Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Gen Con 2012 Hype!

Without a doubt Gen Con is my favorite time of the year.  You know that person who gets unreasonably excited about the "holiday season" and wants to get all festive?  That is how I feel about Gen Con.  About a week ago, event registration went live, and we registered for events so I have a fairly decent idea what my Gen Con schedule is going to look like.  So here are the things I am looking forward to doing, and the new games I am most excited about.  

Thursday
This year I will actually be going to Gen Con starting on Wednesday.  They have something called Trade Day which is for librarians and educators to learn about games and education.  Being a youth pastor counts as a Christian educator, so I qualified for trade day.  The trade day events are not posted yet, so I am not sure what I will be doing on Wednesday.  However, one of the perks that Trade Day gives me is early access to the main hall on Thursday, so I will begin Thursday morning in the dealer hall looking at the new games.  Hopefully, by August I will know what my one must get game will be so I can jump in line and get it.

Then, right around noon I will take part in a True Dungeon Run with several friends.
Photobucket
True Dungeon is one of the big experiences of Gen Con I have not participated in.  In True Dungeon my group will go through rooms in a dungeon, solving critical thinking exercise style puzzles and engaging in "combat" through a dexterity game.  The sets and production quality is suppose to be really high, and I am looking forward to it.

On Thursday afternoon I am playing in a Super Smash Bros. board game.  Someone took an older Star Wars game called Epic Duels, and modified the system to a Super Smash Bros. game.  This is the kind of thing that can only happen at Gen Con, so it should be fun.

In the evening, Abigail is going to play in a giant game of Settlers of America, and I will be running one of my two events.  I think that Gen Con does not have enough war games represented, so I decided what I would do what I could to fix it.  On Thursday night I will be running a Manouevere Tournament.
Photobucket
This is an official event, but as of right now only one person is signed up for it.  Hopefully that will change.

Friday
Friday is the day that Abigail and I plan to spend the most time together in the main dealer hall.  We will spend a lot of time walking around at our pace and check out everything that is of interest to us.  I know Abigail wanted to spend a little bit more time in the auction hall, so we might check that out some on Friday during the day as well.  

At 4:00 PM I am playing in the Warhammer: Invasion North American championship.  Warhammer: Invasion is one of my favorite games, and one that I fell like I am decent at.  In April, I played in a regional tournament and finished 3rd.   I do not think I will win it all, but I do think I can be competitive.

It is kind of hard to judge how long the tournament will take, but on Friday evening we are hoping to connect with friends and play some games together.  Like last year, we also have a downtown hotel room on Friday night.

Saturday
One of the things that I like to do every year is play in a miniatures game, and this year Abigail was kind enough to allow me to take four hours to play in a Star Wars miniatures game.  After my miniatures game is over, we really do not have any plans on Saturday.  This will be kind of a spontaneous day where we just go with the flow and see where it takes us.  In the evening we are going to go to the Mayfair games Git Together.  This is open gaming in the Mayfair game room, with the full Mayfair game library.  We did this last year, and we enjoyed it quite a bit.  

Sunday
Like the past couple of years, I will begin Sunday by going to the Gen Con worship service.  After that, I will get to make one last pass of the dealer's hall.   Like last year, I will end Sunday by running a RPG. I love to GM role playing games, but do not get to do it regularly.  Gen Con is a time where I am guaranteed to do it.   This year I am doing another pulp story, but this will be all about private detectives and globe trotting mystery.  Actually, if you want a good hint at the story just check out how far I got on it in the past:  Death Blossom: A Dirk Sullivan Adventure.

Anticipated Games
One of the best parts about Gen Con is discovering new games.  Last year, I got both Blood Bowl Team Manager, which was a surprise release and Elf Ball-which had been out for years but I just discovered.  I am sure there will be games that I discover this year, but these are the games I am most excited about checking out:

Smash Up
Photobucket
This is the game that I am most excited about that is coming out at Gen Con. Smash Up is a card battle game.  The unique part is that to create a deck players pick two factions that each have a half deck and then shuffle them together to make a new deck.  So I might have Ninja Dinosaurs or I could just as easily pick Ninja Zombies or Zombie Dinosaurs.  I really like the concept

Mice and Mystics 
Photobucket
This game has a high price tag ($80) so it will have to be an amazing game to buy it, but I am willing to wait a good while to demo it.  Mice and Mystics is a co-op dungeon crawl, where players play warrior mice trying to save the king.

Zombies!!! Card Game
Photobucket
Twilight Creation games tend to be great concepts but often are a bit messy to actually play.  This one will probably not be any different.  However, a zombie card game is intriguing enough to me that I at least want to try the game out.

Impact City Roller Derby
Photobucket
This is one of my most anticipated games of this year, and we have already backed it on Kickstarter.  However, the game will not be out until December so I am looking forward to getting the chance to play it at Gen Con.

Gen Con is only 2 1/2 months away, and I can not wait!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home