Gen Con 2016 Report Part 5–The Exhibitor Hall

Gen Con 2016 is now in the rear-view mirror and I finally have time to stop and write down the more interesting vendors I encountered in the exhibitor hall. This list is not inclusive as some of the vendors will get full review posts in the near future and there were something like 450+ vendors, so this list is just of items that caught my eye. The vendors listed below appear in no particular order.

Vast: The Crystal Caverns

Vast caught me off-guard because it went from Gen Con 2016 Day 1 “I have never heard of it” to Gen Con Day 3 everyone is playing it…everywhere. Easily the most visible game of the show. I stopped to play a demo and it uses clever asymmetrical mechanics in a dungeon crawl.

vast_the_crystal_cavern

Four players assume roles of knight, dragon, goblins and an angry crystal cave. The are all playing on the same board with very different powers and goals. The knight must kill the dragon, the dragon must survive to wake up fully and the cave wants to kill everyone.  I played a round and it was a great time. I look forward to playing this game again.

 

Firefly: The Game Play Mat

Werlen bought this 4×6 beast to play the Firefly board game. It was a show exclusive, but it was so cool it deserved a mention.

firefly_mat

Zombies!!! Mega Box

Twilight Creations had this prototype setting out on the table for the venerable “”Zombies!!!” game. Amazing looking, but not on the street yet. Still under development.

zombies!!!2

It holds all the supplements for this classic.

zombies!!!

 

Alien Invasion

I am not even sure of how this game plays, but this current Kickstarter makes the list because of the abduction mechanic. The spaceship has a battery-powered vacuum in it that sucks the pieces in to saucer.  Clever.

alien_invasion_board_game

 

Packogames Tiny Card Games

I picked one of these up just so I could “be prepared” to play a game at any moment. At $5.00, the price point was worth it.

packogames_card_games

 

Pelgrane Press “Dracula Unredacted”

This makes my list, not because it won an Ennie, but because it is an amazing effort. The authors “restored” the redacted sections of the original Dracula novel to include all the dark secrets removed to protect the innocent public. The did not need to know.  The entire book is a game supplement meant for the investigators to work through as they face Dracula himself during an RPG campaign. Best player handout ever!  I may pick up a copy just to read.

dracula_redacted

 

Kingdom Death

I am not a miniature gamer and a friend with knowledge of how “Kingdom Death” plays made it sound like some sort of RPG campaign merged with high-end  miniature combat rules. It does not matter, because look at this miniature. This is not my type of game, but that does not prevent me from admiring the amazing miniatures.

kingdom_death

More soon!

 

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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trask

Trask is a long-time gamer, world traveler and history buff. He hopes that his scribblings will both inform and advance gaming as a hobby.