The Night before Gathering of Friends 2014

I realize it sounds like bragging whenever I mention the Gathering of Friends (GoF) to my friends or family. I don't apologize. It is one of the great highlights of my year. If I could I would invite all my friends to come along. However, I can't. Last year was my first chance to experience this glorious gamer geekdom, and it lived up to the hype.

Alan Moon & Me (chess board made by Stephen Sauer)

For anyone unaware what the Gathering of Friends is, the event is an invite-only board game convention hosted by Alan Moon (designer of numerous amazing games, best know for Ticket to Ride). The event includes about 400 people from around the world. I believe we have about 15 countries represented + about 40 States/Provinces represented from US/Canada (and with almost 30 different publishers in attendance too). The event started tonight and continues for the next 11 days. I plan to arrive tomorrow.

So tonight is my christmas eve. I am scrambling to get all ready for my board game Christmas. I just gave myself a christmas shave (I decided to go with a Mennonite beard to represent my region). I will struggle to fall asleep tonight, thinking about all the excitement of tomorrow, and when tomorrow finally arrives, it will be filled with quality time with my gamer extended family, opening lots of colourful boxes and playing with new toys.

I will do my best to share some pictures and/or stories of upcoming games I see at GoF. Last year I managed to see at least a dozen games that were unreleased. I will hopefully discover some gems to highlight.

Also, I have 4 prototypes I will be shopping around to publishers (working titles: Caffeine Rush, Ninth Inning, Hex & Ladders, and Shopping Cart). Additionally, I will be representing 2 games from fellow Game Artisans of Canada (working titles: Slither by Micah Fuller, Birds of a Feather by Stefan Alexander). I will do my best to keep people posted about who I pitch to and how they went.

Furthermore, I will be showing my game The Walled City by Mercury Games, around at the Gathering. Really excited to show the game around to a few people. Sorry but I can't leak too much details about my game yet, but stay tuned! The one thing I can say, because it already was mentioned on BGG News (so cool!) is Josh Cappel is the artist for The Walled City! Anyone who knows his work (Pandemic, 1960, Belfort, Endeavor, Garden Dice, Kings of Air & Steam, New Amsterdam, etc) will understand why I am so excited about this. And also I am proud to call him my friend. So double win!

Game Artisan of Canada - amazing board game designers + me

And I will be hanging with a bunch of amazing game designers so I will get to play test some great prototypes too!

Alan Moon Interview

Last April I had the joy of finally meeting one of my board game design hero's. The real treat was finding out he is also a great person. Alan Moon (designer of Ticket to Ride) really left an impression on me. He was always smiling. He was not only hospitable, but seemed to really take an interest in everyone attending the Gathering of Friends. The interview you find below was captured during my time at the Gathering of Friends. It was filmed by Douglas Morse, as part of his documentary "Adventures On The Tabletop". Im not sure if it will be included as an extra feature, but I recommend if you enjoy the videoclip, be sure to purchase the movie when it is released.

Adventures on the Tabletop

Only 3 days left! If you havent heard already, an upcoming Board Game documentary is on Kickstarter. But only 3 days left to help this project be even better. I highly recommend you help sponsor this project by signing on to Kickstarter and finding a funding level that interest you. If you like board games, you are going to want to see this movie.

The film maker is Douglas Morse. I had the pleasure meeting him at the Gathering of Friends a couple months ago. Doug's goal with this movie is to make a film for board game fans, that helps pull back the curtain on the whole board game design/publishing process, and let everyone see the adventure games go through to get to our tables.

I am a little bias, as I might be featured in the film, but even beyond that, I am very confident the content in this film will be amazing. Some of the exclusive and candid interviews Doug Morse has been able to attain are priceless. The chance to hear from legendary board game designers like Alan Moon, and significant publishers in the industry like Hans Im Gluck, is incredible rare and will be very entertaining. We are talking about people who love and make games. Of course they are fun people.

So check out the preview below, and please consider supporting this project. Also, please go out of your way and recommend this project to a few people you know who might be interested in the film. At the very least you will earn some bonus points with your friends & family that you recommend this to them, because it shows you were thinking of them.

-- Daryl Andrews

(PS - you can see me at 0:48 & 2:25 in the preview)

Gathering of Friends 2013

Wow - one more day until I (Daryl Andrews) attend the "Gathering of Friends", an invite-only 9 day board game event hosted by Alan Moon (board game designer of great titles like: Ticket to Ride, San Marco, Elfenland, Union Pacific, and many more). I feel so honoured and excited to attend. Looking forward to meeting lots of great people and playing amazing games.

Many of my favourite designers will be in attendance like: Alan Moon, Vlaada Chvatil, Tom Lehmann, Christian Leonhard, Kevin Nunn, Ted Alspach, Dominic Crapuchettes, Mike Gray, Andrew Parks, Chris Handy, Dale Yu, and many more. And of course I got to mention my fellow Game Artisans of Canada designers who will be attending (also many are my fav designers too): Jay Cormier, Sen Foong Lim, Josh Cappel, Rob Bartel, Catrin Berghoff, Gavan Brown, Martin Ethier, Gord Hamilton, Mike Kollross, Al Leduc, Jasen Robillard, Roberta Taylor, Matt Tolman, Michael Xuereb (hope I'm not missing anyone).

Plus other board game legends like Scott Nicholson (Board Games with Scott), Zev Shlasinger (Z-Man), and Scott Alden (co-founder of BoardGameGeek) will be in attendance. And many publishers will be in attendance including: Stronghold, Asmodee, Repo Productions, Filosofia, FRED/Eagle, Rio Grande, Hans In Gleuck, Abacus, Czech Games, Mattel, North Star, Toy Vault, R&R, Mercury Games, Grey Ghost Press, Eggertspiele, Academy, Valley, 2F, Hasbro, Z-Man, ThinkFun, Ascora, etc.

So any photos of upcoming games I can share (with their permission) I will to post on here. Also, you can follow me on Twitter @darylmandrews (+ Instagram too).  Also, I hope to find a publisher who is as excited about Londonderry as I am (it's the game I co-designed with 

Stephen Sauer). Thanks to everyone who has playtested and helped with the design. You can see our sell sheet below (front and back):

A New Kid on the Block

I want to start off by introducing myself. My name is Daryl Andrews, and I will be joining the Death of Monopoly writing team. I recently moved into the KW area, and met Eric through some mutual board gaming friends. I am exciting about the opportunity to write about great board games and events. Please check in often, share with your friends, and leave lots of comments.

Yesterday, I received an email from one of my board game heroes. I got an email from Alan Moon. Eric & I are both big fans of Mr. Moon. He is the designer of great games like: Ticket to Ride, San Marco, Airlines Europe, Oasis, Skyline 3000, and many many more great games. The email I received included access to an annual invitation-only gaming event hosted by Alan Moon. The event started about 20 years ago, and continues to this day. The Gathering of Friends started with only a handful of guests, but now includes over 300 of the top designers, publishers, and reviewers from around the world. I have heard many prototypes & early copies of games (before they are released to the public) are tested at the event. I am honoured to be invited, and look forward to the opportunity to play many games. Also, pending permission from designers, I hope to share some sneak peeks on yet-to-be-released games. However, the event is not until April 12-21, 2013. So meanwhile, I wait...

You tell me: favourite game designers...

Managed to play a game of the new Ticket To Ride: Asia team expansion last night and loved it.  My favourite series of games now has an option for clever partnership play and it felt quite rewarding when you worked together with someone to complete a ticket.  I am reminded again and again of how much I enjoy Alan R. Moon games, whether it be a game in the TTR series, the lovely Elfenland, the interactive and nasty Oasis, or the brilliant and under-rated card game Gloria Picktoria.  He is the tops for me right now with Knizia, Sackson, Friese, Kramer, and Wallace following not far behind.

Who is your favourite game designer and why?

The reviews for Airlines Europe are starting to land...

...and it's looking really good!!!!