GenCon Games Recomendations/Warnings

[Onacara]

The best part about going to GenCon is demoing new games and was going to be the focus of my time spent there this year until my plans changed.

If you went please use this thread to talk about any games you demo'd and give your recomendations, opinions, etc on them.

If you want to know about a particular game being shown there...post it and I will ad it to the list where hopefully someone played it and can provide feedback.

Current List

1-Dungeonquest (FFG) (Review by wdgrant)
2-Dust Tactics (FFG)
3-City of Thieves (FFG) (Review by wdgrant)
4-Invasion From Outer Space (Flying Frog) (Review by wdgrant , stubobj)
5-DnD Castle Ravenloft (WotC)
6-Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer (Review by wdgrant)

[Land-based AE]

I want to hear about Invasion from OuterSpace (Flying Frog) and DnD Castle Ravenloft (WotC).

[ranoobu]

Hey Ona,

Did you add Castle Ravenloft last minute? I thought it was missing when I first read your post.

I was going to suggest it to you because a few people have been considering it vs DungeonQuest.

I kind of consider it a contender to Heroscape for the category "get new players into original D&D"

Edit: I know I wasn't at GenCon, but in case anyone else had any interest but not enough interest to search around. All of the following was taken from BoardGameGeek

Session Report from GenCon by PKReynolds

Spoiler Alert!

I was able to play a full game of Wizards of the Coast's new adventure game set in the Dungeon & Dragons world. The game plays quickly and does not require a lot of rules explanation to get started.

We began with each of the five players picking characters at random. Each character has a card with relevant stats (speed, armor class, health) and any special rules or abilities that they always have. I got the ranger, who is so good at scouting that she needs only be anywhere on a tile in order to reveal a new adjacent tile. Each player also gets to select a handful of ability cards from a class deck. Some abilities are at will while others are one-shots which then require an item to recharge.

All of the heroes start out on a staircase leading into the dungeon. This is a co-op game, with the hero group working against the traps and monsters of the dungeon in order to accomplish the scenario goal. In this case, we needed to discover the chapel and find the Icon of Ravenloft within the chamber.

On a player's turn, he must follow three phases in order. First is the Hero phase, in which the Hero may move and/or attack. If you move to the open edge on a tile, a new tile is placed adjacent to the Hero.

When the Hero is done moving and attacking, the Exploration phase begins. Now the new tile gets populated with a monster, and the accompanying card goes to the player who discovered the tile. Depending on the new tile, an Encounter card might also need to be drawn and rectified during this phase.

Finally, the Villain phase is when the monsters get to try to drive the pesky heroes out of their dungeon. Players take turns activating their monsters. The monster cards have specific instructions for how each monster will behave and who it will attack, so there is really no decision making for the player here. If the monster needs to resolve one or more attacks its controlling player rolls the d20.

Combat is fast and simple. Heroes declare their attack, roll the d20 and add their attack plus the result and compare to the monsters AC. Usually a hit will result in a kill against basic monsters. Monster attacks work the same way, except that heroes are hardier and generally lose 1-2 hit points from a hit. Killing a monster results in the hero getting a treasure card and the monster card being added to the XP pile. Heroes can spend XP from this pile at certain points to level up.

Ravenloft is really a teamwork game, so if a single hero dies and cannot be resurrected immediately then the game ends in a loss for all players. Heroes will take damage, as many Encounter cards and monsters feature attacks that hit every hero on a tile, but there are plenty of treasure cards and abilities that can heal damage. And in the event that a player dies, a special token can be expended to resurrect him with. A few HP left.

The game played quickly - the goal tile for our scenario, the chapel, was shuffled into a few tiles and then that stack was placed eight tiles down from the top of the stack. So we would place only eight to twelve tiles before locating it. When the chapel was revealed, the scenario called for our goal item to be placed within, as well as a bunch of randomly drawn monsters. However, they were no match for our wizard, who stepped in and fireballed every last one of them to death. Our rogue quickly dashed into the room to claim the Icon and the game was won.

I had a lot of fun with Ravenloft. It's easy to pick up and play, and the difficulty felt good - some monsters died easily while others really made the Heroes work to put them down. I imagine that we played the beginner scenario so I'm not too worried about the replay value, and the length of the game can be easily adjusted by placing the goal tile higher or lower in the stack.

Castle Ravenloft was one of the best games I played at GenCon this year, and it stands as one of the best dungeon adventure board games I've ever played, even after just one play. Would have purchased a copy on the spot but Wizards wasn't selling at the con. It's due in stores in a couple of weeks so the wait won't be too long.

[Onacara]

I addeded after it was asked for

Here is a video of some guys unboxing it at GenCon

[ranoobu]

Originally Posted by Onacara

I addeded after it was asked for

Here is a video of some guys unboxing it at GenCon

Ninja'd! on part 1 of the video..

Have you seen part 2? there's a part 2 now


Thanks for showing me how to embed.. I would rep you but I can't just yet.

[CheddarLimbo]

These unboxing videos make me feel kinda dirty!

Great idea, Onacara. I hadn't even heard of the FFP game, so thanks for the heads up.

I just finished both. This game is now a definite purchase. I've been looking for something to scratch that Warhammer Quest itch, and I can tell this is going to do it.

EDIT: Oh snaps! Check out the hero at 4:24! I recognize that guy!

[wdgrant]

I got to demo Dungeonquest. It was a fun game. Not very heavy, but in a pretty good way. Treasure seems a bit random, especially if someone finds the diamond. Other players basically have no chance to win unless he just can't get out of the dungeon before the end of game trigger.

I played City of Thieves after my buddy bought it. It was okay, but a little too much backstabbing for me. I felt like the game that I played dragged on a little too long. My buddy seemed to love it though, so maybe it was just me.

Invasion from Outer Space was the FFG martian game. It has mechanics very similar to LNoE, expect the martians fire a ranged attack that humans can dodge and then also hand to hand combat people in their space. It was high on theme and looks like one I would enjoy. I only got to watch over other demo players' shoulders (for some reason, FFG only had one demo game set up. Seems like they should have replaced one of the LNoE demo tables and had two of each).

Unfortunately, I didn't get to play Castle Ravenloft. For some reason that goes against logic, WotC decided not to demo the game. They were demoing magic and some online magic game (I don't know if it was the new version of Moto or what), but no sign of CR. They did have a handful of events for the game, but they were all full. I was baffled that they wouldn't be showcasing this game in the dealer hall when I was seeing buzz on BGG and here on Heroscapers about it.

Finally, no one asked, but a hot game that I played and would recommend is Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardga...-the-godslayer

This game is a deck building game ala Dominion. It has a random lineup of cards available to add to your deck and a theme akin to Thunderstone (but with much better mechanics in my mind). The guys who designed it were former Vs. designers (one of my favorite games all time) and they seem to know their stuff. Check it out if you like Dominion or Thunderstone.

[MattserTruckRally]

My younger brother, ManTrain, picked up Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer and we had a blast playing it. I've yet to win a game though as everyone thinks they know what I'm doing but I usually end up with a low score anyway. :P

In fact I believe three people in our group ended up buying it.

We also played a neat party game called Telestrations. In Telestrations each person is given a mystery word. They draw the word then the next person guesses the word. The third person would then draw the guessed word, rinse, repeat until the drawing book comes back to the person who originally pulled the word. This one is a little more accessible to nongamer types and I'd recommend it for anyone that enjoys laughing.

[CheddarLimbo]

Originally Posted by MattserTruckRally

My younger brother, ManTrain, picked up Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer and we had a blast playing it. I've yet to win a game though as everyone thinks they know what I'm doing but I usually end up with a low score anyway. :P

In fact I believe three people in our group ended up buying it.

We also played a neat party game called Telestrations. In Telestrations each person is given a mystery word. They draw the word then the next person guesses the word. The third person would then draw the guessed word, rinse, repeat until the drawing book comes back to the person who originally pulled the word. This one is a little more accessible to nongamer types and I'd recommend it for anyone that enjoys laughing.

It doesn't sound like there's much of a game there, more of a social activity? Kind of like Apples to Apples?

[Onacara]

Originally Posted by CheddarLimbo

It doesn't sound like there's much of a game there, more of a social activity? Kind of like Apples to Apples?

Sounds more like Telephone meets Pictionary

[MattserTruckRally]

Originally Posted by CheddarLimbo

It doesn't sound like there's much of a game there, more of a social activity? Kind of like Apples to Apples?

There are rules for competitive scoring but I think if you're worried about your score you're doling it wrong. This game wouldn't be one I'd recommend for a serious hardcore gamer group but maybe as one you could play with a group of nongamer friends and & family instead of being tortured by LCR.

[stubobj]

I didnt get to Demo it but I did preorder Invasion from Outerspace.

Just like LNoE this game is just dripping in theme. Martians are invading planet earth and the first people they come in contact with is a traveling circus. The Heroes in IfO are almost like superheroes with the powers they have. The martians appear to have way more choices of things to do than the zombies do. IN LNoE you have spawning pits that dont ever move, while in IfO you have landing sites and these landing sites can eventually be moved around the board. So martians can pop up anywhere. The sculpts look really nice. They even went the extra mile to give the martians little bubble helmets. LNoE and IfO can be mixed and in fact they even have martians in zombie colors because if a zombie ends up killing a martian it is turned into a Zombie martian.

I was concerned when I first read about this game that it wouldnt be different enough from LNoE to justify purchasing it but once you get past the game engine things are way different. I was really hoping to be one of 8 that owned a copy before October but it didnt happen

Ill post some pics of the game later today.

Edit: Pics as promised