Monthly Archives: July 2012

“You got your chess in my laser!”

“You got your laser in my chess!”

Two great things that play great together: chess and lasers.  LASERS.

Khet is a strategy game in the strategic tradition of chess, with a modern twist:  THE FRIKKING LASERS.  Myke Hritz, President of the Alamo Network of Khet Hobbyists (ANKH) will be coming out to demo the game on Saturday from 3 to 8 PM.  He can teach you the game in just 3 minutes, and you get to play a neat stratagy game with lasers.

He’ll have several boards laid out, so feel free to step right up and check it out.

It’s Tuesday, July 31st, and it is your final day to pre-register for the convention!

Don’t pay at the door, when you can save by pre-registering.  Door price is $40, but if you pre-register, it’s only $35.  PLUS you get a MYSTERY GRAB BAG, get into the convention an hour early (at 6 PM), can still sign up early for tournaments, and get your custom pre-printed name badge.

But don’t wait!  Registration’s been getting heavy, and I expect today to be the heaviest.  There are only 18 grab bags left!

Thanks to the awesome efforts of the bag and badge team coming over last night, I’m much further along in the “to do” list.  As such, I’m comfortable extending pre-registration through the end of the month.

So you have two extra days to get pre-registered!  Make sure you’ve signed up by TUESDAY, JULY 31ST to secure your pre-registration!  That gets you cheaper entry versus paying at the door, early access to the convention (6 PM instead of 7), a MYSTERY GRAB BAG, early signup for events, a custom preprinted name badge, and the distinction of being a cool person.

Thanks again to Bob, Ian, Angela (aka Mangles), Jonathan (aka the STORM, and who is a different Jonathan from me), and Betty (who wants you to know that she’s not a nice lady).  They were just a powerhouse team last night getting the bags stuffed and badges made.  PROPS.

Last year, werewolf-guru Tobias offered to come to the convention to run games of Werewolf.  People that played it had a great time and had a bunch of fun playing his variant.  Unfortunately, Werewolf is a game that can get pretty loud, and that ended up disrupting a few games.

Well, now that we’re in a bigger space this year, Tobias is coming back, and will have his own Werewolf space outside of the gaming rooms.  He’ll be demoing his own variant of the game, Werewolves of the Dark Arts, every day of the convention.

If you’ve never played Werewolf before, the basic idea is that there is a village full of people, but a violent werewolf lives among them, killing innocents each night.  It’s up to the villagers to determine who in their town is the werewolf and kill him, while the werewolf is trying to kill off as many victims as he can without being discovered.  In this variant, everyone will have a unique role, either for good or evil.

Tobias will be running the event for several hours every day of the convention.  The game is a quick, social game, so feel free to stop by and join a game any time you like.  He’ll be running on Friday from 8 PM to 1 AM, Saturday from 7 PM to 1 AM, and Sunday from 3 PM to 7 PM.

Remember that pre-registration for the convention ends next Sunday, July 29th!  If you want to get discounted admission to the convention, a MYSTERY GRAB BAG, early access to sign up for tournaments, and an hour more of convention time, make sure you register before the 29th!  Convention spots are filling up fast, so make sure you get yours.

We all love the environment, right?  Well, here’s one way that helps the environment, but also helps the convention!

It was important to me that attendees not have to pay to park downtown.  Paying to park for an event is a pet peeve of mine.  To that end, the convention is covering self-parking at the hotel garage.  But that’s still a cost for the convention, and a somewhat unknown cost at that.  So to help keep it in control, I’m running the Carpooler’s Raffle.

It will be a special door prize drawing, but the only way to get in will be by helping bring those parking costs down.  So if you carpool, everyone in the car will be entered.  If you walk, bike, rollerblade, skateboard, or pogo stick to the convention instead of driving and parking, you’ll be entered.  If you take a Capital Metro bus, you’ll be entered.  If you take a taxi, you’ll be entered.  If you’d rather just pay for your own parking, you can be entered.

We’ll be doing one of these drawings each night, and to enter, either bring your carpooling party up to the front desk when you validate your parking, or come by and say that you don’t need a validation and you’ll get entered in.

Help the environment, help the convention, and help yourself!  This is a co-op game where everyone wins!

Once again, Board Game Bash will be hosting a No-Ship Math Trade at the convention.  Post your games, see what others post, then make your lists.  The computer will work out the best trade for everyone.  (If you’re unfamiliar with Math Trades, the short version is that it’s a massively efficient way for a large group to conduct trades using a computer to assist with the intermediary trades.  It’s a lot of fun, and well worth trying out.  BGG has an excellent guide to math trades if you’re looking for more detailed information.)

Submissions for offers must be in by Sunday, July 8th, with wants submitted a week later on the 15th.  DATES EXTENDED!!  Submissions must now be in by July 15th with wants submitted by the 22nd.  The actual trades will happen at the convention on Saturday, August 4th at 1 PM.

For more discussion on the Math Trade, there is currently a thread on it over at BGG.

Immediately after the Math Trade will be a flea market.  Bring anything you have left over and see if anyone’s interested.  Or just peruse what other folks have brought and try to get some new (to you) games.