Games 20 through 11 of 2024

Now, first off, I do want to say, there are some games on the list that I don’t really enjoy. The bottom three I find to be poor or just okay, but let’s get to them.

20. Takenokolor

Takenokolor is a roll and write game where what you are rolling is the pens. However, the game itself is really simple and the choices are generally very obvious. They do have a few different “boards” that you can play on, but even the more complex ones tend not to offer that much more choice than the others. It feels like a very basic roll and write game with the gimmick that you are rolling pens. And even the added complexity doesn’t make the game more fun, it’s still very basic, just extra rules for the sake of extra rules.

19. Landmarks

Landmarks is a party style of game where one person is “it” and they are giving clues to lead the other players around a map. And the clues they give are one word based off of other words on the board. Basically, there are hexes, three of them have words on them, to start the game, and the clue giver gives a clue and the other players need to figure out where it makes sense to place that new tile. Does it make sense to connect to two words, or is the clue giver trying to keep you away from some.

Now, I said at the beginning that I wasn’t a huge fan of the bottom three. I think I want to try this one again. My hopes are fairly limited that it’d be a consistent hit for me, but I do believe, in the right group, this could be a fun game.

18. Odin

Odin is a card shedding game. Probably the best known card shedding game right now is Scout, which just broke into the Board Game Geek Top 100. Odin isn’t that, it’s a solid but simple card shedding game that works on a more basic principle than scout. You play out cards either as a bigger number of one color or a bigger number of a set of one number than the previous person did. Then you take one card to add to your hand from what the previous person played.

I think that this one is probably a 7 for me at 2 or 3 players if I were to rank it out of 10. But it plays higher than that. And at higher numbers than that it’s just very random. And you find lots of turns where you aren’t able to play and that might happen several rounds in a row. In Scout at least you are picking up new cards when you can’t play, here you are just left stuck with what you have.

17. Icecool Wizards

Icecool Wizards is not as good as Icecool. But if you want a smaller box and a bit more game play, there is an option for you. The core mechanisms remain the same. You flick around a penguin, but now you are trying to get elements to cast spells, basically set collection. And you do that by flicking your penguin over the elements and then flicking them over spells to collect those spells.

The one thing that keeps it from being up higher is that there is almost more luck than the basic game. What do you flip out for a spell, who knows. Now that balances out somewhat over the course of the game, but it’s just an extra element to the game that isn’t completely needed.

16. Festival

Next up we have Festival. I like games with fireworks, fireworks are fun. But Festival is just fine for me because it’s basically a pattern building game. And while I think it works well, it’s very abstract, and I’m just okay with abstract games. You take one of two tiles that’s visible and you’re trying to complete goals. But, instead of taking tiles you can reserve a goal as well because you can only score goals that you reserve.

Honestly, I think it’s the reserving the goals that bugs me about the game. It’s an extra turn that you take, and generally you reserve and score it the same turn. Unless you spy someone else going for it, you’re not going to waste a turn grabbing it early to then never be able to score it. It might be more exciting of a game if you just scored if you were the first to get it, though maybe a bit more deterministic, I see you one turn ahead of me for a goal, I pivot goals, whereas now you can steal it out from under another player.

15. Metrorunner

Next up is Metrorunner. This is one that I got to play at Gen Con and it’s a fun game. You are going around a rondel collecting cubes and trading them in to complete missions. It’s not that super unique a game, but I like that rondel mechanism in it. It feels different while still being an accessible and easy to understand and play game.

But the game has an interesting extra element to it. In Metrorunner you also have a sliding puzzle game in the middle. It reminds me of I believe it was called Pipes Dream where you connect one side of the board to another specific side with pipes. You do that here, but you do it with limited moves and only a few special abilities to help you. I won the game because I am very good at figuring out those puzzles, and you can do it a lot in the game.

14. Captain Flip

This one is a game that I’d love to add to my collection. I own 15 & 17 already, but Captain Flip is maybe the last one that I don’t own on the list. This is a fun game of drawing a tile, you see one side and that tells you some of the scoring that might be on that tile. And it is scoring that you can use and add to your pirate ship. But on the flip side is some other scoring and that scoring might be better. But, once you flip you are locked in on that side of the tile. So do you push your luck or not. It’s a very light game but a good time.

13. Adulthood

Adulthood is a game with a fun theme of being an adult, though, I’m already an adult and I think the game is more fun than real life. You have less taxes that you need to do in the game. But the game is all about how you spend your time and money. And the artwork is great and goes well with the theme because it just creates this fun experience.

I love how you might lose your job but you find a new one easily. Or you fall in love and get married and how you have a new action spot to spend time and money on. Plus you also are trying to play out other cards that are life experiences. If you do well with those, they are great way to score points, but a lot of them require that you have other life experiences first. No going to the PTA meeting without having a kid first. And who knows if you find that kid because it’s a big deck of cards you dig through.

12. Cafe Baras

Cafe Baras is a game with a really fun theme. You are Capybara baristas and you want to make your best coffee shop. So you buy items to put on your menu. Then you bring in customers who will give you money. And if you match everything a customer wants, you can get a repeat customer, which is going to give you points. Plus there are special customers. They score at the end of the game and only if you cafe meets certain things.

The game is from Kids Table Board Games and it is light. But because o that it plays fast as well. And it’s a pretty easy game to teach. I don’t think with a silly cute theme I’d want it to be longer. So Cafe Baras is a very fun time.

11. Stonespine Architects

And just missing my Top 10 for 2024 is Stonespine Architects. Though it is one of my most played games in 2024, at least in person. I really like this game because it’s all about building out a dungeon. And you want your dungeon to meet certain things. If it does you are going to get points. But there is an element of drafting cards to add to your dungeon. And then buying items to enhance your dungeon.

I also really like that you draft some scoring objectives as well. Players add three to the game as they play, each of them unique to that player. So while there are shared scoring elements, your dungeon is going to become more unique. And when cards don’t quite fit perfectly, well that might work for a scoring objective that you have.

Final Thoughts

I’m sure that I’m missing games that I played in 2024. Some because maybe they didn’t get rated from a quick play at Gen Con. Or maybe I just missed that date, but 2024 was a year where I got in a lot of fun games. And I also know that there are games from 2024 that I haven’t gotten to that I really want to play. In fact, I see one from where I’m sitting with Stamp Swap, and I know there are more as well.

What are some of your favorite games from 2024? But not you #1 game, bring that to Malts and Meeples tomorrow night as I stream at 9 PM Central my 10 through 1.

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Stocking Stuffer Board Games

For Northwood

We’re starting off with the first and only solo only board game on the list. I’m going to do a list of solo board games, but that’ll be coming out in the next week or so. But For Northwood is a great stocking stuffer sized game and an interesting one in that it’s trick taking. Trick Taking isn’t something you often consider for solo because, well, you need someone to play against. In For Northwood, that someone is the deck of cards.

In For Northwood, you need to win a specific number of tricks, 0 through 7, for different parts of the woods. Now, just playing against the deck of cards, that seems too random. So they gave you some lords and ladies of the woodlands, the royalty, that offer you powers to use. You get three to use in the game, but you unlock new ones as you complete the objectives of the different parts of the woods.

These powers let you manipulate your hand. Draw more cards when you are on the seven to increase your chances. Or discard cards when you need to get zero because there’s a big risk that with any flip, any high number might win for you. Because, the trick is you need to win the exact number of tricks. So how do you make that work?

Ecosystem

Ecosystem comes in the biggest or tied for the biggest box of the group. This is a drafting tableau building board game. By that I mean that you are building out an ecosystem in front of you. And how you build it, where you place animals and terrain types, is going to give you points. To add to that, you are then restricted to a five wide and four high grid. So as you play you get more limited spots to play.

And then there is the drafting. You pick a card from your hand and you add that to your tableau. But what I love about drafting games is that everyone is picking at the same time. So I am always playing and so are you. It helps keep people engaged in the game.

The final thing that I think makes this game intriguing for a stocking stuffer is the diversity that you need from your ecosystem. If you only focus on two or three creatures, do you really have a ecosystem? Not really, it’s a small slice of what one looks like in real life. So they give you points for building that diverse ecosystem, like you’d see in the real world.

Birds of a Feather

Next stocking stuffer board game is Birds of a Feather. This one is maybe the meanest game on the list. It can be mean how you draft in Ecosystem, but the rest of the board games, not that mean. Birds of a Feather is all about bird watching and seeing how many you see. Because the person who saw the most and the rarest at the end of the time wins.

Each round you play out a bird card. And you see the birds from that terrain type that everyone has played. In fact, you see the ones from the previous day as well. So it’s a good thing to be just one day behind. Except for the raptors. If someone plays the raptor from that terrain type, well, that scares away all the birds that were there yesterday.

Birds of a Feather is a fast little game and one that is easy to teach. I think that it works well with almost all groups and you can decide how cutthroat you want to be when you play out those raptor cards.

Patchwork Doodle

Patchwork Doodle is the next game on the list. I needed to put in a roll and write game because, well, it’s a roll and write game and I like them a lot. Patchwork Doodle is one of the smaller ones which is why it can fit into a stocking. There are several others I could pick as well, but I like Patchwork Doodle for a bit more of a game than others that fit into this size.

In Patchwork Doodle you are making the biggest quilt that you can. A patchwork quilt is where it is getting it’s name from. To do that, you, and everyone else, fill in Tetris like shapes on your board. And at the end of each round, which consists of a number of cards, you find your biggest completed square and rectangle. The square part matters because it gives you the most points. A 5 by 5 square is twenty-five points. But a 7 by 5 rectangle is only 27 points, twenty-five for the 5 by 5 and then two more for the extra rows or columns.

I also like this one because it has powers. Powers aren’t needed for a roll and write game, but I like the addition of them. Powers are going to give you little ways to tweak what shape you get or to fill in a single spot that is open. So a fun one with some good thinking to it.

SCOUT

SCOUT is a new game for me this year. But it’s one that after a single play, I found that I really like the game. Some games are about building the best hand of cards, SCOUT is about getting rid of all your cards. So it’s like a Phase 10 or Uno that way, but more game to it.

In SCOUT you get your hand of cards. And you need to play down runs or sets that are higher than what was previously played out. If you do, those previous cards go away to get added to your scoring. That doesn’t sound too hard. You start with a big hand of cards, just move things around until you get a great run. Just one issue with that.

The big hook of SCOUT is that you can’t rearrange the cards in your hand. So when you start playing, you decide which way your cards go, because they have different numbers top and bottom. And you decide that for the whole hand of cards. So, unless there is an amazing shuffle, it’ll never be in order. You need to play the little runs you have or a set of one card, to open up your hand and create those runs. And if you can’t play, you get a card from the previously played ones, making it easier to beat, and you put it anywhere in your hand.

SCOUT is a very good and clever game that way. One that I was hesitant to play, didn’t look all that fun, but it is great fun when you play it. And it is in a very stocking stuffer friendly size box.

Dandelions

Finally we have Dandelions. Dandelions is a game of area control. And in all fairness if you know what dandelions are, that is what it feels like with your yard. But this is with the dandelions here you are trying to compete with your opponents for majority.

You do this by playing out dice. That moves your dandelion pawn around and sees where you drop fluff. You want to have the most dice in areas because that is going to let you get their pip value. But you also get points for the dice you just have in areas, so the total number versus the pips. And some of the areas are worth more. That’s because they don’t have as many spots for the dandelion pawn to land.

Dandelions is a fun game and one where you get to start by rolling a handful of dice. I think the simplicity of how it works, you play a die, you move the pawn, and you place the die, is great with the strategy level of the game. In that it is more than you’d think to line-up your ideal turn and force your opponents dice out of controlling some of the areas.

Final Thoughts

These are only some of the stocking stuffer board games that I thought of, I actually have a whole shelf for small little games like this. Why, because they are great, not only for stuffing some stockings, but also for taking on trips, family vacations or up to the holidays. I’ll talk about some of those, though, later as we get closer to travel around Christmas time.

But just a quick hit one some other board games out there. Fox in the Forest Duet, for the person who like trick taking board games. Hanamikoji, for that one person who is always down to play board games so you play two player games. Or Medium for the person who really likes party games.

But which of these board games do you want to give or get this holiday season?

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Creating My Top 100 Games List

And that site is Pub Meeple. It’s a great site because it pulls in your Board Game Geek list and can use that to do a ranking. In the ranking you compare two games against each other. So let’s say Monopoly and Clue. You decide which one you like better, so Clue then Monopoly. Then you might compare Risk and Scrabble and decide on Scrabble. It’d then give you the comparison of Clue and Scrabble and let’s say I pick Scrabble, it’ll then have me compare Clue to Risk to determine which one I like better. If I pick Clue then Risk and Monopoly get compared. But if I pick Risk, then Clue and Monopoly just get slotted after.

Also, it’s worth noting a few other things I mention at the start. That’s how I eliminate some of the games. Each box of Dice Throne doesn’t count as it’s own entry. Every version of Clank, Aeon’s End, and Pandemic aren’t their own entries. Even Frosthaven, Gloomhaven, and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion get lumped together. Why, because otherwise the list would be dominated by a few games.

Finally, last thing is that I do not put games that I’ve only played digitally. There are a couple of games, Rogue Angels being the big one, that will likely end up in my Top 100 Games (of all time) when I can play it physically, but I want to experience it that way as well to verify my feelings.

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition 100 through 91

100. Ship Shape

A new one to the list, this is an interesting little game that is kind of a party style filler. But not a party game in terms of a “haha” game. But it’s a light game of filling out your cargo hold the best that you can. You have three goods, cannons, gold, and contraband. You get points for gold, cannons compared to the person with the fewest, and your contraband, if you don’t have the most.

Plus you are bidding on what tile you get to place into your hold. It might work out well, you win the bid, you get the top one, or you could get the second one. Of course, if you tie, then you don’t get any in order and have to rebid for your one once more a gone. So it’s kind of random, but a lot of fun with simple mechanisms.

Buy Ship Shape

99. Welcome To…

Welcome To has dropped on the list. I think that Welcome To is down on the list because I don’t play it as often because it isn’t my favorite solo roll and write game. But the game is still great as you try and build your favorite Stepford neighborhood. Can you build the best white picket fences, pools, parks, and get those house numbers in the right order?

Plus there is good variety with the different maps. So I likely need to play those more often so that I can get that variety. And one of the better things is that Welcome To is a great game for a larger group. There really is no upper limit, just sheets, as to how many you can play with. So that makes it a fun game to pull out when I want a bigger group game but not a party game.

Buy Welcome To…

98. SCOUT

SCOUT is another new one to the list and this was a big hit from last year in the US. I believe it was out in Japan prior to that, but I started hearing about it a ton last year and a ton at Gen Con in 2022. SCOUT is a card shedding game. That means that you have a handful of cards and you’re trying to get rid of yours the fastest.

To do that you are trying to play out card(s) in sets, runs, or a single card, that beats what the other person played. The trick of the game is that the cards have numbers on the top and bottom. And when you get your hand of cards you can’t rearrange it. So you’re stuck with what you had, that might mean that you can’t beat what someone else played down. Instead you take one of the cards they played and add it to your hand wherever you want.

Buy SCOUT

97. My City (My City: Roll and Build)

Next up is one of those combo of games. My City and My City Roll and Build. This is a game about building out a city in either a campaign or legacy game version. And one is a roll and write the other is a polyomino game.

I like each version. My City, the legacy version, is a good game that’s fast to play and works well with a group of people. My City Roll and Build is able to be played solo. It is still a very fast game, and fewer things carry over, but I like it a lot as a solo game. It is still extremely fast, probably 10 minutes for the roll and write game. The legacy version is probably 20-30 minutes.

Buy My City

96. The Reckoners

Now we’re onto a cooperative game on the list, The Reckoners. This is based off of a series from Brandon Sanderson that I really like. And this is a good cooperative game in that there is little to no downtime in the game.

How do they make that work? The game is in two parts, the first part is rolling dice to determine what actions you will do. And everyone does that at once, it’s kind of Yahtzee style in that you roll multiple times. But not completely because you always are keeping dice. Then everyone is talking as they roll to make sure it gets set-up right, and you go and do all your actions. Again it is done all at once. The only downtime is when you do the epics (super villains) actions to see what goes wrong.

Buy The Reckoners

95. Clever Cubed

Clever Cubed, another roll and write game and part of the Clever series of games with Ganz Schon Clever (That’s Pretty Clever), Doppelt So Clever (Twice as Clever) and a new game, Clever 4Ever. This one I really like how heavily it leans into combos. There are so many combos in the game that it’s just crazy with how things can connect together and how they just chain off of each other. Plus you get really high scores which is fun.

Buy Clever Cubed

94. Project L

A game that almost wasn’t around any more, as the company – Boardcubator almost went out of business. But Project L is a polyomino game where you are using Tetris like pieces to fill in shapes. As you get more pieces to use, you can start to grab in bigger ones and bigger pieces to fill in the shapes faster.

One of the cool elements of the game, besides the insanely high quality, is that there is a master action. It is an action that you can do one time per turn, but it lets you add to each of your shapes. So you can spend turns collecting more cards and then doing master actions to fill them up faster or all at once, so it’s very fun when you get that working well.

Buy Project L

93. Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade

Another roll and write game, Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade is not shockingly about Pinball. I like that you get a lot of tables to play so you change up what you want to play. And it isn’t hard to learn, though there are pretty simple rules for all the ball moves. The ball moves down and rotates clockwise, I believe, or counter clockwise, either way it’s always the same way.

And each table offers something new. I like the cyber hacking one where you can get into a special area of the board and score a ton of points. All of them have something unique and there are four tables in the main box. Plus there is an expansion box, a Star Trek box, and a holiday movie box, so a lot of options.

It is also a roll and write game that I like solo. Multiplayer it’s possible that one person will end much sooner than someone else. That can lead to downtime, and as you saw with The Reckoners, I like it when there is as little downtime as possible.

Buy Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade

92. Atlantis Rising (Second Edition)

Atlantis Rising is a cooperative race against the clock (figuratively) as the island of Atlantis is sinking. And this is another game where there is little downtime. Everyone is working together and putting out your meeples to the board for collecting items. The further you are out on peninsulas it’s better, but because it’s sinking, you might lose a meeple, for that round.

With what you collect then you’re building up machines. The machines will open a portal that will allow you to escape. And they give you powers as well which might make it smoother to get what you need. Of course, by the time you’re doing that, the island is sinking fast, so it’s a race against time.

Buy Atlantis Rising (Second Edition)

91. Vegetable Stock

Next one is Vegetable Stock. A game that I wouldn’t have known about but for Chris Yi from the Dice Tower who likes this game. This is a small set collection game. And it is also a drafting game. As you draft cards that builds up your collection of card to give you points. And you draft from a pool of one more than there are people.

The card that is leftover affects the stock market. So what you take won’t push it higher, but what is left is going to be push it higher. If it gets too high it’ll bust and drop it down again, so you need to redo that work. Vegetable Stock is a light filler game and really fast. So one that will work well for a lot of groups just as that smaller group game that you can knock out.

Buy Vegetable Stock

Upcoming Streams (Top 100 and Game Plays)

Next Wednesday at 8 PM Central time I’ll be going through 90 through 81 of my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. So join me then and let me know which are your favorites on that part of the list.

And on Monday I stream around 9 PM central time. Generally it is a solo game, though sometimes a topic or a list or Slay the Spire. But it’ll likely be solo games for a while with the Top 100 List going on. And normally on Wednesdays I stream solo campaign board games. So after I finish up my Top 100 Games I’ll be getting back to that, possibly more of The Isofarian Guard.

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.

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OSCS Meet Up

This is the one with fewer hiccups. The only hiccup would be that I didn’t get to meet any of the OSCS people. The upside is, I had some fun gaming. I got to play two games and hangout. One being Whale to Look that I had picked up. I found, with that game, that a fun game at four players, it is not as fun at two players. I’ll talk about that game soon as it is one that I picked up.

The other game was Tesseract. This is a game that is hard to explain, in theme. It’s a game where players are trying to keep a Tesseract (dice cube) from crumbling completely. Meanwhile the game is working against you causing dice to be lost and containment breaches to occur. It’s Pandemic like, in some ways with a few actions you play. And then adds in a very unique dice cube on top of that, literally above everything else.

Man vs Meeple Meet Up

Now, as I write about this, understand that I had fun at this meet up. There is a lot of good conversation, not a ton about board games that was had. Conversation went from Wheel of Time and other books, Marvel shows and movies, and more. It is refreshing in some ways to not talk about board games all the time.

Now, I did play a board game during that time as well. Scout which is a really fun card shedding game. I like the simplicity of the mechanisms but also the puzzle that you are playing. It’s a very fun game that way and a little game as well. I think that makes it stronger.

The gaming, though, is not what people had hoped. Mainly because for two years in a row the air conditioning decided not to work. I think this time it was worse because the food took a long while to come. So we ended with around an hour to play games. That said, it is a really fun time every year. The conversation is always a blast.

Gen Con Recap Part 2

Overall, these events are always fun. I like them mainly as a chance to meet people and game outside of the normal hours. Some days I really like them, but I don’t want them every day. Sleep and staying healthy at Gen Con are important for me.

But when they do happen, it’s always a fun time. Good conversation and in this case, two games that I wouldn’t have played otherwise. I even played Tesseract twice. It is a game that I plan on getting when it hits retail. I like it that much because it’s just different yet similar. I think my game group would like it a lot.

What events outside of Gen Con do you do at Gen Con?

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Top 10 Games to Buy at Gen Con 2022

10. Sagrada: The Great Facades – Glory

The only expansion on the list, I know that I’ll grab it. It is more fun for Sagrada and while I don’t play Sagrada a ton, it is a blast when I pull it out. Glory is going to give another twist on how to play it. And I like how they are doing the expansions. I wish that this was Sagrada Legacy but that wasn’t able to make it in time.

9. Scout

Scout is probably going to be one of the hot games. I say that because it just won the Spiel de Jahres. But I also am not sure how available it has been. Scout is a card shedding game where the cards have two numbers. And you decided at the start which set of numbers you want to use. But you can’t flip it to give you a perfect set-up, it is just how it is dealt. It seems light but intriguing.

8. Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses is going to be a bigger deduction game. Each player knows part of the puzzle to keep the Queen of Hearts from taking off their heads. But you can’t tell what that is, other players need to figure that out from what you are doing so that cooperatively you can get the garden painted and done. There is a deluxe version of this game that looks amazing.

7. Planet Unknown

Planet Unknown is another game that I expect to be flying off the shelves or from the booth. This is a game that was on Kickstarter and has a cool thing with a tile board that rotates. On your turn you rotate it to pick a tile that you want but everyone else gets to pick a tile from in front of them to add to theirs. A cool concept that I think could make for a fun game.

6. Nightmare Productions

Speaking of a fun concept, Nightmare Productions is a game about making horror movies. Now this is not a new game, but it is the first time that Trick or Treat Studios is putting it out and the first time that I know of with only a horror theme. The only horror theme makes it more interesting for me as you try and make your best movie possible. One that I want to checkout and because of the theme probably buy.

5. Marvel: Remix

Marvel: Remix is a reskin of Fantasy Realms with Marvel. I am interested in plain old Fantasy Realms but Marvel: Remix is a theme that I like better. This is basically a small combo building game to give you the most points at the end of the game. You do that by adding or removing cards from your hand. Not sure completely how it works, but looks like a good one.

4. Long Shot: The Dice Game

Another one that I guarantee will be hot. And one that is already out and has been for a little bit. But it hasn’t been consistently easy to get your hands on. This is a roll and write horse racing game where you bet on horses and it just looks like a nice light fast and fun game. I really haven’t heard anything bad about it, maybe some okay reviews but nothing bad.

3. Cat in the Box

Cat in the Box is a fascinating sounding trick taking game. In this game you are playing standard trick taking, you predict how many tricks you can win, and you get points for that. But cards never have a color, at least not until they are played. Then all of a sudden they have a color, and you can declare yourself out of suit at any time, but be careful, because that might create a paradox.

2. Cartographers Expansions

I guess there is one more expansion on the list, Cartographers is getting three new maps. I think if you pre-ordered them they have already shipped. Do I need these? Probably not. Will I get them, most definitely. I love Cartographers, one of my favorite roll and write games, I think it got bumped to #2 or #3, but we’ll have to see when I do my Top 100 games of all time this fall.

1. My Father’s Work

Finally we have My Father’s Work. My Father’s Work is a big game, one of not so many big games on my list. Oathsworn isn’t on there because I backed the Kickstarter, otherwise it would be. But My Father’s Work you play as a mad scientist, but not just one, three generations as you try and pass down knowledge, deal with the villagers and complete your machines, monster, whatever it is. It is scenario based with an app, and while it is heavily Euro mechanics, I think it looks so fascinating. I could see this one being popular, but it is fairly expensive.

Do You Have Gen Con Must Buy?

Let me know what you want to buy. I do want to swing by the Shadowborne Games booth to see Oathsworn, of course my copy will be showing up today. And same with Batman: Everybody Lies, but I might wait on that one. And The Librarians just missed the list, I thought the game was fun, didn’t back it on Kickstarter, and now I want to see what the final production looks like. There are a whole lot more games as well I can imagine being hot, Final Girl and Ark Nova likely will move fast as well. But let me know what you want to pick up over on Twitter.

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Now, it’s very possible the noble doesn’t consider it a step down. Maybe they consider it to be more exciting or interesting to be an adventurer than to be doing whatever they were doing before. Regardless, I do still think there are some key differences between your standard adventurer and one who is or was a noble. The noble is often going to care or know more about the history of the locations they and their party are going to. A noble gets the skills of history and persuasion from their background, so they are going to look at situations differently than just another chance to kill monsters in a dungeon; they will care more about the history of the dungeon or at least know more about it. It is also probable that a character with a noble background will expect to be more in charge. They’ve had people waiting on them for much of their life, and camping out in the woods might not be quite their thing.

Before I give away all my story ideas while talking about the background, let’s get to them. Here are some suggested backstories for your D&D Noble.

I was only a child when my uncle killed my father and took over his lands. I was supposed to have been killed myself, but my father gave his life to give my mother and myself time to escape into the woods. We walked for days before we were taken captive by a native tribe living deep in the woods. I was young, and my mother says she was terrified for both our lives, but they didn’t kill us. They saw how hungry we were, and they fed us and taught us to live off the land. I honed my skills as a hunter, and my mother instilled a hatred of my uncle in me by telling me stories of a father whom I could barely remember. Much later, we were forced to run again as my uncle tried to clear his lands of all the natives. The tribe used me as a scout, and I realized I could integrate myself back into society and get my revenge. I said goodbye to my aged mother and my spouse from the tribe, promising to return. Now I am trying to get revenge on my uncle, take back my lands, and let the tribe return to their lands. But taking down my uncle won’t be easy — I’ll need help.

Class: Ranger
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

I put the last of my money down onto the table. It’s not that I’m a bad gambler, I just have bad luck when it comes to games of chance. I felt the weight of my signet ring in my pocket and thought about putting that on the table. Or maybe I could sell it if I found the right vendor. It might get me enough money to get back to my lands. I didn’t really want to come back to my parents as a beggar. I had run away from home several years ago, and I had a decent amount of money with me. It’s amazing how much things you don’t own will sell for when they come from a noble’s household. If I don’t come back with some money, it’s going to go very poorly for me. I have a sword still, and I can fight; maybe that will be my plan, since I just lost the last of my money.

Class: Fighter
Alignment: Neutral

When you come from a large family, you can’t always get what you want. In my case, I wanted to just live an easy life. My parents are rich — what would you expect for someone who is nobility? I was given a few options. I could marry into another family to strengthen an alliance, I could join the military, or I could join the temple. Those were the only positions that were good enough for me; anything else was too much of a step down. Ideally, I’d choose one of the last two and still do the first anyway. I might be ready to settle down sometime, but it is going to be on my terms, and I am not much of a fighter. So my option was to join the temple. That life was a little bit boring for me, but I found ways to make it interesting, much to the chagrin of the temple. Turns out, that might not have been my brightest plan, because they have decided I would be a good person to start an offshoot of the temple in a small town. I need to travel there, but maybe I’ll do it in a roundabout way and have some fun as I go. They can’t complain if I say I’m spreading the good word, right?

Class: Cleric
Alignment: Chaotic Good

There are expectations for every child born into my family. You had to look a certain way, you had to behave a certain way, and you could not be connected to magic at all. Magic is evil — that is what I was taught from a very young age. I believed that too. But a voice came to me in the middle of the night, and took me away from my bedroom. According to my parents, I was gone for less than a day, but to me it seemed like a week. They could tell that something had changed when I came back. There was magic running through my veins. The doctors said that my blood had been tainted, and my parents believed them, and I believed them. They kicked me out even though I cried. I said that I wouldn’t use the power, but the law of our land is clear — I’m an outcast. I want to find out how I got these powers to see if I can get rid of them, but they have helped me, so I need to know more to see if they are evil or not. I don’t know much about the world, so I probably should find someone to travel with.

Class: Sorcerer/Warlock
Alignment: Neutral Good

What sort of Noble have you played before? Is it a background that has interested you, or does it seem too simple/straightforward?

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