Ah, it's that magical time of year when we rush to the mall to get our favorite gamer friend/spouse/child/grandma a new game to unwrap on Christmas morning.  Philo asked me to put together a list of some good game ideas.  I haven't played all of these, but I've heard good things.  Anything with a * is one I have not played.

Party Games:

Codenames* - One of the hottest items discussed on Dice Tower and BoardGameGeek is this great new party game.  Played in teams, one person on each team is trying to get his teammates to pick the right cards, which lay in a grid of 5X5.  It's Password, but better.

Spyfall - Played with a group of people, everyone draws a card.  All the cards except one have the name of a location on them (same location), one cardholder is the spy.  The people with the location card have to root out the spy by asking questions to the other players to make sure they know where they are.  They spy is trying to figure out where they are, without looking too out of place.

Say Anything - Similar to Balderdash, the reader asks a question, everyone else writes down their answers, then everyone tries to reason out what everyone put.

Telestrations - Think telephone meets Pictionary.  First person gets a phrase, they have to write down a picture of what that phrase is, next person looks at the picture, and comes up with a phrase.  The weirder the phrase, the funner this gets.

Wits and Wagers - Trivia games are fun, but it's much more fun when people don't know the precise answer, but try to get close.  Ask a question, everyone writes down their answers, then make bets as to which one is the closest to the right one.

Modern Day Classics 

Ticket To Ride - One of the first modern board games I played.  Still great fun, especially with kids.  Start the game by selecting tickets with route between two cities.  Next, collect cards to be able to place trains on the various train paths to complete your route.

Settlers of Catan - Build your settlements and cities and roads in between.  Gather wood, ore, grain, brick and sheep (baaa) to build more and more and get to 10 points first!

Carcassonne - Classic tile laying game.  Draw a tile, place it on the board, place your meeple to get points for your roads, castles, cloisters, and farms.

Dominion - The game that started the term "Deckbuilding."  Build up your deck with money cards, kingdom cards, and victory point cards.  Also has about 10 expansions you can add to it.

 Cooperative

Shadows Over Camelot - Co-op game in the setting of King Arthur.  Search for the holy grail, Excalibur, and Lancelot's Armor.  Fight the black knight and the deadly dragon.  Fend off the Picts and the Saxons.  And most of all, watch out for the traitor in your midst.

Pandemic - The world is a sick place, and it's your job to find the cure.  Race across the world searching for the cure, while treating the deadly diseases.  Also, for a longer, deeper adventure, try the new Pandemic Legacy*

Forbidden Island / Forbidden Desert - Putting these together since they're similar, but still very different.  You're working together to find four items and get away before the island sinks, or the desert overtakes you.  GREAT with kids

Adventure

Dead of Winter* - I've been pining to play this for over a year now.  I don't know much about it other than it's cold outside, and zombies are lurking around every corner.  Everyone also has their own agenda, but still trying to work together

Mice and Mystics - Wonderful adventure game that is kid friendly.  Your kingdom has been taken over, and to escape, you and your friends have been turned into mice.  Escape through sewers and basements and kitchens.  Has a campaign mode that takes you through an entire story.  Also has many expansions.

Descent: Journeys In The Dark* - I've heard a lot about this one.  Plays similar to M&M, I think.

Personal Favorites - These are games that are my personal favorites, but sometimes tastes can differ, so just warnin' ya.

Castles of Burgundy - The first time I played this, I knew I had to have it.  You're placing tiles (buildings, mines, animals, castles, etc) on your board (estate).  You get points, bonuses, goods to ship, etc.  Great for couples (so I've heard)

Trajan - Same designer as Castles.  A Mancala-esque mechanic drives this game.  You're trying to ship goods, influence the Senate, gain territory, all in the name of getting victory points.

Terra Mystica - Area control game that doesn't involve fighting.  Take control of one of 14 races (20 with the expansion) and stake your claim.  Build dwellings, trading posts, temples, strongholds and sanctuaries.  Send your priests to the cult track, and build your engine to build the most magnificent empire ever.  (Judged on victory points)

Lords of Waterdeep - Worker Placement game in a Dungeons and Dragons setting.  You play a Lord of the city of waterdeep, recruiting warriors, rogues, wizards and clerics to do your bidding, to gain favor and.... wait for it.... victory points.

Splendor - You are a gem collector trying to be the best and most prestigious in the land.  Buy mines to help you get more gems which help you get more gems and points.  Incredibly quick to learn and teach.

These are some of my favorite and most talked about games right now.  Let me know if you have questions about any other types of games.

Also, what have you been playing lately?

Wow!

So, After I missed Geekway to the West earlier in May due to the challenges of fostering a 2 year old, my lovely, beautiful, generous wife brought up the possibility of me going to Gen Con.  I, of course, jumped at the opportunity and got to finally partake in the mega event.

I had a blast. I got to try out 18 never-before-played-by-me games, and got a good luck and countless others.  I also got to meet one of my favorite podcasters, Tom Vasel (who heads up the Dice Tower network).  Overall, it was a very fun  event, and I'd like to talk a little bit about it.

Thursday: I arrived on Thursday a little after noon.  Since hotels were pretty rare, my family and I took our pop-up camper to a Yogi Bear Campground east of Indy.  I stuck around in the morning to help set up, so I was a little late getting to the Con.  Once I got there, I had the pleasure of waiting in Will Call for my tickets.  It wasn't nearly as bad a line as people made it out to be.

Next, I checked out the main Exhibit Hall.  This area is MASSIVE.  Hundreds of game publishers, artists, gamers and cosplayers filled this hall.  Really, I could spend all 4 days just in this main exhibit hall.  The first thing I wanted to do was meet Tom Vasel, so I hauled buns to the other side of the Hall and said hello.  Once that was done, I could properly play games.

Note: I'll go over many of these games very quickly.  I plan on going into more detail about them every Monday in my CoC segment: Punman's Board Game of the Week.

The first game I tried out was Bottom of the Ninth.  A fun dice based baseball sim that I'll be checking out more once it's out for purchase (you could only pre-order it at the Con).  Next, I tried Lords of Vegas, which I liked enough.  Then on to Kingdom Builder (by the same guy that made Dominion). I ended my day's journey in the Exhibit Hall with Queen's Architect (which I shared about on Monday).  This was my favorite game, and I wish I could've played it more.

After the Exhibit Hall closed, I strolled over to the Event Hall and tried out a new game called Phoenix Covenant,which was billed as a combo of Final Fantasy Tactics and Magic the Gathering.  This was probably my least favorite game of the Con.  I was taught by the designers and I still felt like I was missing information about how to play the game.  I think it's still in beta stage, so hopefully the end product will be better.

Friday: I started in the Event Hall again and began with a full game of Five Tribes.  I'd been hearing a lot of buzz about this game ever since last  year's Con.  Lemme tell ya, it's earned it.  If you have a chance to play this, I recommend checking it out.

Next, I wandered the Main Exhibit Hall again, and tried out a game called Noir.  It was an interesting detective themed card game.  Next, I tried Mice and Mystics, which had been on my list for a while.  I have a feeling the theme of this game would be very fun for my kids, though I did not get into it as much as I thought I would.  Next I tried a game called Shear Panic about moving sheep around a pasture and getting points.  I thought the kids would end up liking it (and I was right), so I ended up buying it.  To close out my adventures in the Exhibit Hall, I tried Kennerspiel Des Jahres 2014 winner Istanbul.  Another top-notch game that's near the top of my wish list.

To end the day, I got in line for a live taping of the Dice Tower podcast.  500 event tickets were sold for an event held in a 400 chair room.  And I only had a generic ticket, which meant I was lower priority.  I made friends in the generic ticket line, and met this lovely couple who was celebrating their 10th Anniversary.   They talked about how they got a bunch of games really cheap by playing up their special day.  Anyway, I got to play a few rounds of a new game called Spyfall.  The Dice Tower folks have been raving about this one, but it didn't click with me very well.  After our game, the event line picked up, but even after everyone from that line was in, our line did not move.  We were concerned.  The husband of the Anniversary couple went up to talk to a guy to see what was going on.  A moment later he was waving toward us, but he stopped me and said only his wife could come with him, and we realized he had used the "It's our Anniversary" ploy on the ticket taker (son of a...).  Anyway, I did finally get in, and I had a blast watching the podcast live (they sang again!)

Saturday:  I arrived Saturday morning in the same parking lot I had been going to all week.  As I got out of my car, who should parked next to me but a colleague from work, who incidentally told me about the lot.  So we walked in and checked out Star Trek: Five-Year Mission together.  To my surprise, I really enjoyed the game.  Next, I played a game of Catan: Junior, mainly to get a Mayfair ribbon (demo 5 Mayfair games, get a coupon for 50% off), but also to see if it was something my kids would like.  Then I hopped into a five-player game of Steam.  Fun, deep, heavy game about building rails and shipping goods in Germany.  Good stuff.

After that I headed to one of the surrounding hotels to check out the Stonemaier Games room.  Stonemaier is based in St. Louis, and one of the designers (Jamey Stegmaier) is a friend of a friend.  They are also known for their kick-ass Kickstarter projects.  I played Viticulture, which, like Five Tribes, had been at the top of my want-to-play list.  After that, I stuck around and got to play a game that has yet to be released, Between Two Cities.  I also got a look at a big buzz game called Scythe, that has many gamers drooling already.  (The artwork has workers in a field while mechs are battling in the background.)

Finally, I wandered the Event Hall and found a pickup game of Village (2012 Kennerspiel Des Jahres winner).

Sunday: Sunday was Family Fun Day, so after packing up the camper, we got there (kinda late) around 2 pm.  We only had a couple hours to check out the Exhibit Hall.  I showed the kids Shear Panic, and we ended up buying it with our 50% off coupon.  To finish it off, my son and I played Krosmaster Arena, which was fun, but a little steep in price.

Verdict:  I knew going in that Gen Con was big and boisterous and even expensive.  However, knowing these things helped me temper my expectations.  The spectacle of all the new games, the costumes (many of which were awesome), and the crowds were awesome to behold.  This was a bucket list thing for me, and I'm so glad I got to experience it.  I got to play a boatload of games, some brand new and not even available yet.  I got to meet designers for many of the games (one from Finland), and I got to do it on my schedule since I was by myself.  However, next time I go, I'll be bringing a friend or two.

If you love board games, role-playing games, cosplaying, miniatures games, magic the gathering, people watching, etc, check out Gen Con.

So, that's been what I've been up to, what have y'all been playing?!

This post is taking the place of Pixel Perfect Memories.  Because I want to incorporate board games into this feature, I want to come up with a better name.  So far, "Getting Dicey" is all I got.  If anyone has a suggestion, please share.

I plan on using this feature to share about new board games I've played and heard of, and to speak about the board game hobby in general.  Video games are still welcome, though I will probably not share much in that department

There's a gaming group that gets together here in Bloomington Normal every Wednesday.  I'm lucky to get there about once a month (because I'm busy with kid's activities).  This Wednesday, kids' activities were cancelled, so I took advantage.

First game was played was Russian Railroads.  Despite the name, this is nothing like Ticket to Ride or Railways of the World or other such train type games.  It's a medium-heavy Euro worker-placement game.  You start with 5-6 workers and place them on areas of the main board in order to advance your own board, which represents your personal railways.  You have three rails you are trying to develop, along with an industry track.  Each one can produce points in different ways, and it's up to you to maximize the value among the tracks.  It's somewhat difficult to explain, and the themeing is not intuitive, but I love this game.  I've been playing this for a while online, and I really want to get the home version, but unfortunately I don't see myself getting this to the table very often.

Second game we played was Betrayal at House on the Hill.  In this game, you're a character in a B-type horror movie, checking out an old abandoned house... on a hill.  The twist is that halfway through the game, the "haunt" is revealed, and one of your characters turns into the villain.  From then on, it's the traitor vs. the rest of the players in a battle of good vs. supernatural evil.  The game has several different scenarios, which gives it great replayability.

Finally, we played Formula De which has since been redone as Formula D.  In this game, you play a race car driver, pretty simple.  It's a fairly straight forward roll-and-move game, but each turn, you have the choice to shift up or down, which changes what die you roll, and with it, how far you can go.  There are turns which you'll have to stop with one of your die rolls, or suffer consequences.  We played a much simpler rule set, and I would like to play it again with the real rules.

Next time, I'm going to preview my trip to Geekway to the West in St. Louis May 14-17.

What have you been playing?