Gen Con is a gaming convention, so there are endless different games being featured and roleplaying sessions to sign up for. It can be overwhelming at times to go through Gen Con’s event catalog and finalize what my event schedule will be. I wanted to share the types of games I played and my honest thoughts about them.

As a side note, I did receive a press badge from Gen Con. This means that I did attend the convention for free. When I applied for my press badge, I applied under Twin Cities Geek versus BizarreBrunette. While I did receive a press badge, all my thoughts are my own.

Board Games

I was able to demo two board games while at Gen Con. The first game was called Beer & Bread by Capstone Games. Beer & Bread is a two-player board game where players are competing to produce the most beer or bread. Each beer or bread recipe has a list of resources to help produce that type of recipe. Players can gather resources, craft recipes, and play ability cards to help the process. At the end of the game, a score is compiled which reveals who won the game. I thought Beer & Bread was fun and I like that this is a two-player game as I think that can be difficult to find. For me, I didn’t buy Beer & Bread because I wondered how often I would actually play it. I’m sure I could get my husband to play with me, but after a few games, would I get bored of the game itself? Maybe.

The second game I played was Distilled by Paverson Games. Distilled is a strategy game where each player is trying to create a successful distillery. There are recipes for each type of liquor and players are trying to craft certain recipes pertaining to their win conditions. Each round, liquor is made and points are rewarded. The player with the most points wins the game. I felt Distilled was a little too complicated to learn. The person leading our demo didn’t really explain the game, but instead told us to read the rule book. Our group felt awkward because nobody had played the game before, so we all had no idea what to do. I feel certain that our group was playing the game wrong at some point. Eventually, we were able to somewhat figure it out, but I can’t see myself buying a game where I don’t know the rules.

Table Top Roleplaying Sessions

At Gen Con, I played in three different roleplaying sessions. The first was a “Grim Fairy Tale” setting that my friend created. My friend sent a group text and asked if anyone would be interested in this type of game. I was the first person to text back and say yes. The character I chose was Red Riding Hood considering I was already cosplaying as her already. I decided to make Red Riding Hood a Ranger since she spends so much of her time in the forest. To give Red a boost in power, my friend made her hood magical. It had four charge counters on it where if I spent one, it would give me advantage on my next attack. Additionally, at Dawn, I had to roll a D20 and if I rolled a 5 or less, I would be a werewolf instead. Our group ended our session by jumping out of the Beast’s mansion after we stole the rose from Beauty and the Beast. I may have had to heal two of our party since they died by taking fall damage.

The second roleplaying session I played in was Star Wars: Age of Rebellion. This scenario featured Ahsoka leading a pair of Clone Troopers to destroy a Separatist ship leading a blockade on Naboo. I played Star Wars: Age of Rebellion one other time, so I wasn’t fully aware of all the rules and how the dice rolling worked. I would often roll the dice and turn to our DM to see what the role meant. I will say, the group that I was playing with was absolutely hysterical. The player who played as Ahsoka made a comment something along the lines of “Come with us, the Jedi will last forever”. Our group could not stop laughing. If that wasn’t enough, one of the players blew up one of the main bad guys with a rocket launcher much to the DM’s chagrin. This is one of those times where I enjoyed the group I was with versus the game itself.

The final roleplaying session was Trail of Cthulhu by Pelgrane Press. Trail of Cthulhu takes Chaosium’s Cthulhu roleplay rules and makes it even simplier. Trail of Cthulhu utilizes six sided dice and there’s a lot less to keep track of. Our session was about exploring a mythical island where there were dolls on the beach with apparent supernatural abilities. I enjoyed Trail of Cthulhu so much that I bought the core rulebook. I would love to write a scenario and convince my friends to play it with me.

I’m so glad I was able to get so much gaming in at Gen Con! I now have so many board games to play which I will share in my next post!