Let’s start with the usual caveats.
With hundreds of new games introduced at Gen Con, the largest tabletop game convention in the Americas, it’s impossible to play them all.
It is possible, however, to spend the four days of Indy’s largest convention attending and hosting pre-con events, and playing as many games as possible before this story’s deadline.
The goal: Thin the cardboard herd to a dozen (or so) games I’d be comfortable introducing to friends. As such, while I appreciate and enjoy a good multi-hour gaming experience, I’ve limited my search largely to games that are unlikely to overwhelm the casual or novice gamer.
Let’s start with the simplest games
In Cross the Line (Gray Matter Games), a player is asked a simple question (i.e. How do you like your toast? Or “How many music playlists do you have?”) and secretly indicates where their answer falls on a provided scale. The other players then use confidence bars to guess the answer: Using a three bar provides the narrowest range but the most points, a one bar covers more area but provides fewer points if correct. The rules barely cover a page and the guesses and answers lead to fun interaction. A plus: Up to eight can play.
There’s more pressure on players in Oh My Word (Thames & Kosmos). Here, category boards are spread on the table, a timer is hit, and players take turns removing a letter from a bag. As quickly as possible, they think of a word that begins with that letter and matches an available category. As the category boards fill up, the challenge gets greater. And you never know when that buzzer is going to go off. Batteries not included.
I’m usually resistant to games that ask me to make a specific sound. But I got a kick out of the table of quackers I played Duck & Cover (Captain Games) with. Each player has a three-by-four grid of numbered duck cards, each with a splash value. When a number is flipped from a draw deck, players can either cover a card with a neighboring one or move a card to an empty spot. The goal is to end up with the lowest splash total. And that sound? When you can’t play a card, you quack. When all players quack, it’s closer to the end of the round. I’m down with that.
If you’re good at bluffing, you have an advantage in Bad Apples (Lost Boy Entertainment). All players start with a stack of apple tokens. Good ones are worth various positive points. Rotten ones have negative value. Players secretly put one of their apples in a bag, which is then auctioned off. Each time a player withdraws from the auction, the value of one of the apples is revealed, giving away information that can influence future bids. You’ll need at least four players, but pick this one for a push-your-luck good time.
If deduction is more your speed, try Got Five! (Blue Orange). Here you have to figure out the values on the five tiles facing away from you. You do that by flipping over a tile from the center and asking other players for one of two pieces of information. Explaining it here would complicate things. Let’s just say this one is just thinky enough for a game that runs about twenty minutes.
As the name suggests, Mystic Curling Club (Asmadi Games) combines dexterity with a bit of magical cardplay. Instead of the traditional curling stones, players slide, push or flick dice down a three-foot “rink,” aiming for maximum point placement. Instead of brooms, the dice can be influenced by spells that can move, swap, remove or stack them. Okay, so it’s not the Olympics. It’s still fun.
Chess Joker (Asmadi Games) looks like a standard version of the classic. The difference is a set of cards. On a player’s turn, they can make a traditional chess move or do what’s on a drawn card (For instance, “Move your bishop like a rook” or “Swap your knight with an enemy knight.”) Opting for a card action also gives you points and you can win either with a checkmate or by accumulating 800 points. Rather than just a gimmick, this one proved surprisingly strategic.
Games for younger gamers
In Carni Flora (Haba) each player selects tiles to grow a plant while attempting to catch as many flies and surround as many flowers as possible. In Stuglandet (Haba) players roll cabins instead of dice, strategically placing them on plots of land.
Also recommended for younger players is Jingle Bell Roll (Chris Couch Games), a push-your-luck dice game where the dice feature gifts, bells, stockings etc. Yahtzee-like rolls ideally lead to scoring combinations (Note: Cookies don’t score unless paired with milk).
Best in reprints
As a rule, I don’t include reprints or reskins in these columns. But I’ll make an exception for Guillotine (Avalon Hill) since it’s been out of print for years and my copy had long since gone missing. In this French Revolution-set game, cards representing nobles of various point values are lined up at the guillotine. On your turn, you are obligated to collect the one nearest the head-chopper — although you can play a card to manipulate the line. Yes, the subject is a bit grim, but silly artwork adds to the joie de vivre.
Credit: Lou Harry for Mirror Indy
Lastly…
It wouldn’t be Gen Con without at least one game that surprises even the most experienced game player. For me, this year’s unexpected theme award goes to Jerry Garcia’s Cosmic Journey (Twogether Studios) in which you go on a not-so-long, not-so-strange trip where you pick up bummer tokens. You will want to get rid of them as you head home. Yes, it’s authorized by Garcia’s family and includes artwork from the man himself.
Okay, I would be remiss (and likely mocked by hardcore gamers) if I didn’t include at least some Gen Con releases that require a little more onboarding to mine their pleasures. That’s where Drillers (CGE) and Containers (Allplay) come in.
In Drillers, each player’s piece is a mining robot that, through deck building and strategic use of resources, releases, collects and sells gems. It’s at about the level of complexity of recent hits such as Wingspan and Lost Ruins of Arnak.
Containers is a pick-up-and-deliver game with a clever auction twist: Rather than simply load up a ship and get it to a destination to sell, you have to sell it each step of the way so that ownership continues to change hands until a final auction. Savvy investment and money management are key (two things that are also helpful when shopping the massive vendor hall at Gen Con).
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Lou Harry is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor. You can reach him at louharrywriter@gmail.com. In addition to his journalistic life, Lou Harry hosts Game Night Social every Tuesday night at the Garage Food Hall and Reel Fun Movie Trivia the first and third Sunday of every month at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.
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