Game On Expo 2018: Games and an RPG adventure

This past weekend, I was at the Game On Expo in downtown Phoenix at the convention center. Game On Expo is a large gaming convention that covers all types of gaming — from video games to arcades, to RPGs and board games.

The convention took place from Aug. 10-12, and among the big guests are voice actors from popular video games such as Overwatch and The Walking Dead series. There were guest panels, signings, a vendor hall, vintage arcade games and even a cosplay contest.

Attendees were also able to listen to music each night. I caught this band called Sergio and the Holograms, which literally was a dude and holograms of himself playing music. That’s actually kind of a brilliant idea, if you know how to play all the instruments!

I also attended a panel hosted by voice actor Troy Baker. He told a story about how he initially rejected a gig to voice the Joker because he didn’t think he was good enough. The head of the video game finally convinced him that he was perfect for the part, and that was huge turning point in his career. The takeaway, he said, was to believe in yourself and don’t let doubt or fear get in the way of that.

Time for some board games

At Game On, the board-game library provided by Arizona Game Fair and Crit Hit organized scheduled board gaming among content creators in the Valley. My buddies GloryHoundd, Greg Dickson, and I were all on the schedule to showcase and teach some of our favorite games to conventiongoers.

GloryHoundd taught me how to play Starship Samurai, an area-control and action-point game. The game comes with these detailed miniatures of all the samurai, which all have different abilities.

For my scheduled demo, I picked Sentient because, in addition to it being my favorite, it’s a crunchy game that can be taught and played in about an hour, perfect for this convention’s atmosphere. There’s no way I’m busting out Lisboa to random passers-by — no matter how much I wanted to! A couple groups walked by looking interested in the game and sat down, so I was able to teach it and spread the love for this excellent, mathy game. Everyone ended up really enjoying, so that was a total win in my book!

A totally new experience

The biggest surprise for me at this convention was that I played an RPG — FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME. Yes, that’s probably a shocker to most of you folks, but I never grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons or anything of the like, and my core gaming group are all eurogamers, so it has NEVER EVER come up ever in any of my game days.

I randomly happened upon this game starting when I saw some friends sitting at a table. I asked them, “what are you guys playing?” Andrew Long of Arizona Game Fair responded, “An RPG.” I’m like, “I’ve never played an RPG before.” And he’s like, “Well, sit right down!” and before I could take off my backpack, a few character sheets were placed in front of me to pick from. I picked The Bard, and the GM, Adam of FullMetalRPG, was super friendly and helped me fill it out, and the game started. FYI, I named my Bard Lisboa. (You can take the lady out of board gaming but you cannot take the board gaming out of the lady.)

I had no idea what to expect! It was like an interactive movie unfolding before my eyes. I kept staring down at my character sheet, trying to figure out all the different things my character could do, and a little freaked out as I had no idea what I should do next. As a true eurogamer at heart, I had to just let go and enjoy the ride on this chaotic adventure. We were playing out of Dungeon Worlds, which a lot of folks on Twitter said was a good one to get into as your first RPG.

One guy, another Andrew, kept randomly setting things on fire. (I think he was a giant lizard, but I wasn’t 100 percent sure). The arson kept angering the fish folk, leaving the Bard unable to use his true skills of conversation to diffuse the situation. One of the guys later was impaled by the giant trident, and in a deal with the God of Death, tried to kill me. The scenario then went downhill after that. I rolled for my last dying breath and was able to also make a pact with the God of Death, survived and took another traveling companion down. It was glorious. And lastly, there was a giant sea creature being ridden like a jet-ski by another character. End scene. It was loads of fun.

Lastly, I’d like to thank Crit Hit for reaching out and having us showcase our favorite games. I had a fun time at Game On Expo and hope to see even more board gaming there next year!