Last night at Gwen Con

GwenCon Ate started last night. Here's what I played:

1. San Juan - I really enjoy this card game. Why have I only been playing it yearly? At one time I was pretty good, but my old strategy failed me last night. Three games (4 players in each) resulted in me coming in 3rd, 2nd, and 3rd. Two things I noticed:
   
   • All of us got better the more we played in a row. 1st place was in the high 20s on game 1, low thirties in game 2, and low fourties in game 3. The 4th place score was always in the 20s, but went up about 4 points per game.
   • Despite that obvious anecdotal evidence that practice improves your skill, the game still feels incredibly random. To win the game you need certain "combos" - there's a production strategy and at least two different "violet" strategies you can choose from - but in two of the three games I failed to ever draw key cards for those strategies. In the third game I did get what I needed, but was barely beaten (mostly because I chose to play a free building that was low-points early on, and should have held out for better).
2. Lost Waaaaaaaaaaaaagh! I just barely got my Orky 'Eresy scenario assembled in time to run it. For a crazy light-hearted game of 40k Orks and references to ABC's lost, I needed rules that were fast-playing, easy-to-explain, and encouraged crazy orky hijinks. That wasn't going to happen with Dark Heresy's rules, so a lot of elbow grease got applied. Overall the scenario went well, the four Orky PCs got off the island, and everybody laughed repeatedly. I'll furnish more details (and character sheets) in the next couple of days, but right now I have to get ready for Day Two of GwenCon.
3. Zitterix: Weird little manual-dexterity game. Kinda like pick-up stix, but with a stronger game element and occasionally a tactical decision to be made.
4. Are You A Werewolf? Only played one game, since we had a long drive home. 2 werewolves in town, and the villagers managed to lynch them on days 1 and 2!
   

We're off to Day Two of Gwen Con Ate, where-in I will host several rounds of Blank White Cards, and play in a couple of RPGs.