I’m going to be doing an anticipated games to buy at Gen Con list coming up here. But I want to highlight some games that won’t be on that list. Mainly games that I already know that I like because I own them. So if you’re going to Gen Con and you haven’t played them, and you find your tastes align with mine, at least sometimes, these might be games for you to checkout.

Games to Checkout at Gen Con that I’ve Played

Slay the Spire

Let’s start with Slay the Spire from Contention Games. We all know that I like this as a video game. I’ve streamed it on Malts and Meeples YouTube channel several times. But I’ve also streamed the video game a few times. This game is a great implementation of the video game both as a solo experience, more close to the video game, and multiplayer. The game play is fast, impactful and really provides a lot of fun as you go through and battle.

I think there is a difference between solo and multiplayer. But I think I might might like the multiplayer better. That tactical element of working together to take out bad guys, figuring out whose to target and how to mitigate the worst damage as a group is great. That is not something that can be done in a solo game.

Dungeon Kart

Next up is Dungeon Kart. I’m so glad that I got to demo this one at Gen Con last year and then get my Kickstarter for it. This is going to be a Mario Kart style racing game. But Brotherwise Games brings in their own characters from Boss Monster, and those are the racers.

The racing in the game is fast and the whole game moves quickly. You just plan how you can move and hope not to crash as you careen around the board. At the same time you also try and pick up spells that you cast and mess with the other drivers. And player positioning determines what smell you might get, further behind the better. I love the experience of this one, it is a bit chaotic but it’s really good.

Vegetable Stock

Vegetable Stock is a little game compared to the first two. But it’s still a really fun and fast filler style of game. It’s a stock market game, you aren’t making soup you’re buying and selling veggies. And it does that through a drafting system that is really clever.

You flip out cards to draft equal to the number of players plus one. In turn order, each player drafts a veggie. And it might seem like the player at the end is in a worse spot, but they aren’t. Because they get to determine what the leftover veggies are going to be. Each card has three veggies on it, I believe, or possibly two, and those veggies increase in value. So that, again, might sound bad, but when a veggie hits the top of their value, they bust. So the player picking last can control which veggies increase and which bust.

The game is just six rounds long. So it goes fast and is one that is easy to say you shuffle up and play again. And now it’s coming from Arcane Wonders, so it’s going to be easier to find than before.

A Gentle Rain

Speaking of small games and games that were hard to find, A Gentle Rain is back. This is a peaceful solo gaming experience. In this game you flip over a tile, you match it to the sides of other tiles by color. Your goal is to get four corners matching, or what would be four corners. The tiles have the corners cut out so that when all match it creates a circle. When you create a circle you place in a flower. The goal is get rid of all the flowers before all the tiles are gone. It is really simple, but it’s meant to be a peaceful game, and it does that.

Stonespine Architects

Last but not least on the list we have Stonespine Architects. This is a dungeon building game that honestly feels like it could be at home in the Brotherwise Games Boss Monster world. Instead it is from Thunderworks Games and their Roll Player world, which also works.

In this game you build out a dungeon or labyrinth really. You want it full of monsters, traps and other things. But this is done from open drafting of dungeon tiles. And those tiles then give you money to get more monsters to add to them. All of the time trying to complete various objectives and drafting more throughout the game.

I like the speed this game plays a lot. And I think that the drafting is simple enough that it works well. And the scoring, while there are a number of ways to score, all of it is pretty obvious as you get going. The buying things is maybe the hardest to track, but overall a fast fun dungeon building game.

Final Thoughts

I do want to add in two honorable mentions at Gen Con really quickly. I chose not to put any expansions on the list, but there are two worth checking out.

Forest Shuffle Alpine is a great little expansion for Forest Shuffle. It is going to add in a few more cards and no more complexity. So now the deck of cards has a bit more variety to it and it improves some potential scoring. I mixed it into my game and there is no reason to remove it, so it works really well.

World Wonders: Mundo Expansion is just more wonders for World Wonders. It adds a tiny bit more than that, I believe, but not much else that I can remember. Just a slight tweak to wonders scoring. So it’s another expansion that is really easy to mix in.

There are a lot of games to checkout at Gen Con every year. These are all some games and expansions that I can say that I really like. So if you are interested in them, or heard me talk about them before, now is a chance to pick them up. Are there any first time at Gen Con games that you know already and recommend?

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