Dice Tower West 2023: The Recap

Our second visit to Vegas for the Dice Tower West board game convention is in the books, and it was even better than our inaugural trip last year! Here's a quick rundown on how it went...

Last year we flew in to Vegas, this year we drove. Last year, we were exhibitors only, no game sales. This year, we brought our full line of PLAAY Classic and PLAAY NOW games, including the new card game we're publishing from designer Mike Fitzgerald, Score Cards. The trip to Vegas was awesome--we left Denver at 4am with perfect driving weather through the Rocky Mountains and a bright moonlit sky. By the time the sun came up, we were already on the western slope. The stretch through Utah was unbelievably beautiful, and we rolled into Vegas around 2:30 pm. We immediately got our booth set up, checked into the hotel and just like that, we were ready to roll. Amazingly smooth!

Thursday morning was the official pre-release debut of Score Cards, and it was an immediate hit! Mike Fitzgerald joined us for most of the day, playing the game non-stop with convention-goers and hobby board game "influencers," including the Dice Tower's own Tom Vasel. The game's straightforward premise--"every card scores!"--concise rules set, meaningful decision-making and colorful card design all added up to a great response. Mike did a fantastic job with this game, well worth the seven years of development and play-testing.

In between Score Cards demos, we got opportunities to demo our other PLAAY NOW and PLAAY Classic Games. Surprisingly, "First Contact: YOUR Town" got a lot of table time. One of the original PLAAY Games when the site launched in 2000, we brought First Contact back for a limited holiday run and had some copies left over, which we "what the heck, why not?" Brought with us to Vegas. We played it with several booth visitors and it created some memorable moments (as in when the mailman and dog teamed up for a final assault on the last remaining alien, hiding in the post office).

We also brought along our business card games from last year's Dice Tower, and had a good time playing and handing them out. Especially fun was our competitive lawn mowing game, designed by Mike Fitzgerald, "MowMaster." I think we may make MowMaster a full boxed PLAAY NOW game at some point, with an assortment of celebrity lawns that will come with the game. Maybe the White House Lawn, Elvis' Graceland Estate, the 18th hole at Augusta, places like that.

Friday and Saturday were not quite so busy at the booth, as people settled in to playing games in the multiple large gaming areas set up in the Rio Hotel convention area. That's not to say it was "slow" at the booth, rather that it was less hectic. Score Cards continued to get demo requests, as the buzz spread through the convention.

We had two PLAAY Games events on the official Dice Tower Events schedule, a Score Cards tournament and the Dice Tower West Vegas Open Golf Tournament with History Maker Golf. Both went well...

The Score Cards tournament had six participants and was a round-robin affair, everyone playing a two-round game against everyone else (normal game length is four rounds). It ended with Frank Munroe and Tony Mericle tied with identical 4-1 records, triggering a playoff game. That game ALSO ended tied, so we had to go to a tie-breaker, which gave Frank the win, and a special "golden edition" of the game (see photo).

BTW, Frank just happens to be a professional bowler! Here’s a link to his site, check it out!…

The HMG tournament drew five participants, all of them Dice Tower gamers who had never played the game. After a quick tutorial, we split into two groups. I helped one group (read the game book, kept score, offered tips on chip usage, etc.), PLAAY gamer Grant Fines helped the other. I'd like to say it was a nail-biter finish, but it wasn't--Chris Hines played consistently well from the first tee and ended up with a nine under par 62, five strokes better than the second place finisher, John Hedberg (4-under, 67). Everyone finished at or under par, and it was great fun.

For the record, here are the “Do It Yourself” golfer cards each participant created for himself. We’ll use this format at PLAAY Dot CON, so take note! The scores: Chris (9 under, 62); John H (4 under, 67); Dave (3 under, 68); John T and Nathan (1 under, 70).

When we weren't at the booth or game tables meeting gamers and demonstrating our own games, we were in one of the gaming halls playing OTHER games! That's what Dice Tower West is all about: playing games. I would be remiss in not mentioning the incredible Dice Tower game library, literally THOUSANDS of games, all available for people to check out and play during the entire four days of the convention.

We started off Wednesday night with one of the hottest game titles of the entire week, "Heat, Pedal to the Metal" published by Days of Wonder. It's a Formula One racing game, me and Sam played with a group of four other gamers--Sam won the race/game on a well-played last-turn surge. I finished fifth out of six, leading most of the race but failing to properly manage my resources at the end.

Photo credit: Dice Tower West

Over the course of the convention, I also got to play the precursor to "Heat," the bicycle racing game "Flamme Rouge," and, thanks to Grant Fines, I got to dabble in a couple of war games "B-17," and "Memoir 44." I also got to play some of the games Grant is working on, including a new trail running game which Grant will demo at this summer's PLAAY convention, PLAAY Dot CON 2023. (You will love it!)

I also got in a few PLAAY Games as well, including Aviatrix '37--seems like this has become sort of a road trip tradition for me. I played it at the ConSimWorld Expo last summer(crashed in desert, lost at sea after Howland Island), and again with James Cast at the Hartford Event (made it to Oakland, but it took over three months after a succession of misfortunes). This time, I made it around the world in just over 37 days! Not fast enough to win the $100,000 prize from Lockheed, BUT my best time ever. If it weren't for getting food poisoning in Lae, New Guinea and a press-related delay in Honolulu, I would have done even better. Well, there's always next time!

Observations: it felt like a different crowd at this year's Dice Tower West. Maybe that's the nature of the event, though--with such a large number of people (over 3000!), maybe that's to be expected. Last year, it felt like the main interest at our booth was in the PLAAY Classic (sports) games. This year, it was definitely tilted in favor of PLAAY NOW. Glad that we were prepared!

I think the main thing we learned was that getting in front of gamers and playing games is the way to go with this event. With that in mind, next year we plan to hold more game events, at least one per day, maybe two on some days. (We want to leave time to play other games, as well!) I think that's the reason people come to this convention in the first place--to play games. Sure, there are seminars and panel discussions, and exhibitor booths and game sales. But ultimately, people come to Dice Tower to play old favorite board games and try out new ones.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the PLAAY booth at DTW, we enjoyed meeting and hanging out with you! Already looking forward to next year!