Gen Con 2020 Online

Gen Con is the biggest board game convention in the United States. It happens every summer in Indianapolis...every summer except for the summer of 2020, of course. Corona virus shut down the physical convention. The organizers decided to shift to an online version, with many of the same presentations, demos, announcements, sales, and game play. The web site was fairly easy to navigate. I decided to attend the online con, getting virtual tickets for several events.

My first event was a lecture on Japanese Folklore and Mythology by Laura Baugh.

Cool interface--picture of woods because that's where lots of folk stories start

She described various stories, myths, and legends from Japan's past with a focus on how they show up in anime, manga, and other media these days. Also, she described how they are often misinterpreted, resulting in confusing and/or wrong impressions about what's going on (at least to Western eyes). Her presentation was very thorough and systematic. I learned a lot and added some stuff to my "to watch" list.

The lecture is available on her Twitch account, though you need to skip ahead about a minute because the sound wasn't working. Here's the link to Japanese Folklore and Mythology.

A great cover, too

I joined the Meeple Land Live Play and Giveaway, where people from Blue Orange played the game Meeple Land. They also gave away five copies of the game, asking some questions during the hour-long presentation. The theme of the game is building a theme park. Players have four round to buy attractions and amenities that they place on their large empty board. Attractions are large or medium tiles; amenities are small tiles. The tiles have various paths leading onto and off of them. Paths need to be matched up so that visitors can make it from one spot to the next. Placing the tiles can be tricky.

Meeple Land in action

Once players are done purchasing, they choose one of the buses full of meeples (it looked like anywhere from four to eight meeples of two colors on each bus) to come to populate their parks. Each attraction accommodates a few meeples of various colors, though some meeples might require that an amenity (like the burger stand or the gift shop) be nearby. The more meeples that make it into the park, the more money a player gets for the next round. If no matching attraction is available, the meeples wait at the park entrance for another round.

After the final round, points are given for how many different attractions are in the park and how many meeples are inside. Points are lost for any meeples that didn't have anywhere to go in the park and for any paths that are dead ends. No points are given for leftover money, so spending it wisely in the last turn is even more important than spending it wisely in other turns. The game looks like a lot of fun and is scheduled for release in September 2020. I did not win a free copy but may try to get it when it comes out.

Another helpful event I attended was a Twitch stream about Tabletopia, an online gaming platform. The site provides a 3D space with game pieces that players can manipulate on their own. The site provides PDFs of rules for games but the interaction is not limited by the rules. While playing chess, a player can move their king to any spot on the board. Tabletopia has a lot of games available and they have all been authorized by the games' publishers (except for obvious stuff like chess, checkers, poker, etc.). 80% of the games are free to play. Tabletopia has a monthly subscription model with two paid levels that grant more access. Users can play games solo, online with others, or in "hot seat" mode where other people in the same room take their individual turns at the same computer. The games have a chat box but the organizers recommend an audio or video third party service like Discord, Skype, or Zoom to get that "across the table" experience. The platform works on iOS and Android devices but is best through a browser.

Tabletopia main page

I joined the Dragomino Live Play and Giveaway hosted by Blue Orange. Dragomino is a kid's version of the popular Kingdomino game. In Dragomino, players put tiles together to get dragon eggs. Matching terrains get one egg drawn from a pile of eggs with the terrain's color. Flip the egg to see if it's an empty shell or a baby dragon. Baby dragons are worth one point at the end of the game; the empty shell means that player takes the mommy dragon token and will go first in the next round. At the end of the game, the mommy dragon token is worth one point. The game goes quickly and looks like fun for a younger crowd (5+ is the recommended age for playing).

Dragomino in action

The players

I watched a Learn Wingspan Live demonstration. The game is very popular in both the gaming community and the birding community because it is both a fun game and accurately depicts the birds and their activities. The game is not too complicated but does have a lot of moving parts. Players take their turns getting new birds, laying eggs, and getting food. All of this slowly builds an engine to get more eggs and more birds. The demonstration was on Tabletopia with the same guy from the previous Tabletopia presentation!

Wingspan on Tabletopia

A demo of Back To the Future: Dice Through Time was my final event. Players pilot DeLoreans from one of the four different timelines (1885, 1955, 1985, 2015), running between timelines to collect items scattered by Biff. Each item needs to go back to its original time and place. Every round starts with drawing event cards which can be good or bad. Some events go on the board, causing time paradoxes that need to be resolved. Other events help the players by giving them bonuses; still other events hamper the players by disabling some ability. After the cards are played, each player rolls four dice and then use the dice to move around the board and resolve the various situations. The dice have various faces, like the flux capacitor that lets the player switch timelines or the fist which knock the timeline's Biff to another location (he blocks players from dealing with problems). When players finish their moves, the Outatime track advances for the timeline with the most paradoxes on it. If players return an item to its proper time and space, they get to move the Outatime tracker back a space and get a bonus fetched by Einstein (Doc Brown's dog). The bonus is a token representing a die face. If players can get all the items back where they belong, the players win the game.

The video feed

A closer look at the board

The components for this game look great. The little DeLoreans have some nice detail and the custom die faces are fun. The graphic design is well done. The cards, DeLoreans, and dice all match whichever timeline they are from. The art is not photos from the movies but drawings that are instantly recognizable to fans of the films. The gameplay looks like fun. The couple hosting the video were funny and clearly knew Back to the Future very well, cracking jokes and using quotes from the movies. This looks like a great cooperative game for families.

While I did enjoy everything I did, I never played any games and I never had any of those fun surprises like running into cool cosplayers or finding a random game that is surprisingly enjoyable. I do have some new leads on good games and various ways to play online.