GenCon Part 1
GenCon Part 1
I have made it back in one piece. It's been a week since GenCon ended and I have avoided con crud. That in itself is quiet an accomplishment. I wanted to write a couple blog posts about my experiences and all the fun things I got to do. I met so many awesome people but I'm sure I still missed a whole bunch. GenCon is one of my favorite conventions and this year was one of the best. Today I'm going to talk about two of the games I got to playtest.
D&D Next
I was lucky enough to get to be in the press playtest with Jeremy Crawford on Saturday morning. I've been part of the playtest since the friends and family portion and I've been looking forward to the new updates. I haven't played a lot of D&D in the past but when I have I've always enjoyed getting to fight monsters and set things on fire with my magic user.
The group decided not to do character creation and just get into the adventure. We each picked from the pregenerated characters in the playtest packet. I picked the human fighter who I named Branchwood. Might not be the most creative but it was 10am on a Saturday and I didn't have any coffee with me. I really like what they are doing with the characters and the attributes and background skills. It was very easy to pick up and understand. The game was a ton of fun even though we took a wrong turn, failed our rolls and two of the three party members died. (I would like to say that I'm awesome at rolling a d20 and survived the crazy attack on the party).
Since the playtest is still under the NDA I can't talk about specifics. But I can say I really like how streamlined they have been making the characters. I'm looking forward to using the new playtest documents to create my own character and go through that whole process.
I have never DM'd a game of Dungeons and Dragons before - always a bridesmaid but never a bride I suppose. Change can be scary but from what I've seen so far I'm excited to DM an adventure for my friends. Out of all the editions I think this new one will fit my style of play the best and I'm excited for all the new stuff that will be coming out.
Rise of the Underdark
After playing in the D&D Next playtest I was able to chat with the PR reps at Wizards. We talked about all the new products coming out and their new line of Rise of the Underdark setting. Wizards is taking all their current products and tieing them together through the Underdark. I really like this concept because it doesn't matter if you are playing with the minis, rpg, board games or reading a novel, you get to experience the same concepts in each one. The new Encounter series that just started last week and goes until the middle of October is all about the Drow. Now you can play as a Drow character as the drow was meant to be. Drows are cunning and decietful and love to do what they want - which can be really hard in a traveling group of adventurers who have to work together.
The new Dungeon Command faction sets are really cool too. You can play a miniatures head to head battle game with these sets and even use the miniatures in the other D&D board games. The Sting of Lolth faction set also goes along with the story line of the Underdark.
RA Salvatore's third Neverwinter book, Charon's Claw, also goes into the Neverwinter theme with of course the famous drow, Drizzt. I'm in the middle of the book right now and it is a ton of fun. I was excited to find out that RA Salvatore has written a 4th book so this one isn't the end! I really enjoyed learning about all the new books and games that Wizards is developing with the Underdark. I like how the themes are carried through the different products and you can use an idea or mini from one product to enhance another game experience in the same world. If you haven't gotten to check out some of the Encounters or board games I highly recommend them.
Munchkin Apocalypse
The newest Munchkin game to come out in November is going to be Munchkin Apocalypse. I was able to get into a demo of the game on Saturday afternoon run by the ever so wonderful Andrew Hackard. Munchkin Apocalypse takes Munchkin to the next level. The game was hilarious and we were all looking at our cards trying to figure out if we should take someone down or hold off for later. In this game there is a third deck of cards called seals. If you haven't played Munchkin there are usually 2 decks of cards; the Door cards and the Treasure cards. You get to kick down the door and try to kill the monster - then collect your treasure. Well in Munchkin Apocalypse all hell is breaking loose. Now in the Door deck there are disasters that totally mess you up ad Monsters that open seals. These seals affect game play and each player. You can also DIE! But don't worry - there is a cool game mechanic that let's you keep playing if you end up dead. The demo was so much fun and I'm excited for when the game comes out. I'm totally going to get this along with the radioactive munchkin dice and the Duck of DOOOOM!! or the Duck of Gloom. Maybe both as long as my puppies don't try to eat them. Make sure you check out the World of Munchkin for other fun games coming out like Munchkin Pathfinder and Chez Guild.
GenCon was a ton of fun and I'm so happy I got to demo these games. I hope everyone is excited about them and everything else that went on at GenCon. There were a ton of big announcements and game debuts. Make sure you check out the two GenCon special episodes (27 and 28) where I got to interview people at GenCon!