I Bring Home a Toga Clad Wil Wheaton

I love that spring abounds with geeky fun (although record store day is probably more hipster fun...) and this year the geektivities started with International Table Top Day.

If you are not familiar with Table Top, it is a web show hosted by Wil Wheaton (Star Trek TNG, Stand By Me, Eureka, Big Bang Theory). On the show Wil plays board games with his friends. The show is both entertaining and informative. It's a way to preview some pretty cool board games and learn how to play them (some games can be complex so watching someone play them first can be very helpful). Once a year Table Top declares one Saturday in spring as International Table Top Day; a day for everyone around the world to get together and play board games.

Like last year, I celebrated Table Top Day at All Things Fun in Berlin NJ.

Lots of people were there getting their game on.

I met John and his son Shawn. Since I came to the event solo, they were nice enough to let me play games with them.  The first game I played was Koryo.

Koryo is a card game. A card game set in a Steampunk universe with awesome Steampunk card art.  The directions made the game seem a bit confusing, but like a lot of games, once we started playing we got the hang of it.  To put it in the simplest terms, each card has a character that has a specific job. Your goal is to be the person at the end of the game with the most points and you can achieve the most points by having the majority of characters who have the same job (like having the most bankers or ship builders. There are other cards that let you trade cards with other players, ones that protect you from other players stealing your cards, and tokens you can earn, but that's probably too much to go into at the moment). The game is played in eight rounds. With each round you get a brand new hand of cards (the amount of cards diminishes with each round) then you must pick cards to play. It's the kind of game where you won't necessarily know who is going to win until the final round. It was a cool game that I may end up buying at some point. The only downside is that it is only for 2-4 players. Usually when we get together with friends to play games there are at least 6 of us.

The second game I played was Love Letters.

This was also a card game. The cards are numbered and the point of the game is to be the last man standing with the highest numbered card. You start the game with just one card. With each turn you draw one card and then you must play one of your two cards. Each card is an action. The guard allows you to guess another player's card. One of the cards allows you to see another player's card, while another when played, causes another player to discard their card. This was a great for everyone game. It was fun, it moved quickly and it was easy. It would also make a good first warm-up game to play before you move onto something more complicated.  Like Koryo, the only downside is that it is a 2-4 player game.

Since I played two games at the event, I got two tickets to place into the awesome cups of winning.

All of the exclusive Table Top Day swag was placed into prize bundles. I have only played the game 7 Wonders once, but my husband plays it all of the time with his guys group, so when I saw the special Wil Wheaton 7 Wonders card, I knew I had to try winning it. I hedged my bets by placing a ticket into two different cups that contained the card in their bundles. After placing my tickets and crossing my fingers, I had to jet off to a surprise party, so I didn't get the chance the play more games.

I was super excited when I checked my messages in the evening and found out that I had won both prize bundles!  Here is all of my sweet Table Top Day swag.

If I had time to check out any more games during the event, I would have tried Roll For It, so I was happy that I got a mini version to try out at home.  I was also glad that I got two 7 Wonders cards. That way we can have one to play with and another to put away for the next time Wil Wheaton graces us with his presence at a future East Coast Con. I won special cards for a few other games.One was Fluxx, which we own (several versions), so that means I need to buy a tye-dyed shirt (per the card), and Unspeakable Words, which we talked about getting, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

All Things Fun did a great job hosting the event. I look forward to next year's Table Top Day where I'm sure there will be a whole new exciting group of games to check out.

Here is the gang on Table Top playing Unspeakable Words

Additional Comments-
If they weren't scheduled on the same day, and relatively at the same time, I would have also liked to have checked out the first ever Camden Comic Con at Rutgers University. If you are curious about how that event went, you should check out the GAR podcast.


Upcoming fun-

April 19th- Record Store Day-it's a day to go out and support your local music store by buying some music from them. We'll be celebrating Record Store Day at Main Street Music in Manayunk. (they have a great sale and at least last year, they had some free grub too)

May 3rd-Free Comic Book Day-a day to drop by your local comic book shop and get some comics gratis-. All Things Fun also hosts Free Comic Book Day so make sure you stop in and get your comic books