July Game-a-thon

The SWA sponsors eleven one-day Game-a-thons each year. We schedule these every month (January through September, November and December). October is reserved for Council of Five Nations. We usually shoot for the second Saturday of the month, but we're flexible in consideration of Studio availability and other regional conventions. We generally have 6-10 events, scheduled into two time slots (11am-4pm, 5pm-10pm+). We can easily accomodate games that run longer than a five-hour slot. You only pay for the games you play in. No registrations fees at the door, and no badges. GMs don't pay, and they play for free in the session they're not running.

Our next scheduled Game-a-thon is Saturday, July 19, 2008.
Here are the details.

The Wastelands are no picnic. They are dangerous and own their reputation. The advance of strange growth spurts in the plant life recently has caused some hope, but it must be considered cautiously. Dust devils and electrical storms still ravage the land and there seems to be no pattern to the new life emerging.
The seers and tellers are proclaiming a time of great hardship ahead. One such seer has called for an expedition to the Wastelands. He says that there is an event in progress that will determine the fate for the entire 18. He wants you investigate his visions and, if necessary, ensure that they never come to pass. He has asked that you leave within the day. The pay is 10,000gp each, if you return.
More information at http://www.firstduty.com/add/league/events.php.
This event will follow the guidelines for the FCS Gaming League. It is rated at Novice level and players may bring their pre-generated teams. If you are new to Edition 3.5, we will review the rules as we go. You DO NOT need to be a member of the FCS Gaming League to participate in this event.
what2bring: New players should bring an 11th level character.

Players are shipwrecked mercenary captains on an uncharted island. The inhabitants are a suspiciously friendly mix of Humans, Dwarves, Elves and Halflings. Very odd, especially for a warhammer world. Happily there seems to be a demand for mercenary captains, giving the players a chance to build up warbands and strike out for gold and glory.
The game is a series of fast miniature battles, between which players build up their mercenary companies and engage in some roleplaying. Up to four players are captains, the remainder command a variety of monstrous opponents.
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Mordheim which includes reviews, pictures, playing aids and links.

The dark lords are gathering, ancient powers are awakening, and a chill has fallen across the land. It is a time of danger and rising evil. It is a time of fear for the weak and powerless. It is a time of heroes willing to face the darkness and bring the light of hope to a realm covered in shadow.
The world of Runebound is a magical, dangerous world of powerful wizards, noble knights, vicious monsters, and power-mad tyrants. It is a world of great quests and mighty deeds. Above all, it is a world of legendary heroes, and the time has come for you to join them.
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Runebound which includes reviews, pictures, playing aids and links.

I am cheaply stealing a game mechanic or two from a popular PC RTS game to generate a scenario and add a little flair to a Battleground Fantasy Warfare game. Players start with smaller armies, nd maneuver for control of strategic areas on the board. Control of these areas yield points which can be spent on certain abilities as well as summoning reinforcements. The winner is to be decided by which team controls the most strategic areas when the session ends.
Battleground: Fantasy Warfare is a point-based table-top tactical wargame in which units are represented by cards instead of a collection of figures or models.
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Battleground: Fantasy Warfare which includes reviews, pictures, player aids, rules, etc..

Wizard Kings is an exciting fantasy battle game with armies of elves, dwarves, orcs, undead, and three human armies (feudal, barbarian, amazon). Players customize their armies and fight for control of strategic cities and terrain on geomorphic maps. Wizard Kings can play in as little as one hour or be used as part of a miniatures campaign for months. Victory conditions vary with the many possible scenarios.
Scenario will depend on number of players.
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Wizard Kings which includes reviews, pictures, player aids, rules, etc..

Both of these are among the top 10 ranked games of BoardGameGeek!
Tigris & Euphrates The game is set in the ancient fertile crescent with players building civilizations through tile placement. Players are given four different leaders: farming, trading, religion, and government. The leaders are used to collect victory points in these same categories. However, your score at the end of the game is the number of points in your weakest category, which encourages players not to get overly specialized.
Princes of Florence involves developing medieval and renaissance cities to attract various professions ( such as astronomers, organists and architects.), which enriches the cities culturally. Each player is given a city grid and reference chart and attempts to gain the most victory points after seven rounds. Scoring victory points can be done in a variety of ways although most will be earned by playing profession cards to generate work points.
Follow these links to the BoardGameGeek entry for Tigris & Euphrates and the BoardGameGeek entry for Princes of Florence which includes reviews, pictures, player aids, rules and links to the publisher pages for the games.
This Double Feature will be a play of each game back-to-back in the same slot for a single session fee.

Location

As usual, this Game-a-thon will be held at the Studio of Bridge and Games, in Schenectady, NY. If you need directions, you can click here, or send an email to: mailto:directions@swa-gaming.org An automatic reply will immediately be sent to you with detailed directions.

The number at the Studio is: (518) 346-3773

Session Fees

Show up and play one game session = $4.00

Show up and play both game sessions = $6.00

GMs play all day for free.

Full-time students get in for free. For our purposes, "full-time students" are people in Kindergarten through college. Our intent here is to help allow younger games/"new blood" to participate at SWA events, and the gaming hobby in general.
The student discount does not cover working adults who happen to be taking a Continuing Education class. Please help us fulfill the spirit and intent of this policy.

Registration

Our Game-a-thons have generally been pretty casual events; people stroll in and sign up for the event of their choice on-the-spot. Lately, however, attendance has been increasing and more events are filling to maximum and beyond.

If you would like to greatly increase your chance of getting into the game of your choice, you can now formally pre-register online. Payments will be handled through PayPal. If you do not have a PayPal account, you can still pay with your credit card.

Online pre-registration is not required. You can still just stroll in and get into a game. But pre-registering is now an option for those who want to take advantage of it.

Follow this link to go to the online registration page. We'll sign you up, but your spot's not guaranteed until we get your payment.

Swap Meet Tables

If you've got merchandise you'd like to sell, please consider renting a table or three at our Game-a-thon.

This is meant to be more of a Swap Meet / Garage Sale atmosphere, and not really intended for full merchant setups.

Each attendee can rent a maximum of three tables. The first costs $2, two cost $10, and three cost $20. As you can see, the price structure encourages individuals to rent few tables. We will have a maximum of eight tables available at each Game-a-thon.

Each table is (2.5' x 2.5'); a standard card table. Some of them are kinda old and thus not very sturdy. Please keep this in mind when planning what you'll bring for sale.

You can reserve your table(s) ahead of time by using the online registration form. You will see the prices repeated there. Please list your table request in the 'Comments' field. Please also note that you have to pay the Game-a-thon registration in addition to the table rental fee.

You can also rent tables on a walk-in basis, but please remember we'll have no more than eight available for the day; first come, first served.

We suggest that you use our Forum discussion boards to announce what you will/might bring. We suggest posting in the "What's happening this week" category where the Game-a-thons are announced.

(Here's our secret agenda... Not only do we want to help you get rid of gaming stuff you're not using, but we'd also like to see this generate some more walk-in traffic.)

Questions or Comments?

Events at Future Game-a-thons

If you'd like to run a game at a future Game-a-thon, please click here to submit your event online.

You can also email us at your convenience.

You can even call Bill and tell him about your event over the phone - we're flexible!

If you'd like to see a particular game run at a future event, let us know by filling in a Game Request Form here.