Origins 2024 Recap

I’ve been to a lot of gaming conventions, but none that were as full-throatedly devoted to tabletop RPGs and board gaming as the Origins Game Fair. COVID ruined our plans to go in 2023, but this year, nothing was going to stand in our way.

Kasul comes from Ohio, so we went a few days early to do some tourist stuff, visit relatives, and eat the pizza that is better than any pizza that can possibly be had in the entire state of Connecticut. (It was pretty good!)

And then… the Columbus Convention Center. They have this giant head display that projects 3D pictures of peoples heads. It changes to someone else’s face every few seconds. It’s very strange.

I thought that they would be scanning everyone’s heads to be posted up there, but (thankfully) that wasn’t part of the registration process.

Registering gets you your badge and lanyard, and tickets for all the events for which you’d signed up. We’d only signed up for a few things, and no game events until Saturday, leaving Thursday and Friday for walking around the (enormous) dealers room and sitting in on some discussion panels, Dan the Bard, and a Q&A with Adrianne Palicki.

The gaming area was overwhelming. A couple football fields of white tableclothed folding tables, almost all of them with a game set up, and people waiting for a game to happen.

I wasn’t sure if all of these games required event tickets or something. They might have. The couple we played in this room, did, but we also were pulled into game demos on the exhibit floor, and those most definitely did not. We also did an impromptu demo in the game play room for a card game called Camouflage. So, who knows.

I logged a lot about the stuff I was doing and buying at the con on Mastodon, but I’ll talk about the high points here.

Games Played

• Camouflage — puzzle game, where you tile animal-themed cards together to form target shapes. The rep said to think of it as “Dominos meets Tangrams”. There is a competitive mode where multiple players compete to solve their puzzle first, and a cooperative mode where multiple players work together to solve a more complex puzzle. We completed our solo puzzles and the coop puzzle and moved on.

• Dungeon Kart — Competitive racing game that tries to bring Super Mario Kart to the tabletop, complete with drifting and spells that you can fire at other players. Simple and fun game play featuring Boss Monster bosses. This was Kickstarted, but I missed it. I’ll likely buy it when it comes out.

• Journey to the West: 81 Perils — A card game based on the classic Chinese book. It is a combination of so many card games; it’s hard to describe, but the game wasn’t that hard to play and we bought a copy. Basically, you have masters, scholars and monsters, and they have a rock-paper-scissors relationship to each other. The cards are beautiful, and many cards change the rules of play. Gods can also be played, disrupting the game. It’s easier and more fun than it sounds.
• Come on! Bite me! — A party card game where you hold the card of a wild animal in your hand, and you fight another player at the table, comparing cards secretly, with the higher scoring the lower’s card. You can invite other people to help take on an animal, or you can retreat your animal and choose another. There are secret animals in the deck that change up the game. It was fun, but we don’t usually play with enough people to make party games interesting, so we didn’t buy it.
• Round Table — Magic the Gathering meets Dominion. Players have a Demesne deck, which allows them to improve their lordly lands, and a Knights deck, which allows the player to recruit and equip knights and to raise an army. The player with the best lands and the best army at the end of the game, wins. We bought two starter decks and a few booster packs.

• BattleTech: Alpha Strike — Fast-paced skirmish game set in the 40 year old BattleTech universe. Players square off with mechs, tanks and other vehicles. Winner is the last one standing. The simplified rules mean turns go quickly. We played on a small starter board with only four models each, but the playfields can be as big as you like. Kasul has a bunch of models and bought more, so I expect we’ll be bringing that to our table at some point.

• Battlestations: Second Edition — Cooperative game where players take on the role of starship crew members — Pilots, Scientists, Engineers, and Weapons Experts. Kasul played a scientist working on the hyperdrive. I played an engineer keeping one of the three engines running (other engineers were on the others). Our scenario involved escaping an asteroid field while being under constant alien attack. Lots of fun! At two hours, this was a fairly short session for the game.
• Traveller: Core Rulebook, 2022 Edition — An updating of the classic SF RPG with a lot of space devoted toward explaining the things that weren’t explained in the small pamphlet-sized books we used in the 1970s. I did run a short Traveller campaign a few years back; I might try another.
• Dungeon Crawl Classics — RPG that is a lot more freewheeling than Dungeons & Dragons. You roll your character randomly and play what you roll. The creators say that it forces people to think outside of the box. The way D&D first edition did it. I bought the book, but they will be having a Kickstarter for a new edition soon.
• Gate Keeper Games — I buy a lot of dice from them. I participate in their social media campaigns. I bought more dice here. Go sign up to be informed when their new Kickstarter goes live in a week.

• Frosthaven scenario books — Scenario books as with Cephalofair’s Jaws of the Lion game, which make setup a breeze. We are going to be bringing Frosthaven to the table this year. The long setup with Gloomhaven really got to be a pain. They threw in a Buttons & Bugs promo scenario and a couple of challenge coins in for free.
• Malifaux — Wyrd Games was there in force. I bought another Arcanist golem (pre-built!) for my army. I will be talking way more about Malifaux… soon, probably. They also had on display beautifully painted models from my Arcanist Foundry team which really makes me want to spend some time and finish painting them.

I also bought some stuff not really game related; some dolls, some t-shirts, a mouse pad, stuff like that.

I spent WAY too much money… but it was fun and I think a lot of the stuff I bought will make it to the table. And when it does, you’ll read about it here.