Origins 2004

Report by Mike and Kendra Petty

Since 1996 we've made it an annual tradition to visit Origins in Columbus, Ohio. Originally we'd drop in the giant gaming convention for one day just to visit the exhibit hall and get a look at the many new games. Since we started working with Fair Play two years ago, the trip offers us the added pleasure to meet many people face to face that we deal with throughout the year.

While brand new releases were harder to find this time around, we did get a glimpse at many games we haven't yet played. In fact, there were far more things there to play than we'd ever have time for in our one-day visit. We took some notes and some pictures (all posted at the end of the report) highlighting some things we thought would be of interest to our customers. The report is organized by publisher.

Dancing Eggplant Games

Formerly known as "Diet Evil Games", Dancing Eggplant's latest release is Employee of the Month, designed by none other than Alan Moon and Aaron Weissblum. We didn't get to play, but Anye Sellers gave us a complete overview of the game. It amounts to a fairly straightforward bidding game where players try to impress the boss and help their co-workers without appearing to kiss up too much. Penalties are given out to players who go over the top with favors to the boss or co-workers. Being an auction game at heart and created by the Moon & Weissblum duo, I'm really looking forward to trying this one!

Eagle Games

A friend and faithful Fair Play customer, Don Beyer had his game available, at least in prototype form, for play at the Eagle Games booth. Don and two friends make up SDR Games based near Detroit, Michigan. Their first game is Bootleggers and it should be available later this year from Eagle Games. While neither Kendra or myself have played the game yet, Terry actually had a chance to playtest it in January. Word from everyone who's played it is that it's very fun. It's also worth mentioning that Bootleggers is a step toward the eurogame market for Eagle Games. Given their excellent production qualities, I hope this is a successful venture so we'll see plenty more great looking and great playing games from them.

Face 2 Face Games

Sleuth and Buy Word were two new editions of Sid Sackson games being demoed at the Face 2 Face Games booth. I wasn't able to play either one, but Sleuth looks very well done and I can't wait until it arrives here at Fair Play.

Jolly Roger Games

The news here for us was Frank Branham's game Dia De Los Muertos has been published by Jolly Roger as Four Dragons. And if one twisted trick-taking game wasn't enough, they've also just released Victory & Honor--this one based on the Civil War. Once again, I can't wait to try these games!

Play Again Games

Play Again Games publishes the party game Why Did the Chicken...?. If you've read my review of that game, you know I worked with Kory on the game quite a bit in its early stages. I've also communicated with Jacob and Lisa from Play Again Games a lot as we coordinated some promotions here at Fair Play. It was good to meet them and several other people who's names are familiar to anyone who's visited Andrew Looney's Wunderland site. There was always a crowd at the booth and plenty of laughs as Why Did the Chicken...? was played throughout the day. We were glad Kory could escape from the booth long enough for some gaming and some good conversation.

Uberplay

We would have loved to see some new releases hot off the presses, but instead Uberplay only had games available that we already carry here at Fair Play. Since we haven't actually played them all yet, though, we were more than happy to get a closer look at several of them. Kendra, Kory and I decided to have a go at Sunken City. Not a terribly deep strategy game, it still offers plenty of choices to consider each turn. The main idea is players raise roads and buildings from the sea and run out to them gathering treasure. Neptune can be moved around the board to "sink" each other, forcing opponents to lose all that valuable treasure. There's always the question of whether or not it's worth it to try for more treasure or if it's better to run back to your home base to drop off what you're carrying. In our game, we didn't want to be too cruel to each other. I think this made for a strange game compared to how it's meant to be played, but it was good for learning the rules. Kendra slipped in a victory due to the tie breaking rules. Kory and I blame this on insufficient knowledge of every detail of the rules and if the three of us ever meet again over this game, it will be vicious!

Mayfair

We only had time for a quick glance at the Mayfair booth. The thing I was most excited to see was the new edition of Modern Art. Much to my surprise the artwork looked the same as before. I could be wrong about each individual picture, but I'm sure the overall style was the same for each artist. The art on the player screens has been reworked. The chips were bigger, but the box was smaller. This is my all-time favorite bidding game and this slightly more compact version will be welcome.

Playroom Entertainment

Here we got a look at David & Goliath. I've been waiting for this one for some time and apparently it will be at least another month. It looks good and sounds fun.

Morning Star Games

As anyone who's read my reviews or session reports will know by now, my wife and I are always open to a party game. Morning Star Games had a new game called Truth or Fib and Kendra and I tried our hand at one round. The basic idea is one player has to either fib or tell the truth about some experience (all based on a card and die roll). Everyone bets on whether or not the story is true. Nothing terribly original here, but I can see this being fun for many groups. The designer is a filmaker and apparently the game will be played in a movie entitled "In My Sleep". I wonder how Puerto Rico might be slipped into a film?

Goldbrick Games

The last game we played was Perpetual Commotion published by Goldbrick Games. This was like a real-time Flinch and very similar to Dutch Blitz as far as I remember that game. There were tons of stacks out to play cards on and I can see why it has "commotion" in the title. This seemed like a good family game.

You'll notice many of the games mentioned above are already available here at the site. Some titles won't be available for some time. If you do notice these or any other new games become available and for some reason we don't have them in our catalog, please contact us and we will do our best to track them down!

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