Draco Magi and making friends.

Here is a quick snipit of Draco Magi. I often reveiw games but Today I wanted to talk about a clip I saw my friend Robert Burke toss-up on Facebook. Draco Magi the card game. With the kickstarter finished and the cards almost ready to hit the backers Robert headed to Gen Con this year to show it off. I hope it went over as good as the game turned out. These days when I go to a convention Robert is one of the first people I look for to stop by and say hello. The day I met Robert I had the chance to play one of the first rounds of Draco Magi. The game is light years from what it was then. A statement to the effort Richard and Robert have put into the game. Yet The core Idea was and is still the same as that very first game I got to play. Dragons fighting Dragons for control of Lands.. Simple yet elegant. Even that day when I played it I could tell this was going to be a great game. But something very cool happened while Robert and I were testing out his creation.

How it all started for me. A few years back now  my friends and I were starting up this thing called Storm-Con. We were supporting other conventions and at the time I was working on making my own game as well. As the con was heading into the later hours on Saturday I stayed behind as the other Storm-Con guys were heading home. Just before the guys left we sat down with a Designer that had already donated games to our convention to get a demo of his game he sent ups Cartoona. That was the first time I met Robert Burke. We hit it off right away and chatted back and forth as he was demoing the game. Shortly after the demo was over I decided to ask his advice about the game I was working on. And that Day I learned the cardinal rule of game design.. NEVER LEAVE YOUR GAME AT HOME..because of course he asked to see it and I had nothing haha. I had mentioned in passing that my friend chuck had told me to talk of his long time friends about Kickstarter. And as of yet I had not had any luck recalling the person’s name or what game they had kicked. So since Robert had at the time kicked at least three or four games I decided to ask him if he might have an idea of who this Game Designer might be that my friend Chuck was speaking of.  Hearing the name Chuck Robert skipped over my question and inquired instead about Chuck. You guessed it Robert was the guy that Chuck had directed me to in the first place. It’s a small world after all. We bantered back and forth and fast friends were made that day. Having wrapped up a Demo of his last game he had just kicked Battle for Souls. With all his current games done he asked if I would like to see his newest game. And assured me it was in its early stages. Not wanting to end the great conversation and eager to see his games I said yes. We played a round or two and we were joined as we were wrapping  up a round of the game. That was when I met Richard Launius. Richard sat down with us as Robert politely introduced us while for the next few moments I was blissfully unaware of was about to become a collaboration of like minds that would lead to the end result of Draco Magi.  Richard watched a round and then played a round of the game. And then it began. Two board game designers and I the enthusiast started talking about the game. Not as a game but as what the game could do better.. how to take it to the next level. I will claim no credit in this process in its first days. But I will proudly state that I was there when it all began. And it was awesome !

Check them out here

http://www.greyfoxgames.com/
http://www.robertburkegames.com/