Scott StarkeySecond day at #ProtospielIndy. It's at the #HamiltonCo fairgrounds in lovely #NoblesvilleIN. Here's a recap!
Again I started the day off with a Ian Winningham game. This time, it was a game that he came up with since Friday: One called "Super Stick Fighter". Each player controls a "stick figure" made out of popsicle sticks. Cards control leg and arm actions, to try to hurt the other figure. I managed a groin shot, winning the game. We discussed possibly attaching the joints somehow so that ragdoll physics could be used, and adding wacky powers to the mix.
Next up, I played a series of game by Daniel Slown and his wife. She had made a series of games with adorable art in a single deck. These were encompassing a wide array of age ranges, a noble effort.
First up we played "No! Wasabi!" which is an Old Maid variant. That's OK for playing with very young kids.
However, the real fun came when we played their much more deep game, "Sweet Order". A clue-giver hides a sequence of dessert cards unknown to the other players. They try to guess the sequence, getting clues "Mastermind Style", saying how many were exactly right, and how many were right but wrong position.
We played the latter game twice. I advised possibly playing it collaboratively, which makes it playable for even a large group.
After a short lunch break, I played "Lucky Hoppity Bunnies" by Richard Baltzell. Players bounce dice towards the scoring area, trying to get combos and land on high scoring areas. I played a version of this last year, and I shared that the game went in a more complex direction with relation to scoring. There were rules about moving dice based on dice rolls to get big combos. All of that is superfluous to the core-fun of the game, which is bouncing dice towards targets. We advised much more simpler scoring rules. Also, as a side note, I am absolutely terrible at this game, only barely scoring once out of 10 attempts. I guess the bunnies don't like me.
After that (and some pizza!) I worked on my own game a bit, transferring some of the better ideas from half-index cards to nicer die-cut cards. Then we played my Zoom Zoom Boom. (Or Vroom Zoom Boom. Which is better?) This was its best playtest yet. I had made some player mats showing where all the components would go, and that worked great. Perhaps there was too much armor? Also, players wanted me to embrace the crazy, and make the powers more wacky and cartoony, to contrast with other games in the gritty Mad Max world genre. (Sorry, no photo taken.)