Top 5 Games I Want To Demo At Gen Con

5. Satchel Quest

This is a bag building game. What is a bag building game, it’s like deck building, but instead of cards you are adding tokens to your bag and you draw from those. This gives it a fantasy theme as you are building out your bag to go adventure, fight monsters and create interesting combos. So it’s a dungeon delving game but not a campaign game.

I feel like Satchel Quest is going to offer something unique and fun as a game from building up the dungeon, heading to town to heal, upgrade and buy more tokens and then delving back into the dungeon. So a fantasy theme which I find fun with good sounding mechanism and unique sounding mechanisms for that type of game have me really curious.

4. Class of ’89

I was alive in 1989, though no where near graduating. But this game, from Paverson Games, sounds like a lot of fun. And Paverson Games has hit it out of the park with both Luthier and Distilled in terms of people loving the game. This game is about building your best yearbook and that just sounds fun. I think and maybe even hope that this will be a lighter game, but when you give me a good theme, the Paverson Games production values and attention to detail in games, I’m super excited for this one.

3. Excursions

Excursions is going to be a top game to demo for a lot of people. Why, because this is a follow-up game to Galactic Cruise from Kinson Key Games. Now, I know that I like Galactic Cruise. I’ve played it a few times and I really like the game. That one is all about scoring points by being the best cruise planner and launching cruises. This one is more about the cruises that are already in the air and now you are making sure everyone is having a good time there.

That theme is a lot of fun. And I like that it’s a continuation of the theme from Galactic Cruise. But it’s not something that would be locking them into just being that sort of company for their games. If you want to demo this game, get there first thing in the morning, I’d say. This is of course assuming they have a demo at their booth. It might be only ticketed demos, I haven’t looked.

2. Wobbly Life: The Board Game

This game just sounds like dumb fun. And that is a great type of game to tryout at Gen Con instead of just buying it. Now it’s not available to buy, but let’s talk about the game.

This is a dice rolling dexterity game where my assumption is that you are flicking your character around a board to land on different life events. And depending on how well you do that, you get a job, make money, buy a house, all the things that you would do in The Game of Life. But this just sounds more silly and fun. Honestly, this is a game that I’ll probably look to track down when it comes out.

1. War of the Dragon: The Wheel of Time

I like the series for The Wheel of Time a lot. It’s one that just has that classic epic fantasy feel to it. And I considered backing the game when it was on crowdfunding. But I held off on it for two reasons. The first is, I watched a little game play and I wasn’t sure how much I’d love it. I think that I would, but not completely sure. The other is that it’s a 2 player game (it says 2 to 4 but I assume really 2) and 2-4 hours per game. That is a lot of time.

So this is the perfect type of game for me to demo at Gen Con. I would give it a try and see if I like it. If I do, then doing a late pledge is always going to be an option for me.

Honorable Mentions:

Mistborn: Well of Ascension is just an honorable mention because I already know that I like the game. It’s a deck building game around the Mistborn series from Brandon Sanderson. So this is just going to be more stuff for that game and I’m excited for that.

Defenders of the Dictionary is another that I already know that I like quite well. I got to demo it two years ago now at Gen Con and I had fun with it. It’s a cooperative Scrabble type of game where you are trying to create words that connect different spots on the board and dealing with enemies as well. Interesting combo but works.

Final Thoughts

If you are heading out to Gen Con this year and demo these games, let me know. I’m really excited to hear more about all of these and how they play. Maybe one of them, or more, will be duds and that’ll be good to know. But I’m excited for all of them, am tempted to buy all of them when they show-up, and would love to know if that’s a good choice or not.

What games are you excited to demo at Gen Con?

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Gen Con Pre-Orders

Let’s start off with a kind of list of games and expansions that I’ve already ordered because you can get a lot of these around the time of Gen Con even if you aren’t going to Gen Con.

The first one is the Flip Toons Season 2 standalone expansion. What’s a standalone expansion, you can play it by itself or mix it with Flip Toons. Flip Toons is a game of building out your best two by three grid, exceptions of course to this sort of game, that is going to score you the most points. Everyone improves their grid by getting rid of cards and adding in new ones. This doesn’t change up the core game, but it just adds more to it.

The next is Tag Team: Arthur’s Legacy and I’m not sure if this is standalone as well as an expansion, but it’s more stuff for Tag Team. Tag Team is an auto battling game where you try and outsmart your opponent so you knock one of their characters out before they knock out one of yours. It’s awesome and so easy to get more characters for because you just swap out who you play with.

Final three are Camp Grizzly, Jisogi and Hell of a Deal. Both of these were crowdfunding games. Camp Grizzly is a horror game of trying to survive that classic scenario of a summer camp gone wrong. And Hell of a Deal is a cooperative poker game playing poker against the devil. I backed both on crowdfunding and Camp Grizzly will be here soon. Hell of a Deal should follow shortly, but might not get it before the Gen Con folks do. And Jisogi is all about running your best anime studio in a heavy game.

Top 5 Games I Want From Gen Con

5. Kobayakawa

A little trick-taking-esque game from Oink! games. This one is one that I’d love to get and play from Gen Con. The idea is really interesting. You want to win the trick, but to do that, you need the highest number. The twist is that there is a card in the middle of the table. And the player with the lowest number in the hand gets to add that to their total. Now, that might not be high enough to win, but it might be. And instead of playing cards as traditional in trick-taking, you can swap your card with one from the deck, or you can swap that middle card.

4. Mystic Curling Club

This is one that last year I was interested in how the game demoed. I heard some about it, but now it’s a thing and I’m curious about how it plays. The theme is what has me for this game, a magical curling club, plus then dexterity as you flick your curling stones (dice) down the board. I hope that it is a game that is silly fu n and when reviews start coming out that people will love it, because it’s one I really want.

3. Azure

I wrote about Azure as it’s one of the new games I’ve played this year, but now I’m talking about it for Gen Con. This is a two player abstract game of scoring points and winning majorities in some areas. I like how it works with the majorities because you are able to flip them and they give you an advantage. Also the spots you play depend on the cards you have in hand, but you can make spots cheaper by having your stones in that row or column. Fast, abstract, and really fun.

2. Pet Quartet

This one is probably an odd one because it’s about drafting animals. But it’s done in an “I split, you choose” sort of manner. And only animals that are by themselves or in a quartet at the end of the game are going to score you points. So I expect it’s going to be light and fast, but how do you split the cards so that you can get what you want all while not giving your opponents what they want. Of course, if you make one good for you, will they steal it and block you from it.

1. Torchlit

Torchlit sounds just like my type of game. It’s a trick-taking game and I like trick-taking games a lot. But it’s also a dungeon crawler, kind of. More that you have to fight and defeat monsters as part of that trick-taking which I assume is going to be what gives you points. That theme is just on point for me and from Allplay, I find that I like most of their games.

Bonus Gen Con Expansions

So let’s quickly talk a few expansions that I’d love to get my hands on as well. There is another princess for Rebel Princess which I love, so that one would be awesome to get. And then one that I expect is going to be really popular the Rock Hard 1977: Ear Candy sounds good, I really like that game. And then for a couple of games that I like more tiles for Castle Combo and Faraway just adding a little more to those games. Finally two from PlayPunk Captain Flip: Isla Bomba is just new maps, not new rules for Captain Flip and for one of my favorite games, more stuff for Zenith.

5 I’m Asking To Be Bought For Me

Now, you might think that I’d just ask for the games that were in my top 5. And while that is tempting, some of them are a little bit more expensive. And they are also larger so with shipping costs not being cheap I don’t want someone to do that for me and have to lug those games around.

The five that I’m most interested in getting shipped to me Kobayakawa, Pet Quartet, and Torchlit make it from the list. The other two are Questline from Thunderworks Games. This one maybe should have been on the list, but also is less important that it is. It’s a game company that I’m always down to try their games and Questline looks like a good time. And then between Phantom of the Opera a two player trick-taking game and Trick to the Future another trick-taking game but one where you can rewrite tricks that have happened?

Final Thoughts

There are so many amazing games coming out this year at Gen Con. That is always true, but I think it’s worth highlighting again. While not all of the games are for me, if I were at Gen Con, I’d probably sit down and try any of them.

What games do you hope to pick-up at Gen Con?

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It’s worth noting before I start that some of these games were “Gen Con releases”. They were available prior to Gen Con at other sources but Gen Con was the first convention that they were widely at in the United States.

My Gen Con Haul

Tricky Kids

The first three are going to be the ones that a friend picked up from Gen Con for me. Tricky Kids is a trick taking game. The twist on this trick taking game is that the cards do not have numbers on them. Instead when you get your hand of seven cards you write down the numbers, which need to total up to 21 points.

There is more than that as well. As you play out the tricks, the points you get are from the chips that you take. And you know what order those chips are going to come out in. So while everything might give you some points, you may want to avoid winning a trick in hopes of taking a trick later in the hand. This just sounds brain burning and fun.

Slam Throne

Slam Throne is pogs. Yup, it’s as simple as that, but it’s pogs with the Dice Throne theme. I believe it was four characters who were released, granted you don’t know who you get. This one just looks like silly fun and that is what drew me into it. Plus I love Dice Throne so I want to support the company when they make a product that I think looks fun. Is it going to be great, I doubt it, but sometimes fun is just what you want.

First-Class Letters

I like roll and write games. But First-Class Letters is not like the typical roll and write game. This is a word game with roll and write elements to it. It’s about creating words and putting them in order. But each time you roll letters you get more points for using all three of the letters. But there is always a letter that you cannot use, and as you can guess that’s generally a vowel.

To add to that you need to put your words in alphabetical order. That might not be too hard, but as you get down to it, you become more and more limited as gaps between letters start to shrink. And at the beginning of the game you seed three spots with starting letters, so that can add to the challenge as well. I think this sounds like a ton of fun, though I can see why some people may not like it because it is a word game.

Trinket Trove

From the same company as First-Class Letters, though I didn’t get this one picked up for me at Gen Con, is Trinket Trove. Trinket Trove is a set collection game. But to collect cards you need to bid to draft them. The twist on this is that as you bid to draft cards, the more cards you bid, the sooner you go. But also, the cards that you bid are now a pile of cards that someone else can take. The set collection aspect looks simple, so it is the bidding that really excites me for this game.

No Loose Ends

Also from the same company, which is GameHead, we have No Loose Ends. No Loose Ends is a trick taking game where you want to win certain types of tricks. How do you determine that, well, you use cards from your hand to indicate what type of trick you are going to take. I like this balancing act as it’s a twist on the normal bidding. I need to decide if I can win a blue trick or two but I need to play out two blue cards are bids, for example. That sounds like a fun trick taking twist to me.

Vantage

Vantage from Stonemaier Games is one of the ones that was released before Gen Con. And I pre-ordered it before Gen Con. But this is an open world adventure game. You get a mission to complete as a group at the start of the game. And then you get dropped into a world.

This is a game where you can win, but it’s more about the experience. What is the world like, what adventures will you go on? I also hear that it is better in that one to maybe three player range. And that is because while it is engaging to be part of the story at the table, it is downtime between turns. So I like it for a one off sandbox game when I want to play an open world game.

Otter

Otter is one that wasn’t on my radar going into Gen Con. It is only because of hearing about it that I pre-ordered this one, or late pledged it, on crowdfunding. Otter is a card shedding game. By that I mean you want to empty your hand completely. But if you don’t, you draw back up and try again.

Each otter has a head and tail that are give you a rule. So it might be something like the next card you play is two or less different from the previous card and it is of the fish suit. If you match both things you can keep on playing on that one until you only match one of the two. And there are three otters in play, so you want to try and match all of them.

I like the sound of this one because it sounds simple to learn but tricky to play.

Tag Team

This one the Man vs Meeple channel was the one that brought it to my attention. The game is interesting because it is what is known as an autobattler. That means that you have your two heroes and your opponent has two and the cards just battle themselves. That is not something that sounds like a great game there.

The trick is what as you start you have two cards. You battle both of them out. Then you draw three more cards and you add one of them to your deck. You don’t rearrange the cards in your deck, but you add that one and you decide, do I add it at the top, middle or bottom. Effectively when will cards activate. As you start to know your opponents card you ask yourself, when are they going to activate their big attack, and can I block that time. But they know that, so do they adjust where it is in the deck when they add a new card above it, or keep it in the same spot?

Ace of Spades

Finally is Ace of Spades. I won’t say too much on this one because I already wrote a review for it. You can read the review for Ace of Spades here. Devir has another hit game and one that sold out really fast each day at Gen Con. This is a solo or two player game where you battle a boss by playing out poker hands. It is easy to learn and play but offers some fun challenges as you go along.

The one thing that I think keeps this from being more so for everyone is that it is somewhat lucky. Yes you can manipulate your hand with discards and draws, but sometimes you might not be able to beat the boss just because you drew poorly. I still love the game and think that it’s a very good game with fun mechanisms and a great theme.

Final Thoughts

Clearly without going to Gen Con you can still find Gen Con games. And I love that Devir put Ace of Spades on a free shipping sale during Gen Con. So if you were at the show you could stand in line to buy it or you could just order it. And since I wasn’t, I still could get it at Gen Con prices like I had picked it up there. I hope more companies, when they can, follow suit with that. Makes me feel better when I can’t go.

Out of these games that I haven’t played, I think I am most excited for Tag Team. I love the sound of that game and the characters all look cool. But I want to play all of them. And so many of them offer interesting twists on what you do in the game. What is the Gen Con release that you are most excited about playing or did you pick-up?

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Top 10 Games to Buy at Gen Con

Honorable Mention: Pirates of Maracaibo: Commanders

Is this 11 games, no it is not. Why, because Pirates of Maracaibo: Commanders is an expansion. So it doesn’t count as a game. No, more so you know if you are interested in this based off of if you like Pirates of Maracaibo or not. There are some new things like commanders that give you an asymmetric starting point. Plus there is rum as a new resource because it should have always been there. There are mix and match explore tracks. And there are now cannons and things you can fight with cannons. It adds a little bit, but not too much in my opinion.

10. Buffet Boss

So the list officially starts with Buffet Boss. This is a stacking game. I believe you draft things from a buffet and then you stack them on edge on your plate and you see how high you can stack them. The higher you get, the more satisfied you are with the buffet. Of course, if you get too much that isn’t good because they won’t balance or they will topple over. This sounds like a silly fun game.

9. Cat Tower

The next game on the list is another dexterity game and the last dexterity game. Cat Tower is a game where you work cooperatively to get a cat as high in the tower as you can. But the edges of things that you use to balance aren’t always even, some might even say that the tower is a bit cattywampus. The story of the game is sweet though and the game play looks fun.

So, if you want to know the story, and this is just the theme of the game not how it is plays, the cats mom has died. And the cat wants to build a tower up to heaven to find their mom. It’s a sad but sweet theme.

8. Trinket Trove

Trinket Trove is a set collection bidding game. This one has cute artwork, but let’s talk about how the game works Because that is what draws me into this one. In Trinket Trove a number of cards are flipped over that you bid on. And you bid with the cards in your hand to get them. So you are giving up something that you might need. The more cards you bid, the sooner you pick. But, and here is the twist, when you bid, the cards you bid are now a new pile of cards for people to take. So it is a great puzzly sounding time with a simple game but fun strategy.

7. Koi

Koi is on my Gen Con list just because it is pretty. If you can’t guess, Koi is about Koi and building a Koi pond. And this game looks great. I assume that each element of the Koi pond score in different ways. But there are elements like arches that you add to your pond, fish that you add and more. And it is a 3D presence to the game which I’m not sure is in every version of the game but I hope so. This is one just from an aesthetic point of view that I want to track down.

6. 12 Rivers

I feel bad about 12 Rivers being outside of my Top 5 on this Gen Con list because I think it looks really intriguing. Some of that, though, is that I mainly know the board. The board is this 12 marble track where there are spots for players to put their blockers. And then you release all the marbles. As the marbles travel down the rivers they hit a blocker. If you block early you might get a specific marble, you could get blocked too if you aren’t high enough. Or further down more will make it to you, but it might not be the ones you want.

That physical element of the game is what gets me. I love Potion Explosion for that. And this one gives me that same toy feel for the game. I hope that the rest of the game is good to go with it and that the game isn’t just all that.

5. First-Class Letters

First-Class Letters is a roll and write word game, and I like roll and write games. In this game you roll four dice. All the players need to find words that use three of those four dice and that don’t use the other one. The more of the letters you use, the more points you get. And you need to put them in alphabetical order. So that is going to be pretty easy the first few times, but, there is more. You also seed the first letter of three of the spots, in alphabetical order, so that is going to limit you more. I think this sounds simple but like a ton of fun.

4. Tricky Kids

Tricky Kids is a trick taking game that looks like it’s for kids. But I’m not 100% sure that it is. In this game you play three hands of seven cards each. And each time you need to assign the values to your cards. Yes, this game there are suits on the cards but no numbers. So you divvy up 21 points between them as you start playing. And yes, you want to win tricks, but when you win tricks you get tokens. And you know what the tokens are and when they are showing up. It sounds like a simple but very fun big twist in trick taking.

3. Slam Throne

Slam Throne could be my #1 on this list. But I think you’ll see why the other two beat it out. This is Dice Throne but pogs. Dice Throne teased and joked about this for years on April Fool’s Day. But it is finally a reality now. You play pogs with powers and abilities and try and take out your opponents stack before they take out yours. This sounds dumb and goofy and 100% a good time. I wish I was going to be at Gen Con because I expect this one to sell out. I asked for a friend to grab it for me, I hope they don’t stand in line early, I can always get it later.

2. Tag Team

Tag Team is a weird game because it gives me Dice Throne vibes, but it’s also auto-battler. So let’s talk about how this works. An auto-battler is a game that when it comes to fighting the fight just happens.

You start with two characters and one card for each character. You both flip over the cards and check what they do. Then after you play out those two cards, you draw three more and pick one to add to your cards. You add it without changing the order of the others. But you add it to the top, bottom, or middle and then you go again. So you start to figure out where to put a block for a big attack. But maybe your opponent thought you would so they changed that with how they added their card.

I love how it works and I love the head games for it. But it isn’t just all head games. As you pick between those three cards, you create strategies and synergies as you play. And the game comes with a ton of characters. I can not way to get this in my hands, I have it pre-ordered.

1. Ace of Spades

The final one on the list is Ace of Spades. This one is getting great reviews 8’s and 8.5 from the Dice Tower and they all really liked it. It is a solo or two player boss battling game. Now, I like a good boss battler, but this one is different with a weird west theme, but let’s talk about how it works.

You face off against monsters and bad guys and you want to take them down. How do you take them down? Not by rolling dice but by playing out poker hands. And each type of hand is going to do some damage. Better hands will do more damage. As you progress the enemies you face start to have powers and abilities that they use against you. But when you beat them, you get one time or ongoing powers as well.

The theme of this game is a ton like Balatro. But it is going to be simpler than that because Balatro changes cards and I’m glad it’s not a Balatro legacy game, though that could be cool. This is one that I’d wait in line for at Gen Con. But it is available to pre-order from Devir, so I just did that today.

Final Thoughts

Oh how I wish I was going to Gen Con. If you are, let me know about some of these games. And let me know which of these games are the most interesting to you. I also remind myself that all of these games will be available at retail at some point in time. So even if I don’t get them, like I said, I expect Slam Throne to sell fast, I will get it eventually. And I am really excited to try all of these games and give you reviews in the future.

What game tops your list that you are anticipating?

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Top 10 Games to Demo at Gen Con

10. The Hobbit: There and Back Again

I love the Middle Earth setting, but this is the only Middle Earth set game that is making my Gen Con to demo list. There is also The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship. A “pandemic” style game in some ways. But I know more about that one. The Hobbit: There and Back Again, I don’t know much about it. I hope that it’s a fun and interesting game themed around The Hobbit. As board gamers, I think we have a lot of Lord of the Rings themed games that are good, but The Hobbit, not so much.

9. Crits & Tricks

Crits & Tricks is a fantasy themed trick taking game. I like trick taking so that is what drew me to this one right away. It sounds like each trick is a quest that you play out and that you win loot at the end of it. The theme founds fun and interesting. Or maybe each hand is a quest, so that is interesting and maybe as you progress through the quest, different hands, that is where the suit can change. Either way, I really like the sound of this trick taking game.

8. The Battle of the Divas

The Battle of the Divas is a game that jumped out at me because it is such a different theme for a game. I believe there is another game in this series from Salt & Pepper Games. But the idea is that it’s a two player back and forth game where you want to be the best opera diva. And it is based around actual historical opera singers, Callas and Tebaldi and their clash to be the best. So it is just exciting sounding as a very different game.

7. BattleForge: Berserker

Creative Games Studio LLC is the game company behind BattleForge. And I like the one game of theirs I’ve played. Though I need to play it more. And I am excitedly waiting for their next one Dante: Inferno to come. I think it might be shipping soon-ish. But BattleForge is a cooperative game again, which I love that they make cooperative games. But this one I don’t if it supposed to be a campaign. Either way, I want to know more about it as it comes out and Gen Con is going to be a great spot to demo it.

6. River Market

River Market seems kind of to be a third in the line of Creature Comforts and Maple Valley. Now, each of the games is different from KTBG, but there is a similar aesthetic. And the designer of River Market is Roberta Taylor who is the designer of Cafe Baras, a cafe capybara game. I think that game is light and fun, so I am excited to see what this game can be.

5. Tea Witches

Manny Vega and Sandara Tang are two people working on Tea Witches. If that seems familiar they also did the design and artwork, respectively, for Flamecraft. That’s the game about little dragons who help around town. So a new game with Sandara Tang’s artwork is always going to interest me. I don’t know much about the game play, but it’s tea, it’s witches, and the artwork gives me a vibe of Little Witch Academia, so I’m all in for it.

4. Camp Grizzly

Camp Grizzly is a game that is already out. And if you want to buy it now, it is going to cost you around $600 on ebay. What is this game? It’s a horror movie themed game, or horror themed game in the theme of classic horror movies set at camps. The artwork on it looks great, and I love horror films. So the idea of this theme is really interesting and exciting to me. And it is one that I did look, a year or ago or so, on ebay to see about getting it. But it is crazy expensive. So I think it is coming back to crowdfunding and when it does, I’m very interested.

3. Class of ’89

Paverson games is making a name for themselves. I have the game Luthier which is coming and that looks amazing. But their first game, Distilled, is really popular and is on my shelf to get played. Class of ’89, though, does seem like a little different game. This is a game about making a year book. And that itself sounds lighter as a theme. But it is also a theme that sounds like a ton of fun. So I want to know more about their next project. And I really hope that I like it because I really love the theme.

2. Viking Route

Viking Route I think was on my most anticipated games coming to crowdfunding or maybe coming this year. But now at Gen Con is the time to demo it. This is a ship sailing game but it uses a mechanism for navigating your ship that I think sounds great. What is that mechanism? Magnets. You play magnets around the board to move the ship and affect the way the compass is pointing. That mechanism is in another game that I own and I need to get played.

1. Mystic Curling Club

So after so many amazing sounding games, how is it that Mystic Curling Club is the top of the list? One word, curling. I love watching curling as a sport. And I want at some point in time in my life to do some casual curling. And yes, where I live doing some casual curling is a possibility because the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro has multiple locations with curling. But this is going to be a dice flicking game witch magical powers in it as well. This sounds silly and fun and I love the theme so it is easily my #1 game to demo at Gen Con.

Final Thoughts

As always, I wish I was going to Gen Con. I think that all of these games sound wonderful to play. And there are a ton of different and unique things among them. So someone want to check them out for me and let me know their thoughts?

But out of all of these, the one that I want to try the most is Mystic Curling Club. But as I say that, I think I am apt to just buy that one for the theme no matter what. So I think that The Battle of the Divas is the one that I want to see and try the most because I am less likely just to buy that one sight unseen. Even then, if I can find it or it’s predecessor cheap, I think I may pick it up. I play games at two players fairly often, so a two player only game is pretty easy to get to the table.

What is your most anticipated game to demo at Gen Con?

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Gen Con Games I’m Most Excited To Play

I’m not going to go through them all. Mainly because that would take a long time. But let’s talk about some that I haven’t played yet that I’m excited to get to the table. And I’m going to limit myself to five because otherwise I might just put them all on the list.

5. Fateforge

Fateforge is almost a cheat. I pre-ordered it, actually, for Gen Con pick-up. So I did pick it up there, I had just bought it ahead of time. But I couldn’t have played it ahead of time, so I’m counting it. This is going to be a campaign style game and honestly, that is enough to draw me in. But as I looked at it when Meet Me At the Table did an unboxing, the game felt like one that I’d like a lot. And really, a fantasy campaign style game with fighting, that is right my alley.

4. Adulthood

Adulthood is probably one that’s a bit different than my normal game. Though, the theme is again what drew me to the game. Adulthood is a game about being an adult and living your best life as an adult. So you need to work to make money, but not work too much so that it sucks all the fun out of life. And the more fun you can have during your life, the better, I believe. The theme of game just sounds like it should be fun. Now, I need it to be different enough from my actual life, but otherwise, I’m all in.

3. Cities

This was not Devir’s biggest game at the con. That one, spoiler, is coming up on the list. But I knew that I wanted Cities as well as that one. Mainly because I like city building games. And the design team of Phil Walker-Harding and Steve Finn, I like that one a lot. They tend to make lighter and more accessible games, and one that is city building, I’m definitely interested in that. My hope is that like others of their games it’ll be easy to play but offer interesting decisions.

2. Video Game Champion

Next up is Video Game Champion. I don’t know a ton about how this one plays. But the theme is what got me. I like video games. I don’t always find the time to play them, but I like them a lot. But I do always find the time to play board games. Now I can play a board game about being great at playing video games. But it’s more than just that, it’s from the era where people regularly would rent them and you’d need to do chores, get allowance, and maybe as Grandma for some money to buy them so you could get to be the best. That is a fun take on the theme of video games.

1. Rock Hard 1977

Finally, from Devir again, is the game of the con. Sure there were other games that people were excited about. A lot of booths had lines formed to start the day. But Devir with Rock Hard 1977 generally had the longest lines. Add in Jackie Fox the designer and original bassist of the Runaways being there, it added to the hype.

This is a game of garage band to stadium tours. The game wants you to write songs, record a demo tape, get an album and go onto bigger and better shows to score more points. But you need to balance that with your day job, at leas at the start. And eventually you’ll be rocking the hardest of everyone. This is a worker placement game, which isn’t always my style, but one with a theme that I really love.

Final Gen Con Game Thoughts

Now, I have plenty more that I want to play as well. Earth, Terminus, and Draft And Write Records all make that list. Plus so many more as I look over at games like Wandering Towers, Maple Valley, Creature Comforts and more. Plus I got games that I just need to play anyways because I have them and I haven’t gotten them to the table. So as I find out which ones have solod rules, those will be the ones that I’m targeting to play and stream on Malts and Meeples. Look for those videos coming up.

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How to Win in Defenders of the Dictionary

The answer is play multiple games to really get the win. You need to collect enough stars to beat the bad guy, and that takes more stars than you can get in a single game. Let’s talk about how you get stars. There are four ways to get stars.

Firstly is to complete words. If you get enough points from words, you will get a star. Then there are private objectives, if everyone completes theirs, you get a star. Plus there are mission points on the board, you connect two, you get a star. And finally, if you trap both minions, you get a star. You need five to defeat the bad guy, but you won’t always get all four.

How to Play Defenders of the Dictionary

Like I said, this is a cooperative word game. But what surprise people is that it’s based off of Scrabble to some extent. Players have letters in front of them and with limited communication they need to pick some to use in a word. In a two player game, I pick two and my teammate picks two. Or in a four player game, each player picks one.

Then everyone reveals their letters. They combine their letter and the bad guys letter into a word to play on the board, like Scrabble. Any letters not used are saved for the next word. And if you don’t use the bad guy’s letter, then you take negative points to offset the positive points you got from the word. You continue to build out your words until you decide to stop.

But that doesn’t seem that hard, maybe if no one has a vowel, but even then you can connect often to one that is already played. But there are some other rules to note. Mainly that you only have limited space to store letters. So if you run out of space after a word, you not only lose points for the bad guys letter, you also lose for your highest value unused letters.

Game Play Highlights

Firstly, I think it was just a highlight for me that it worked. I didn’t know how it was going to work and like I said, I wasn’t super excited for it. But when I got to demo it, I really enjoyed how the system worked. Sometimes you can be really clever and put out a great word with the bad guy letter. Other times, because the bad guy letters are hard, and maybe no one added a vowel, you end up eating some points one round. It’s a good push your luck that way.

I also like that the board itself is not just a standard Scrabble board. There are no double word or triple letter spaces. Instead, there are spots where there are rivers that you can’t go across. And sometimes a building or two will block your path. So it’s not as simple to play out a word as it might seem. That with the minions who might also mess up things also make it trickier when playing words.

What I Want To See More Of

I think how the scenarios work is interesting. I call them scenarios, it might be more like the games or specific bad guy set-ups. But because you just can go until you want to stop, or at least that is how I was taught, it made it pretty easy. We went until we hit three goals and stopped. Connecting up missions points, getting your private goals, and scoring enough points weren’t that hard. I want to see if that can be harder to do at some point in time.

I also want to test it out with more players. I played at two and it wasn’t too bad to make words. Sometimes we were short on vowels, but never too bad. I wonder with more players if it is going to make the game more challenging in a good way. I could see it going either way. I wish my demo had more people, but Defenders of the Dictionary wasn’t one that I saw talked about a ton going into Gen Con.

Final Thoughts and Impressions

I enjoy this game. I don’t know that it would ever be one of my favorites, but there is a lot good going for it. And in terms of word games, it is one of the better ones I’ve played. I like Letter Jam better, but both of these feel like good games. And I like the cooperative nature of it as well. It helps with the whole, whomever has the largest vocabulary wins feelings that some word games have.

Do you like word games, is this one you want to checkout on crowdfunding?

Follow the project here.

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How To Win at Stardriven: Gateway

I want to change things up about how I talk about these games. Often times I touch on how to win, but I want to make it a focus. Stardriven: Gateway is a game of collecting points. You get your points in a few different ways. The big way is getting influence out onto the main planets. You do this, generally, by completing missions. But at the end of the game, you also gain points for trained crew, total crew, and anomaly faced. Though, that scoring can change depending on the scenario you play.

The game end trigger is when one player has nine influence out on the board. At that point, the round is completed and one more full round happens.

How to Play Stardriven: Gateway

While this is a big space game with hexes and planets that you fly around, that board is almost secondary. Most of what you do is going to be on your player board. On your player board you are managing your crew by placing them in locations and then activating those locations with dice.

On your turn you always get two actions and any number of free actions. The actions are simple, either place a crew or activate a station with a crew with one of your dice. There is a third action, resting, which allows you to get back and reroll your dice. Only after you play out four of your dice. To activate a station on your ship, you need enough energy, so you sometimes need to take less ideal actions to be able to get energy back.

The free actions are things like upgrading your crew if you have experience, completing a mission or activating crew. Crew actions can vary a lot. You can exhaust them to refresh or re-roll dice or gain energy back. But how you activate them and if you use them to complete missions is part of the puzzle of the game.

Game Play Highlights

There is a lot that I like about Stardriven: Gateway. The biggest thing is the smoothness of the system. You know what you want to do on your turn, and other players are not going to affect it too much. Yes, a mission might get stolen out from under you, but generally the player interaction is limited. I’ll talk more about that later with how it might not be. The actions are consistent across the game, so that is what I mean by smooth.

And I really like the crew management aspect of the game. That is what is interesting to me on this game. Each faction has it’s own crew with their own abilities. So everyone is a bit asymmetric that way. And while a lot of the abilities fall into the categories of refresh a die, swap a die, or gain energy. But I like to use that to prolong when I need to pull back dice. If I can use them to squeak out an extra couple of actions more than other people, I feel like my efficiency is good.

The dice actions were interest as well. The number on the die is basically the amount of action points that you get. This might be for drawing more crew, or how far you can fly. Or if you can take out an enemy ship. No die is a complete dud, though, it always provides you some actions. But a worse role is going to be provide you fewer actions or less energy in return.

What I Need To See More Of

Firstly, they talked about how there are some scenarios that are competitive, like I played, and some that are cooperative. How is the cooperative going to work? That is the question that I have and will it feel compelling? I mainly ask that because I think cooperative will work, the game didn’t have much direct confrontation. But is it just going to be beat a score or something like that which you want to target?

The one thing that I said I’d talk more about is player combat in this as well. When going up against the enemy it makes sense. The system is enjoyable and simple. But there is options for players to go up against other players. That never happened in my play. And a lot of that was because I didn’t see a good reason for it. I think that everyone else in the playthrough thought the same. So is this just part of the game that is rarely ever used, is it maybe in a specific scenario there is reason? I want to know if I should ever focus on player vs player combat, because I’m not always the biggest fan.

Final Thoughts and Initial Impression

I like this game, a lot. It is a game that doesn’t feel over engineered in what it is doing. It is also a game that doesn’t feel like it doesn’t have real choices. That for me is a sweet spot because it’s easy enough to teach and play but won’t feel old or stale after a few plays. Even with the scenarios, the one I played will go completely differently next time I play it.

And I think another important factor about this game and you can take it for what it is worth, I want to play it again. I think that there are elements that I could do better and explore more. Like how I utilized my crew wasn’t always the best. So I think I can do even better than I did the first time. And I think that that feeling isn’t going to go away quickly with the factions and scenarios to explore in the game.

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Gen Con Felt Smaller

So, for a gen con where everything had sold out completely, Gen Con felt smaller. This could be several reasons for it. I heard of a few people who couldn’t make it because of getting sick ahead of time. But that is a minor percentage of people. I think the reason it felt smaller is that there were fewer choke points.

Last year was the year of Lorcana. And I expect that nothing will match that, at least for a long time. But that meant that there were no extremely long lines. A lot of people went for a lot of different things. So while some aisles at the start of every day had lines, it wasn’t as consistent. And, for example, I stood in line for Devir’s room to get a game (watch the Gen Con Haul video coming up), but that was from 7:30 until 8.

Demoing Prototypes

This is one element of Gen Con that I love every time that I go. I like to try and learn about new games or games that aren’t even out yet. And I got to play three new games that are either coming to retail or crowdfunding. You can pre-order Mistborn from Brotherwise Games on sites like Game Nerdz already. And then the two for crowdfunding we have Defenders of the Dictionary coming to Kickstarter and Stardriven: Gateway on Gamefound which you can find here. I will write more up on all of these later.

Seeing People Again

This year I didn’t meet up with as many people, but the Man vs Meeple event was as fun as ever. But it is great to always see people who I know there. And to meet new people. And to play games with new people and just experience the con that way. Plus it’s always fun to learn a new game and teach a new game while at an event like that. Plus with prizes (again haul video coming up for more details), food, and being off your feet it’s a good time. I got to play Rebel Princess twice and Comic Hunters two games that are now ones that I like a lot.

Going with Friends

So, the past two years I’ve gone to Gen Con by myself. It has been great because I just kind of wander and do my own thing. But this year, going with friends reminded me that it can be nice to do that as well. Going with friends didn’t mean that I wandered and did my own thing that much less. It meant that I didn’t do a car drive by myself. And it meant that I got to meet up with people a bit more. And I got to chat about the day and what people were excited about each evening.

Going in a group made the drive a lot faster. Conversations were had and better friendships were formed. Plus I love hearing people get excited about on a day. What new thing they found or bought. What they want to check out the next day, all of that is great.

Final Thoughts

Now there are more highlights than that. I need to try and think about Saturday and mark down my game plays that day. Because I failed, again to track everything. But I know of a few games that I need to mark down plays for. Including one of the prototypes that I played, actually, I think two of them that day.

Did you go to Gen Con? If so, what were some of your highlights. If not, what do you want to know about from this convention?

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My Gen Con Events

Star Wars Unlimited – Twin Suns

This is my kickoff event. It’s going to be the one that overlaps with when the hall opens and the rush happens. I don’t care so much about that, so I thought it’d be fun to do a Twin Suns event. I’ve only played Twin Suns once, but I like the deck that I came up with for it. I don’t expect to do well, but this is pretty casual event from the looks of it. So I hope I get put with other people who see it the same way.

Fantasy Flight Games In Flight Report

This one got added at the last minute. Both in terms of when Fantasy Flight Games added it and when I added it. I am excited for this one, but I also need to grab tickets from Will Call for it, and it’s first day. There is a chance that I won’t get to the tickets in time and I’ll just wander the dealer hall instead. But this is Fantasy Flight’s big announcements for the next year or so. And some of it might be even a new Gen Con release. They have done that before, but we’ll see. For news, I think it would be great to be there. But it’d cut into gaming time.

Metrorunner

Then I am going to play Metrorunner from Thunderworks Games. I love Thunderworks Games, but I don’t back everything that they do. Metrorunner is one that I didn’t back. But I like that I can try it at Gen Con to see what it is about and if it’s a game for me. I like the cyberpunk setting a lot.

Dice Tower Awards

Then, that first evening, which I think my Thursday is too busy now, is The Dice Tower Awards. This is after the hall has closed so I don’t mind doing this one. But this is going to be their awards for the best games of last year in various categories. I thought it was fun last year. And for something to wrap up that first day, I think it is even better. Nice chance for me to get off my feet, extend the day a little bit, and then laugh some and get excited for some games.

Stardriven: Gateway

Now on Friday it’s time to look at a game that I am intrigued about from Rock Manor Games. This one isn’t available for purchase, but it’ll be coming up on crowdfunding soon. I like it when I can see games coming up on crowdfunding. And Rock Manor Games makes a lot of games that to me look interesting. And what I’ve played of their games I’ve enjoyed. This one looks different and fun as well, so I want to give it a try.

Too Many Bones

Next up, still on Friday, is Too Many Bones. This isn’t a new game from Chip Theory Games, but I want to spend some time to really learn the game. Much like I did last year with Burncycle which made me like the game a lot, I want to do that with Too Many Bones. Plus someone else has set-up the game and knows how to run it, which is a good way to learn Chip Theory Games.

Rebel Princess

Saturday kicks off with Rebel Princess. This is going to be a shorter game, but I think we might get in multiple plays? I’m not completely sure as I have yet to play this game. But it is a trick taking game, which I like, but with special powers. You play as a princess who doesn’t want to just be the normal princess. And the one who can avoid that the best is the winner. At least that is the feel I get from just reading about the game.

Star Wars Unlimited – Learn to Play

Wrapping up Gen Con on Sunday I have another Star Wars Unlimited event. This is a learn to play, I already know how to play. I might skip it to play more games otherwise, but it’s before the hall opens, so it’s more a matter of getting packed up and there. If I do, I’ll play it and I know I’ll have fun.

Mistborn Deck Building Game

Final one on the list, and this isn’t on Sunday. But I don’t remember the time for it, I think Saturday afternoon, is the Mistborn Deck Building Game. I don’t have a ticket for it, but my friend has an extra ticket for it which I’ll use. So I’m very excited for this one and to see how it works. As I’ve talked about it in my games to demo, I love Brandon Sanderson and Deck Building, so I want to know how this one works.

Final Thoughts

I feel like I have too many things to do. I love to play games at Gen Con, but I feel like I have too many events to do. Even though most of my events, minus two, are playing games. But I know that I’ll find that I have a ton of time for playing games and having fun at Gen Con this year.

And this doesn’t include other events. I hope to swing by the Open Owl Studios event on Saturday. But I know for sure I’ll do the Man vs Meeple event that evening as well. So, yes, there is a lot to do, even after hours. And Gen Con is going to be great for just playing games again.

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