Bit of a late start to the morning, but we made our 10am Chrononauts event. All eight of us were in it, but no one won enough to move on. No worries though; Chrononauts is fun enough to play and not win.
Off to the vendor hall for our last big tour. Last year I felt like I didn't spend enough time in the vendor hall because I was always running out for some game event. This year I purposely underfilled my dance card so that wouldn't happen. Rhon opted for a quick nap back in the room, so I did some demo rounds with Mike. We did Creepy Freaks and Crimson Skies at WizKids. I had already bought into Crimson Skies, but a professional demo is always appreciated.
Creepy Freaks looks very nice. Sort of a Garbage Pails Kids version of Chess. It's aimed squarely at young boys, but demographic intentions just don't scare me.
I also tried out the Neopets TCG from Wizards. I have a strange feeling every time I see Neopets merchandising. It just seems weird to see real-world extensions of what I've always experienced as a mildly diverting Poke-inspired website. I mean, bully for them, they've found the one way to make a profit online: take it offline. The TCG itself is cute and simple, but I have difficulty seeing it having much impact... Except among existing Neopets fans.
Once I rousted Rhon from her nap, the two of us did Creepy Freaks again... and then AEG's upcoming card game Initial D. It's based on a little known (at least here in the US) anime/manga property about street racing teens and their hot cars. Think Fast and the Furious meets Yu-Gi-Oh.
The game plays very quickly, following a you-raise-me, I-raise-you kind of format. Although I think the cards look nice graphically, the layout seems a bit confusing given that all you're really doing is comparing numbers. The gamble with this game is if the anime takes off. If the kids don't embrace the show, it will be all the tougher to sell the card game, especially since the bulk of the cards are game-driven, not character-driven. What I mean is that you don't have the easy collectible angle of catching all the Pocket Monsters.
Tonigh's big event was the Doomtown Penny Farthing, another ultra long event. I chose not to play; Scott and Mike were in. It's called Penny Farthing because you have to use a bicycle deck, meaning your deck's poker values much match up exactly to a normal deck of cards. It ends in a massive nine player game, which is absolutely insane. Too many cowboys spoil the watering hole! I disappeared for a nap but by the time I got back Rhonda and Shannon were roped into playing.
The Penny Farthing is only two games, but they are very looooong games. The whole thing started at 7pm, and at this writing it's still going on. The prize is an art print of quite possibly the sexiest Doomtown cards around, see below.
