I'd missed this last year, and finally managed to attend this year. I think I may have slept 10 hours the entire weekend (three days, counting the trips there and back), but it was worth it. Now, to pay off this sleep debt..

Communicon is a games festival put on by a group of gamers based out of NB, and is affiliated with the Fredericton Science Fiction Society. What's involved? Various RPGs and other geeky games: M:tG, D&D, Munchkin, and others.

Munchkin was our main target. We cleaned up: Tasha managed first place, and I managed to burst into second place in the finals. We received some neat promotional cards ("Evil Stevie Changes the Rules", and 'John Kovalik draws a Wandering Monster') and a choice of base set. Tasha chose The Good, the Bad and the Munchkin which was also the set used in the final round.

First Round: Munchkin Bites!

I thought: alright, I know this one. Did decently, but apparently as one of the more experienced players I was an intentional target and lost my early-game momentum to a bunch of monsters and player-inflicted traps/curses.

This match hit the time limit: Tasha managed to make a deal with the level leader to end the game with her in second place. Since two players from each game went to the finals, this meant that the two of them managed in. Having been hit by every 'lose a level' curse and trap, was badly hurting and had no chance of winning. Ah well.

Her prize: a Munchkin Bites bookmark, which proved to be fairly definitive in the final round.

Second Round: Munchkin Impossible

This time, nobody deliberately targeted me specifically, but I was off to a slow start. No equipment, no monsters to beat, no styles meant for a pretty anemic game. The Russian loyalty card I received late game managed to prove important, as the double-bonus to one-shot items it gave helped me prevent one player from winnning by two points: a slim margin. However, the Flying Car and Escape and Evasion Training do you little good if you haven't got the chance to go up in level.

However, as with the last game I'd played in, the majority of my non-playtime was spent keeping things running smoothly and educating/assisting the newbies who'd joined that game. This proved to be important: as my generosity won me the final wildcard spot for the finals.

Final Round: The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin

I got off to an early start with Get a Long Little Doggie GOAL card and the Bowler Hat and Bowie Knife and some victories over Paul Bunion and the Ranch Hand, but my momentum was stopped cold when I hit a series of traps that robbed me of all my items. Relatively powerless, I managed to cruise along for a few more turns before getting some help on Daniel Boom, to gain two levels and half the treasure. Of course, I promptly received two GOAL cards and rocketed to level 9. With the Jackelope in my hand (Level 2!) and a monster de-enhancer I would have been set up for the win if Tasha hadn't done it on her next turn.

So, in summary, Tasha was the real winner of the weekend. She tied for first in a match of Frag and swept a three-game series of Chez Geek. We met a few other gamers from Halifax as a good portion of the people there were from HRM.

I would like to attend next year, and quite possibly run something there. Maybe an oldschool original D&D game, or run some Blender munchkin games (which are crazy insane).

I really felt that the Maritime Science-Fiction Modellers deserve more attention. The work on display was incredible. Their website lists many more projects. I think the most impressive is the Scratch-built USS Enterprise.