulate, in my mind, a vague impression of the way the game was played. So I did my second favorite thing to actually playing the game--I settled in to read the rules (again). Erica, Luke, Jordy and Bo played Pirate's Cove, while I reviewed the rules to "A Game of Thrones." Kyle seemed very interested in "A Game of Thrones" and set up the board for us while I read. However, he had to go, and never got to play.

Meanwhile, Kevin was hard at work boiling a gallon of water, cooking spaghetti, burning garlic bread, and learning the in's and out's of fire-alarm functionality. Kevin is absolutely the most hospitable person I have ever met, making sure that everyone is well-fed and entertained.

After eating, Devin and I set up a game of Dominion--this being the closest thing to a "filler" game available. This is a card game where you build your deck from a set of available cards on the table during play. By the time we had taken our third turn, the Pirate's Cove game was over. Since both of us really wanted to play "A Game of Thrones" we immediately began putting Dominion back in it's box again.

A Game Of Thrones

So "A Game of Thrones" began with me, Devin, Bo, and Luke, while those less inclined toward direct confrontation games, Erica, Esther, Bruce, and Kevin managed to find a TV set and played a game called BuzzTime. Sorry, I don't know anything about that game.

(Oh, if you don't know, "A Game of Thrones" is also the first of a series of books by George Martin. I believe I read it in 1999, but everyone else there had read all of them recently. I said I should read those again, but Devin said "DON'T. Because he hasn't written the next book, and everyone is just hanging by a thread wanting to know what happens next. I gather it's been a long wait.")

The game started fairly peacefully--we expanded into unoccupied territories, and when we got closer to one another, we set up our defenses instead of attacking one another. When a card came up saying "bid on the three areas of influence" the entire tenor of the game changed. The problem was, you see, we had been bidding on the areas of influence every turn, while in fact, this was the FIRST turn we should have. Instead, we decided to make it the first turn we DIDN'T bid on the area of influence.

The other rules clarification that came up was that we didn't need to play to turn 10, but as soon as anyone owned seven keeps or cities, they one the game. And thereafter the game became just a WHOLE lot more competitive! As both Luke and Bo realized that they were each just one city short of that lofty goal.

In fact, Luke (The Lannisters) at one time had eight keeps/cities! But then two were taken back from him before the turn. I should go check boardgamegeek.com and see whether he technically won at that point.

But at the end of the game when turn 10 came around, it was the Bo (the Starks) who won the game. Luke felt like he had just lost because everybody was picking on him because the Lannisters were bad guys. "I didn't even pick them!" he protested. But Bo explained, "Yes you did, It was completely your choice. You picked the token randomly right out of the box!"

Closing Time

Though our stated times were 1:00 PM to 10:00 PM we only finally swept up, and turned out the lights at midnight. I had fun, and I look forward to it again next month.