Origins 2011 Report

As some of you may know, I made the trip to the Origins game show in Columbus, OH this past weekend. Here's some quick bullet points and thoughts on the show:

• The Dealer's hall was pretty awesome. Not nearly as many RPG vendors as in years past, but lots of small miniature companies. I was particularly impressed with the offerings from Acheson Creations. Their resin buildings and some of their 28mm sci-fi offerings are great, but what really shines is their selection of metal and resin prehistoric animals.
• I used some of my mercenary painting money to pick up a lot of odds and ends, and some new stuff. I was able to get Mayfair Games classic Chill RPG, the Chill Companion, GM Screen, and a SAVE sourcebook for $25! All were new, if a bit worn from sitting on shelves for 15 years. Maybe I will run a Chill game for this Halloween season? Not sure.
• Also bought the Arcanis RPG from Paradigm. This is a non-D20, original system with tons of bells and whistles. The level of setting detail and the cosmology rivals Glorantha! Look for my review next week on Play Unplugged.
• My buddy Damian scored big for me in my quest for decks from ICE's old Middle Earth: The Wizards CCG. This is one of my favorite "dead" CCG's and I now have plenty of options to play some games.
• I ran my Blasters & Bulkheads demo/playtest for two great guys, Dan and Michael. Thanks for playing, guys! I picked up a few tidbits and made some tweaks. I'll be updating the playtest doc this week.
• We played On the Edge almost every night! My favorite dead CCG lives on at Origins, and boxes of boosters could be had at the show for $5! Can't beat that!

I hope to have some shots from the B&B playtest later this week.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott