May 23-26, 2003
BabyCon X
Friday through Monday, Memorial Day Weekend
Attending: Bob, Carol, Rachel J, Paul, Kim, Jeff, Zoe, Brady, Marvin, Glenn, Steve, Dan K, Rachel S, Joe, Karen, Bill, Stephanie R, Alex, Jason, Royal, Stephanie W, Ken, Eric, John
Babycon X was held over Memorial Day Weekend, May 23 to May 26, 2003, at the Jones house in Germantown, Maryland. We had a huge turnout, with 25 players and a host of children in attendance. Every year someone comes to Babycon for the first time and this year was no exception. John Weber, a coworker of mine and an active organizer in the Games Club of Maryland, came to play on Saturday and Sunday. John introduced our group to several new games, including Emerald and Traumfabrik. For that, we are very grateful.
Special thanks go out to Kimberly Stern and Royal and Stephanie White. They worked hard to produce Babycon X souvenirs, including t-shirts and scrapbooks filled with color photos of everyone who has attended Babycon, nicknames, quotes, favorite games, and a host of statistics from Babycons 1-9. Many people bought a t-shirt and each person attending was given a scrapbook.
We started early this year, at 1PM on Friday, to get in another five hours of gaming. On Friday evening, we dined at a local Mexican restaurant, Mi Rancho, and returned for a packed weekend of gaming.
Since this was the tenth Babycon, we had several special events to commemorate the occasion. The biggest event was a huge Epic Duels tournament with eight teams of three players each. We also ran full group games throughout the weekend. More on all of this later.
As usual, each person started out with 15 unique Babycon Bucks one of which was antied at the start of every game. At the end of the weekend, those with the most Bucks were Paul Czarnota and myself, Alex Ruvinsky and Steve Bramer. See the Master Tote Board for full results.
Some weeks ago, Joe Bloch set up a Babycon group at Yahoo! We sent out invitations to join but I’m not sure they all got through. The group is a place to share information and Babycon news. If you haven’t yet, check it out here. We’ve posted many Babycon X pictures there in their full glory.
My thanks to everyone who attended. After the huge preparations for Babycon X, we’re making Babycon 11 a much more low-key, informal affair. We hope everyone can make it.
Bob Jones
Epic Duels Tournament
| The most successful event of the weekend was the Epic Duels Team Tournament. Eight teams of three players each fought it out over two days in a single elimination tournament. At the start of each match, the teams were randomally assigned either to dark or light side (of the Force, of course) and were given some time to pick their characters. Battle was then joined in a fight to the death! The prize? Bragging rights, plus a custom made Yoda Trophy for each member of the winning team. |  |
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Special thanks go to Brady Severns whose unique contributions made this event especially unusual and interesting. Brady enlarged the Epic Duels boards to accommodate the 3" Star Wars action figures. Using the huge boards with the large figures added a great deal to the game. Also thanks to Jeff Spencer for bringing many of his Star Wars figures to round out the character ranks. |
One testament to the success of the tournament, after numerous games over many hours, several people continued to play Epic Duels. Many players playtested Brady’s custom-made decks and figures which included Star Wars characters not included in the official game!
The teams were:
| Kaptain Kuhlgai and his Screaming Commandos | Hawks | |
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| Flying Garbanzos | 3 Losers | |
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| Team Skywalker | 2 Rachels and 1 Steffi | |
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| The Evil Women | Tez Team | |
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Haggle
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Haggle was the big game for the weekend, starting on Friday night after dinner and running until Sunday at noon. In Haggle, each player started with 10 randomly distributed “treasures”, plastic pieces (pineapples, trees, shells, fish) and glass stones of various colors. At the end of the game, the treasures were valued following a set of 25 rules. In addition to the ten treasures, each player started out with two of the rules. The goal of the game is to trade rules and treasures, figuring out the value of each treasure, and turn in the set of treasures worth the highest value. While not everyone participated, many players engaged in active trading of both rules and treasures. Jeff Spencer, Zoe Spencer, and Rachel Jones worked together to gather as many rules as they could. Dan Korn began spreading false rules around to throw other players off the track. In the end, Royal White turned in the highest valued set for the win. |
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Haggle Scores:
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The 25 Valuation Rules for Haggle
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| Tote Board | ||
| Acquire | Steve, Joe, Glenn, Ken | |
| Adel Verpflichtet | Bob, Ken, Rachel J, Jason, John | |
| Adel Verpflichtet | Brady, Marvin, Bob, Jason, Zoe | |
| Epic Duels | Alex, Kimberly | |
| Epic Duels | Alex, Kimberly | |
| Epic Duels | Stephanie W, Brady | |
| Epic Duels | Stephanie W, Brady | |
| Epic Duels | Marvin, Ken | |
| Epic Duels | Marvin, Ken | |
| Amun-Re | Jeff, Glenn, Eric, Bob, Carol | |
| Amun-Re | Dan K, Eric, Bill, John | |
| Babel | Marvin, Royal | |
| Battle Cry | Brady, Glenn | |
| Bohnanza | Paul, Joe, Karen, Dan K, Brady, Rachel S, Kimberly | |
| Carcassonne | Paul, Brady, Zoe, Kimberly | |
| Cartagena | Paul, Rachel J, Brady, Rachel S, Zoe, Kimberly | |
| Cartagena | Alex, Rachel J, Dan K, Stephanie R | |
| Cartagena | Paul, Bill, Jason | |
| Cartagena | Paul, Bill | |
| Cave Troll | Carol, Jeff, Kimberly | |
| Chess | Paul, Bill | |
| Citadels | Dan K, Karen, Paul, Eric, Bill, John | |
| Daytona 500 | Glenn, Steve, Eric, Jason | |
| Delta V | Dan K, Ken | |
| Delta V | Dan K, Bob, Rachel S, Jeff | |
| Dragon Delta | Jeff, Joe, Rachel J, Zoe | |