FallCon Blog

FallCon Review: Alien Frontiers

FallCon Gaming Society - Thursday, August 11, 2011

Designer: Tory Niemann
# of Players: 2-4
Playtime: 60 minutes
MSRP: $59.99 CDN
Link to Rules
Synopsis: Alien Frontiers is an Area-Control game with a dice-based worker placement mechanic. The theme is well implemented in its retro sci-fi theme and the production quality is incredible.

This game plays really well with 2-4 players and can be taught in 10 minutes to a wide range of players. You receive points for the colonies that you place on the planet and a bonus if you have the most colonies in a region. Whoever has the most points when one person runs out of colonies, wins!

The dice mechanic is not as luck-based as others of its ilk, as it isn’t important that you roll high numbers. The various ‘stations’ require different combinations of dice (for example a pair of dice is needed to build a ship at the shipyard, or in the Solar Convertor, you get different amounts of fuel depending on what value you place there).

Alien Frontiers stormed onto the market in late 2010, spurred on by a number of podcasters who fell in love with the elegant mechanics and superior graphic design. It was also one of the first games to use a consumer funding system called Kickstarter.

The mechanics of Alien Frontiers aren’t new – you will see the legacy of a number of classic games in its offering. For example you can credit El Grande for Area Control, Settlers of Catan for scoring, Kingsburg for its dice mechanic. What Alien Frontiers does, is mix these concepts together with a great theme and brilliant graphics to make an excellent game.

Newer players can jump right in by rolling some dice and play them as they see fit, and the game will move along nicely. More experienced players will begin to see how the interaction of the various stations and the order in which they are played, can really bring this game up to another level!

Alien Frontiers was chosen on BoardGameGeek as the 2011 FallCon People’s Choice game so if you want to get into a game, sign up soon, as I’m sure that the slots will fill up fast. Don’t worry though - it will also be available in our library to enjoy the whole weekend!

Darren

How to Teach Games: General Tips (Part 2)

FallCon Gaming Society - Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Here’s the scenario: You plan to attend the next board game meetup, and you’ve been asked by one of the organizers to teach a game to a group of new people. Of course you’re excited, but what are some of the things you should think about:

1 - Know the Game

Maybe this is stating the obvious, but it’s important to know the game well before you teach it. If it’s been a while since you’ve played, reread the rules and/or read an online review before teaching. More and more online reviews, including great video reviews, are becoming available on the web.

One special circumstance that may make this more challenging is where a game is brand new and you haven’t played it before. In this situation, reading through the rules a few times combined with some mock solo play and a review of online resources is probably your best approach.

2 - Time is the Enemy

This is an area that many gamers don’t seem to appreciate. You have at most 10 minutes of one-way explanation before you start losing people (less time with children). After that your audience will start to become impatient and antsy. You need to get them ‘doing’ something within that timeframe. The doing can include Q & A, having a look at some of the components to test for understanding, or getting started on the first round of play. I’m also a big fan of the “let’s plan to play a few learning rounds and then restart” approach for more complex games.

3 - The Learning Game

Here’s another scenario I see all too often. Right after the explanation, the teacher switches hats and becomes a fierce competitor. Get over it! Resign yourself to the fact that if you are teaching a game to people who are new to it, you will remain the teacher through the whole game. Throughout the game you should be making recommendations, providing advice, and even talking through the logic of your own moves and decisions openly. So put away the competitor hat until your fellow players have one or two plays under their belts.

4 - Know Your Audience

There’s no point in saying “this is a worker placement game” or “it’s a bit like Puerto Rico” if your audience doesn’t have that context. Teach to the lowest level of background. And the only way to know what that is to ask what types of games your fellow players know or like. Be prepared to flex your delivery depending on the audience. There’s a big difference between teaching to the “I’ve only played Trivial Pursuit” person versus the “I own 563 games, have hand-painted all my components and whose bumper sticker reads ‘Free the Meeple’.

5 - Be Enthusiastic AND Patient

I was helping out at the Calgary Entertainment Expo a few weeks ago, and overheard one of my colleagues teaching a fantasy miniature game to a group of young teens. He was jumping up and down, speaking loudly, and animating every laser blast and explosion. And the teens were eating it up, sharing in the contagious emotional energy.

At the same time we need to be patient. People learn at different rates and in different ways. Take your time, pause for questions and feedback, and be prepared to repeat. The goal is not to deliver the lecture, but rather to transfer the understanding of the game.

6 - Have a Plan

Recognize that the process for teaching a game can be different in structure to playing it or to the way the rules are laid out. I’ve seen many game explanations that start with, “so here’s what you do…” and launching into player actions. This is the wrong approach, and in Part 3 of this series I’ll share a teaching structure that has worked well for me in the past.

So if you are passionate about non-electronic games, recognize that you will be wearing the teaching hat from time to time. It’s an important role, don’t take it too lightly, and consider investing a bit of time in honing your skills to become a better teacher of games.

Stay young – keep playing games!

Tim

RPG to Boardgame Crossover Appeal?

FallCon Gaming Society - Monday, August 08, 2011

One question I regularly get from prospective attendees every year is:

"Why doesn't FallCon feature any roleplaying events?"

FallCon has historically shied away from hosting RolePlaying Games (RPGs) for a number of reasons. With its roots in Canadian Wargaming, FallCon never felt that RPGs were in its wheelhouse comfort zone. While some members of our core organizing committee dabble with RPGs, we still feel a little out of our league when it comes to this genre of gaming. So when it comes to organizing events for the convention, we'd rather focus on the things we enjoy most, that we personally are knowledgeable about and that we know we can pull off well. We'd rather focus on our strengths than spread ourselves too thinly by covering gaming genres we personally aren't as passionate about.

But that's us, not you! We know there are RPGers out there who play boardgames too. And I'm personally curious how many of you are out there. So I've got a little crossover promotion to entice those dabblers among you to register for our convention this year.

As part of an initiative to get the Calgary Boardgames Meetup members to try out D&D Encounters, the kind folks at Wizards of the Coast sent me a bunch of 4th Edition goodies including:

If you register by the Early Bird deadline of August 31st (or have already registered) and express an interest in these items, I'll put your name in a draw for them. You can show interest by either emailing me directly, or by responding to this post in the comments below. Be specific as to which goodies you're interested in as I will try to make as many people happy as possible.

Jasen

FallCon Review: Dominion

FallCon Gaming Society - Friday, August 05, 2011

Name: Dominion
Designer: Donald X. Vaccarino
# of Players: 2-4
Playtime: 30 minutes
MSRP: $58.99 CDN
Link to Rules

Synopsis: Dominion is the original, the granddaddy of the deckbuilding genre. As in other games of this type, players spend their turns playing action and treasure cards from their hand of 5 cards in an attempt to acquire better treasure, action or victory point cards to add to their deck. During game setup, a set of 10 action cards that will be available for purchase is chosen or randomly selected from a group of 25 cards. This gives players a huge spectrum of card combinations to explore from game to game. The in-game challenge is deciding between acquiring victory points to win, or getting the treasure and action cards to help you get the victory points later. The victory points have no real value during the game and can ‘slow’ your deck down, but without them you cannot win!

Numerous deckbuilding games have been released since Dominion, especially after its 2009 Spiel des Jahres win. Even so, I personally think Dominion is still the best of the deckbuilding genre so far.

First, Dominion is the most approachable in the genre. The rules are literally as easy to comprehend as A-B-C and also come with several predefined sets of cards that allow new players to learn about key card interactions. On the other side of the coin, more experienced players, especially those from a CCG (Collectible Card Game) background, can opt to choose the cards they want to build from or just randomly select them for a new challenge every time.

The biggest appeal of the game for many is exploring the interaction between the various cards. You have to quickly determine which cards interact well together and lead you towards your end goal of acquiring as many VPs as possible. Each card in your deck can have a significant effect on the effectiveness of your combos and strategy.

Since the game scales well for 2 – 4 players and plays extremely quickly, it is a perfect game to sit down, setup and play at any time. It can be a great opener for a game night with friends, or you can end up playing a few games in a row for an entire evening of entertainment.

Once you have had a taste for the original base game, you'll no doubt enjoy exploring the cards from the other expansions. We'll have all of the Dominion expansions available for sign-out as part of the FallCon Open Game Library. It's a great opportunity to find out which expansions you like best!

Darren

FallCon - A Cornucopia of Gaming

FallCon Review: Alien Frontiers

How to Teach Games: General Tips (Part 2)

1 - Know the Game

2 - Time is the Enemy

3 - The Learning Game

4 - Know Your Audience

5 - Be Enthusiastic AND Patient

6 - Have a Plan

RPG to Boardgame Crossover Appeal?

FallCon Review: Dominion

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