The Silicon Realms BBS's Semi-Whenever Gaming/Gathering

SiliCon 6 happened on April 1, 2000 at the Grange Hall in San Andreas

Three Miniature wargames were played at this Silicon:

A Pirate Regatta, the game required the ships and their crews to complete a circuit from the starting point around the farthest island and be the first one (or only one) to return to the starting line. No one was supposed to attack their opponents (at least until passing the farthest island), anyone who does is a free-target to all the other opponents.

This first picture shows the start as everything so far is 'smooth sailing'.

It isn't too long into the race before trouble starts, with the inner ships running aground on the small islands and then shots fired from several ships - including mine, am barbarian ship (which was rammed by a larger ship trying not to run aground) (second from left in first picture.)

Captain Larry Adams is working out a tight manuver aroundd an island that has been running his ship aground.

A view from the other ships who are engaged in combat, the one facing away is soon to sink. My ship (upper right) has taken several hits and is about to sink, lifeboat is bing filled with crew and a cannon. (the miniatues in the water are casualties of battle, drown.)

Near the end I have made it to land with my captain and a third of the crew (note bow of ship and sail in water) where I discovered a second cannon and ammo, the closest ship is going down. Soon after we called the game after only one ship was capable of finishing.

Universe-33 is a wargame for 2-6 players. It will use 25mm miniatures, and be played on a table space approximately 6' x 4'. Below is a synopsis of the game.

Corporations now rule the universe. There is not an army, colony, or planet that is not own or controlled by a corporation, but that is not to say that the entire universe has been explored. In fact, the corporations have turned it into an art form. When a planet needs exploring, a colony needs defending, or minerals fond, the corporations call for their bounty hunters. These people are mercenaries, paramilitary units, or private armies own or hired by the corporations. You are these Bounty Hunters

Your corporate masters have dispatched you, to this desolate backwater world, having been charged with recovering an artifact, “The Destroyer Of Worlds”. You must use all due haste as the information has leaked of the artifact's location and other factions are no doubt already sending their agents. The object should give off a strong “temporal” aura, which the detector you have been provided should pick up. It is line of site and can detect an entire object upon contact. It is most likely in the devastated city of Oykot. Once you have the object the only way to get it away and past the defenses are through the “gate”. Whatever bounty you collect in the process is yours to keep. But beware, there are rumors the there maybe deadly booby traps still active.

Clay-O-Rama, the ultimate in fun miniature gaming was again ran, with a local reporter sitting in for a few rounds, the ultimate winner, Sandi Adams.

The planned Knights of the Dinner Table Miniature Scenario “Rumble for the Dinner Table” did not get going. (rules are at Knights of the Dinner Table Comic Issue #37.) Computer Games

We had on-hand two Amigas (as usual) running various favorites, and a trio of classic 8-bit machines for people to relive games of yesteryear, a Commodore SX-64 running many Commodore 64 classics, an Atari 800 with a multitude of cartridge classics and a popular Vectrex machine entertaining people with the Asteroids clone MineStorm (due to popularity, next time I will have more games available for the Vectrex).

This time there were no volunteers for PC/networked games.

As with previous SiliCons, the role playing games did not happen, as there wasn't enough people interested.

A few boardgames and a couple card based games were available for play. Silicon started and ended woth Boardgames, scrabble was the first one and the last I can't remember (which lasted past the 10:00pm closing time ).

Boardgames that were ran:

• Scrabble
• Mutant Chronicles Siege of the Citadel (Miniatures Combat Boardgame)
• Kill Dr. Lucky (Cheap-ass Games, really fun!)

We had a trio of die-hard CCG players attend but due to lack of local interest theere was not much gaming beyond the Legend of the Five Rings game that they are pictured.

By Scott Mobley

I had given my Claydonian claws, a long tail, two big feet, two sharp teeth and a horn.

It was bright blue.

I had thought it invincible.

But now my monster was rolling across the table like a tent without stakes in a gale.

The horn fell off. The claws were twisted and the feet, no longer fleet.

Such are the cruel twists of Clay-o-rama, one of several quirky games in progress on a recent Saturday evening at the Grange Hall in San Andreas.

It happened to be April Fools Day. But SiliCon 6&emdash;a gaming gathering unique in the brother Lode&emdash;is dead serious about its fun.

Just moments before, a magenta Claydonian, squat and shaped like a faucet head, had attacked my monster.

“First, I'm going to lick you,” said player Kristina Halsey, who brought her Play-Doh clay creature within a fingernail clipping of mine, shook the dice and rolled a four&emdash;the number of points in damage she inflicted.

Then she used her special power, which happened to be “the bowl '&emdash;as in bowling.

Never mind that I had used my special power on another player 's Claydonian a moment before, which let me “reshape a limb” on an orange clay monster.

Its long, menacing snout was now a deep, sad cavity it its face. But at least his creature was still standing.

My three teenage Clay-o-rama opponents had been playing such games for 10 hours. They'd be there another two hours, at least.

Five or so men at the next table were hotly discussing a move in “Universe 33,” a fantasy/science fiction miniature war game that included a board studded with trees, rocks, bridges. roads, buildings and mountains.

The gamers had concocted these landscape elements and today, they suggested a universe where corporations had complete dominion.

According to the “Universe 33” game scenario, players directed squads of bounty hunters to find artifacts for their masters.

The problem was, these evil corporations pitted mercenaries against each other for sheer sport.

Players rolled six-sided dice, plotted their moves with measuring tape and consulted tightly-typed instruction scripts.

The mood was light despite the game's grim presuppositions.

Between moves, players bounced across the room to a row of ancient (15 years or older) computers for a round of “Space Raiders” or “Space Invaders”&emdash;the arcade and video game classics many older gamers cut their teeth on.

“Some people aren't for standard social situations, like dances and stuff,” said Larry Anderson, technical coordinator for Child Care Resources in San Andreas who started SiliCon as a social outlet for gamers like himself.

In the late 80's. Anderson and his friends were going to Fresno or the Bay Area for gaming conventions that would attract thousands.

There were no gaming opportunities in any of the nearby cities like Stockton or Sacramento, Anderson said.

At the same time, they were attending parties where there was lots of eating-and talking.

But these parties were a little skimpy on the gaming Anderson and his friends lived for.

So he created SiliCon as a local, more intimate version of the massive far off conventions&emdash;a party that was an excuse to game.

Anderson described SiliCon as a “semi-whenever” event, meaning that it may happen three times one year and none in other years. He pays $60 to rent the hall and asks $2 donation toward that cost. It's usually a loss.

Saturday's was the sixth SiliCon since 1993. About 20 gamers stopped by during the day, an attendance Anderson said was short of other years, when up to 50 would show.

Some, like George Gardea, came up from Stockton. Gardea paints legions of soldier figures from historical battles dating back centuries.

Others were local, like Nyck Ybarra, who creates trees and other game board elements from whatever material is handy.

Ybarra sported a binder thicker than his arm full of pages he'd downloaded from Web sites devoted to different fantasy games that describe their landscapes in minute detail.

'1 look at junk in a completely different way now,” Ybarra said, noting that the Angels Gallery in Angels Camp might feature some of his creations.

For organizer Anderson, who was also Clay-o-rama Game master, SiliCon is as much about connecting with others as it is about escaping from reality through fantasy.

That s why he'd hoped more folks would bring computers for a few rounds of networked Doom“ or some other game.

We don 't get much socialization with computers,” Anderson said. “At least here we do computer games with each other.”

See [old web address] for more information on SiliCon-6.