I went to my first convention this weekend dedicated purely to tabletop gaming - board & card games, not RPGs. It was a blast! I haven’t allowed myself to geek out like that in a long time! I went with my friend Vic and metup with a few of his friends from out of town, and also caught up with Gabby & Heidi (whose wedding I just went to a couple of weeks ago). Together we churned through a good handful of new games. It was just so cool walking around seeing dozens (hundreds!) of games I’d never even heard of before. Everyone was very open to new players joining, and more than glad to teach someone how to play. There’s a library of games you can check out, and there are hundreds of games there! And, they’re all owned by one person!

Here’s a short breakdown of the new games I played:

• Castle Panic - Fast, fun medieval themed game of attack the monsters before they destroy your castle. Co-op and competitive together, which is rare. Simple and easy to learn. And, I was taught it by the game designer, a friend of my friend Gabby. How cool is that? People constantly walked up and asked him to sign their game boxes - a minor geek celebrity!
• Polizei-Alarm! - This is hysterical. Very short simple game. One person is a robber who is cracking safes by rolling dice and matching numbers on a card, the other is a cop. You drive through the neighborhood to find the thief by shifting a game board around over a magnet, with a magnetic police car on the board. Have to see it to understand.
• Acquire - As a grid of squares gets built randomly you build corporations and buy stock hoping to be acquired and get a payout. Surprised this isn’t played more widely in the US, it’s very mainstream and accessible.
• Ubongo - Small hex grids in random shapes have to be filled with tetris-like jigsaw puzzle pieces. First person to finish their shape wins. Quick fun game that makes you visualize how the puzzle pieces fit together. Fun but it hurt my head after a while!
• Galaxy Trucker - Probably my favorite from the con. At its heart is a zany tile grab where you have to match tile edges to build a spaceship with lasers, rockets, cargo holds and alien life support. You then compete to deliver cargo while avoiding meteors and space pirates! A lot of fun, and plays fairly quickly.
• Ra - Egyptian themed bidding game based on tiles which represent your society during an epoch.
• Through the Desert - You lay down your camel riders on a desert map to claim oasis and water holes for points. Strategy is in blocking off other players access and claiming your own space. I’m spoiled though as we played on a giant custom version that filled a table!
• DungeonQuest - Don’t let the Talisman-like cover and Games Workshop brand fool you. This dungeon crawl is insanely hard to beat and the combat system is completely random. Won’t play this again.
• Kapitan Wackelpudding - You push your boat around the ocean stacking it with goods (small wooden tokens of various shapes), trying not to knock anything off. Simple and a lot of fun, in the vein of Jenga.
• Railways of the World - Rail line building (a la Ticket to Ride) but also resource delivery. Well done. A big game that takes a while, but enjoyable. The rail theme never really grabs me as much as a fantasy theme but I’d play it again
• Iron Dragon - Very similar structure to the above game, but with a fantasy theme. So, you’d think that means I’d play it more. Not really. Way too large scale and complex. You’re constantly looking up where to obtain resources, where the cities are located. I’d pass on this one next time.