LEIRIA CON 2022, Portugal – Part 3: Wandering

I always seek for time, at these meetings, to just wander about, from table to table, listening, observing, in search for people, game boards, and tokens, the right angles or uncertain ones, of light and shadow. Keeping images. Freezing moments.

He too, wandering, pensive, in The Grizzled

 

The appealing aesthetics of Pax Pamir

At the North Sea, Attention All Shipping

Tony Boydell, with Attention All Shipping

Other pilgrimages, in Pilgrim

Nick Case, and Pilgrim

In need of room, for The Clash of Cultures

And plenty of spatial-temporal room, for Twilight Imperium

People gathering

The time has come to close the gate

LEIRIA CON 2022, Portugal – Part 2: At the table

 

The tables were calling for me.

And there I went, to try out some games.

All of them, except one, games in development, at different stages.

An opportunity to talk, before, during, and after playing.

About games, themes, mechanisms, and sensations.

With Citie Lo ...

... and its Zoo, in a 3 player test

With Uli Blennemann, teaching the new La Granja ...

...now bearing the name El Burro

Placing parasols in Copacabana, by Bruno Ribeiro

Meeple Land, the only non-protoype played

And, in the last day, I finally found an empty spot at Mac Gerdts table, ...

... for an experimental voyage on board of Transatlantic II

All this with the sea, the sand, and the wind, just across the road

LEIRIA CON 2022, Portugal – Part 1: We meet again

April 1st. Early morning. This Friday wouldn't be a work-work day, as usual. The backpack was ready. Camera, the indispensable notebooks, pen, and pencil, some brand-new business cards, water, and a couple of snacks. The car was sitting by the sidewalk, waiting. The road, further ahead. Destination Vieira Beach. Goal: LeiriaCon. It was April 1st. But this was not an April’s Fool joke!

The last LeiriaCon which I attended, also the first, was held back in 2019. At the time, I was still in the process of rediscovering the world of boardgames and the gaming industry, in its 21st century version. This blog has been started in 2018, collaborations for translations shortly ensued, as well as participation in various forums, and all the while the collection of games continued to grow. 

One year later, expectations were high. Contacts had been multiplying, so many names became familiar ones, and my boardgame-focused activity had widened. The anticipated menu for that year included a participation in LeiriaTalks, a session on demonstration and game teaching conducted by Paul Grogan, experimenting with prototypes, playing, and of course meeting the people behind the games, and sharing tables with them.

But then, the pandemic struck. Everything was suspended, postponed, cancelled, confined. Well, not truly everything, because the virtual dimension allowed this area to keep running. And those secluded times included games played in family, the most frequent way around here, after all. But it just wasn't the same. And two years have passed... Three doses of vaccine later, things finally started to change.

The reunion was then scheduled for April 2022! The plan was set. I would miss Thursday, the start-up day. Friday, typically a day with fewer visitors, would be the perfect opportunity to meet, for the first time in person, so many of "those people". Plus, it would be a good day to try out some prototypes, those games yet to be, in the presence of their creator. For Saturday, a fifty-year journey with “my games” at LeiriaTalks and, most likely, a full afternoon of playing. At some point, a visit to the games-sales room, to check some used games, an irresistible temptation. Sunday would be mainly unplanned for. Three days, always starting in Aveiro, in the morning, and driving back home by the sunset, with the radio turned on, on an almost deserted road.

And so it was!

Three intense days, filled-in with so many nice conversations, some longer, other shorter, around tables with boards and tokens, or a mere cup of coffee. Talking about games, naturally, past, present, and future, creations, and projects, possible collaborations. Reunions and new acquaintances. From the digital world to the physical one. From the written words to the spoken ones. From emojis to laughter. With that prevailing feeling that, after all, we've known each other for a long time!

A few are likely to be missing here, but it's worth taking the risk. Thanks Bruno Ribeiro, Pedro Kerouac, João Pimentel, Micael Sousa, João Neves, Uli Blennemann, Citie Lo, Karthik Setty, Marc Gerdts, Carlos e Sónia Sousa, Manuel e Dina Silva, Mariano Inannelli, Rodolfo Gomes, Hugo Marinho e Rita Jesus, Carlos Ramos, Carlos Martinho, Luís Costa, Carlos Santos, Pedro Silva, André Santos, Paulo Soledade, Nuno Santos.

Plan for 2023: the complete experience, with night-time games and overnight included!

PAW, at LeiriaCon 2019

Weekend full of games.

Saturday in Estarreja, Portugal. Another chess match for the 2nd Division Team National Championship, Series A. Third consecutive win and third team win.

Sunday, heading south. Departure at 8:30 a.m. Gray sky, contrasting with the last days. Highway practically deserted. One hour of quiet driving time. Destination: Praia de Vieira de Leiria, for the last day of Leiriacon, 2019 harvest, the 14th in history.

Table booked for ten in the morning, with Yinzi, on the menu.

A truly new game, just released, authored by the Portuguese José Carlos Santos and Luís Costa, with the beautiful work of illustration by Harald Lieske, and published by the German publisher Spielworkxx.

As a host, José Carlos Santos, himself, to uncover some of the secrets of this game of commerce, set in the China of the Ming dynasty. A very rich game, full of choices, interconnected mechanisms, small details and subtleties. Clearly to repeat the experience, which deserves a more time-consuming tasting, so to discover the many flavors! 

From a new game we passed to one that is still to be!

Trying out a prototype with an original theme.

A pallet of characters, which will be posing for a painting, but full of whims about their position on the setting, the companions, the postures.

A fast paced, information-seeking game, which undoubtedly will put the memory to the test.

And, to end the day, a game that already enjoys great popularity, despite having only a couple of years. Azul, by Michael Kiesling, with azulejos, ceramic tiles of Portugal, as a theme. Aesthetically pleasing, easy to learn, fast to play, allowing for different strategies. I still have to experience its flow with three and four players, but it is clear why it has so many fans!

And that's how it was, this visit to Leiriacon.

With an excellent atmosphere, great friendliness and relaxation, a strong international presence and reference names of this world of games.

Already looking forward to the 2020 Convention!

And a little more of blue, before the sun sets.

Step in and leave your PAW print - Playing Around the World - and follow the PAW tag.
Send a photo of a gaming session, the game title, your name, city, country (and, if you feel like, a short sentence about the game and or a photo of the city) to gamesinbw@gmail.com.