Berserk | Nerdologists

Top 10 Games to Demo at Gen Con

Peder — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 14:12:04 +0000

Last Friday I started doing my annual Gen Con preview. I won’t be making it this year but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t games I’m really interested in. The first video and the one I did last Friday is the games to demo at Gen Con. You can see all the games in the video below. But I love to create a Top 10 list as well, so here are the Top 10 Games I want to Demo at Gen Con (if I were going).

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

Image Source: Creative Game Studio LLC

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

Image Source: The Op

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

Image Source: Asmadi Games

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?

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

The post Top 10 Games to Demo at Gen Con first appeared on Nerdologists.

Monolith Revolution

Peder — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 16:24:25 +0000

This is a new thing for both Monolith and Gamefound. Alex Radcliffe is doing a video with a team member from Monolith about four games that they have coming up. That means, since you might not have time to watch the video, it’s my sworn duty to write stuff up for you. Let’s see what Monolith has coming out, and what sounds the most exciting to me.

Monolith Revolution

Champions of Rokugan

This is going to be a game set in the L5R (Legends of the 5 Rings) universe. This is cool. It’s going to be a cooperative game. And I’m very interested in this game. I love the Japanese theming of the game with L5R. And one cool element is the idea of honor. This is important for the RPG, but it’s going to be important in the game as well. I’m super interested and the minis look great. I hope that this has a great rulebook. I’ll save that for the end, but Monolith isn’t known for the best rulebooks.

This is going to be a dice based game which is going to determine how you play different actions out there. This is going to feel a bit more like a miniatures game as well, which I think is interesting for me. I’m going to be curious about how it balances board game or miniature game.

Follow the campaign here.

Berserk: The Board Game

Oh man, this is an interesting one. I did watch the original anime of Berserk which is crazy and intense. But it’s a very dark manga and anime, so I’m kind of interested and kind of not. I want to know how it is going to work as a game.

This is going to be a cooperative game. You are playing out cards to with hand management is nice as well, and then attack dice for combat. It’s interesting because you’ll be able to play as a campaign game or as one off scenarios. That’s a nice element for the game as well. And the more cards you play, you lose fatigue, so it’s going to be a nice balancing act of pushing more actions at time or not.

Follow the campaign here.

Reichbusters Reloaded

This one is coming up on April 2nd. This one you can see some stuff around now. And it’s a game that you might know about. I actually owned this game when it was with Mythic Games. I’m curious to know what is going to be changed. They are trying to improve things with fewer keywords and the noise system is going to be better. It sounds like they have taken the feedback and improved things a lot.

Honestly, this might be the point where I dive back in. I love the idea of the weird world war setting. And who doesn’t want to go in and blast away or maybe sneak around. And the improvements really make it sound a ton easier to play. It’s still going to be a similar game but it’s going to be faster. Overall it sounds like it’ll be faster in almost every way from set-up to turns. And if you own the previous game you can grab upgrade packs.

Follow the campaign here.

Mythic Battles: The Roleplaying Game

This is going to be an RPG like it says. If you’re not familiar with what Mythic Battles is, this was originally a board game where you would play as gods and throw trees at each and basically have a big throwdown. It’s interesting that they are bringing in an RPG. For me this one is less interesting for me. I do enjoy running and playing an RPG, but I’m sticking with Dungeons and Dragons and the Marvel RPG system, which I still need to try. But if you want a different idea, I think this is going to be interesting.

Follow the campaign here.

Final Thoughts

Which one is the one that interests you the most? For me, Reichbusters is definitely the most interesting. The Reichbusters game was one that always interested me, but I made the mistake of getting too much to start. Now I want to get this new core box and play that game, keep it simple is my new theory for a lot of games.

Berserk and Champions of Rokugan interest me as well. Berserk though, I think that I’ll pass on it. Mainly because it’s such a dark setting, it’s amazing, but it’s so dark. I don’t love to steep myself in something that dark. For Champions of Rokugan, I want to know more about how the game plays. Is this a miniatures game, is this a board game, where does it land on that?

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

The post Monolith Revolution first appeared on Nerdologists.

Know Your Nerd: Peder’s Top 5 Anime

Peder — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 13:38:41 +0000

I think that with every one of these, I say that it is hard to pick my top 5 — for this one, it’s true simply because I haven’t watched all that much anime. Before meeting Kristen, I had watched Neon Genesis Evangelion and Berserk. I enjoyed both of them, but I hadn’t really watched more anime beyond those. Since then, Kristen and I have watched a number of other series. So here is my “what I’ve seen up to this point” top 5 anime list.

5. Little Witch Academia[amazon_link asins=’B01MT6BBAW’ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’f05ca4b3-a3e9-11e7-b960-6f630c7ed577′]

So this is one that we just finished up recently, and the show isn’t done yet. This is a really cute little anime about a girl who wants nothing more than to be a witch, so even though none of her family are witches, she gets into a magic school. She, of course, has the most unique roommates in the boarding school. The show is very lighthearted, and you can really appreciate how much joy and excitement the main character, Akko, has. It’s a series that is great to watch and just relax and enjoy. Right now, it’s on Netflix. You can see that it isn’t a cheap anime, beyond watching it on Netflix, as it’s still quite expensive on Amazon. But this is definitely an anime that is worth checking out and kicking back to relax and watch.

4. The Devil is a Part-timer![amazon_link asins=’B00JKT890A’ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’ad299edd-a3ea-11e7-8c25-2f0124554b25′]

This is another really fun anime; it’s about the “devil” coming from another dimension and getting stuck on Earth. He doesn’t have enough power to get back home, so he is going to try and make the best of it. This is a slice-of-life story with an absurd premise — the devil works at McRonalds slinging burgers, working his way up in the fast food restaurant, all as a part of his plan to rule the world. The characters in this show are great, the situations are funny, and the whole “devil” and other dimension side of things works out quite well. That whole premise is kind of absurd as well, and it’s just a lot of fun. It’s another goofy anime that you want to just sit down and enjoy.

3. Sword Art Online[amazon_link asins=’B00EPMCIGS’ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’a078266a-a3eb-11e7-9339-6bcd8e5f2c01′]

Sword Art Online is one of those anime that people like to dislike. I can see why in some ways; it takes itself seriously at some points where you don’t expect it to, but in many ways I like this anime a lot. The story is mostly set within a full-immersion virtual reality video game system that, shortly after its launch, causes its users to become stuck in the game. This is by the design of the game’s creator, and the only way to get out of the game is to beat the hundred levels of the fantasy world of the game, but if you die while playing, you die in real life. Instead of doing what you might expect with a story that focuses on swinging swords and beating the boss monsters, the series focuses in more so on how people are handling their life in the game system. There are the front-line fighting moments, but those take a backseat to people growing closer to one another, having breakdowns, and sometimes becoming twisted. It’s an interesting anime that is a nice blend of action, story, and character work. I do think that it pretends to have more depth at times than it really does, but that said, it’s an enjoyable anime, though a bit weird at times as the story really splits at certain points during the seasons, dividing them in half in different ways.

2. Soul Eater[amazon_link asins=’B008YRL7JO’ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’5d7334ca-a3ec-11e7-8a54-bb2d47e18136′]

I don’t think anyone would say that my anime list takes itself totally seriously; it tends to build off of levels of craziness. But in many ways, Soul Eater is a pretty serious show. There are absurd characters, but the story tries to focus in on broken characters, broken people who all have their different tics and foibles. The main premise is that Death is the headmaster of a school of students who harvest normal souls for him and keep wayward souls from hurting people. He isn’t a monster eating the souls, but is instead a very eccentric character who is worried about shepherding souls. Two groups of students are the focus, as each soul reaper wields a “human” weapon (basically, a person who has the ability to transform into a weapon). Each group has a different dynamic to it, and they have to deal with things that kids their age really shouldn’t have to deal with. The end of this anime feels a bit rushed and odd, but overall, it’s a very good series.

1. Steins:Gate[amazon_link asins=’B00KU3Y5CG’ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’ff7d4ab4-a3ec-11e7-b12b-0188e199c5c9′]

In addition to all the light-hearted anime that I have on this list, I’ve also chosen Steins:Gate — while it is absurd at times, it is overall a serious anime. The story is that of time travel, dealing with its ramifications, and figuring out how much you can change the present by changing the past. There are parts of this very short anime that seem a little rushed, but it is emotionally deep, it asks tough questions, and the characters really grow throughout the show. The dialogue is phenomenal. especially from the main character, and the growth of the main character is the type of thing you don’t see in many non-anime shows. Overall, Steins:Gate might have made it a whole lot harder to really appreciate other anime; it is just that well put together.

I do have some honorable mentions, as well. I mentioned Berserk and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Berserk is a dark, very serious anime, and Neon Genesis Evangelion is your classic mech anime. I enjoyed both, but they are both in very different realms. Kristen and I have also watched Fairy Tale, which I’ve enjoyed quite well, as it’s a blend of fantasy and silliness; however, there is some terrible filler in it. And speaking of filler, I have watched the first couple main arcs of a show that is almost 50% filler with Bleach. Bleach is a lot of fun, but the amount of filler and the fact that I haven’t watched much of the series has kept it off my list. And finally, Dragon Ball Z: Abridged, a fan parody of Dragon Ball Z, is just hilarious.

There are so many more anime that I want to watch and just need to make time for. What are some of your favorite anime? Seeing what I’ve liked, what would you recommend I check out next?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

The post Know Your Nerd: Peder’s Top 5 Anime first appeared on Nerdologists.