Atlanta Game Fest 25: Day 0

So, Tim and I are attending Atlanta Game Fest (AGF). The 4-day weekend of almost 24-hour gaming doesn’t actually begin until Thursday. We arrived Wednesday evening. We got an invite to the Games Well Played Meetup. So after checking into our room, we headed over to a local Moe’s to check it out. It solved two dilemmas: what to eat and what to do with ourselves ’til the con starts. We both learned some new games.

It started off with the new Harbor expansion for Machi Koro. I really liked this – ‘course it helped that I won – first time I’ve ever won at Machi Koro. Not only does The Harbor expansion add lots of new cards to the game, it changes how the cards become available for purchase. This makes Machi Koro a whole new gaming experience. It also extends the play time some.

There are a lot more sniping cards. You know: the red ones where you get to take money from your fellow players when they roll the number on your red card on their turn. I remember a Sushi Bar, Hamburger Joint, Pizza Joint – this 7 cost me quite a bit, but not nearly as much as Tim’s Publisher. The Publisher is one of the new purple cards: each player has to pay you 1 coin for each of their shops and food joints. I went big into the food service industry so it cost me a bundle when Tim rolled a 7.

The other new game I learned is the author-published Paperback by Tim Fowers, the same guy who designed Wok Star. I like it.

Paperback is a deck-builder, only the cards are letters or letter combos. Some also provide a special power like paying a penny for every wild card you use. As in most deck building games, everyone starts with the same deck – this time 10 cards: R, S, T, L, N and 5 wild cards. Wild cards don’t normally earn you any money when you play them. On your turn, using your hand of 5 cards, you form a word. The number in the top left corner indicates how much each card is worth. The text on some cards may modify this. Then you buy more cards with your earnings.

Your goal is to acquire the most victory points. You start out with 5 (from your initial letter cards), however the letter cards you buy aren’t worth any VPs. The only cards worth something are the wild Paperback Book cards, which cost 4 and up. There are also a few Common cards worth points, but the only way to acquire them is to be the first person to make a 7-, 8-, 9-, or 10-letter word. There is also a Theme card worth 5 points that gets passed from player to player each time someone makes a word related to that theme. Your fellow players get a vote as to whether your word truly fits the theme. In the two games we played, our first theme was Paranormal, the second was Pirates. Argh!

More later – if I get a break from playing games.

 

 

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