June 7 OGM report

[Rolf]

Force Vector and I arrived at the OGM around 3:30 and I was surprised to see the aircon cabana already holding a good sized crowd.  Having missed the last 3 ones, I felt good to be at another OGM - my first one this year.  Good times, familiar faces

When we arrived, a D&D group was already there and had apparently settled down for a game.  Later in the evening another group showed up and started their own D&D game as well.  Far as I can remember, this is the first time I've seen two D&D groups at the OGM at the same time.  Our numbers are growing

Brel and Annabel showed up a few minutes later with Dungeon Twister.  I wish I could have joined, but (as is so often the case with me when there are so many other games around) I got sidetracked and missed my chance.  Maybe next time

I set up a Heroscape map with Nickie's help (and with some of his terrain pieces as well.  Unfortunately it went unused and later on we very hastily disassembled it because another group needed the tables for Carcassone (yet another game I have yet to try). 

Caladan and his group started up a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill with my set, and I think they enjoyed themselves, if the screaming and laughing were any indicators   It was scenario 2, and the Traitor won the game very easily, despite being new to the game.  I think I heard that this was because they were unable to draw many items and endedup with more Omens and Events instead...will someone please correct me if I'm wrong?


When Earl and Catherine showed up we tucked in to a game of Shadows Over Camelot, with the full complement of seven knights, and this was the high point of my evening.  I drew King Arthur, Earl drew Galahad, Albert came up with Sir Kay, Catherine was Sir Tristan, Sam played Sir Gawain (and for the record, Merriam-Webster has it pronounced two ways: gaWAYN and GOWayn), Justin played Sir Palamedes and Nickie played Sir Percival.  I'll post a more detailed session report of the game later


After that, I joined Vic, Sandor, Adrian and Sam for Formula De, in a continuation of Vic's racing season.  Due to my previous absences, my team had fallen in the rankings somewhat - a situation I will strive to avoid in the future.  I really appreciate the effort Vic has put into the game and I wuold like to commend him for his commitment to making the OGM as enjoyable as possible for everyone.


As we wound up the race, Earl's group got into Munchkin, while the other guests (whose names I sadly don't recall) went in for Gimme the Brain! followed by Family Business.

There were a couple of other games run: the ever-popular Bang!, and Ingenious, but unfortunately I was occupied and didn't see how those games turned out.

During this whole time, Nabs was tirelessly supplying sustenance and refreshment to everyone.  Props to her and Sam I take this opportunity to remind everyone that the proceeds from the snack bar go into the OGM fund, which helps us reserve the cabana for future Meets


We wound up at midnight, and went home tired but happy.  I'm very glad to have seen you guys again, and look forward to seeing you all at Game Crab next weekend   Cheers!

[Adam]

Excerpt from my LJ blog about the OGM:

I poked around a bit and at first wasn't playing much. But then one of two GMs showed up who were demoing D&D 4th ed. and needed players. I have heard the howls of the D&D 3.5 fans over 4th ed. and quickly decided that this was probably a good sign (since I've never been a fan of 3rd ed) and that it deserved a shot. 

One of the biggest criticisms of the game that I've heard is that it plays like a MMORPG. This much is true. You have 4 "Character Roles": Defender (Tank), Leader (Healer/Support), Controller (Spellcasters, Crowd Control), Striker (DPS) in addition to the classes. Each of these roles kind of tell the person what they should be doing to make their team effective in combat. So, it plays with the strategy of an MMORPG and as such "bosses" have hit points for days. Combat runs a little more smoothly than previous editions overall, but also a little slower (at least at first level) due to the amount of hit points the monsters seem to have.

All in all, I enjoyed it a lot, but that may be at least partially because my dice hand was hot (I was doing a twin strike, which is basically two attacks at once) I even rolled a pair of natural twenties on the last monster. I even managed to break one player's streak of dying in one-shot games by saving him at the last moment with a lucky kill. I also was comfortable with the MMORPG strategies since I've spent a good deal of time in World of Warcraft.

Another reason I think I enjoyed the game had very little to do with the game system and everything to do with the GM (BJ)and the world. We played in a GM created world that was a fantasy setting based on Philippine mythology. No one had metal armor (since it's really difficult to swim with metal armor), but instead more tribal hide armor and weapons. I was playing an enkanta (a filipino word that generically means any fey creature, in this case elven) Ranger who was armed with Javelins. There were two warriors who were both potential heirs to the tribal chieftain trying to prove themselves. The cleric was the heir to the wise woman of the village (cleric, secretly a half elf) whom my character had taken upon himself to protect. There was a diwata (a fairy that the locals often refer to as a nymph, but since they live in trees, I'd say their more like dryads or hemadryads) who had come to the village seeking help about unwanted tikbalang suitors (Tikbalang are basically like minotaurs except instead of half bull, they are half thoroughbred stud and reputedly have a drive like satyrs.

We also ended up encountering classic filipino mythological creatures. A nuno sa punso (gnomes that live under houses that look like termite mounds) arrived in the village asking for our help. He was being harassed by aswang, which are a kind of shapeshifting demon who can assume the form of dogs but are forced to assume their own shape at night. We, of course, also faced a tikbalang and his lover. We also encountered a couple of manananggals (a winged woman's upper body that lifts itself out of the rest of the body leaving the internal organs attached to the flying head and sucks blood) who were aiding the aswang and their dark masters. So it was a really interesting game with a fresh take on what is normally classic fantasy.

Huge thumbs up!

[Victor Kh'BaHzur]

Happy 3rd Anniversary OGM!

   The first Open Gaming Meet (when it was still known as the Open Meet) was held at Waltermart, cor. of Arnaiz & Pasong Tamo, Makati on June 11, 2005.

   Although the Open Meet is a much older gathering, primarily organized by Adrian Martinez, it was more of a spur of the moment event than a regular gathering.  With his blessing, Adrian allowed me to take over the Open Meet and turn it into what you see today.

   Okay... enough of the history lesson.


   Games played this month were the following: Defiant Russia (classic wargame), Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (pen & paper role-playing game), Exalted (pen & paper role-playing game), Hoax (boardgame), Luxor (boardgame), Carcassone ("boardgame"), Betrayal at House on the Hill (boardgame), Dungeon Twister (boardgame), Shadows over Camelot (boardgame), Bang! (party cardgame), Backgammon (classic boardgame), Go Fish! (classic cardgame), Ingenious (boardgame), Munchkin Bites (party cardgame), Gimme the Brain! (party cardgame), Family Business (party cardgame), & Formula Dé (boardgame).


   Many thanks to the Fandom peeps for passing by and bringing their friends along.  We hope that they had enjoyed themselves and would show up on the next OGMs.

   Welcome to the other group that played D&D, been a long time since we saw Marc Reyes and good to see he's still active in the RPG scene.  Good news to both RPG groups, we'll be reserving the second cabana next month so there'll be more space for RPG-ing!

   Nice to see all the regulars as well, and thank you for mingling with the new people and playing with them.

   My apologies to Rolf for having him break down the Heroscape map with haste.  I hope someone took a pic of it though, since it looked really nice with a flying bridge, caves, and waterfall to boot!

   Apologies also to Martin for not being able to explain the Munchkin game better.  Hopefully you were able to pick up the game and its nuances as it progressed.  Speaking of which, is Catherine still THE MunchKing (or MunchQueen in this case)?


Darth V
"Happy at attending an OGM even if he didn't get to play much"

[Earl]

Catherine and I got in a bit late because we squeezed in a game of runebound: sands of al khalim with her brother at home.

We were surprised that the cabana was full when we got there around 5pm. Several laptops were set up on the tables near the doors that i actually thought that they were playing LAN games on their computers but it turned out that it was DnD. I guess gone are the days of paper and pen since the last RPG game I played was 2.0.

The first game we tried was Luxor by Ravensburger. It was a fast game of tile matching to get the highest points. We then played Shadows over Camelot with me as the traitor. I could have won the game but, for me, the challenge was winning the game without being detected. A lucky and timely reshuffle of the black deck saved most of the characters from death because mostly everyone had 1 life and I put the card that makes everyone lose a life. So close to victory.

We then played Munchkin Bites but time caught on to us. There was some question about the number of cards you could put down because Nicky looked like he had half of the deck in front of him which seemed cheezy. The original Munchkin game , IMHO, is more balanced and therefore more fun.

Thank you to all the organizers, helpers and participants of the OGM. It is always something to look forward to. We truly appreciate it.

Hope to see you all on June 14 at GameCrab.

Take care and God bless you more.

[Adam]

One of the reasons for the laptops amongst the D&D GMs is that currently the books are only available in PDF format. I'm sure you'll see the typical stacks of books and paper more once it's available.

[tobie]

I want to extend my thanks to Sam and Adrian for suggesting I try Luxor.  I brought my deaf friend Jeff to the OGM and was a bit worried what games he could easily learn

Luxor turned out to be it.

We played at least four games sessions with a mix of people and had a lot of fun.

There was a group later with Gigi, Pao and others who got Jeff to also try Carcassone!  So once again, thank you so much for helping my friend learn the rules and have fun!

I decided not to run my RPG this month due to the noise factor of having two games already running.

Next month, however, I got plans to run nWOD games.
So here's to then!

[Exemplar]

I didn't know it was the 3rd anniversary. Happy 3rd anniversary to the OGM ^_^

I'd just like to add one other game to the list. Me and my friends were able to try out Exalted during the event. It was pretty fun, and I like the bonuses you get just for getting creative. The combat takes a little too long, but otherwise, I enjoyed the game

[Victor Kh'BaHzur]

   The anniversary was pretty low key.


   I didn't notice an Exalted game on that day, but then again, my memory is not exactly trust-worthy.   Will add it to the list then.


Darth V
"I game, therefore I am..."

[Superman X]

I would personally like to thank Mr. Victor for introducing me and my pal Carlo (Kuroshin) to Risk Express. It was really a fun game!

Although it's kinda sad that I didn't get to stay because I have to deal some issues in SM Megamall (all in a limited time frame), but I hope to get to know you guys more at the next OGM. 

[Victor Kh'BaHzur]

This happened during the July OGM, not the June OGM, dear readers...

   I'm glad that you had enjoyed yourself, and I believe one of you played Cach & Guns as well?


Darth V
"Likes to BANG! people... "