Keep Looking at Events

When Gen Con events catalog went live, I think there were just shy of 20,000 events on the catalog. That is now over 21,000 events, so around 1,500 events have been added. A lot of them won’t interest you and a lot of them will be hard to track down when they are added. But if you missed out on events, about now is when I’d start looking to see what new events there are in time slots that you maybe want an event. I’ll get into why you want to do that now.

Review the Gen Con Game List

Another thing that you can start doing is reviewing the games that’ll be at Gen Con. Every year Eric Martin and others work and create a list on Board Game Geek. You can find that here. That is going to be hundreds of games that you can demo or buy at Gen Con that will be there for the first time in whatever state they’re ready for.

This is a list that grows a lot from now until Gen Con and just went up about a week ago. More publishers will be adding things to the list. And, especially, as they know stuff can or can’t make it to Gen Con because of shipping timing, companies will keep the list updated. Every Gen Con I go through the list over on Malts and Meeples but that is closer to when I leave for Gen Con.

Tickets

Yes, you should already have your tickets and your housing and your transportation figured out by now. And some elements, like getting into the Gate Ten parking, those are done, you can’t get into them anymore. But what I mean by this is know how you’re going to get your tickets for the events you signed up for. I always have them shipped two me but you can also do will call and pick them up at Gen Con.

The benefit of doing will call is that if you add events late you might need to pick them up there anyways. But the downside is, you go to get your tickets at the wrong time, it’s going to be line. The upside of shipping, you avoid that line and you avoid the line for getting your badge, it comes to your door. Downside, it costs extra to get it shipped. Know what works best for you, I prefer shipping, but that is just me.

Double Check Your Housing

If you are in a hotel, this is not an issue. But for people who are AirBnB or VRBO like I do, double check it. Odds are no issues, but there are some sketchy people out there. And there are some people who get out of the AirBnB or VRBO and might just drop it. So keep an eye on that, the odds are extremely thin and you’d know if that was the case. But double check your housing, if you are flying, make sure you get your travel confirmed, but these are big and obvious things that you should be doing so I won’t harp on them.

Final Thoughts on Early Gen Con Prep

This is about when I think you can start ramping up for Gen Con again. Especially with the Board Game Geek preview and verifying your events. Events in particular, I didn’t mention it but with the tickets and badge shipping, your time to get event tickets shipped to you is limited. So if you want to get all your events shipped, you need to add them now. Otherwise some will ship and some will be at will call.

And then with the preview, use it to plan what you want to see and track down. I like it for knowing some things that I want to demo, I’ll have a list of 10, and some things that I might want to buy. Both of those lists will come out closer to Gen Con, but when it comes to the dealer hall, that’s going to be one way to plan your attack browsing knowing what some things are that you want to find.

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

GenCon Events

Too Many Bones

This one is because I own the game. I own the game, yet I don’t play my copy because I know how to play but don’t know how to play. I like with bigger games, I’m thinking of Burncycle last year, Lost Ruins of Arnak and Dwellings of Eldervale the year before, it’s a chance to learn the game. Someone who knows how to play the game is going to sit down and teach you the game. And then, for me, that means that I now can more easily teach and play it at home.

This year for GenCon Too Many Bones is that game. Chip Theory games I think are good for the list. A lot of them are complex with pretty dense rulebooks. So GenCon is a chance to really be able to learn a game and get the experience. At four players that might not be ideal experience, but it’ll be a good first one and help me get the game under my belt.

Stardriven: Gateway

Next up coming from Rock Manor Games is Stardriven: Gateway. I wrote about this one when I wrote about the Gamefound Feast. It still intrigues me as a game that has story to it and going to feel like an interesting space adventure. And while it is supposed to still have the grand vastness of space to it, it’s more about managing your crew. You take care of yourself and focus in on that crew level and the big things will happen.

Star Wars Unlimited

You know I like Star Wars Unlimited. This is mainly for two reasons that I want to get into this event. It’s another learn to play event, I don’t need to learn to play. But I think you might get a promo card, which is Grogu. But even if you don’t, it’s going to be playing with the new set. Yes that set will have been out for under a month, but it’s still under a month. And for an hour long session, it’s going to be a fun time to play the new stuff that I haven’t seen much.

Rebel Princess

This is one that I can’t remember if I’ve already ordered the game or not. I just know when I saw the game announced I was intrigued. You’re a princess who is basically trying not to be a princess in the “traditional” sense. And to do that, you’re playing a trick taking game. I like trick taking games a lot, so it was an easy one for me to consider picking up. And when I’m considering picking it up (or maybe did) then it’s one that I’d like to try at GenCon.

Metrorunner

Metrorunner is one that I added to the list because it’s from Thunderworks games. I haven’t played anything from Thunderworks that isn’t part of their Roll Player setting. Metrorunner is not from that setting so it’s going to be the first. I’m intrigued by the sound of it. And it’s a chance to try a game that I passed on when they did crowdfunding. So I’m curious to see what it’ll be like.

16th Annual Dice Tower Awards

Last year I went to the Dice Tower Awards and it was fun. I almost didn’t sign up for a ticket again this year. And I might have passed, or I would have passed had I gotten into one time for an event. But I like going to the Dice Tower Awards. They are fun, and it’s a chance to make that first day of GenCon last a little bit longer. But it is also a chance to not be on your feet for the whole time which is nice as well.

Is there anything super special about the event, not really? But it’s a fun event. It feels like a chance to just enjoy and celebrate games. For people like myself, I know a lot of the games already, but for the people that I’m going with, it’ll be a chance for them to see what a lot of the big newer games are.

Mistborn Deck Building Game

Finally, the event that I only got into because one of the people was in the 400’s on the queue. Mistborn is a setting that I like, don’t love. It is from Brandon Sanderson, an author who I really love. When he is having a game made from Brotherwise Games, I am interested. Plus I like deck building games a lot, so even more interested.

Why did these sell out so fast? Firstly, it’s a preview of the game, it might even almost be somewhat of a playtest of the game. I am not 100% sure on that. So people like those events, and it’s the first chance to see a game that is coming to crowdfunding. But it is also Brandon Sanderson so people will be interested because of that. The fact it filled up fast was not a surprise for me.

Final Thoughts and What I Missed Out On

Firstly, I like the number of events that I got into this year. For me, this is about the sweet spot in number of events. A few more than sometimes overlap prime walking the dealer hall time, but don’t worry, I plan to do a lot of that as well.

I didn’t miss out on much. Two Mistborn deck builder events were full before i got to my sign-up. But I got in another way, so that is amazing. Then a Stormlight RPG Demo, it is Brandon Sanderson’s series I like better, I am not surprised. The Elder Scrolls, a game coming from Chip Theory Games, I am already all in on it. It is not out yet, so people want to see it. And with Too Many Bones, I will be playing the game it is based off of. Finally, SETI, another learn to play event for a new game. I think it looks interesting, but I don’t feel bad missing on it.

Did you get into the events that you wanted?

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

The Basics of the GenCon Events Catalog

Let’s start really easily with the filters and what you need to know.

• Event Type: The type of event that you might want to play. The big ones are RPGs and Board Games. There are events like TCG’s, Seminars (Panels) and other events. But the big two people come for are RPGs and Board Games.
• Game System: What type of game are you playing. Might seem redundant, but if you want to track down a specific game, say Blood on the Clocktower, you can do that through this. So it simplifies some filtering.
• Day: Which day is it on?
• Start Time: When does it start?
• Company/Group: What company is running it. It’s a great way to say, I want to find anything that company X is doing because I’ll be interested in one of their games. I don’t care which one or when it is. So filter by that.

And there are a few other things that matter a bit later.  Has it sold out or already happened, doesn’t matter now, or when you sign up for events. The system will tell you that. The age let’s you know if there are age restrictions. And the level of experience, well, how much you need to know. Most of the RPG and Board Gaming events will be none because they want to teach you the game and get you to buy it.

The Events Themselves

So what do you need to know about the events themselves? I can go into this in detail, but most of the GenCon event stuff is self explanatory. But let’s talk about a few things of note on them.

• Tickets Available: How many people will be at this event. It is going to determine how likely you are to get into it. The more tickets, the easier it is to get into. The fewer, you get the drift. Also important to note if you want to get all the tickets or multiple tickets because you’re in a group.
• Get Tickets For: The big part of the GenCon event catalog is picking what events you want to go to before the events are live. If you are interested, select one of these, if you have a group, pick all or one additional depending on how many you need.
• Only Get Selected Tickets If All Are Available: It does what it says, but it’s important to see it’s there. Again, if you want to play with your friends, you don’t want to sign up only to get one ticket instead of all of them or two of them.
• Cost: How much does it cost? There are free events, but most of them cost. Why, the companies want to pay their people some and this is one way to offset it. Plus they are paying GenCon some as well
• Ticket Method: Another one that is important to note. If it’s electronic, easy, you just show up with your badge and they scan it. So the thing you need to get into the convention is what you need. But it might be paper tickets. And those you either grab at will call ahead of time or have shipped to you. I recommend the latter, skip the lines when you can.
• Duration: Another easy one, how long is this event going to take?
• GM(s): This is the person who is going to run the game. They use GM (Game Master) which is normally an RPG term, but it’s just the instructor/teacher for the game.

Wish List

Finally we have the Wishlist. As you add tickets for yourself and others it’ll allow you to order a wishlist. And I’m not toing to say that there are great tips and tricks for this. And I will get to how you process this in a minute, but order them how you want. It’s meant to be the one that you most want to make it to at number one. I use it slightly differently. Sometimes the GenCon event I’m most excited for has two hundred or five hundred tickets. I don’t need to put that one as high.

Instead, I use it to rank the ones that I’m most interested in with that lower 4-5 person count higher. It theoretically let’s those process first because of how GenCon processes everything, I say theoretically. So let’s get to that day of signing up for events.

How to Actually Get Events at GenCon

GenCon’s main system is on the day that events go live, May 19^th in 2024, it is going to kick off at 11 AM Central time (noon Eastern). You want to be on right then and you want to be on your wishlist page. When the time comes the page will change and you’ll be able to process your wishlist. Keep in mind, mobile, it’s okay for using the site. But that’s only so relevant.

Your wishlist is going to drop into a queue. I clicked within a minute of the go live time last year and was about 5,000 down on the list, maybe slightly further. So events get processed through as you go through the queue. This is why I say the wishlist only kind of matters. I’m assuming that their backend system processes X number of wishlists at a time. So if they go through ten at a time, which seems possible, your wishlist is going to be ranked and compared against the others to make it more likely that you get yours. I want to explain how they do this programmatically, but that’s not going to be useful.

So the processing will take a while. But you don’t need to babysit it the whole time. Check every 15 to 20 minutes to see where you are in the queue. And once your list processes you can go through and update any that you might not want anymore. And you can buy all your events at once. Then after the fact if you want to add more or you missed out on something you really want but there is another event for it, you can add those in and process them separately. Only that first four hours, maybe, is it going to be that hectic and slow a queue.

Additional Tips and Tricks for GenCon Events

Overbook when you create your wishlist. I don’t do great at this, but add in multiple times for a game that you might want. And at the same times that you have other things. If you’re planning on an event at that time,  make sure you have an event at that time.

The other one is book early events. A lot of people get together at GenCon and stay up until midnight or two in the morning every day. It’s fun to do, it’s fun to play games late into the night. It’s fun to have a beer or two while you do so. But I don’t do that every night, maybe one time. Two reasons, it helps avoid con crud, but also it lets me schedule early events. Events that start at 8 AM or 9 AM, less likely to have people sign up for them because it’s early. And especially on the first day when the dealer hall opens, sign up for events starting around then.

Buy generic tickets. This is something that I haven’t really done. But it’s possible to buy generic tickets. The minimum amount is $2 for an event (unless it’s free). So if you want to play a game and it’s at an odd time, say that 8 AM or Sunday, but you  miss out on tickets, you can show up with generic tickets. If someone doesn’t show up, you can get into those events. Now it’s a risk, you might be sitting there with a generic ticket that you can’t use at the end. And you need to plan on enough, so a $8 event, 4 $2 generic tickets, to do the event.

There is playtesting and new things. Sometimes they are trickier to find, but if you know a company is coming out with a new game, search that company or game. You can sometimes get in on playtesting a game which is fun as well.

Finally, you can add friends. The good thing about adding friends is that you can buy for your friends then. This allows you to coordinate events better. If you both or all in your group want to do all the same events, add them to both persons lists. Then process, and whomever is higher in the queue is going to get more of them and sign up there. Just don’t sign up with the other persons.

Final Thoughts

You won’t get everything that you want. But the good thing about GenCon is that there are several thousand events and more will be added. So there are always going to be interesting things to play. And if you’re like me, you don’t overload with events. I generally pick early and later events. Then I’ll wander the dealer hall during the day demoing as many games as I can. But that’s what works for me. You might want more consistent events.

Hopefully this is interesting and useful for  you as you attend GenCon and start browsing the event catalog.

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

Thoughts on Star Wars Unlimited

I’m not going to put in too many thoughts here. Why, I already gave them, and I haven’t played it since then. But I will say, I’m excited to play it. And I’m excited to bust into my other box, like I said, possibly streaming it tonight. I want to see what other cards I get and to start building decks.

If you want to see my Star Wars Unlimited thoughts, you can do so here.

And I can’t do it justice at least compared to Rodney Smith and Watch It Played as how to play the game. If you want a good overview of all of that, checkout the video below.

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I stream at 9 PM Central. That is sometimes a bit hit or miss, but that’s the goal. And I do small solo game plays. The schedule is, right now, going to look like gaming every other Monday. A chance to see people in person came up for Monday and as much as I like streaming, it’s good to socialize as well.

On Wednesdays, well, I said that I plan to play at least a few more games of Mythwind. This is going to continue how I play my solo campaign games on the channel. The reason for that is with how many campaign games I can play solo, I want to try more. That is at 8 PM Central time for the campaign games.

And if you want to know when I go live, the best way is to subscribe. When you subscribe, click that notification bell and you’ll get an alert whenever I’m going to go live. Follow the link – here – to subscribe.

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

2023 Nerdy Goals

Go To GenCon

How is this even a goal? I don’t know, but I want to go to GenCon again. But I’m excited to go again this year, and I think that it might be a bigger group going who I know this year, which will be exciting if that’s the case. This is going to be my big shot to try a ton of new games like always. And it’s a chance to connect with some of the Man vs Meeple and Tablenauts crew and others potentially as well. And at this point in time, those evenings are as exciting as anything else to me.

Watch my Backlog

I said that there would be some things that feel like repeats. But this is about catching up on movies and TV shows that I need to catch up on. Mainly things like the latest season of Dragon Prince. Or movies like Sonic 2 before Sonic 3 comes out. There are others as well that I want to catch up on because there were a lot of good shows and not enough time. Wheel of Time and One Piece are two more. Of course, I mean the One Piece Netflix show, I’m not starting the 1000+ episodes of the anime, I’ll wait for the new one.

Plus, I know that there are a few new shows or seasons coming out that I want to see. Dragon Prince is having another season, and the live action Avatar: The Last Airbender are both exciting. And I talked about the anime that I want to watch. You can see those here.

Read More Comics

I did an okay job of this last year. I won’t say that I hit my goal, which I talked about on 10 Minute Marvel, of a comic a day. But I would guess that I ready 100+ comic issues. My goal is to keep on reading and improve upon that. I got a few trade paperbacks for Christmas, so that is a solid spot to start. I finished up King in Black yesterday, and Time Runs Out (I think that is it) in the past few days. But I already have a bit more that I know I want to read. Secret Wars, Ultimate Universe, and more as well.

Read More Manga and Backlog

This one is a bit of both, I am really enjoying diving into manga. But I want to get through more of the backlog of manga and the ones that my wife has read but I haven’t. I really enjoy reading those as well, but make it a more intentional, read comic or manga right before bed versus fiddling on the phone. And I just got some new manga this past week, read two of them last night, so now I have more coming from one of the series thus far. We’ll see if I get more of the other one as well.

Get Into a Workout Routine

What does this have to do with being nerdy? Well, it’s when I can work through some of my backlog. I have weights, I have a stationary bike, let me use them. What shows or movies might my wife not be interested in, and then do a workout and watch something. It’s not that hard, I just need to get into the routine. And more of a routine the better because I’m a generally healthy nerdy person, but I want to do even better.

Final Thoughts

I’ll be touching on Malts and Meeples and the plans for that tomorrow. But these are the nerdy things that I want to do in 2024. And I think that a lot of them are attainable, I want to keep them small. So what are your reasonable and attainable nerdy resolutions? Let me know down in the comment section below.

And do you ever set your goals on a theme? Mine is to get through backlogs across the board. Instead of running towards whatever is new, always, to work through some of the things that I’ve been wanting to watch, read, play, whatever it might be. Obviously some are outliers from that, but more fall into that category.

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

Catch up on my Top 100 Games (of all Time) 2023 Edition:

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31
30 through 21

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 20 through 11

20. Hanamikoji

The list, this time, starts off with a two player only game and my favorite truly two player only game. Hanamikoji is an amazing game of trying to win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. There are seven Geisha and each of them has a point value and equal number of gifts assigned to them. If you win the favor, give the most gifts, to four of them or eleven points, you win.

But where the game is amazing is how you hand out the gifts. Both players have four actions that they can do. And a round to see who has favor ends when both players have done all their actions. But the actions are what make the game shine.

Two of the actions are close to each other. One is to put a card face down to save it for the end of the round to give as a gift. The other is play two face down that won’t be used. Then the final two actions interact with your opponent. One is to play three cards face up and they pick one to put in front of a Geisha on their side and you get the other two. The final one is to create two groups of two cards and your opponent picks one.

Those choices are tough and I love that about the game. I even use what I play out as sometimes a way to let me opponent help me know what way to do. Or to gather information. Highly recommend this as a quick two player game.

Buy Hanamikoji

19. Cartographers

Next up is my second highest roll and write style game, and you’ll see the highest very soon. But Cartographers is a game about making maps and building it out in a way that scores you the most points. It’s odd, in theme, because you’d think you’d want all the maps to be identical, nope, not really.

But the game does two things that I really like. The first being that it has monsters, and why are monsters great, you might ask? Well, monsters are great because they are a negative to what you are doing. But it isn’t a negative that you control, it’s a negative that someone else plays on y our board. And I like that player interaction that often doesn’t exist in roll and write games. In Cartographers you got it because I want to add a monster that will mess you up.

Then the other thing is how Cartographers does the scoring. Scoring is done via seasons and each season scores two of the four areas. This isn’t that unique to Cartographers, but it is a fun twist to the game. It is also unique to roll and write games, at least the ones that I’ve come across. So in spring I score, let’s call them, A and B. Well, A isn’t going to come back around until winter when I score D and A. So there is a balance about which goals you are going for. And after summertime, B isn’t going to be scored again.

Buy Cartographers

18. Railroad Ink Challenge

And let’s go onto the top roll and write style game for me, Railroad Ink, though in particular, Railroad Ink Challenge. I love this game, and the app definitely helps, though I haven’t played it in a while. Railroad Ink is primarily about connecting railroad and road points around the edge of the board.

Railroad Ink Challenge builds upon that with a few different things. There are now stations where if you build a connection that connects roads and trains, which is a certain side of the dice, there, you get more points. And there are special sides of dice that you can use that often have those stations. Plus you get more points for traveling through the middle. And there are spots that when you cover them give you other bonuses as well. I like those additions to the game.

The one that I really like for the game, though, is the new challenge cards. The challenge cards offer different objectives on rounds three through five, that you can score. Now, you are able to score them later, but if you do that, they are worth fewer points. So it is a push to get those scores, but not too much of one to mess up your connections and longest routes because those are going to give you the most points.

Buy Railroad Ink Challenge

17. Xenoshyft

Now we’re onto the first of several games with deck building that make it towards the top of my list. I really like deck building and Xenoshyft is some of the best cooperative deck building out there. I love it for that, and for the theme which feels a whole lot like Starship Troopers as you’re fighting off wave after wave of bugs.

But let’s talk about what I really like about this deck building. There are a number of things that I cover in the video, but I’ll just hit the highlights. The first being that every turn you get money. So there is no hand where you’re not going to be able to buy a card. You will always be able to add a card, which is great because another thing I like, the cards you buy go to your hand, not into a discard for future rounds.

The other element that I really like is the amount of cooperation in the game. As you play and deal with the waves, you might end up with a hand with too many weapons or not enough troops. Well, someone can give you a troop if they have extra or to balance out the defenses better. You can pass off a weapon to someone else. They change decks they are in now. And there are consumables. I can use a consumable item, it stays in my deck, on the lane that you’re defending from the bugs just as easily as mine. So it’s a puzzle that all players work together on to solves very cooperatively.

Buy Xenoshyft

16. First Rat

Now we’re onto a game, two in row actually, that my first experience was at Gen Con in 2022. First Rat was one of the hottest games that year, and I got to play it, demo it, the very last day there. Since then it is one that has hit the table more times because of the fun theme and because it’s a thinky game, but it’s easy to play. For me, a game that makes me think but isn’t too complex to play is what I really like.

In First Rat you are rats who are trying to build rocket ships to make it to the moon, because the moon is made of cheese, obviously. To do that you need to collect resources, like baking soda, vinegar (propulsion), coffee can (fuselage), or a calculator (navigation) to build parts of the rocket. But there is more than just that going on because you are going up a track that only moves forward.

So you need to balance the speed that you go as well as pushing up other things, like lights. If you light an area that now offers doubles the resources for you. And you don’t just have one rat that goes up, you have multiple. Plus how the rats move is fun. One rat is able to move farther on a turn, but if you move two and land on the same color with both, you need to in fact, you get resources for both. It’s a fun twist and as you unlock more rats that is fun as well to figure out your engine for that game.

Buy First Rat

15. Ready Set Bet

Now the other game from Gen Con 2022 is Ready Set Bet. Ready Set Bet is not a game that immediately grabbed my attention. It’s a real time horse racing and betting game. That sounds like chaos, and in all fairness, there is a bit of chaos going on. But it is so much fun.

The game is pretty simple, one person (or an app) is calling the race. Rolling dice and moving the horses along the track. Everyone else is throwing down bets on horses to win, or get 2nd or 3rd. Plus there are other bets, that you can make. Those are going to be something like, if the 5 and 9 beat the 7 horse. Because rolling two D6, 7 is the most likely number to come up.

So how does the 7 not win the vast majority of the time? Well, because there are special rules for how horses move. All horses will move one if their number is rolled. But the less likely the number is to be rolled, the further the horse moves, if the same number is rolled twice in a row. So that can help one of those edge horses rocket up into the lead just because their number was rolled a couple of times.

I love Ready Set Bet because of that catch-up mechanism of balancing mechanism. The game is just a blast to play. And almost always a race or two throughout the game ends up with a late lead change and stand-up moments as players really want a horse to finish and with a couple of rolls they might be able to, as long as another number doesn’t come up.

Buy Ready Set Bet

14. Sleeping Gods

Now we go to a run of three bigger story driven games. The first being Sleeping Gods, and soon I’ll have Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies to add to the list as well. But this is an open world adventure and exploration game from Red Raven Games. In Sleeping Gods you can go anywhere, but you’re trying to find totems so you can get back to the real world instead of this one you blew into during a storm.

You play as the crew of the Manticore, or really as the Manticore itself. You travel around and then taking the crew to shore or other locations you interact with story. And Ryan Laukat and everyone involved did an amazing job with the story. You get to experience a chunk of it, but not too much so it’s replayable. And the story is not in any order, but the story all works because it’s exploring the world and there are a few spots where it pauses with big events no matter what.

I also like the game system. I didn’t talk about it too much in last nights video, but it is great. It’s simple in what you’re doing, spending icons, basically, a boost roles. Or some characters have icons built into them that you can use. And the combat mechanism is a bit odd, but I really enjoyed it as you try and figure out how to cover up damage spots on a monster.

Buy Sleeping Gods

13. ISS Vanguard

Now another one of the story games and another one that I played on Malts and Meeples. ISS Vanguard is an epic experience of a game. I don’t know, yet, if I can call it an adventure, but the experience of the game is amazing. Humanity has decoded coordinates hidden in human DNA for someone in the stars. So a crew has been put together to go out there, what will they find?

That’s the premise for the game and everything. Now the crew of the ISS Vanguard find themselves at those coordinates, and what they find is not what they expected. So you get to explore planets and find out what is really going on. And then you spend time maintaining and improving the ship, finding and researching new technologies and breakthroughs. Plus memorializing crew who have died and healing the injured.

I love that about this game. It offers two parts, planet and ship, and both are equally as important. When they announced the ship part, I thought it might be too much just maintenance. But there is story, there is progression and there are real decisions to be made. So I love both parts, in some ways, I almost prefer the ship part because it’s so interesting and smooth to play.

Buy ISS Vanguard

12. Roll Player Adventures

Now another campaign game, though this one shorter than ISS Vanguard. Roll Player Adventures is 11 chapters, I believe. And there is a side quest that you can do. But set in the world of Roll Player, a character creation game, and Lock-up from Thunderworks Games, this is the big adventure that you can take those characters you created or pre-generated ones on an adventure.

This game has a lot of story to it and choose your own adventure elements. But each map you play, each scenario you play, is going to continue that story. The main mechanism in the game is completing challenges or defeating monsters by dice placement and manipulation. And that is a fun element of the game. I think it’s a bit easier with more players though, so just note that.

I also like how you have three tracks in the game. That shows how much or little favor you have with a group. That is one way where the game is going to be vary variable. And I like it for the game because some elements of the map and how you interact are going to stay the same. But as your favor changes that’ll open up or close off some options to you.

Buy Roll Player Adventures

11. Aeon’s End

Finally we end with another deck building game, this one is also cooperative, and it is Aeon’s End. Aeon’s End is a game of defending the town of Gravehold from a nemesis that is coming through. Can the breach mages stand against it or will the nemesis and it’s minions overwhelm?

This is all of Aeon’s End stuff. I have played it on Malts and Meeples as well. So I’ll drop in the video below. But I love this game for it’s cooperative play and for it’s unique turn order. However, I think the turn order probably means it should be a two handed solo game, or a two player game. You put six cards, two for each character and two for the nemesis into pile at two players. Then that is shuffled and you draw your turn order randomly. Once all six are drawn, you shuffle it up again. I love that.

I also love how much the game offers for you to do with your money. You might want to buy more spells and more powerful spells to hit the nemesis or their minions. Or you might have a special power that you want to power up. But you also need to think about spending the money (gems) to open up more breaches. Because you are only able to prepare and cast spells for the numbers of breaches that you have. It’s a good system where you want to do everything but probably can’t quite, realistically.

Buy Aeon’s End

Upcoming Streams

Let’s run through the stream structure like I normally do. You might already know the schedule but in case you don’t. Wednesday at 8 PM Central I stream either a campaign game, or with this time of year it’s my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. And join me next Wednesday for the Top 10. It goes so fast, and now I have so many games that I want to play.

Then on Monday I stream at 9 PM Central time. It’s generally a solo game. Though I’ll also do pack openings for things But normally it’s a solo game and a one off for the game like a roll and write, or sometimes a game like Under Falling Skies or For Northwood, which was on the list today.

But the best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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

Normally I’d add in a video here of the game play. But for Unbreakable, there really isn’t much game play. It’s an established system, so less new content on it. So let’s go back to an older Rolling Solo video to show off the game system of Too Many Bones in general.

Too Many Bones: Unbreakable – Crowdfunding

So, like I said this is the point where I jumped into the game. My first experience, though with the game was the playthrough above, and then playing a bit of a demo of it at GenCon in 2019. Let’s just say that GenCon and a bit of a demo really isn’t the way to try out the game. Chip Theory Games doesn’t make light games. So while I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it.

Fastforward to this crowdfunding campaign. And why jump in at this point. Well, it’s supposed to be the last bigger box expansion, possibly. But it is more because these characters sounded cool. I’ll get into them in more detail, so it seemed like a jumping in point that was nice and safe. Since then, of course, I own more and I’m ready to get it to the table.

The Level Up System

Let’s start by talking about Too Many Bones and the big thing that is really tempting about this game. As you play the game you get to level up as you go. That means unlocking new abilities or increasing stats. From what I’ve heard, often stats are just as good as abilities or better. Because survivability is important. But let’s talk about the abilities.

Each character has their own board and dice that they can use to level up. And each character levels up their own things. Let’s talk a bit about the characters here. Because that’s what is so key to the level up system.

Gale

Gale is going to use their mechanical abilities to manipulate the wind. This is all done in the standard way via the dice rolls. Generally around wind, she’s going to try and control the battle board to some extent that way, moving enemies

Figment

Figment is a time traveler. Coming to the past when the world needs them most, Figmant manipulates different elements of the game. Allowing turn order to change or messing with other elements of combat.

Compared to the original characters which were more standard fantasy tropes, Gale and Figment standout in what they can do. So their leveling paths are going to be interesting.

Campaign but Not

So, let’s talk about this as well because Chip Theory Games does this a lot as well. They create games that are campaigns but really aren’t campaigns. In this case it is and isn’t one at the same time. There isn’t that story progression that you are reading. It is the story of what your characters do, fight, and how they upgrade. But it’s not a specific narrative path. So that allows them to get it very generic and shorter.

But it is a campaign because you do level up. Your characters progress throughout the game. The whole last section that I wrote about, you can see how it would be a campaign game. Except for the fact that the story isn’t there.

High Quality

Finally, let’s wrap up by talking about how nice a game that Chip Theory Games makes. Everything that they do is very high quality. They don’t give you a dual layer or single layer cardboard player board, no, it’s a neoprene mat. They don’t give you generic dice that you need to match up to something, custom dice all the way. The poker chips for most things aren’t cheaper quality and even the more basic health chips are really nice.

Everything about the game is quality. And that has stayed consistent across all of their products. Now, that seems like a lot and it does make the games expensive. But they started that way and because it has stayed that way, nothing is incompatible which means that you can play with a lot of different characters that they have put out in Too Many Bones.

Final Thoughts on Too Many Bones: Unbreakable

Is this just an excuse to get into a game that I liked, possibly. But it is a game that I want to dive into. There are a lot of very cool elements and I want to explore this world. I know people love it as a solo game. So I want to explore it as that. I want to play it with friends, I want to see how all the different gearlocs play that I have.

I know that for a lot of people it is a lifestyle game. And I know that it isn’t the easiest game to learn. But I’m excited to dive into it and see all that it has to offer.

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

The Game – Birds of a Feather: Western North America

That name of the game is a mouthful, so I’ll just call it Birds of a Feather. But like I said, this is a bird watching game and one that I learned about in GenCon 2022. The game play is pretty straight forward. See how many birds you can see. And in the solo game, a good chunk of it comes down to luck. Which isn’t a bad thing, but does make the experience more random.

In Birds of a Feather you spot birds that are at your habitat. So if I’m in the woods, I see all the birds in the woods. And not only do I see all of them in the woods on one round, if I play woods the following round, I see all that were played the turn before as well. For solo that just means you are strategically trying to see all of the birds.

And this is where I think I’ll appreciate it at 4-5 player range, it can go up to 7, where it will be less random. You can coordinate as players, not too intentionally, to see birds at the same location. And you can strategize what you think will get you the most birds.

But beware the pesky raptors. They show up and now all of the birds at that location fly away before you can score them. It’s a bit of a take that element. I got the birds now you can’t get them from the previous turn. But in a minor way that hits everyone at that habitat. So there is an interesting choice or decision space with them, and there aren’t too many in the game. That is lost in the solo play. So it’s one I want to play in a larger group soon.

Upcoming Streams

Next stream coming up is the finale of Lands of Galzyr. Game number 10 on the adventures of Bumir. See what he gets up to and send him off into the sunset on Wednesday. I’ll start streaming at 8 PM Central Time and you can find the link to that upcoming video here.

And next Monday my plan isn’t to play a game. It is to stream the selection process for my next campaign game. So join in and be a part of that. I am planning on five finalists and you can help decide what I play. What are those five finalists, you’ll have to see Monday at 8:30 PM Central time if you want to join in live.

As always, the easiest way to know when I go live is to subscribe to Malts and Meeples. When you do that, you can then click the notification bell to know whenever I go live.

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

Lunch Time Gaming At Work

I’ve started a new job so this has gone away, for now, but maybe once a week at my old job, I’d bring in a game and we’d play it. It was just a nice chill time and it was fun to introduce people who maybe hadn’t played many board games, some new board games. Plus it was a chance for me, and I need them, to play a game that I hadn’t played before. Biblios and Arboretum stand out as some of the favorites of the group. And then there were some duds like the Copenhagen: Roll and Write, or Hexroller. They were worth trying, but not great games.

GenCon

I could break this down even further, but the whole experience was amazing. And I can’t wait until the 2023 GenCon. But having some people I knew there was fun, and I got to chat with them some. Plus then Discord communities. I got game with people from Man vs Meeple and Tablenauts and their discords and it was just a great time. Plus I got to play so many different games. GenCon is an amazing experience every time and I think that I found a rhythm that I like for being there. Though, we’ll have to see what might be fun to try next year.

10 Minute Marvel

This one is more recent, but getting a co-host for 10 Minute Marvel has been amazing. Yes, it makes more work for me editing, but it’s just to have a scheduled nerdy Marvel conversation every week. And I want to have more of them, maybe without the editing all the time. But it was great to get a co-host and a friend to go to the movies with and just dive into all of the fun nerdy stuff. And I’m excited to see all the new stuff coming out and talk about that as well.

Getting a Gaming Table

It feels like it’s been longer but that was this spring that I went through, found a lot of games to sell, sold them, and got a gaming table. I love my gaming table. It makes playing campaign games so much easier since I can leave it set-up. I sometimes wonder if I could leave one game set-up on one half and another on the other half. But then again, a lot of them take up more than half of the table. But I basically always have whatever campaign game I’m streaming set-up on there.

Stars of Akarios

Speaking of Streaming, Stars of Akarios. I figured I’d like the game, but I didn’t realize I’d like it as much as I did. The game is just great, the story is fun, and that tactical space combat really shines. So an easy pick, it was hard to take it down. I kind of wanted to continue, but also, it is good to show off more games than just one.

The Dragon Prince, Locke & Key, and Stranger Things

I put them all in one because, well, they are all Netflix shows. And all of them are some of my favorites. I feel like I’m probably missing a show, but these three were great. Locke & Key ended strong. The Dragon Prince, it had been a bit but used it as a chance to watch the whole series again. And while, Stranger Things, Season 4 was the best one since Season 1, and I think it’s really close between those. There were just a lot of really good and fun shows that Netflix put out. And then GBBO is always good, but I kind of consider that to be a little bit of a different thing.

Campaign Games

Technically Stars of Akarios would have fallen into this group, but overall I had an amazing time with campaign games. Sleeping Gods, even though I played it wrong, was so much fun. Tainted Grail, we finished up the second campaign and are into the third. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game was great. Spire’s End and Spire’s End Hildegard have been a ton off un. Even the weird campaign from Paper Dungeons was a lot of fun to play through. So lots of campaign style games that were fun.

Final Thoughts

I don’t think that 2022 was completely a normal nerdy year. I have a four year old now and that means that some nerdy things happen less often or at least getting out for them does. On the flip side, I got to do GenCon and I got to play a lot of Tainted Grail and get a lot of games in. So it’s been a very fun and fulfilling year of nerdy things. And I didn’t even touch on the anime that I’ve watched, not all of which have been great. But there are a good number of fun ones of those as well.

I am really looking forward to what 2023 has as well. Like I said, we’ll talk about some of those things coming up. But it’s going to be another fun year. And hopefully you’ve had good nerdy things happen to you in 2022 as well.

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

Top 5 Games New to Me in 2022

Now, I will say that this is the best of my knowledge. And I already adjusted it once because sometimes, I have games where I got them in 2021, or before, and I just played them this year. And I can see when I modified games last on BGG, but I of course can’t sort when I rated them which is what I’d really want.

5. Lost Ruins of Arnak

This one I know I owned for a while but I played it at GenCon for the first time, and it was great. I’ve played it a few more times since then, and I want to get it back to the table as I’m talking about it now. It’s a game of putting out workers, getting resources, and then going on adventures, which just give you more resources. But it’s a fun resource generation puzzle to optimize your points.

I think it would have missed the list if not for the expedition leaders. The game is a lot of fun without that expansion. But with that expansion, it is just that much better. You all start off with your own powers and abilities which changes up how you attack the game. And it’s fun to start out different like that and then go even further as you build out your deck.

4. Trek 12

Trek 12 was a roll and write that I hoped would be fun. I heard about it and thought, mountain climbing is interesting. Then I played it the first time, and I didn’t love it at all. In fact, that first play is on camera, and you can see why I don’t love it. I’m played the game twice, once for myself and once for an AI that isn’t that interesting to play. So it’s just busy work for me to play for them.

But then I played it multiplayer. I knew that the solo experience wasn’t the best, so how would it be with more people, and it was a lot of fun. What I do in the game doesn’t change at all, but what I don’t do, that extra work, goes away. And I can focus in on what I want to do in the game, not something else. It makes it way more fun.

3. Black Sonata

Black Sonata is a solo only hidden movement game. That sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it really does. You set-up a deck of cards that determines how the mysterious lady in black moves. And you are going around, tracking symbols as to where she is going, trying to catch up to her and gain clues. As you gain clues, then you can start to piece together who she might be.

It’s a bit of set-up for a solo game, but the game play is really interesting. And there is an expansion that I own but I haven’t played yet. I need to get that one to the table again and try it with the expansion to see how that works.

2. Final Girl

Another solo only game, we have Final Girl. This is a theme that I just love. It’s a horror movie and you are the final girl, the one who will survive to the end, but will you actually make it alive out the movie? Van Ryder Games got that into a small box with lots of different types of horror movies that you can add on.

It is a tough game to beat and mechanically driven. But with that said, it is still a good story game. You create the movie as you go, some story elements happen, but what do you find? Do you get a good weapon, or do you find a flashlight? That all comes down to what you look for and where you look. Who all do you rescue, and can you defeat the killer, ghost, whatever it is, in the end.

1. Destinies

And at #1 we have Destinies. Th is is a game that I knew I was going to like. It’s a story driven competitive game, which is different. But Destinies has you looking for your characters destiny in an old world where monsters exist. Can you get your destiny before another player gets theirs?

The game uses and app and the app is great. It allows the story to come up and get handled nicely without flipping through books, and allows you to try a lot of options without spoiling anything. And the game play is pretty simple but clever. It is a push your luck dice system where you can decide how many dice to roll to see what level of success you get. I really like how it works.

Final Thoughts

2022 was a great year for me for gaming. I’ve played 97 new to me games this year and about the same in games I’ve already played before. A lot of those were at GenCon, but I’ve gotten a number into my collection as well. And there are more coming in. I could almost, maybe, do a true Top 100 of just new to me games. And some of them I want to get back to the table, and others, not so much.

Plus, I look at my shelf and I see what games could have been played, which ones I still need to get tabled that likely would have made the list. Or they could have made the list potentially. What new to you games were your favorite in 2022?

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