Highlights from BronyCon 2018: "That Game that Nobody Ever Wins"

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In which a Prance tournament sees a surprising lack of a certain Fiery Secretary, an oddly-shaped building gets discussed, and DarkWind saves the world from being overrun by disease.

Author’s Note:
This is the second of the two Highlights that took place between “Where art thou, Firebrand?” and “FLUTTERBOMB!” If you missed the first Highlight, which I posted two weeks ago, here it is: “Rain, Rain Go Away”.

Unfortunately, as today got more booked than usual (I went to a birthday party after church today), this will be the only Highlight that I’m posting today.

Friday, July 27, 2018: Day 1 of BronyCon

After I finished changing out of my wet clothes and my busted sneakers, I made my way back to the Convention Center. And of course, the rain had settled down for real by this time.

At the Convention Center, I headed to StableTop Games. The Official Prance Tournament was set for 7:30 PM, and I was looking forward to having some fun (and perhaps running across Aramau, the unofficial Queen of Prance after her feats at BABSCon 2018).

Well, the Fiery Secretary was nowhere to be seen, but I came for the games, so play I did. The creator of the game was there, and he explained the rules, and he had also said that the game was for sale at the Vendor Hall, table 314. (Easy as pi to remember! Get it? Pi?)

Everybody was split up into three tables of about six people each, and memory serving, if you lost your cards, you had only one chance to slap back in. If you lost your cards again, or if you made a bad slap, you were out of the tournament.

My reflexes weren’t as good as those of other people at the table, and I eventually lost in the first round.

I then headed to the table where they lent games to play, and my eyes landed on an old favorite of mine: Pandemic. I was taught how to play the game years ago, while I was a first-year student at law school. I had bought my own board last year, and I’ve been trying to teach it to others. In my experience of trying to show it to others, I've learned that it’s an acquired taste. Some people like it; some people don't.

I borrowed the game, then looked around to see if there was anybody who wasn’t currently occupied with another game whom I could hook into it. I couldn’t find anyone, but I did find a group of people playing with a Jenga set. So I had my plan: play some Jenga, and afterwards, ask if anyone would want to play Pandemic. So off I went.

Now, this Jenga set was quite bigger than the normal set: easily twice or three times as big. And there were quite a few people around it. We played a round or two, and boy, there were some nerve-racking moments. There was even one moment when someone tried to pull a brick, and in so doing, that person set the portion above the brick 45 degrees askew from the rest of the tower!

During the Jenga game (I forget whether it was before or after the tower got twisted), I mentioned to one of my fellow players, “Hey, did you know that there is a Jenga Tower in New York?” (I misspoke: I should have said “Jenga Building,” as that is its (un)official name.)

“Really?” he said.

“Really,” I replied.

The “Jenga Building”, located at 56 Leonard Street, is a relatively new construction. The building features quite a few protruding balconies, which is what gave the building its nickname. I first saw the building during a trip that I took to the 9/11 Memorial a few months ago. (At BronyCon, I had misremembered and said that I saw it after a trip to the Statue of Liberty. I did go the Statue of Liberty one day, but it was during the day of the 9/11 Memorial trip, not of the Statue of Liberty Trip, that I first saw the Jenga building.) And one could easily see the Jenga Building from Chinatown. I know that because the New York County Civil Court is a hop, skip, and jump away from Chinatown, and if you go a few blocks away from the court, you can spot the Jenga Building.

I showed my conversation partner a picture of the building

This isn't the picture that I showed him, but that is the building.

and stated that yes, this is what the building looks like and no, it wasn’t Photoshopped.

After some time, our own Jenga tower fell, and I then asked a few people if they wanted to try out a new game with me. I got quite a few people to come along.

Now Pandemic isn't like most board games. Unlike most board games, which are competitive, Pandemic is cooperative. The players do not play against each other, they play against the board. The basic premise is that the players are a team of scientists trying to stop four diseases from wreaking havoc around the world. At the end of each player’s turn, at least two new cities would get infected. There is only one way to win—find cures for all four diseases—but there are multiple ways to lose. But I agree with what Wil Wheaton once said in his introduction to his TableTop playthrough of Pandemic: “I’ve had more fun losing [a game of Pandemic] than I have had winning a lot of others.” (The quote is at 2:33.)

The rules are somewhat complicated to explain, but once explained, they’re easy to follow. My first game had either four or six people—I forget—but one thing I haven’t forgotten is the name of one of the players. I had gone around the table asking for names, and this one girl said that her name was “Wren.” So I had to ask: Is it spelled “Ren” or “Wren,” like the bird?

“Wren,” like the bird, she answered.

Everyone was really into the game. During the course of this game, DarkWind made his way to our table at the time and watched. But despite this team’s most valiant efforts, we lost: we ran out of funding. (If you’re a Pandemic player: the player deck was going to run out of cards before we could find cures for all four diseases.)

Some of the co-players, including Wren, had to leave, but some of the others decided to stay and try another round. DarkWind also joined in as well.

In Pandemic, players collect “player cards” at the end of each turn. They have multiple uses, but one of the most important uses is that a player has to collect five of one color and turn them in at a research station to create the cure for the corresponding disease.

Another thing about Pandemic is that in the beginning of the game, each player is dealt a “role” at random. Each “role” gives special abilities that help in the game.

In this game of Pandemic, DarkWind was dealt the Scientist role. Its ability? He only needed four cards of a color instead of five in order to cure a disease.

Over the course of this game, a strategy began to emerge: Find ways to get cards into DarkWind’s hands.

As like in the first game, we were all engrossed in it. During the game, someone passed by and asked what we were playing, to which I answered, “Pandemic.” He then replied, “Oh, it’s that game that nobody ever wins!” and continued on his way.

But the joke was eventually on him (even though he didn’t stick around to see it): thanks to Scientist DarkWind, we actually won that game! (I believe that this is the fourth? fifth? game of Pandemic that I ever won.)

But by the time we finished, it was getting very close to 11:00 PM. Firebrand’s autograph wasn’t going to sign itself, so after the “good game”s and goodbyes, I needed to pack up and head to the Hall of the Sun ASAP: It was time to head to Brony Analysis Live!

Which, of course, leads to “FLUTTERBOMB!”, and the backlog is now over. Assuming nothing gets in the way next week, next week's blog post will finally bring us to BronyCon Sunday with "Family Feud and the Ponies' Court."

Addendum:
I do not know how many of you follow Estee, the writer of the fanfiction Triptych and of the Triptych Continuum that has developed around it. Estee’s mother has come down with a serious illness lately, and it has been affecting Estee a lot. The story starts here, continues here, here, here, here, and here, and the latest update was written on Friday October 19th; you can find that entry here. If you are willing and able to help financially, Estee’s Ko-Fi is here. If you are a fanfiction writer and familiar with DuckTales, Kai Creech has opened a Google Doc and is asking for people to collaborate in creating an MLP/DuckTales crossover as a cheer-up present; his blog post with a link to the Google Doc is here. And even if you cannot help, then your prayers, thoughts, and well-wishes are definitely of value. Let’s show this self-admitted cynic that the brony fandom’s reputation of being welcoming and friendly is well deserved.

Love the truth; tolerate no darkness.
SOH176

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