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[Scott]

So like here's my report

I managed to work my way into the ToyFair - Yay Me - and made a bee-line fFor the mind candy booth. fFiona and Paul and Andrea are the absolute sweetest people you'll ever meet, by the way. Well I mean Michael is too, really, but he managed to not be there at the time, but there you have it. At the booth, they were handing out PC magazines, wave 1 packs, and a selection of promo cards -- including two Wave 3 cards. I pounced I took a number of photos of the booth and stuff. Oh, I'll have photos up soon, promise!

So then lessee, between the toyFair and the event, I got to kill a couple hours in times square. whee touristy fFun It was during this time i sent the blurry pics of the cards to Lhall

The event started casually, with drinks and a fFew partyish games lying about. Some complete newbies (quite a fFew really) came with a lot of great questions about the cards. Some people started some card trading, and ther was drinking, and it was good

Andrea, at some point, began announcing the rules and proceedings. The fFirst game (which has been likened to rock paper scissors) was called Roundabout. it sounds a bit goofy, and it kinda was, but it got everyone in a great mood fFor goofiness 3 rounds of 3 were played. That is to say, everyone picked one opponent, and played fFor best-two-out-of-three, three times. You could pick any opponent fFor each gambit.

And more drinking.

Then the Set matches ensued. fFun little game Michael smith apparently loves this game. I recieved no points fFor having a fFlashlight. (It was a dark bar you see. a little light was much needed.)

And more drinking.

After a short bit, when people were mostly winding up their games of set, the phones started ringing. There was a great cafuffle, and a fFew people claimed to have a recording, but noone could hear it, or it wasnt a complete recording. I think it was intended to be a collective message, whch everyone would get a small piece of.

And more drinking. Mind candy loves us

Andrea once again got our attention, to sort out the highest scoring players. 8 people were chosen, based on scores fFrom Roundabout and Set. (I was one point shy of the semi-fFinals. *sigh*) So then some .. uhm .. other games were played .. uhm .. I didn't play any of them, and it was rather crowded, so hard to really see. they looked like good games tho

And more drin...

Hey my phone's ringing! In a mad fFury, half the room clears, running outside to get good reception and no noise to hear the phone message! Yes! It seemed to be a better re-transmission of the whole message! w00t!

And the excitement mounts, as the 2 fFinalists are announced!! 2 guys go head to head, in a game of Clash!!! Oooohhh!! The whole crowd was just in awe I'm afraid I didn't manage to call Lhall (or anyone) fFrom that point on. Partly because I was taking pictures, partly cos it was pretty fFreakin exciting

The rules of Clash are thus: 2 players go head to head. They are given a bell (preferrably a bell with little plastic googly eyes). On the big overhead monitor (preferrably a 52 inch wide-screen plasma) a series of puzzles are shown. The puzzles look an awful lot like puzzle cards!!! I'll probably start a thread on this subject alone, with pictures, text, all this.

At last, a winner is awarded his due! I talked with him much earlier in the evening, and he really wasn't all that much of a huge perplex city player. He was interested, certainly, and happy to be there. But like he hadn't been playing all that long. (Yo dood, are you out there?) He certainly dug the spirit of the event, even if a bit self-conscious about it all

After the games, Michael handed out card packs and T-shirts. (I got Differently Lethal! Woo!)

And more drinking.

Some last minute card trading happened, and people sort of started wandering off and uhm, that was about that

Might I just say: ARGers are the absolute best people in the world absolutely tons of fFun. Thank you one and all fFor a smashing good evening! Thank you particularly to Cassandra and Brian fFor sharing the room and the cards and everything!!

Cheers!!

[NuclearDionysus]

Just a couple more details:

-The card packs that were handed out at the end were wave 0.5 (or at least, mine was)
-Along with the packs and shirts, copies of Perplex magazine issue 0 were handed out
-Michael made a comment that Mind Candy has been getting lots of card suggestions from fans, so they're going to hold a card-design contest

[Gabriel C.]

hi, i was the winner. i wanted to add a couple of details.

In the final round, as people have said, there were a couple of new cards, i guess. They were not particularly difficult. One would have been possible with more time or paper and pen, it seemed mathematical in nature and consisted of a bunch of equations, like E^2=F and R=M+1, and you were supposed to solve for X.

One that I did solve in the minute they gave us was a picture of a bunch of street signs which had different restrictions on parking based on time and day. The idea was to determine precisely when one *could* park there.

The trophy was a cube made of glass with one corner truncated.

The event was very enjoyable, now I want to play more.

Gabriel C.

[cassandra]

My PCAG experience was excellent I won't go into too much detail, as Scott et al have already done an admirable job of describing the games, but for posterity:

Took the train up from Virginia to NYC - and it was a lovely, lovely afternoon/evening, weather-wise. (Snow, schmo, Mme Bianca.) Found the bar without difficulty after some light wandering 'round the Garment District and some coffee and people-watching.

At Stitch, met up with the PXC/Mind Candy crowd, and had a great time meeting/getting reacquainted with those of you I'd already met. Cheers to the entire MC group for putting together the event on such a busy schedule!

The competition was entertaining - I lost 2 out of 3 in Roundabout to freelance writer/reporter Jim, accumulated a high score in Set to make it into the final cut, but then lost to former math theory student E.Go in the 3D Tic-Tac-Toe-esque matches. (and algebraic-topology grad student Gabriel won the whole event. Am I in the wrong field?? ) During the evening, I also received the mysterious phone message, and was handed a paper napkin with the same message written down (a napkin which itself mysteriously disappeared through the course of the evening).

Michael also pointed out to me that the Clash match was, er, an experimental Earth version, so there may be a lack of verisimilitude in translation. (I only hope the ribbony googly-eyed bells were the same!) I posted my few notes on the new cards I saw in Clash in the Puzzle card forum.

Very happy with new t-shirt, cards, Bedlam Cube game I barely made it home with, etc. Just want to know which operative now has my phone number

Final thanks and hellos to Michael, Andrea, Fiona, Paul, Brian Morton, Scott, E.Go, Jim, GasparLewis, Rose(!), bagsbee, Gabriel, CJ, Jesse (?), okay...memory now giving out. Am exhausted, but exhilarated. Good times. (Will send this out in more coherent form to the Sentinel.)

[Scott]

Hi! At the risk of an abominable cross post, see here:
http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14434
Mind Candy wants to give NYC players leitmarks.