Con of the North 2015

Had a lot of fun at Con of the North this weekend.

Here's some of the games that I played:

• Age of Industry (Germany) - interesting game combining materials and growth like Settlers, with train connections
• Eclipse Phase - All's well that ends well - the scenario I ran for three players (Thanks for playing! They did well)
• King of Tokyo - all my monsters died.
• RAD ASTRA: Gonzo Space Opera! - here is the GM's blog, the RAD ASTRA.
• NetHack - I guess I should have researched this more before going - it turned out to be a rough version like Angband but with bizaare keys. I played for a few minutes before acknowledging if I wanted to play games on the computer by myself I would not have gone to the convention. I wish now that I has stayed with the Space Opera, but having stayed up late prepping for my adventure, needed rest and to travel home safely so I left after that.
• Mines of IO - a fun space Carcassone hex tile game by Jeffrey R. Sutton. It took a bit of getting used to, but it was fun. If he can get the tiles made up, he has a really fun game ready for market.
• Star Fleet Battles - Fleet Action at Archanus IV
• Seven Wonders with Tower of Babel expansion - I like this game a lot. The player to my left had an iphone app to help calculate the scientific card values.
• Russian Rails (at amazon.com) - a fun game, that has nice tracks and features.

On the car ride home tonight I thought about a couple of things I should write up:

• Space Kayaks, which I used in my scenario, "All's well that ends well". Space Kayaks are one or two person streamlined, small vehicles designed to fit one or two people back to back. The ship looks like a clamshell, with four independently positionable thrusters near the side of the craft. The craft has exterior manipulators, some nano, some robotic, and some for sticking your arms through as a fallback. Unlike space suits, you can move your hands around inside, scratch that itch on your nose, not have to worry about a bloody nose, or relieve your bodily functions and have enough room to get cleaned up afterwards. More comfort for longer spacewalks. Also can be used as a shuttlecraft between close points, ship to station, or on small bodies like asteroids.
• All's Well that Ends well - I should publish the notes in case someone wants to know it.

Games I picked up:

• King of New York
• Destination Neptune
• Machi Koro
• La Strada

Ideas to run for next year:

• Orbit War - the Satellite game by Steve Jackson.
• Holy War - the space version, not Earth religions.
• Star Fleet Battles - fighters or dragon scenarios
• Slag!
• Ploy
• Quest for the dragon lords
• Space Mission
• Two Bit Battles - a game idea I came up with a couple of years ago, hopefully I'll make it at Game Crafter - which I first heard about in 2012.

To watch:

Space Empires - saw this and want to play next year