This year's Gencon was absolutely amazing! This was my fifth year attending Gencon but only my second year attending as an exhibitor. In the 5 years I've gone to Gencon, I cannot think of another year where so many great games came out all at once. In some ways I'm a bit jealous because my game, Corrupted Kingdoms, didn't get nearly the press I wanted. In another way, I'm extremely happy to see the hobby grow to a point where Corrupted Kingdoms was just one of many great releases this year. After all, it's hard to compete with Seafall, Cry Havoc, Scythe, Flagon & Dragon (which I was able to snag a copy of), Terraforming Mars, Ice Cool, Hogwarts Battle, Last Friday, Vast: The Crystal Caverns, Captain Sonar, etc, etc, etc.

Anyway, this post isn't yet another review of all the great games that came out this year (and let me tell you, you should at the very least play or demo all the ones I mentioned above). This post is about my experiences as a new designer at the greatest gaming show on earth. A look behind the curtain, if you will.

After I unpacked, excited for the days to come, I walked down to the convention center floor to breath in the non-gamer air before the week got started in full swing. It looked like a total ghost town. Not a single game in sight. What a shame. After getting a healthy dose of exercise, defeated, I returned to my hotel room, and broke out Utopia Engine. Utopia Engine has become a bit of a tradition for me to play during downtime at conventions, because all it requires is a few dice and a pencil to play.

After Utopia Engine, I broke out Friedemann Friese's Friday, and lost horribly a couple of times before finally conquering the island. It was fun, but I wish I had someone with me to get through that first night while waiting for everyone to get into town. Soon after that I fell asleep, with A&E's The First 48 playing on the hotel television.

By 9am the next day the rest of the Artana team had arrived. We all got together in the exhibit hall to prepare for the show. After spending a good amount of time hugging it out with JR Honeycutt, Mack Cameron, Nils Herzmann, and meeting our volunteers Kit, Len, Eddie, Jason, Jim, and Phoebe we got to building the Artana booth. Tuesday was especially exciting for me because I got to see the first pallet of my game. At that moment, it finally hit home. I'm a game designer now. My dream finally came true.

We continued to work together over the next few hours. This was Artana's first show where we had foam padding for the floor. Most of us have been begging for this for a while. Working all day on hard concrete really does a number on your feet and back. Dirk and Marcus really stepped up to make this happen for us, and I couldn't be happier with the improvements.

Setting up last year (2015) at Gencon was historically awful because the convention center doesn't run AC during Tuesday and Wednesday during setup and it was especially hot outside. Working in the exhibit hall during setup is like being trapped in a hot car in 100 degree weather. It is a recipe for disaster. Last year Game Salute hooked us up with a few cases of water. This year, in anticipation of the heat, I took an uber down to the local Marsh Supermarkets and bought 3 cases of water for us. We went through the first case within an hour, though it wasn't nearly as bad as it was in 2015. Between last year and this year, I'm pretty surprised no one has had to be rushed to the hospital due to Heat Stroke or something. Unfortunately, I think it's only a matter of time before something tragic like that happens to an exhibitor at Gencon. Hopefully the convention center will change it's policies soon on the matter. We'll see.

Anyway, here's a picture of the guys jumping for joy at the end of Tuesday's setup.

After we finished setting up the booth we all got together after to play Tesla Vs. Edison with the Powering Up expansion and Corrupted Kingdoms so that everyone knew how to demo and teach the games. We had a blast. Shortly after, we all went to Buca Di Beppo as a team and broke bread together. Despite the crowding in the restaurant and my social anxiety of small spaces, we had a great time getting to know each other. Though, I think I'm going to go with Plato on this one, and say gaming with our volunteers was a lot more unifying than the dinner (as delicious as it was). You can learn more in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

Look at this smug bastard. Look at him, in all his wondrous beautiful glory. This is JR Honeycutt. JR runs DFW Nerd Night and the monumentally successful Nerd Night at Gencon. Can you believe this guy was able to snag not one, not two, but THREE copies of Seafall? I suppose it's no surprise since he developed it with Rob Daviau for Plaid Hat Games. To be fair, one of the copies was given away at Nerd Night, the other to a friend, and the third because he's the damn developer on the game. Luckily for me, JR also developed Corrupted Kingdoms with Mack Cameron and my co-designer Dirk Knemeyer. (JR is not actually a smug bastard, I'm just salty about not getting a copy of SeaFall for myself. I still love you, JR!) 

​Anyway, here we are, all setup and ready to go for the 10 o'clock rush.

We ended up selling out half of our copies of Corrupted Kingdoms that we air-lifted into the show on the first day, and another quarter of the stock on Friday. By the end of the show CK completely sold out! I think this is due in large part to with our awesome volunteer staff, and because nearly every table looked like the picture below. There is no greater gift to a game designer, than to see the smiles on the faces of people playing your game. It makes the years of work to get here all worth it.

From this point onward, the show was a complete blur to me. It was sales demo, after sales demo, after sales demo. Although it was a bit of a grind, seeing so many people enjoy my game was incredibly fulfilling. Luckily I was not alone. I had the help of Kit Nagel and Jimmy Joe who both were super supportive and excited to teach Corrupted Kingdoms to everyone they could. Jim and Kit are both amazing and awesome human beings. Thanks guys!

Once the exhibit hall closed on Thursday and Friday, Kit and I headed down to the Gencon Auction. One of my favorite things to do at Gencon is to visit the collectibles and charity auctions on Friday and Saturday night. The collectibles auction is particularly interesting to me, because it's one of the few places you can listen to game industry veterans like Frank Metzner talk about gaming history. Nearly every item put up for auction has a story around it with memories attached to it from the time period in which it was popular. Even if most of the collectibles are outside your budget, visiting the auction is definitely worth the experience.

This year, the collectibles featured were not as impressive as they were in years past but there were several interesting items from the late 70s and early 80s around alternative role playing rulesets that successfully piggy-backed off the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons. Most of the "cool games" featured this year were mid 90s board games. The Zelda board game in particular went for a very large sum, and I myself went head to head with someone over a pristine copy of Heroquest. I didn't win it, but I was able to snag something else near and dear to my heart; Talisman 2nd Edition from Games Workshop. I never owned the 2nd edition of Talisman myself, but my best friend in middle-school did and we played it quite a bit. When the 3rd edition was released, I bought a copy and upgraded it when Fantasy Flight Games acquired the rights a year later. Now I have the edition I played as a kid. :D

I ended up trading my copy of Carson City, since I backed the big box edition on Kickstarter in the spring and no longer needed my eagle/gryphon games edition. I got the out-of-print Kingsburg expansion for it. BackerKit also hooked me up with a cool T-Shirt and SWAG bag for the convention.
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One thing you'll notice above if you look closely, is one of the finest gems you can find from gaming history, The DD1 Demogorgon from Minifigs. I bought it on a whim because I'm a huge fan of the show Stranger Things on Netflix and because of my love of gaming history. I genuinely thought when I bought it that it was the one featured in the show, but unfortunately it was not (although it should have been).

In 1977, Minifigs started manufacturing the first official miniatures for Dungeons and Dragons. They were often crude, as they were manufactured not for display purposes but were intended to be played with. Unfortunately, not many of them still exist. The DD1 Demogorgon above is one of the most highly prized miniatures in gaming because it was, for a long time, the only demon miniature to be cast in pewter, and it is the first ever to be taken directly from the D&D Monster Manual. Unfortunately, because they were cast in pewter, this also made them quite fragile (particularly around the base) and many of them broke.

I usually get a lot more pictures of cosplayers but this year I ran a bit short. Among my most favorite from this year are Nightcrawler, two ladies who made some amazing Doctor Who dresses, and of course Kylo Ren (who also bought my game). How many people do you know can say that Kylo Ren bought their game? I know of at least one. Take that, JR! :D

It's amazing. On Sunday at 4pm the exhibit hall closes and it takes all of an hour to tear down everything that took two days to setup. We sold out of Tesla vs. Edison, and Corrupted Kingdoms. We started with 5 pallets of stuff and left with 2. To recap, this year's Gencon was pretty fricken amazing. My game got released, my other game got picked up by Mayfair, my voice survived, I avoided the dreaded Con Crud, I got some awesome goodies, and I met so many amazing and wonderful people. I love my gaming family and I can't wait to see you all again next year. It can't come soon enough.

Cheers,
Until we meet again, my dear gaming friends.
​Happy Gaming!

I recently posted on /r/boardgames about how to get started with 18xx games. The original post gathered a lot of attention but people still had some questions, and I wanted to expand the guide a bit to answer them. So naturally I thought this would be a great place to start my tabletop gaming blog. This is the first part of a series in which I intend to teach you everything I know about 18xx in a beginner friendly way. In today's post we're going to explore 18xx as a concept and talk about two great beginner games which you can print out and play for FREE. Make sure to check back every couple of weeks where I will introduce some new concepts, and a few new games you can play to learn those concepts.

 If you already know about 18xx games and wish to just learn how to get started you can skip this section.
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18xx is a series of heavy economic games that simulate the building of railroad companies from the early 19th century up to modern day. The series started when Francis Tresham first released 1829 in mid 1970s. In 1986 Avalon Hill released the most famous of 18xx games, 1830, which then went on to influence the genre for years to come. In 18xx players play the role of robber barons; the founders and financiers of the railroad industry. The goal is simple: Get rich at all costs. The player with the most wealth, between their shares in companies that they have invested in, and the cash they have in hand at the end of the game, wins.

18xx games differ from most economic games because of their strong simulation of stock market mechanics. One of the most critical concepts of 18xx is that there are essentially two types of "players": The players themselves who buy and sell stock during the various stock rounds, and the companies which operate during the operating rounds. In 18xx the money controlled by the players is independent of the money controlled by the various companies.

To inject money into a company, players buy shares in that company in a sufficient enough quantity to fund that company's operations. This takes place on a stock round where players typically have only two actions they can perform: buy shares or sell shares. Once everyone passes their turn on the stock round, the game progresses onto a series of operating rounds. During the operating rounds each company has a chance to operate. The player that owns the most shares in the company (the president of that company) operates it. Typically the first company to operate each round is the one that has the most value on the stock track, continuing onto the second most, the third most, and so on until the round is complete.

When a company operates it will have an opportunity to lay track, build a station, run its trains between cities, and purchase bigger and better trains in search of more revenue. When a company runs its trains between cities, it will produce some amount of revenue which then may be paid out to the players or withheld by the company. When a company pays out its revenue, it will give its investors (the players) more cash that they can use in the stock round to buy more shares or start another company. Additionally, the value of that company will also increase making each share in that company more valuable. The game continues like this until the bank runs out of money (often called breaking the bank), then all shares owned by each player are converted back into cash. The player with the most cash at the end of the game, wins.

I assume if you're still here, that I've gotten your mouth watering over this genre of games. That's awesome, but before we dive in it's important to cover a couple other small bits of advice.

First, the best advice anyone can give you about learning 18xx is to play the game with experienced players. They are heavy games and are different from a lot of other games on the market. But, if you can't find someone experienced enough to run you through a game or two, following this guide will hopefully provide a decent pathway to this niche within a niche. In a lot of ways this guide mirrors my own introduction to the series. I've also taken great care to provide a pathway that introduces new mechanics slowly while you learn. Although there are a lot of games in this series, and they all have similar mechanics, most of them have something unique or interesting to offer. Unfortunately because of the high variance in mechanics between games, and the already intimidating nature of the series, this can be confusing for new players. So we will start off with the basics, and from there we will learn new and novel concepts with each new game. 

18AL, by Mark Derrick, is set in the state of Alabama during the development of the railroad industry in the early 19th century. This is a fantastic first game because the map is relatively small, the game is relatively short, the track tiles are on the more basic end, and it will instill in you the fundamental rules of 18xx games. 18xx games take a while to play, and your first game will be longer than average because you are learning. This series of games can also be a bit brutal for new players because there are a lot of pitfalls you need to get passed to understand not just how to win, but how to survive. Two of the most common things that will doom even the most experienced XXers are train rushes, and getting a company dumped on them during the stock round (although the latter is uncommon). ​

1889, by Yasutaka Ikeda, is set in the Shikoku region of Japan during the development of the railroad systems on the small island in the late 19th Century. It features a small terrain-heavy map, a moderate train rush and a simple ruleset. Similar to 18AL and 1830, this game is a full capitalization game. When I originally wrote my reddit post on getting started with 18xx this game came up again and again, which I had not played at the time. Since then I've had a chance to play it twice, and I agree that it is a pretty damn good XX game. 

I think it presents a more authentic 18xx experience than 18AL and the track tile placement is certainly more interesting. That said, it is more complex than 18AL and may not be suitable for a game where no-one has played an 18xx before. I am sure there are many that would disagree with that assessment, but it is something to consider. When learning XX the simplest thing you can find (18AL) is probably better for inexperienced players. But unlike 18AL, which you are probably only going to play a few times, I can see you bringing this one out over and over again. Hell, as an experienced player I wouldn't mind playing it again next week. :D

1889 is currently being published by Deep Thought Games.

Previously I mentioned that 1889 is available as a print-and-play off of BGG's website and provided the files here. I then learned that there was some question to the legality of these files, so I took them down. It was unknown whether or not the original author of the game had authorized the print-and-play to be publicly available. Since then, I've gotten in touch with Deep Thought Games, and they have stated that they "do not mind" that it is available from their standpoint, however they are not the rights-holder and so directed me to get in touch with the designer directly. I am happy to announce that Mr. Ikeda has given his blessing for the print-and-play release on BGG for non-commercial purposes.

You are allowed to download, print, and play the game at your leisure but you may not sell it. 

That said, if you want to snag a copy of 1889, I recommend you purchase a copy directly from Deep Thought Games to support Mr. Ikeda's work on this game.

You can also download the files from my Google Drive here.

​1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight, is one of the few 18xx games that can claim that it was designed with the intent to be beginner friendly and fast to play. Before Carthaginian redid the artwork for 1889 this was what many 18xxer's used to introduce new players to the series. Unfortunately, in recent years it has become rather hard to get a hold of, although Z-Man did a recent small-run reprint of the game. It pops up from time to time on the Board Game Geek Marketplace at rather reasonable prices. To try and snag a copy, I suggest you subscribe to the game on BGG.

If you can manage to get into a game of 1860, I highly recommend it. It is a full capitalization game like 18AL, 1889, and 1830, however, it features a couple interesting concepts not found in many other 18xx games. The first is the concept of receivership. In most 18xx games the president's share (the 20% share) can never be sold to the bank, which means you can get stuck with it. But in 1860 you can sell the president's share to the bank, which means that the bank itself will run and operate the company. The company then runs for the most that it can and withholds all of its money in an effort to purchase a train; if it cannot it becomes insolvent. While receivership is found in many 18xx games, insolvency is unique to 1860. When a company is insolvent it only gets to run for half what it would normally, and withholds all of its income until it can buy a train. Eventually, if the company recovers, players can purchase the president's share back from the bank pool and attempt to run the company normally.

1860 also features one of the most unique end game conditions I've ever seen in an 18xx game. While many XX games feature a concept called nationalization, (which we will cover in future episodes) in 1860 nationalization occurs at the end of the game, merging in and closing companies as they operate from least valuable to most valuable. This gives better companies a chance to really pull out ahead of the smaller nationalized companies since they have more operating rounds to pay out to their shareholders.

Try to find a copy of 1860 to play with your friends. You won't regret it.

I hear you, I hear you. You're saying, "But Ray, this is all great and everything, but what about 1830? Isn't that a classic 18xx game which features full-capitalization and is a good introduction to the series? Why not just talk about it instead, why talk about 18AL or 1889 at all?"

Listen, 1830 is a great game, and if you play 18AL or 1889 and decide you want more, the very next thing you should do is to go out and buy this game. That said, I think most 18xx players will agree, its a bit much to start you off with, especially if you're not sure if 18xx is for you. It is not uncommon, even with experienced players and poker chips, for 1830 to exceed 5 hours in length. The map is much bigger, and some of the track laying (especially around New York) can get really hairy and break your brain if you're just starting out with 18xx.

Also, something to consider is that the Mayfair Games reprint of 1830 has a metric ton of print and design errors. The shares and train cards are double sided, the track tiles have setup coding errors on them, and the rulebook itself is incorrect in several places. All of these errors together make the game a huge pain in the ass to setup, even for those that have played this exact version several times before.

Is it worth your money to buy this game? Absolutely! However, for a first game, dealing with all of those errors will drive you mad. Why not play a solid, free print-and-play instead and feel out the genre first?

18xx is amazing. I've fallen in love with the genre as a gamer, even though for years I avoided it because I was too intimidated by the concept, the calculators, and my presumptions about how complex the series was. Over the past few years I've learned to love the series and I am grateful to have such a wonderful and diverse set of gaming friends who we're kind enough to guide me in the discovery of these great games. I hope that this introduction will get you excited about XX and give you some direction on which 18xx games you should play.

In the next part of this series we are going to cover incremental capitalization games which differ greatly from the full capitalization games presented in this post. In the meantime, follow me on Twitter, signup for my newsletter (top right) or catch me at Gencon in a couple of weeks and say hello. My own game, Corrupted Kingdoms, will be released there by Artana Games and I'd love to have you join me for a demo.

Cheers,
Until we meet again, my dear gaming friends.
​Happy Gaming!