For a few years now the American Library Association has put together a huge gaming event called International Games Week. The idea is simple. Get people to play games and use the local library as a great community space to do it! This year, Fireside Games is going to be participating here in our great town of Austin.
The event runs from November 4th through the 10th, but Justin and Anne-Marie will be spending this Saturday, November 10th at the Austin Central Library (the one with the 37 foot tall Grackle inspired sculpture!) running free demos of a bunch of games.
The Library is at 710 W. César Chávez St. and the gaming will be all the way up on the 6th floor. The event goes from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and our friends from Steve Jackson Games will be there as well, so there’s really no reason not to come join the fun.
If you’re looking for an event in your neck of the woods, check out the ALA’s website, where they have information about all the goings on. In addition, here’s a great map that shows all the libraries around the world that will be participating in IGW!
Can’t make it out to a library, or there isn’t an event near you? Not to worry. ALA has you covered with an entire page full of links to FREE Print-and-play games! Give your printer and your scissors a workout and you can get in on the fun as well.
No matter how you celebrate it, we hope you have a great time spreading the awesomeness that is board gaming during International Games Week!
Last weekend was Wizard World Comic Con Austin, and it was a great show!
We arrived on Thursday to set up our booth and were immediately put in a good mood. The Austin Convention Center is what’s known as a “Drive-On” show, which means they allow vendors to drive their vehicles right onto the show floor to load and unload. Since we usually have to transport all of our booth materials into a show from parking lots that are far away, we really appreciate this. Boy does being able to park the van right next to the booth make setup easy!
The show started on Friday afternoon, and we immediately got to work showing people all the fun to be had with cats, airships, and spaceships. Comic Cons are known for lots of amazing costumes, cosplay, and crazy creatures, and Austin was no exception. The aisles were filled with bow-tied Doctors, Harley Quinns, Stormtroopers, and more. We managed to grab a few photos of some of our favorites, including this amazing rendition of Khan.
See more at http://bit.ly/2d4tefv
We also fell in love with/were terrified by this father and son Predator duo.
Did you notice what he’s holding?
Of course, another big draw to a Comic Con is the chance to meet all sorts of celebrities from movies, TV, books, and all corners of the geek universe. This show featured Sebastian Shaw (The Winter Solider), Bruce Campbell, and tons of other famous faces. We’ll admit you don’t get into the board game hobby without being a bit of a geek yourself, and we weren’t going to miss the opportunity to meet some of our favorites. Since we just happened to have Star Trek Panic with us, and William Shatner was at the show (coincidence?), we had to get a photo taken of all of us.
He was super nice, and it was great to meet the man behind the Captain in person after all these years!
He even autographed a copy of the game.
There were two more guests that I was especially excited to see. If you saw the TableTop episode featuring Castle Panic, you might remember Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt being pretty darn entertaining. Well, they were at the show this weekend, and I can confirm that they are also pretty darn nice people! Not only did they happily sign my copy of Castle Panic, but we chatted for a few minutes. I learned they still play the game at home, and I even got to hug Yuri. It was pretty awesome!
I now have signatures from 3 of the 4 players on the Castle Panic TableTop episode on 1 cover. All I need is Andre the Black Nerd, and I’ll have the complete set!
I took a side trip to get my album cover to the original Flash Gordon soundtrack signed by Flash Gordon himself, Sam Jones! Hey, it can’t ALL be about work, right?
It turns out that we even made a (very) short appearance on the local morning news show when they did a feature on the convention. How cool is that?!
We met tons of great people at the show and had a blast introducing people to our hobby. If it sounds like something you’d like to experience for yourself, there is probably a Comic Con coming to a city near you. Check out their complete schedule here, and let your geek flag fly. Trust us, it’s worth it!
Game for the Cause is an Austin, TX based gaming convention that donates ALL of its proceeds to SafePlace, an organization that works to end domestic violence. Fireside Games is proud to support this fantastic group of people in their mission. The Austin chapter is having their annual convention this weekend and we encourage you to attend, play some games, and help support a worthy cause.
Who: Austin chapter of Game for the Cause What: $20 at the door get you access to open boardgaming, silent auction, and gaming events where all money raised goes directly to SafePlace When: October 16, 5pm–midnight and October 17th, 9am–midnight Where: Parker Lane UMC, 2105 Parker Lane, Austin, TX 78741 Why: Have a good time playing games while raising awareness and funds for SafePlace which strives to end sexual and domestic violence. Website:http://gameforthecause.com/
We are so grateful the gaming community at large is such a caring group of people who regularly use their shared love of games to raise awareness for social causes and help support their communities through charity events like this. However you choose to give back, we thank you! Stay Awesome and Game On!
It’s official, The Dark Titan is now available everywhere! Last Saturday, we headed out to local Austin store, Wonko’s to celebrate the release of this highly-anticipated expansion to Castle Panic.
We started up our first few games and then took a brief break to slice up another one of our now famous cakes! Jarred once again went above and beyond by creating a fabulous cake featuring the Dark Titan himself, Agranok, looming out of a Castle-shaped base. Agranok was chocolate-covered Rice Krispies, and the cake was chocolate with cherry filling. The towers were ice cream cones filled with cake, so the entire thing was edible. To top it off, Jarred placed two small containers in the cake that when filled with dry ice and water caused spooky smoke to flow out over the Castle, just like the cover of the game!
After being devoured in his delicious cake form, the Dark Titan came back for revenge in board game form! Game after game saw walls crushed and towers destroyed as players felt the wrath of Agranok!
Agranok was defeated in our first game and the Castle survived, but our next game wouldn’t fare so well. Once again our villain showed no mercy to children, as these excited young gamers were about to find out when he made his way into their Castle along with a few Heralds for backup.
As the afternoon went on, we started up new games to let players try their hand at the new expansion. Here, Anne-Marie gets a family up to speed before they dive in.
In between games, Justin and Anne-Marie signed copies of the base game as well as both expansions. Wonko’s could barely keep up with demand as they sold out of The Wizard’s Tower and The Dark Titan was flying off the shelf! The day ended with many happy gamers going home with new games, promo cards, happy memories, and bellies full of cake. We wish all our fans out there the best of luck in taking on this newest challenge. Here’s to many more successful battles and saved Castles!
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