Santa Claus Parade at Minotaur

Planning to watch the Kingston Santa Claus Parade? Drop into Minotaur first (or during the parade) for some free hot chocolate and treats! Stand outside and if you get cold you can pop in for a refill. We'll also be having a sale of 15% off all Holiday ornaments and cards.

Origami Holiday Card Workshop

Minotaur will be hosting another of Bonnie Beals popular origami workshops. This one will feature the making of Holiday Cards using origami techniques.

When: Sunday, November 29, 2009 from 2-4pm
Cost: $5 a card

This workshop was extremely popular last year. Sign up soon to insure a space. You can sign up at Minotaur or respond here if you can't make in prior to the event.

Samples of the kinds of cards you will make are also on display at Minotaur and sell for $10 each (so the origami workshop is a good deal).

Dominion Tournament II

Wow, this crept up on me quickly!

We are having a tournament to celebrate the release of Dominion Seaside. Be ready to play with cards from any and all flavours of Dominion. If you make it to the final table, you'll be able to pick a card for the final game!

When: Saturday, November 14, 2009. Start Time: 12 Noon

Bring your best game and the grand prize of a copy of the new Dominion Seaside could be yours!

P.S. Would anyone attending the tournament who owns any versions of the game be willing to bring them to the tournament? The tournament will proceed regardless, but extra copies may come in handy. Let us know if you can help out!

Costume Show

Here, at last are the photos from the Costume show! For more, check out the slideshow on the left.

Halloween At Minotaur

Saturday, October 31st, 2-5pm

Face Paniting - Come get made-up for trick-or-treating or a party! $5.00-$10.00

Spooky Origami Workshop with Bonnie Beals $5.00

Free: Craft Table, Treats, Spooky Games and More!

Halloween Merchandise 50% off all day.

Zombie Walk Photos

Look to the side for a slideshow of the zombie walk photos! More to come I hope.

The zombie walk was a staggeringly good time! Some of the costumes were killer! There were over a hundred undead lurching their way down Princess Street. Next year let's double that number!

-Justine

Zombie Walk 2009

Check out: http://kingston-zombie-walk.webs.com/# and http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5850787038 for information on the 2009 Kingston Zombie Walk. Minotaur's not running a zombie walk this year, but you better believe that I'll be shambling off to Skeleton Park on October 17th at 6pm to become a part of the Undead Hoarde.

What Minotaur is doing is running a pre-walk makeup session. For five bucks, you can drop by Minotaur from 4-5:30 pm and transform your face into a grusome horror. We provide the make-up, the mirror and whatever advice we can offer.

Board Game Blitz

Marc Lanctot, who played in the King Con 2009 Mixed Euro Game Arena tournament, enjoyed himself so much that he took the idea to FanExpo 2009 and ran a tournament of his own. That in turn was such a success that the MEGA tournament idea (now called a Board Game Blitz) is going national with feeder tournaments at game conventions all across Canada. We'll host one at King Con 2010. Feeder tournament winners will go on to compete in the finals at FanExpo 2010.

The first feeder tournament will be held at Draconis 2009 in Montreal on the 17th of October from 2-10pm. For a list of games go to: http://www.gcbgb.ca/gcbgb_qc.pdf.

For more information about the Draconis Game Convention go to: http://www.draconismontreal.ca/index.php.

Costume Show

Tomorrow, Minotaur will be participating in Fashion Active, a charitable event to raise money for Fashion Action (www.fashiontakesactive.com supporting sweatshop free, enviornmentally friendly clothing) and changefortheenviornment.org). We'll be contributing with a costume show featurning Clelia Scala's masks, matching costumes modelled by several Minotaur employees and a few other poor saps who have agreed to participate. I'll post pictures after the fact.

There is also a retail area Minotaur's booth will feature board games (board gaming is an eco-friendly pastime) and some of our locally made and eco-friendly gifts.

Add to the above, free snacks, a cash bar and live music.

The event will take place at Renaissance, 285 Queen Street on Thursday, September 24th at 7pm. Tickets are available at the door, at ticketpro.ca and at Fancy That Boutique on Princess St.

August Winner

Adam Baig has won our August blog contest. Congrats Adam! Sorry Adam for taking so long to do the draw and post this. Come in and pick up your $20.00 gift certificate!

Pandemic - On the Brink

Yep, the new Pandemic expansion is now in stock. It contains the following:

• 7 new and 1 revised Role cards


• 8 new Special Event cards


• 12 pawns


• 8 Virulent Strain Epidemic cards


• 12 purple desease cubes


• 1 purplle disease cure marker


• 1 purple "cured disease" tile


• 2 Mutation cards


• 3 Mutation Event cards


• 1 Bio-terrorist location pad


• 1 added Epidemic card


• 1 added reference card


• 4 blank cards for customizing


• 6 petri dishes and labels


• 1 rulebook

In addition you can now play the game with 5 players and at a "Legendary" difficulty level!

For more information go to: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40849

- Justine

Saturday, September 19th is Worldwide D&D Day

This Dungeons and Dragons event gives attendees an opportunity to partcipate in group adventure design and then to play another group's adventure. No experience necessary. No paraphanalia required either, but if you have your own dice and Player's Handbook, bring them in and you won't have to share!

Gen Con Indy - Catan North American Championsips

Hi All - sorry for the long gap in blog postings - I've been busy elsewhere, among other things, away from the store with a nasty cold. I'll try to delegate if this happens again!

Ian Watson, our entrant in the Catan North American Championships, had a great time at Gen Con an placed 9th over all in the Catan Tournament. Top prize went to another Canadian, Edgar Zurawell, who gets to go to Germany next year. Congrats Edgar! For a sample of what went on in the Mayfair booth, check out the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sswuIaG-hPo . Ian Watson can be picked out of the crowd by his CBC t-shirt.

I'll post again very soon - before the end of the week with a list of upcoming events at Minotaur!

- Justine

Catan at GenCon Indy

Ian, the winner of the King Con Settlers of Catan tournament, is off enjoying his prize at GenCon Indy. He's in the first day of the North American Championships - let's all keep our fingers crossed for him. Wouldn't it be great if he made it to Germany next year!! I'll post his results when I get them!

For everyone who commented (or still wants to comment) on the Dominion Tournament and for anyone who has anything to say about Catan Tournaments, past present or future over the next week, we are offering a 15% discount off of our Eurogame section during the week of August 24th - 30th!

-Justine

Robert Dominates

Robert Holiday won Minotaur's first ever Dominion tournament and got to take home a copy of Dominion Intrigue!

Comments

Post a comment THIS week about any of todays posts (Winner, Dominion Tournament, Origami Workshop, Books at Minotaur) and get 15% off books in the store NEXT week. And you’ll be entered in the monthly draw for a $20.00 Minotaur Gift Certificate!

Books at Minotaur

We've received many new books over the past week - colouring books, crossword puzzle collections, maze books, challenging puzzle books and anything weird that appeals to me. We have Gadget Nation, Fill-In Paint-doku, The Villian's Guide to Better Living, The Mathematical Recreations of Lewis Carol, Cut & Assemble a Crusader Castle and so much more. Pop in and browse!

Origami Workshop

Bonnie Beals will be holding another Origami Workshop on August 23rd. Cost is $5.00 per person. All supplies will be provided. All ages welcome. No experience necessary.

Dominion Tournament

Sunday, August 9th at Minotaur! Start time 12 noon. Cost $5.oo per person. First prize is a copy of Dominion Intrigue (if you already own Intrigue, there will be an alternate prize.) Sign up at Minotaur anytime between now and the event!

Winner!

The winner of our first blog draw is Jon a.k.a Boat Builder. Jon, come in and claim your $20.00 gift certificate! We'll draw a 2nd name in early September from all of the August comments.

Dominion Intrigue HERE AT LAST!

We've all waited a very long time...almost too long. But finally Dominion Intrigue has rolled through our door. Those of you with preorders, can come pick them up! We do also have a few copies that aren't spoken for yet, but we expect them to go fast!

Personally, I can't wait to try it out tonight!

In honor of Dominion Intrigue, we are extending last week's discount to this week.

So:

Post a comment about your favourite card game or let us know about any great ones we’ve missed. Post a comment THIS week and get 15% off card games in the store NEXT week. And you’ll be entered in the monthly draw for a $20.00 Minotaur Gift Certificate!

Card Games

Last night, at games night, I played, for the first time, a German card game called Sticheln. It’s viciously addictive and I can’t wait to play it again. To quote George Pletz who commented on it on Board Game Geek Sticheln is “A wicked little trick-taking game which bewitched me within a single game".

Summer is a great time for card games as they are portable and many of them can be played anywhere – on a beach blanket, picnic table or pub patio.

Post a comment about your favourite card game or let us know about any great ones we’ve missed. Post a comment THIS week and get 15% off card games in the store NEXT week. And you’ll be entered in the monthly draw for a $20.00 Minotaur Gift Certificate!

Discount for Comments & Monthly Contest

Have a fun Minotaur story you wish to share?

Comment on this week's post (Free RPG Weekend) and receive a 15% discount off all D&D 4th Edition Products (excluding items already on sale) next week - June 29 - July 5.

All you have to do is: 1) Become a member 2) Contribute to our blog by commenting on the weekly post(s) and get a 15% discount on the discount item of the week (the week following the post). Come into Minotaur and state your name and get the discount. We'll keep a list of posts.

Contest:

Once a month we'll draw a name from all the posts and give out a $20.00 Minotaur gift certificate. Only one entry per person per week will be counted towards the draw, but please feel free to post as much as you like!

Free RPG Weekend

On Free RPG day publishers distribute free gaming goo to existing and wannabe role-playing gamers via local, independant, game stores. At Minotaur we also ran the new Dungeons & Dragons Eberon adventure all day Sunday.

We would appreciate any and all comments on the stuff on offer this year. We were disappointed by the lack of minis on offer this year, but were intrigued by the new Giest RPG from White Wolf.

As for the adventuring - what did everyone think of the new Eberon Campaign World?

- Justine

P.S. Still a few free odds and ends left - if you didn't make it down this weekend, you can still pick up some stuff.

GAMES NIGHT CHANGE!

Wednesday's games night is moving to Thursday and will run from 5-9pm.
Sunday's games night will remain the same (also 5-9pm). June 4th will be the first Thursday games night.

Feedback on this change would be much appreciated!

Minotaur Discounts at Blogspot? SWEET ! !

We will be posting discount opportunities on our blog.

1) Check the blog

2) Run to Minotaur to enjoy your discount!

Stay tuned.
-Ada

Origami Workshop

Bonnie Beals held her fourth origami workshop at Minotaur on May 10th. Bonnie is an expert paper folder and can provide instruction for making both simple and complex origami sculptures. participants at the May workshop were all fairly new to origami, so they worked their way through a few basic designs - a flower, a crane, a box and a shirt, pants and tie combo. We'll have Bonnie back for another workshop this summer.

-Justine

King Con 2009 Wrap Up!

Well, King Con 2009 is in the bag, so to speak, and it was a great three days in gaming indeed! We’d like to thank everyone involved, from organizers to GMs, players and volunteers and everyone in between. Kingston’s second annual game convention was a blast and we couldn’t have done it without you!

As this is our blog, I'll focus on Minotaur’s events. Here are the quick and dirty results:

First, our Akanul adventure proved to be a killer. Both parties failed to save the dragonborn or to bring justice to the conspirator behind his wrongful murder conviction. This was one heck of a tough adventure, and kudos go to the players for a strong showing despite ultimately coming up short. Besides, a battlegrid covered in wraiths is just such an evocative image. If it’s going to be a total party kill, at least it’s a memorable one!

John Dupont was the winner of the “Mega” Eurogame tournament, squeeking out with a victory over Robert Holiday in the five game, sixteen player event. John maintained control over which games he played for the entire tournament and it showed. And while Calvin Chan gave him a run for his money in Caylus, John wasn’t about to lose in his signature game. So until next year, John's our King of Con (at least insofar as Eurogames go - nyah!)

And finally, for the biggie: Ian Watson took home the crown for the Settlers of Catan tournament in a hard-fought victory over Huss (Brown Sugar!), Robin (all the way from Waterloo!), and Jason (He of "The Shirt"). For those who don't know, Ian had to be convinced to enter – he’s sure glad he did! Even though this year isn't officially a "Canadian Championship" due to Mayfair's loopiness, Ian's got serious chops... consider him your national champ, ya? So congratulations, and good luck at GenCon: win one for the team!

This year's King Con was brought to you by 4 Colour/8-Bit, Minotaur, Nexus, and The Rocking Horse. Our new venue for 2009 -- Confederation Place Hotel -- worked out quite well, being spacious and accomodating... and even though the Friday night social was a bit of a scheduling muckup alongside the nursing grad party, all turned out well in the end!

Patrick

Kingston vs. Montreal Table Hockey Match 2009

Kingston Minotaurs

Montreal Frogs (Champions)

Christeas Cup Table Hockey Tournament 2009

Doubles winners - The Prairie Punks

Singles winner - Elden McClenaghan

Inaugrual Akanul Adventure Is a Hit!

So it took a bit longer to get our ducks in a row and post them, but check out some pictures of our first Akanul Adventure!

We had two solid groups run roughshod over baddies on February 28th -- our intrepid adventurers made mincemeat* out of their spellscarred and genasi adversaries en route to almost apprehending the fugitive dragonborn wanted for the horrific lumberyard murders. On the way, the question of guilt or innocense arose -- now the dragonborn may not be the quarry after all!

With the enigmatic Hurley Burley Man burbling out his half-cooked prophecies, it seems that this little adventure is only just the beginning... a far more sinister plot lies beneath, one in which our providential adventurers will no doubt find themselves sooner rather than later!

Stay tuned for the next installment this April -- King Con 2009 baby!

* Using a massive, automated lumbermill rotary saw to hamburger a genasi assassin proved to be both gruesome and hilariously popular at the same time!

- Patrick

March 2009 Newsletter!

To check out our spiffy March '09 newsletter, clicky clicky on:

www.minotaurgifts.com/news/09mar.pdf

Cheers!
Patrick

Settlers Of Catan Tournament Photos

This year's in-store Settler's of Catan tournament was our qualifier for the North American Settler's tournament qualifier at King Con (Kingston's game convention - more about this later).

John Dupont came away with the top prize - tickets to the con and entrance into the Settler's tourney there. If he wins that tournament, we'll be sending him to Gen Con Indy to play in the NA Catan Championship. Sign up and see if you can beat him!

-Justine














Round one - Huss' crushing victory.

A quick game of Lost Cities between rounds.

Round three - Hard at play.
















Round three - Stealing Cards




















The Final Game - Huss: Oh, the Agony...
















The final four: Bernhard, Huss (still trying to win), John and Geoff

John Dupont - Lord of All Catan

Staff Party

Just to show you how much we love each other, here's the staff playing Cash & Guns. Kevin is having so much fun he's gleefully commiting suicide!

- Justine

Hello and then some

Hello all,

This is the launch of a new Minotaur blog. We had one started by Ada Mullett, our publicity guru, that we didn't use nearly enough and although I had the ability to update it - I never remembered to do so. I will make this one a part of my weekly routine and hope that others at Minotaur will use this also. Please feel free to send us content to post - photos, text, links to great sites, game reviews, etc.

If you don't already know Minotaur well, we are a games and gifts store in downtown Kingston. We sell all sorts of games - board games, card games, RPG's, CCG's, party games and if we don't have it we'll try to get in for you (as long as it is in print). We don't carry electronic, computer or console games, so don't ask for those. On the gift front, we sell jigsaws, brainteasers, origami paper, toys, tin robots, stuffed microbes and all sorts of other things that need to be seen to be believed. Greeting cards have become another big part of our business. None of the fluffy bunny/sentimental variety, we promise.

The other thing we do is have events. Being involved with Kingston's gaming community and with the community at large is important. No doubt it helps business, but it also makes life at the store fun! We host free games nights twice a week and run more specifec events thorought the year. Some of these have included/will include board game tournaments, table hockey tournaments, D&D delves, charity scrabble tournaments, origami workshops, a zombie walk and I could go on and on... We are also involved in the organization of Kingston's annual game convention "King Con" and will be running many events there. But we'll keep you up to date on events with regular postings.

I should also mention that we have a games area in the store with tables and a water cooler and shelves full of games to play. Come in anytime we are open, bring some friends and crack open a game!

Well, most of you probably already know most of the above, but I wanted to start off this blog by getting it all out there. The rest of the posts will assume you know who we are!

-Justine