by Josh
This is part two of our Friday report for Gallifrey One. Josh wasn’t able to get to the convention until around 5 at night, but there was still a ton of fun to be had! We ventured into the Game Room, and then headed to the Time Bash, which was a casino and carnival event all rolled into one!
Gallifrey One – Friday Night Part 2
This is part two of our Friday adventures at the 26th annual Gallifrey One. For Violet’s Part One report of our Friday experience at Gallifrey One, click here!
Gallifrey One: The Game Room
Unfortunately, since Gallifrey One started on Friday, I had to work, so was unable to get to Gallifrey One until close to 5pm. Once I got there, I met up with Violet, who helped me figure out where to get my badge. Then we went and walked the “exhibits”, which Gallifrey One called the Dealers Room. It was surprising to me how small this was, as the Conventions I had been to, the hall is usually pretty big.
After the Dealers Room, Violet and I met up with our friends Davey and Tamara. They were on break from the convention hanging out with one of Davey’s friends by the Marriot pool. I had been starving, having not had anything to eat since lunch time, but behold! Violet informs me of a snack bar area! That was a really nice addition to the show. Its small and unnecessary, but really did make my day learning about it. It was probably such good news mostly because I was starving.
Davey’s friend decided to take off, so we decided our next missions: journey up to the game room. It was on the 18th floor of the Marriott, so we headed on up. We weren’t sure what to expect, as we have never had enough downtime at conventions to just sit around and play games, so we were a little intimidated. All four of us like board games, but we aren’t as intense players as some people would be, particularly those that would be playing at this show.
The hostess of the game room was very nice, and greeted us, asking which game we would like to play. Well we didn’t have a ton of time here, so we went with something we were pretty familiar with, Ticket to Ride. Only this was the Europe version, and we had only played the US version before. We discovered several new rules in the European version: The addition of train stations, “tunneled” routes, and the necessity of ferries to reach island areas. Oh, and since this takes place in Europe, the geography was much less familiar. On top of that, the board seemed to use older names, so cities we knew, like Athens was called Athina on the board. This certainly made figuring out routes a bit more challenging.
While were figuring out the rules, and getting set up, a fellow gamer named Armani had just finished a game of Munchkin with another group (another fun game I am familiar with). He saw we were just getting set up, so he asked if he could join our game. We gladly brought him into the game, and since he hadn’t played Ticket to Ride before, we did our best to give him a crash course on the rules. We began the game, and it took quite a while to play–longer than we thought. After about half way through the game, it dawned on me that we were on the 18th floor, and the walls were basically windows for the game room, and while it was dark, it was pretty mesmerizing looking out over Los Angeles while playing a game of Ticket to Ride. The game continued play, and in the end, Davey was able to win by a very small margin, followed by me, trailing by 3 or 4 points. It was disappointing, as I thought I had the game in the bag!
We had a lot of fun though, and while Violet and I tend to be more timid, Armani was a lot of fun to play with. The four of us said our goodbyes to Armani, and returned the game to the hostess. We did get a cool ribbon out of playing in the game room too! The time went by quick here in the game room, so we headed to dinner. First we tried going to Champions, but there was a 50-55 minute wait, so we went over to Latitude 33 instead, where we only waited about 5 minutes. Our waiter gave us ribbons, so that was pretty cool. We finished dinner just in time to head over to the Time Bash, which started at 9:30pm.
Gallifrey One: Time Bash
The Time Bash was an event that was a blend of a casino night with a carnival. The casino aspect had Hold ‘Em poker tables and Blackjack tables where you can bet fake chips to earn towards raffle tickets. Then surrounding the walls of the room, were various carnival games you could earn tickets with. These tickets could be used to purchase raffle tickets for various prizes–Doctor Who action figures, a Doctor Who Trivial Pursuit, and a Sonic Screwdriver, to name of a few. the four of us weren’t sure what we would be interested in, but I was pretty certain I wanted to play poker. Davey seemed to be interested too, and went for a table right when the Time Bash doors opened. The four of us sat down for some Hold ‘Em. Now, I am pretty familiar with Hold ‘Em rules, having played a lot, and unfortunately I was a little disappointed with the actual game play. The dealer seemed to kind of know how to play, but not quite all the way. For example, she consistently dealt the first card to the same person every time. This is supposed to rotate depending on who small blind is (if you don’t know poker, this explanation might be a little boring). Also, after she dealt, she immediately dealt the flop, not allowing for any pre-flop betting! Davey and I also had to explain side pots when people were “All in”. Now I am a stickler for rules, so it was a little frustrating not being able to play, “right”. But in the end, this was really an issue with me, and not the event. I could tell by the way other people played that they weren’t familiar with the rules of poker at all, which made me realize I am taking this game way too seriously.
Violet and Tamara ran out of chips fairly quickly in the game, and they decided to see what else was going on. They went and became “ticket fairies”, and would go play one of the various carnival games, returning with tickets. After a little while, Davey and I were able to win a few big hands, and we decided our time at the poker table was done. We went and played a few of the carnival games, and received some more raffle tickets. We then went and put our raffle tickets in, and decided that it was getting pretty late. We all headed back to our cars, and went home for the night.
A few more photos from the Gallifrey One Time Bash:
Gallifrey One: Friday Night Comes to an End
It was well after 11pm when we decided to head back to the car, and what I didn’t mention at the beginning, was that the Marriott parking had filled by the time I had made it to the convention. I was told to park at the Renaissance Hotel down the street. The walk to the Marriott wasn’t bad, nor the walk back, but being able to leave the parking structure was annoying. Especially since I had been up since 5am that day, I was ready to go home! I will spare the details, but it was a bit frustrating after being awake 18+ hours.
The one thing about Gallifrey One is that it does feel like a big party, and everyone is really accepting of each other, which is great. There was a lot of great cosplay, whether it was a Doctor, River Song, various villains, and even some non-Whovian characters like Carmen San Diego. In the game room, people were very welcoming to other players they didn’t know, and at the Time Bash, people were just hanging out playing games. Even though I didn’t get to do a lot of panels, or walking around, I had a lot of fun hanging around with a bunch of fellow Whovians.
Click here to continue to Part 1 of our Saturday Report! >>
Did you miss our slideshow of pictures from Friday and Saturday? Click here!
