Spiel 2014 Part 2

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On Sunday I returned to Spiel 2014 to pick up my copy of Shadows of Brimstone. I located the pick-up point quite fast but underestimated the size of the reward a little bit. So I ended up hauling a big carton box back to the car, minutes after I had entered the building. I then returned to the Flying Frogs booth where I saw Brian Snoddy giving demo’s of the Shadows of Brimstone game. As he was in the middle of a demo I decided to return later on.

Brian Snoddy giving a demo of Shadows of Brimstone at Spiel 2014

Spiel 2014 Shadows of Brimstone kickstarter pick up

I decided to stroll through Hall 2, trying to spot the stalls that had RPG material and soon found myself sifting through box upon box of out of print RPGs with my wishlist in hand. I managed to find Bard’s Gate by Necromancer Games, DCC #1 and 3, and Splintered Peace, an Atlas Games D20 release from their Penumbra series. After that I strolled over to House Artreides to pick up the Cthulhu goodies they had stored away for me and had a quick chat with Karen, who I know from the collector’s forum The Acaeum.

Spiel 2014 Day 2 RPG loot

Spiel 2014 Day 2 RPG loot

I also took a look in Hall 4 where the Machina Arcana booth was located and spent some time talking to designer Juraj Bilic about his game. He told me the game was sold out in Europe and almost sold out in the US too. He was planning a reprint which he wanted to do through kickstarter again. He was also planning some expansions to be added in the new kickstarter, and perhaps even some miniatures.

The Machina Arcana booth at Spiel 2014

Then it was about time for my Glorantha: The Gods War demo so I headed over to Petersen Entertainment and found Sandy’s wife Wendy doing the booth wearing a Cthulhu mask and a local film crew loving it and filming away. 3 more players were quickly found for the game and off we went. I was playing the Chaos faction which it seemed to me is the ‘annoy-the-other-players’ faction which was fine by me. The other factions in the game were the Sun, Storm, and Darkness factions. Expansions are also already in the works with an Earth and Moon faction. Glorantha: The Gods War has a number of similarities to Cthulhu Wars but at first seemed a bit more complicated. Once you get the hang of it though, it comes done to strategy as the different factions each play in a very different way. And don’t worry if you’re not a Glorantha buff, it’s totally not necessary to enjoy this game.

Wendy Petersen running the Cthulhu Wars booth wearing a Cthulhu mask

I spent the first few turns throwing out Chaos nests near the other players’ temples as that gave me extra power. Then I started summoning my Chaos gods and collected several of my Hero Quests. The Sun player tried to make a deal with his girlfriend who was playing the Storm faction in order to release the Sun god from hell. She went along with it until after she had received his reward in the form of extra power, then decided to let the Sun god rot in hell resulting in a chuckle from uncle Sandy. Then the Chaos rift opened sucking in troops from all the players … “except for Chaos”. That was a sentence I heard a lot during Sandy’s explanation of the rules. As Chaos it was of course also my duty to work against the other players in trying to close the rift. Meanwhile my Chaos gods were also destroying temples left and right. The game was cut short as two players had to leave but we got a good feel for the game and it’s very promising in my opinion. The scoreboard were really very close with all four players being within 5 points of each other.

Playing the Chaos faction in Sandy Petersen’s new game Glorantha: The Gods War

A pretty funny conversation happened somewhere during the game:

– Darkness player: I just love Call of Cthulhu so much
– Sandy: I’m glad you like my game
– Darkness player: No no I didn’t mean Cthulhu Wars, I was talking about Call of Cthulhu
– Sandy: *points at his name tag*

Glorantha: The Gods War should be released on kickstarter in March 2015 but it could be bumped back a little as Sandy wants to have Cthulhu Wars shipped to backers prior to starting a new kickstarter.

About half an hour before closing time I headed back to the Flying Frog booth where Brian Snoddy was just finishing a demo so I headed over to say hi. We had a good amount of laughs as we shared stories about the Iron Kingdoms days when he would sneak the Buccaneer Bass logo into the official books, about the times he came to Belgian conventions where we’d hang out and demo the Iron Kingdoms RPG, and so on. It was really great fun hanging out with Brian. We came to the conclusion that it had been ten years since we last saw each other. Damn, we’re getting old. Brian then introduced me to the rest of the Flying Frog gang and invited me to his car where he gave me two signed copies of his new game Dead Fellas.

An awesome ending of Spiel 2014. I’ll be back next year for more.