On the Road: Origins International Game Expo 2007, Columbus OH

The Origins International Game Expo is one of the oldest continuously running gaming conventions in the US and second only to GenCon in terms of purely gaming events. It was originally a travelling event, but is now permanently based in Columbus OH.

Day 1 

We set out at 4:30 AM on the Fourth of July, heading north in relatively light traffic through Boston and on to Pease International Airport in Portsmouth NH. Our tickets to Columbus were on Skybus, the new super-cheap discount airline. It turned out to be a great choice. Aside from some minor computer problems at bag-check, Skybus ran smoothly and efficiently. Everything about the airline is set up to cut costs. The baggage check crews also handle check-in at the gate. The flight attendants handle the cleaning of the plane after the flight. Tickets were $50 going out to Columbus and $10 coming home. After factoring in fees for baggage, taxes, security fees, etc, the total was still under $200 for the two of us round trip. Less than we would have spent on gas driving out. As an added bonus, Pease Airport has free long term parking. Pease has a ton of space available because it is a decommissioned Air Force base.

We always try to keep expenses low for Origins. In addition to the cheap flight, we volunteer for the con. We both signed up to work 32 hours over the five days of the convention. This gets us a free hotel room (shared with another volunteer couple) and free admission to the con. Since it was our second year volunteering, we also got some event tickets.

Our friend Sheri picked us up at the airport in Columbus and we had lunch at Zen, a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant across from the Convention Center. From there, we got our room, met our roomates Vic & Jen, and attended a volunteers' meeting. In the evening, we met up with Mandy and Steve (friends from the Columbus area) and had dinner at the East Village FoodBar (a very cute gay-friendly bar/grille in the Short North Arts District; gotta love the tater tots and fried mac 'n cheese!). I had work to do, so I spent the evening in the hotel room and got to bed early so I could get up from my 8 AM shift Thursday Morning.

Day 2

My volunteer job was helping run the boardgames library.

Convention attendees can check out games from the library to play in between scheduled events. Borrowing games is free; we hold an ID from the person taking the game out. The person running the library this year did a great job organizing it and soliciting donations of new games from the publishers in attendance.

We had hundreds of boardgames and card games available and we had over 500 games loaned out over the course of the convention.

It's a nice job to work because it's relatively low-stress and you get to chat with many of the gamers as you sign games in and out. Here is a pic of Euphrates, one of my co-librarians:

I worked mostly with Euphrates and Jen (one of our roomates). Both were fun to chat with.

I also worked with Deanna (daughter of the couple who were in charge of the Tabletop Games area) and we got to play a couple games of Ingenious.

Once my shift was over, I immediately headed back to the collectible card game area to enter a Magic tournament.

I ended up playing two Magic tournaments Thursday night, picking up a minor prize in a booster draft (tied for third place out of eight).

My full report on the Magic events I played in at Origins can be found here.

The major feature of the Collectible Card Game portion of the hall was the massive Pikachu balloon that loomed over the Pokemon National Championship tournament.

Also in the same hall was the Rogue Judges Car Wars arena:

I headed back to the hotel after the Magic events and proceeded to crash.

Day 3

My shift started at noon on Friday, so I spent the morning in the Exhibitors' Hall buying Magic cards and checking out various products. I also picked up a Board Room ribbon. The Origins Board Room is set aside for continuous open-play boardgaming. It is run by CABS (Columbus Area Boardgaming Society), which stocks the room with their own very impressive games library.

The ribbon costs $15 and gets you unlimited play and access to the CABS library during the con. It turned out to be a great deal. There were always games starting up and the players were very friendly and eager to teach the different games. I ran into my friend June from Pennsylvania and played an out-of-print German game from the 1980's called Metropolis:

I also played (and won!) a game of Dragon Land.

The folks at Rio Grande Games had a nice promotion going where they would give coupons for a free bottle of soda (Mountain Dew, of course! It's a gaming convention, after all!) to anyone they spotted playing their games in the Board Room.

The Board Room also had a raffle, with tickets awarded periodically to every game in progress, as well as a "Chairman of the Board" trophy awarded to the player with the most wins over the course of the con.

Day 4

Saturday I was on the early shift again, so I went straight to the Boardgames Library from breakfast.

Ran into a couple of friends over the course of the day. Here are Katie and Erik who were running demos for Steve Jackson Games. 

 And here is Sheri, in full pirate wench garb preparing for a Lego Pirates miniatures event:

I did a bit more shopping when my shift ended and had dinner at North Market, an excellent combination of farmers' market and food court located about a block from the Convention Center.

I spent Saturday evening back in the Board Room playing Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride with some of my friends from Ithaca NY.

Days 5-8

Did the last of my shopping, and then worked take-down on Sunday afternoon/evening. Here is one of the workers preparing to lower Pikachu:

Hauled boxes of games out of the Convention Center. Finally met back up with Sheri and we went out for Mexican food in her neighborhood.

We stayed at her condo until Tuesday when we flew back to New Hampshire. Had Mandy & Steve over for a cookout and a game of Apples to Apples. Sorted Magic cards and mailed them home in flat-rate priority mail boxes on Tuesday morning so that we wouldn't have to haul them on the plane.

The flight on Tuesday had about a 45 minute delay due to weather, but otherwise went smoothly. Stayed with my in-laws in Merrimack NH Tuesday night and then visited relatives in Boston on Wednesday before driving home.