Origins--four days of GAMES. Four days of Game Tournaments. By Sunday you're a zombie, but Origins only happens once a year. You can play in every game tournament for all the games you can't find opponents locally. if you zoom through the dealer room once a day, you can glance at the new games and figures, grab some new dice on the way to the fast food place and collapse on Sunday night. If this is the way you attend a game convention, you're wasting your time and money. By omitting a tournament or two, you can talk to game designers, see new games demonstrated, find out what's planned for the games you enjoy, or discover what the old game gathering dust in the closet is worth. All for FREE. Yes, I said NO money. Your entry fee gets you more than a program with tournament listings. That program also contains notices of special events, seminars, and demonstrations sponsored by companies and individuals that are either free or only a couple of dollars. This year, the Origins pre-registration booklet, which is not the final listing, contains the following information. Milton Bradley Company will be exhibiting for the first time. There will he generic D & D and Traveller , and an open gaming clearing house. These events let you game, hut they offer no prizes. There's a miniature's painting contest. You can register your auction items ahead of time by mail. There will he a visual dungeon under new management, hut still featuring Grenadier figures. You can play Nova Game Designs Inc.'s Lost World and Dragonriders of Pern while moving about. Those items were in the special events listing and the introduction. Seminars The seminars and demonstrations are listed separately, after the game events. There are seminars being offered on the theory of game design by designers, a slide presentation on Soviet operations by a Marine officer; playing games by mail by several play-by-mail companies; writing for various magazines and companies by their respective editors (of course, GAME NEWS is planning one); role-playing system theories; or just a chance to share your experiences in a serninar entitled, MY Worst Night in RolePlaying. The last is being offered by Tri-Tac Inc. GAME NEWS called some game manufacturers and discovered the following seminars are also planned. Task Force Games plans a scenerio on their History of the Second World War game. Pacesetter Ltd. plans to have Mark Acres available for discussion of their games. Chaosium Inc. is planning four seminars. Pendragon, Ringworld, Call of Cthulhu, and RuneQuest will all he discussed by designers who worked on continuedfrompage28 the games. Steve Jackson Games Inc. is planning to have designers expounding on Car Wars, GURPS, Toon, a play-by-mail venture with Adventure Systems Inc., and the computer version of Car Wars that they are working on with Origin Systems. West End Game Inc.'s designers will be there to talk about Paranoia and Arabian Nights. Victory Games Inc. is also going to have their designers available to answer questions. If you or your group, is having a problem with a particular set of rules, this is the chance to clarify the rule with an authoritative source. Are you curious about the way a game is or isn't balanced? Talk to the designer. Most are eager to explain why they did what they did. The Game Designers Guild is sponsoring seven seminars on topics ranging from Decisive Weapons in Modern Warfare to Why are Play-by-mail Games Boring? The seminars are being coordinated by Greg Costikyan. The panel members are from different game companies and provide a chance to hear designers discuss subjects of interest to all. Demonstrations If you're not overwhelmed, let's look at the demonstrations. Just about every new release will be available for you to play, many companies run games near their booths. It's a reason to walk slowly through the dealers' room and talk to people behind the tables. Besides, FASA Corporation will be selling Klingon and Federation rank insignia patches at their booth. So, take your time in the dealers' room. In addition to the demonstrations listed in the pre-registration booklet, Rafm Company Inc. is planning two miniatures game demo's. They are also offering a $50 gift certificate for best presented miniatures game. (Hmm, it might be a good idea to repaint those tanks in winter camouflage after all.) Steve Jackson Games Inc. announced that the AADA Championships will be decided at Origins. The Avalon Hill Game Company announced that Charles Roberts will be a special guest. How do you find out about the dusty game in the closet? Simple, go to the auction and see what it's selling for. The auctions are not only informative, but also entertaining. The auctioneers will say some very strange things to sell games. So far, all these activities are costing you next to nothing, except time. You will still be a zombie by Sunday night. I never said anything about changing that. Back to Table of Contents -- Game News #5 To Game News List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Dana Lombardy. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com