Happy New Year! Now get ready, Ottawa’s upcoming gaming event is just over a month away: Game Summit is back for its fifth and biggest event ever, February 18th, 19th and 20th at the Nepean Sportsplex in Ottawa. Bringing more to the table than ever before for dice-throwers, role-players and war-gamers alike, Game Summit is the place for good times this winter.

Early bird registration’s 25% off special is over on January 19th, if you haven’t registered yet, this is your chance!

Friday Night Open Gaming

For the first time, Game Summit is opening its doors on the Friday night (5pm – 11pm) for an evening of open gaming in all three areas.

• In the Pavilion, what about some big expansion games, example: Settlers of Catan with all its popular expansions and the maximum players.
• In the Arena war tables are available for historical and specialist gaming: Blood Bowl, Battlefleet Gothic, Inquisitor or anything else you’d like to plan with your friends.
• In the Den reserve a table and run any RPG with your friends or pass the word around and plan a CCG / TCG event.

Let us know what you have in mind and how we can help.

Sunday’s Tri-Game-A-Thon

We’ve got the Great Canadian Board Game Blitz (GCBGB) on Saturday, then on Sunday, Game Summit is hosting its Tri-Game-A-Thon Tournament with the help of the Kanata & Ottawa Games Clubs. Play three different games and you could win tons of other great prizes! Each of the games will be available to play all day on Friday and Saturday, so you can learn to play and practice up for Sunday. This year’s selected games are:

1. Dominion or Bohnanza
2. Stone Age or Puerto Rico
3. Galaxy Trucker or Power Grid

The final selection of the three games will be announced at the event. Be sure to register online in advance to reserve your seat!

Munchkin Invasion

If you’re a Steve Jackson Games addict, our next event will fill up your prescription. We’ve got demos and open gaming of Stars are Right, Frag , Revolution and dice games all weekend + the following main events (but not limited to):

Fri 18:00-22:00: Munchkin + All Expansions Game
Sat 12:00-16:00: Zombie Dice Mini-Tournament
Sat 14:00-18:00: Revolution Mini-Tournament
Sat 10:00-14:00: Munchkin Quest + All Expansions Game
Sun 10:00-18:00: Munchkin Tournament
Sun 14:00-18:00: Zombie Dice Mini-Tournament

Bring your tokens and sign-up at the event!

Yes, that’s right. For those of you who have been sucking down on all those blue Mana Potions, the next thing is here: Health Potions! After everyone picked up the Mana Potions and said “hey they should make health potions too!”, it actually happened. This new potion has energy like the Mana Potion but apparently has a mellow apple-cinnamon type flavor. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to try it!

These things will be arriving this week probably around Wednesday. Feel free to give us a call if you want some put aside for you, or if you are a long-distance customer, they are available online for purchase here!

Dear Steve Jackson,

Your games are now fully in stock at our fine establishment. We have the original Munchkin, all of expansions for the original Munchkin, and all of the spin-off Munchkin games. We even have the Munchkin bobble-head! Our store has never been more full of little people.

Steve, your dedication to the parody of Dungeons & Dragons, H.P. Lovecraft, Vampires, Super-Heroes, Space Wars, and the like has brought much joy to us all.

Sincerely,

The nerds in the back-room of Toys on Fire.

Illuminati Deluxe Ed, 2-8p, 12+ $39.95	Munchkin 2: Unnatural Axe 3-8p 8+ $19.95	Munchkin 3: Clerical Errors 3-8p 12+ $19.95	Munchkin 4: The Need for Steed 2-6p 12+ $19.95
Munchkin 5: De-Ranged 3-6p, 12+ $21.95	Munchkin Bites 2-6P 12+ $24.95	Munchkin Bites 2: Pants Macabre 2-6P 12+ $17.95	Munchkin Bites! 3-6p, 12+ $28.95
Munchkin Cthulhu 3-6p, 12+ $29.95	Munchkin Fu 2-6p 12+ $29.95	Munchkin 3-6p, 12+ $34.95	Ninja Burger 2: Sumo-Size Me!, 3-6p, 12+ $19.95
Ninja Burger, 3-6p, 12+ $27.95	Star Munchkin 2: The Clown Wars, 3-6p, 12+ $19.95	Star Munchkin, 3-6p, 12+ $29.95	Steve Jackson Game: Munchkin Impossible 3-6p, 12+ $29.95
Super Munchkin 2: The Narrow S Cape 3-6p, 12+ $29.95	Super Munchkin 3-6p, 12+ $29.95	The Good, the Bad, the Munchkin, 2-6p, 10+ $29.95

The rumors are true. A new gaming convention is hitting Ottawa this month and you all had better be there! The wicked part, IT’S AT THE WAR MUSEUM!

Toys on Fire will be there and we have our own special pavilion where we will be demoing and vending all your favourite games including the famous Agricola, Memoir 44, Aquaretto, Arham Horror, Ticket to Ride, Settlers, Carcassonne, Blokus and many, many more. There will be door prizes, tournaments, special events, and a guarantee of lots of fun for everyone.

The Floor plan. Complete with Marketplace, War Room, D&D Alley, Warhammer Tables, Artist alley and Toys on Fire Board Game Pavilion.

What: Hobbyists, board gamers, role-players and more will converge this fall to roll their dice and play their hearts out at Game Summit’s table-top gaming convention at the Canadian War Museum. If you love table-top gaming, bring your A-game to Game Summit’s premier.

Where: Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, Ontario (Directions)

When: Saturday, October 11th, 9AM – 10PM

Info & Registration: All registration and additional information can be found at the Game Summit website www.gamesummit.ca.

This weekend I traveled incognito to CanGames (Ottawa’s gaming convention) under the clever guise of “Conrad Albatross” to see if I could get the inside scoop on Ottawa’s gaming underground. I arrived at the convention center at around 2 pm on Saturday and was instructed to enter through the back door. My accomplice handed me my pass and I began my surveillance of the convention.

On first glance, it appeared to be a gamers paradise: miniatures, role-playing books, and boardgames as far as the eyes could see, but on a closer look it revealed something else… something I’d like to call “mad dealz.” “Mad dealz” is a term you use to describe an excess amount of savings to products you’d normally pay out the nose for. I was immediately drawn to the tables where I could find plenty of old Dungeons and Dragons books. These conventions bring product of the highest, and sometimes rarest quality, and today was no different. Toys on Fire brought its usual, enormous selection of board games (probably the largest in the city) and the prices killed the convention market, as usual. I quickly began to lighten my pockets.

After buying the weight equivalent to a small car in books, I quickly turned my attention to my second mission: finding “mad Warhammer dealz.” I was armed with $120 to get as much on the list as possible for our beloved Stephen- and ending up spending $180. Yes, the “dealz” were this “mad.” These conventions always somehow end up being tax-free, it was amazing.

As the show was winding down our friend Bill showed up after his job to take a look at some “mad dealz” at the show as well. As we all got our fill, Alex and I hopped in Bill’s stretch SUV limo thing and took a ride. That’s right, a DANG (forgive the pun, Dang) LIMO! It had a TV and an intercom, and crazy lights, and beverages, and EVERYTHING. BIG FAT TIRES AND EVERYTHING! I was King of the Town in that limo. Muchos gracias, Bill. We owe you one.

All in all, it was a lot of fun meeting up with our toy/hobby retail brethren, and local hobbyists to nerd out for an afternoon now it’s time for me to go back to being cool.

Why are you laughing? I’m cool, I swear!

I mean, I’m playing D&D tonight, but that doesn’t mean anything! I have an assortment of leather jackets!

…fine, don’t believe me? I’ll just put a HEX ON YOU! Or maybe a plague! A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES!

Conrad “the Hitman” AlbatRoss. Chris.