Unpub2: The Games Continue!

Our continuing coverage of the January 14th, 2012 Unpub2 in Dover, Delaware.

Some more of the games that hit the tables…

Clever Mojo Games brought three games from their upcoming catalog to present: Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge Princes of the Dragon Throne and Haathi. Throughout the day they played a couple games of SJVL and one or two games of Princes of the Dragon Throne. I think both games were well received. I’ve played Swinging Jivecat in the past and I really appreciate the game. Seth Roback has created a cute and clever game with some awesome components. I’ve been given a prototype of the game for further playtesting, so expect to hear more. If you’re local enough and didn’t get a chance to play it, but want to, let me know I’ll set something up.

Princes of the Dragon Throne looked MASSIVE! You can tell from the pictures. Despite talking about it and a great desire to try it, I was unable to give a whirl. With all the components and an epic board it drew a lot of eyes. The parts that I watched seemed intense and looked like a good strategic game was being had by all. Still high on my list of games to play. It doesn’t hurt that I know the designer, Fred MacKenzie…but that has only a small part to play in my desire to play a game with cool little dragon meeples!

The third contribution from Clever Mojo Games was Haathi, which didn’t see any actual play at Unpub2. There were two games played after the event. This was the game a lot of people were looking for as it was designed by Bruno Faidutti, Sergi Haliban, & Andre Zatz. I was lucky enough to play this cute little elephant racing game and I had a good time. As with most Clever Mojo Games (it seems) I came in close to first in all the games I played, but I couldn’t eek out a win.  There will be future plays and I’ll speak more about this game in the coming weeks!

One of the more local designers we had was Alex Strang. He brought two games with him: Dungeon Freakout and Escape From Alpha Mega. I was definitely aware that games of Dungeon Freakout were being played, and I’m hoping he got in a game or two of Escape From Alpha Mega. 

Dungeon Freakout involved using toys as pawns. Figures from your child’s toybox or  even from your collectible shelf would be fine. The game has a blend of cooperative and competitive play that players can exploit to their own advantage. It’s a face paced dungeon crawl type card game that people seemed to enjoy. I’m not a dungeon crawl type gamer (do I lose street cred now?,) so I didn’t take as much of an interest in this one apart from the figures. Sorry Alex.

Donald Sauter brought Scrabble II back to the Unpub this year. It was in attendance at Unpub1 and I had a chance to play then. It’s a simple adaptation of the classic Scrabble format that increases the potential for larger words and more “fireworks!” The game goes over well with everyone who plays it and I’m eager to get another stab at doing that some year! Donald is always so gracious and happy to have people play the game and Scrabble II is a great inclusion at any Unpub because it gives people who may be put off by some of the more “unusual” games something familiar to try. Thanks Donald!

We’ll do more thank 6  tomorrow and Thursday. Friday will be our big wrap-up!

Matt Morgan’s MTV Geek Write-Up on UnPub2