Thanks to VueScan I can actually scan my alters. The scans should show in a better way how they actually look like.
This was an experiment with dry (sometimes not that dry) brush (I killed it on some metal miniatures). It did not go as expected but IRL it looks quite nice. I need to do this more often...and maybe it will look good in the near future^^. (oh crap...google and its upload...I will relink the photo...EDIT: new link added)
At Worldcon I saw a game called Smash Up. The box looked pretty neat. It was obviously a card game and looked pretty simple but fun. It caught my eye and I was interested in what the game can offer. Seeing AEG logo on it made me a bit sceptical about the game but without trying the game out I can't say if it is good or not. But the game certainly was popular. (unfortunately I did not take any photos of the actual game)
The thing with AEG is well... When playing AEG games I often get the impression that the game is unfinished. Each game has some flaws and things that one would think that should be figured out while play testing. That is why I'm sceptical about anything with AEG logo on it. But I like their games and systems and I wish that the games would be truly finalized and the rules would be 'complete' and without problems (AEG is 'expert' on handling delayed triggers). And you will experience some holes in the rules during the game. But just agree with the group how to handle that and everything will be fine. Back to the game...
So what's the game about? Smash Up is a shufflebuilding game. That means that each player creates one deck out of two 20 card faction decks. With this (shuffled) deck each player attacks enemy bases and earns victory points. The first player to gain 15 victory points wins the game. That sounds easy enough, right?
Each faction has some kind of theme and when combined with a different deck it usually can make it more powerful, but there are combinations that don't work well. In each deck there are Minion cards and Actions cards (it's usually 10/10). In the base game there are 8 factions. (the game has expansions, bringing new strange factions into the game)
One of them is Aliens. This faction is good at removing cards from the game.
Dinosaurs are big and strong.
Ninjas are stealthy. They can play cards at a moment you would not expect and they can move around
Pirates are also good at moving and they also can kill opposing minions.
In the Robots deck there are only two action cards. The more robots you play the more power you can get, they boost each other but well..that's about it.
Tricksters try to hinder the game. Some action cards are really powerfull.
Wizards are weak minions but they can play more actions or minions per turn or draw cards. One of the few decks that give you control over your deck.
Zombies aren't usually strong but they reccur. They are coming back from the graveyard ... well zombies...
After the players chose their decks base cards are shown (number of players + 1). Base cards have power, victory points values (will be divided in between players after the base is scored) and an ability.
At the beginning of a player's turn effects that happen at that time are resolved. Next the active player can play one action and/or one minion or pass both actions. Minions are played at a base. Actions can affect cards in play (one time effect) or can be attached to a minion or base. At the end of turn that player draws two cards.
At the end of each players turn the total power of minions at a base is added up. If it is at least the same value as the one printed on the card the base is scored. The player with highest power among minions at that base gets victory points based on the leftmost VP value. The second one gets the middle value, the third player gets the rightmost and the fourth player won't get anything. (The ability on the card resolves). The base card is discarded and replaced with a new base.
The game is very simple and can be taught in about a minute and it is a fast pacing game. It is not that 'simple' as it might seem. There are actually many interactions and the game is more about combos that can score a base in one turn. I'd like put emphasis on the combo part but not really sure how. But it is really great to see something like this happen in a game and this can teach a newcomer what can be done with cards and what kind of complexity a card game can offer. Anyway it's a hand management/resource game and if a player is not familiar with that he'll learn fast enough what it is and does not need to spend ages on trying to learn certain card game.
The cards are nicely designed, the card stock is actually good, each faction has its own theme but overall it looks nice together. The game is primarily fun as the overall design suggests that. The game does not really give much space for complexity but mainly this game is for fun and can be used as an entry level for either new (card game/board game)players or children (it is a fun family game).
Getting up was getting harder and harder especially when I couldn't really sleep much during the night. But that's normal I guess^_~. My first thing on the programme of the day was a science talk about the cosmos dark ages.
Katie Mack started her talk with explaining what the big bang was. That was followed by Planck-era in which the temperature was so high that the four fundamental forces (gravitation, electromagnetism, weak and strong nuclear interaction) where one unified force. The universe was expanding and cooling down and eventually the forces seperated. When gravitation separated - Grand Unification era. Later on the universe got into electro weak era in which possibly the Higgs boson was created. Few minutes after the big bang (before some particles were created, later on first nucleos was formed)a nucleosynthesis. The universe was cooled down enough for a nuclear fusion in which protons and neutrons started to combine to from deuterium -> helium-4. ...um...recombination...-> Dark Ages (neutral gas absorbs light) -> reionization era in which stars and quasars are fromed from gravitational collapse. Radiation from the stars reionizes the surrounding area. At this point the universe was filled with hot plazma which was REALLY hot at first but later started to cool down -> formation of stars -> formation of galaxies -> formation of groups, clusters -> formation of solar system -> nowadays.
This talk was quite intensive but I appreciated it even though I'm even too lazy to type what I wrote down during the presentation. I headed to Lizards Wizards in Space! next, I did not expect a good panel discussion or anything but in the end I had SO MUCH fun at this particular panel.
The moderator Jenni Hill was a nice lady who came up prepared for the panel. The panel was about deciding who is better either Bioware or Bethesda. To decide that Jenni brought some 'quests' - questions to be answered and they would either be in Bioware's or Bethesda's favor. For me if anyone would ask me about Bioware vs Bethesda I would certainly reply Bioware without thinking much about it. So what makes some people like Bioware's games and other people to like Bethesda games? Well the main difference is that...Bioware games are story-driven and the game system is much more apparent. In Bethesda games the player is given freedom to roam the world and create his own stories/experiences.
At this panel I listened to the panelist talking about DA, SW: Kotor, NWN, Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim and Fallout 3 and wondered about how many different and powerful experiences the players had. There's not much I can type here but I have to say that I haven't seen so lively people in quite a long time. These people were talking about something they like, about what they experienced and how much fun it was. They were so carefree. Maybe I should start playing games once again to feel like this...remembering experiences from RPGs both paper-based or computer ones is something that actually makes me smile and laugh. This was the only panel in which commercialization and marketing wasn't discussed even though sexual relationships and one's (character's) sexuality was discussed too much for my taste. But it seems that's how it is in the society nowadays. Gamers are just more open to non-hetero relationships (even though imagining some players actually being in relationship is quite hard^_^).
After this cool panel I went to listen some people talking about RPG design and presentation of the game to companies. I did not learn much about RPG design but there were things told that were of interested. The most interesting thing to hear though was this...many people start gaming, later GMing and then become writers. At this point - being writers - they don't go back to game. Storytelling and keeping players engaged in the story (bioware comes to mind) is something that needs certain skills. And these skills are also required when one wants to become a writer. After creating a whole world, playing many games and creating a whole history or the world one has the urge to make profit of it somehow. I'm not sure if I would use the word profit, for me I would be glad that what I went through, created ad experienced would be stored somewhere - so I could read it when I want to. But it seems that many people want to share it and profit from it as well. (is that true? is that what Erikson and Esselmont are doing?).
Also RPG systems change. Players want something easy, they do not want to study many rules and tables. Also there is quite many universal RPG systems so why would the players need a new one?
At noon I wanted to go see George R.R. Martin but the whole thing was cancelled. Not entirely sure what I was doing instead...it's quite possible that I went to fetch something to eat. At 13:30 I wanted to attend Milenium Effects SFX Make up Presentation but that was also cancelled. So I tried to fit in Capital Suite 14 to listen more about interstellar travel - this time it was about SF Starships and real engineering and the reason why we should start planning for an interstellar future. (see http://www.i4is.org/)
After that it was time to do something more relaxing. I went to the game tent and managed to join a group of players playing Smash Up (I was interested in all AEG games there). This game is intended for 2-4 players I guess but we managed to play it in 6 players. It was kinda long but still very playable. Smash up is 'shufflebuilding' game. It means that each player takes two faction decks and shuffles them up. Each faction has different theme/mechanics. There are for example Ninjas that are kinda stealthy and kill, zombies that crawl out of the graves, wizards that draw cards and play more spells, pirates that move cards etc. Then there are bases. Each base has a certain number. When this number is reached (total power of the minions on the base) the base is scored. The player with most power gets the most victory points, the second and third player also get points. Each base also has a reward be it for the winner or the runner-ups. The first player to get 15 victory points wins the game. The game is simply but there can be some pretty awesome plays done and one base can be scored in one turn. One turn consists of playing a minion (putting him at one of the bases) and/or a action (can be attached to a base, a minion or have a immediate effect on the game - ie. kill a minion [condition]) or doing nothing, at the end of turn a player draws two cards. Each player starts with 5 cards and the maximum cards in hand is 10. Simple as that...
When it was almost 5pm I moved to Second Stage. Cosmonaut Anatolii Artsebarskii would be giving a speech. Anatolii told us about the history of (USSR) Russian cosmonautic and later told us about his Soyuz TM-12 Mission. He was a commander of this mission and he went there with Sergei Krikalev and Helen Sharman. He spent 144 days at the MIR space station. It seems he was quite a fan of coca-cola and fire^_^.
We watched a shortened version of a documentary about the mission and then we listened to more commentary about the mission. Anatolii was then answering our question and was telling us how difficult (and fun sometimes) is to adapt to a low-gravity environment. The brain is used to something but then has to adapt to new conditions, that is not that easy as it might seem. (I was glad this wasn't cancelled and was glad I managed to find out about this. Without G. Webb telling us about it I wouldn't be able to find out about it, as this is not listed in the programme guide I used.)
Next there was nothing I really wanted to attend to. So I stopped by the game tent where few people were building something out of lego pieces. So I joined and build 'something'.
In the meantime a big game of werewolves started. I guess it took ages to finish.
Worldcon was really awesome and I thank all those people who made it possible for me to attend.
