Portland, Oregon USA Looking to host BrikWars tournaments!

[Nemo20k]

Hi,
I'm new to the forum, and new to BrikWars. Been a brik maniac all my life. I own part of a game store, and I am hoping to form a BrikWars group in Portland, Oregon. I'd like to organize tournaments, and even have some of my retail space devoted to briks.

If you have suggestions, please don't be shy. I'm sort-of taking this into my own hands, so there are no bad ideas!

Thanks,

[Popchik]

That sounds like a great idea! My mom deals with a person who partly owns a game store, and it would be awesome to have a brick-battle there. You might be able to use war game scenery instead of a Lego battlefield too.

[IVhorseman]

Unfortunately, I don't know of anyone here from Portland, or even the state of Oregon. Regardless, that shouldn't stop you.

Talk to some friends and regular customers about Brikwars and gather interest. Once you start playing games, people will notice and things will REALLY take off!

The only thing I'd make sure to avoid though is to make absolutely SURE that if you sell bricks in your shop, that you in no way endorse any one particular brand (especially lego) over another, and basically anything else that Lego (I wouldn't worry about clone brands attempting to sue) might bitch about, what with the whole "massive bloody carnage" aspect.

[Pvt Expendable]

Grrrr,.... only a 20 hour drive and ill be there,...... dang the lack of bullet trains on this continent!

[Rayhawk]

I'm from Portland! I'm just not there anymore. But that's where all the development and playtesting for the 1998 rules happened, I should ping the old crowd and see if any of them are up for it.

[Nemo20k]

Wow. Thanks, everyone. The few people I spoke with at the store were really excited.

I was wondering about not endorsing lego over any other brands. I couldn't see why lego might object; they were making swords long before mega blox ever did!

Anyway, I plan to give away mega blox as prizes as well as lego. And we won't put either on store literature or advertizing.

Might have our first skirmish in December.

From there, I was looking at either battle tournaments, or a campaign.

[Rayhawk]

I was wondering about not endorsing lego over any other brands. I couldn't see why lego might object; they were making swords long before mega blox ever did!

The reason is maybe not what you'd think. Lots of dishonest companies make shitty knockoff copies of the Lego brick, and studies show that as much as 40% of the toy consumer base doesn't realize there's a difference, or is at least confused about it. They unsuspectingly get the shitty bricks instead of the Lego they'd intended to, the bricks don't stick together, they toys don't work the way they're supposed to, and the kids and parents think that Lego's a shitty product and never want to buy it again.

Every time one of these shitty clone brands takes dishonest advantage of the goodwill that Lego's built up over the course of decades, kids that would have wanted to play with Lego are driven out of the construction brick market entirely. Knockoffs aren't just stealing sales from Lego, they're destroying future sales through their shitty product and dishonest marketing.

The reason that BrikWars makes such a point of clarifying that there's no Lego affiliation is that any time a product blurs the line between what is official Lego and what isn't, it becomes an example that can be used in a court exhibit that makes it easier for the knockoffs to win court cases against Lego, freeing them to screw unsuspecting customers over even further.

Mainly I tried to include multiple clone brands in the rulebook so it'd give me an excuse to write all of the above into the intro chapter, and give myself a greater audience for this particular opinion. I just haven't gotten around to the editing and revisions yet.

[silvadream]

I was wondering about not endorsing lego over any other brands. I couldn't see why lego might object; they were making swords long before mega blox ever did!

The reason is maybe not what you'd think. Lots of dishonest companies make shitty knockoff copies of the Lego brick, and studies show that as much as 40% of the toy consumer base doesn't realize there's a difference, or is at least confused about it. They unsuspectingly get the shitty bricks instead of the Lego they'd intended to, the bricks don't stick together, they toys don't work the way they're supposed to, and the kids and parents think that Lego's a shitty product and never want to buy it again.

Every time one of these shitty clone brands takes dishonest advantage of the goodwill that Lego's built up over the course of decades, kids that would have wanted to play with Lego are driven out of the construction brick market entirely. Knockoffs aren't just stealing sales from Lego, they're destroying future sales through their shitty product and dishonest marketing.

i knopw what you mean i got a megablocks mech when i was a kid and there were no instructions and i don't have the box so now i just have a buch of plasma cannons and a flamethrower
EDIT: now that i think about it the weapons are pretty good just the bloks and 'figs

[Nemo20k]

Loki's Games announces their first BrikWars Tournament in Portland, Oregon [s]to be held on January 21, 2009 starting at 5pm.[/s]

All Players must pre-register, and must have an approved army list ready [s]*before* Jan 21. [/s] We will be hosting army list workshops [s]on Dec 10th, 2008 and Jan 7th, 2009 from 4pm until 8pm.[/s]

For our first tournament only:
Army lists are limited to 75 CP's, TL 3.
There will be no victory conditions, other than to wipe-out your opponent.
Rounds will last up to 1 hour each, with ten minutes between.
Prizes for 1st, 2nd & 3rd places, plus some give-aways.
Registration is limited to 8 slots.
Entry Fee is $5.
We are using the PDF version of BrikWars 2005 Chapters 1-6.

http://www.brikwars.com/downloads/BW2005.pdf

The following rules are also in effect, and supercede the BrikWars 2005 PDF version should they conflict:
BrikWars 2001 Chapter 2 - The Trooper's Arsenal
BrikWars 2001 Chapter 8 - Standard Combatants
BrikWars 2001 Chapter 9 - Alternate Species; Fnrd
BrikWars 2005.08 Chapter H - The Horse

http://www.brikwars.com/rules/2001/2001-brikwars.pdf
http://www.brikwars.com/rules/2005/h.htm

Please note the following chapters and supplements are not in effect for this tournament:
BrikWars 2005 Chapter 7 - Special Creations
BrikWars 2005 Chapter 8 - Squads
Supplement SP: Supernatural Powers

[pesgores]

When I grow up a little bit, enough to organize something like this, I will make a tournament here in Portugal too.

[Ross_Varn]

Don't forget to take pictures. You need to post them on here and tell us how it went.

[The Dreaded Chainsaw-face]

I am so down for some Portland BrikWars! Keep me posted, I'd love to play. If people are around we should make something happen.

[Nemo20k]

Ok, due to scheduling conflict in the short-term, the Loki's Games BrikWars tournament scheduled for January 21, 2009 has been postpwned until some time in March.

There will be Army Building workshops between now and then, either on Wednesday or Thursday evenings.

I will post dates and times as they become known.

I also have a few pix from a skirmish we did at an Army Building workshop. How can I share those?

[pesgores]

Photobucket.

[silvadream]

or flickr or brickshelf.