Gamestorm 16: Day Three

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Gamestorm 16

Day three of Gamestorm 16 was a lot slower and more laid back than previous years. I had no real plans other than to hang out with some friends and play a few board games, and that’s exactly what I did.

My friend’s wife joined us for the entire day, and my own wife had plans to show up in the afternoon. The day was short (most areas of the con closed around 4:00 p.m.) but it was still a lot of fun.

Late Start, Lifeboats

Since we had no plans, we didn’t even leave the house until around 9:30 a.m. The three of us reached the convention hotel around 10:00, and we went and grabbed a bite to eat before getting started.

We started out looking for a game to play, and we grabbed one from the con’s Game Library that sounded promising. The game was Dungeon Pets by the same designer as Galaxy Truckers. At first it seemed like a great idea, but despite the name (which made us think it was more of a kid-friendly game) it seemed very complex; over the heads of some of us, and definitely not accessible with all of its little bits and pieces.

So we put that back and pulled out my friend’s copy of Lifeboats, a negotiation game about shipwreck survivors whose lifeboats are sinking. Everyone’s trying to get to a group of islands before the lifeboats sink, but space is at a premium and survivors constantly get tossed overboard.

We played the game with a guy that my friend met the day before. The four us had a good time, but agreed the choice of games would have benefited from having more than four players.

I’ll do a First Impressions of Lifeboats in another post.

Second Half

We finished our game of Lifeboats around 1:30 p.m., and at that point pre-registration for Gamestorm 17 had begun. Gamestorm offers heavily discounted registration if you sign up early; $25 for the weekend if you get in early, but it’s $60 for the weekend if you wait until the day of the convention to register. With that being said, we all hopped on the opportunity to get our tickets cheap.

AFter registering we went and grabbed a bite of lunch, and while we were finishing up I got a call from my wife to let me know she had arrived.

Blue Moon City

The three of us met up with my wife and checked out a copy of Blue Moon City from the Game Library. We had heard the game was really good but out of print, so we took our opportunity to give it a try.

The foru us sat down at an empty table and set up shop. After a quick read of the rules, we got started.

I’ll do a First Impressions of Blue Moon City in another post, but the short version is that it’s a fun game that could have benefited from a few design tweaks for improved accessibility.

End of Day

It’s a good thing my wife wasn’t coming to see the whole convention, because we only got in one game before Gamestorm started closing shop. We took the opportunity to say hello to a couple of old friends and roommates, and then we headed on our way.

As my wife and our two friends headed toward the parking garage, my wife had an idea for a game called “Disorientated,” a game about finding your way to your car in a crowded parking lot. We’ve all had experiences where we couldn’t find our car before, and I thought it was a grand idea. I’m not sure if anything will come of it yet, but for now we’re in the beginning stages of talking about what the game’s mechanics might be.

Final Thoughts

Gamestorm 16 had its share of registration issues, and from the sounds of it Monster Kart Mayhem wasn’t the only casualty that resulted. Still, I had a lot of fun and registered to attend again next year, so I’m excited  to see how that goes.

Stay tuned for a few more articles that specifically relate to the games I had the chance to play at the con!

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