We went to Gencon this year. I’ll talk specifically about the seminars I attended as separate posts so in this one I’ll give my overall impressions and talk about some of the games I played.
Games – Playtests and Demos –
We played a test run of Gambler Grifter by Bard Shark (nothing online yet). When they described the game it sounded complicated but when we played – it really was intuitive. You play a gambler grifter running around the solar system collecting ship parts, money and crew members by gambling and docking your ship with salvage, planets and cantinas. As I write this I’m thinking my explanation sounds complicated but it’s really not. The fun mechanic in this is you play a hand of poker to resolve conflict. It played well and the guys from Bard Shark were fantastic as we got to sit and talk about the game for a while after the playtest.
I got in on a demo of Monster Slaughter – a game coming to kickstarter on halloween of this year. In the game players play as families of monsters as they are trying to kill the humans, It’s a competitive game that works very well and the mechanics really fit the theme.
You can find out more here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DUxLxSAGNg
Purchases – I love the dealer’s hall and could wander around like a squirrel on caffeine all day! I didn’t buy that much – I had set out to buy Tiny Epic Galaxies from GameLyn (https://www.gamelyngames.com/) and ended up picking up Tiny Epic Quests as well. I was wondering aimlessly and ended up in front of the Iron Wind Metals (ahttps://www.gamelyngames.com/) booth and was thinking I don’t really need anything and then noticed a bin full of 28mm dogs which will come in handy for Frostgrave (https://ospreypublishing.com/frostgrave) and so I bought 9 and have already based them up and will have them painted and ready for the table soon (or I’ll get distracted and forget…..).
I bought Deadfellas (http://ninjadivision.com/products/deadfellas-2/deadfellas/) from Ninja Division. A great game for killing time before the rest of the game group shows up or if it’s just me and one of the kids looking for something to do.
I have to comment on the auction and the consignment hall which are my true weakness. I bought Zombie 15’ (http://www.iellogames.com/Zombie15.html), an expansion for Tiny Epic Kingdoms and no I don’t have the base game yet…. (if you have an extra copy let me know)
The Gamelyn link above will take you to check it out. I also bought way too many ships for Pirates of the Spanish Main (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_Constructible_Strategy_Game) and bid on tons of stuff I had no need for and am thankful that I didn’t win!
I’m off to play Family Plot (http://www.whitecherrygames.com/) but the next posts will be about the learning stuff I did at Gencon… and I’ll have less links in the post! Let me know what you thought about Gencon if you’ve been or what big cons you think we should head to next?
…..oh and HK should get his write up posted really soon…….
PJ