Gen Con has come and gone. All four days were sold out before the con even started and on Thursday, the dealer hall was PACKED. When you were hungry, lines to the food trucks were massive and restaurants regularly had a wait time. Gamers descended onto Indianapolis ready to play, spend, dress up, and just embrace everything we love about our hobby.
And as usual, the BGQ team was on site to provide coverage. We’ve got musings on the overall convention, standout games, and our 3rd annual batch of our “Staff Picks.” Each of our team members who went got to pick out their favorite thing of Gen Con and award the trophy to it. Unsurprisingly, they were all games again (although they didn’t have to be, they could be given to anything they thought was exceptional at the con). But read on to see what stood out at this year’s Gen Con.
The Gen Con Experience:
Brian W: I don’t think I was alone, but I was rather shocked how crowded Thursday was at the ICC and Exhibit Hall. There was a stifling number of people, and it seemed every Exhibit Hall aisle was packed. Even the Art show area of the Exhibit Hall, which is usually thin with foot traffic, was filled with people. It made trying to navigate the ICC and Exhibit Hall especially frustrating, and you really had to be patient to get anywhere. The crowd did lessen in the late afternoon on Thursday, and the following days were nowhere near as bad, but that first day was not that fun and rather unpleasant.
Andrew: I’ve finally learned my lesson and just never go to the food truck area. Downtown Indy has a billion restaurants within a 5-minute walk, and you’ll probably be paying your bill before you’d even get your food from the massive lines on South Street. Or just get some Hot Box Pizza delivered to the opening gaming area.
Alex & Steph: It could be the gridlocked aisles, or our more discerning eyes and wallets, or the lack of interesting offerings, or simply that we’re older and more bitter. Whatever the reason, we’re finding our desire to visit the Exhibit Hall is less and less every year. We’re just there to play games and hang with old friends, and make new friends. Isn’t that what it’s really all about?
Jeff: Thursday was the busiest day in the Exhibit Hall this year. It was strange. On Saturday, it was much easier to walk the aisles. A lot of bigger vendors had rooms to show off their games, and having time to demo them was great. Learning new games is what Gen Con is about, right? It was also my son’s second Gen Con, with the last one being when he was 1 month old. He is a competitive Magic player, but realized that Gen Con is not MagicCon, and is starting to learn to enjoy new games. I was proud that he made that flip. Like Alex and Steph said, Gen Con is about playing games with friends (old and newly made).
Chris: For the first time, I didn’t really have any games I was running to grab when the doors opened, so I took a different path around the exhibit hall to start off on Thursday morning. It did help cut down on some of the early gridlock my colleagues are referring to, although they are correct that Thursday was the most crowded day for sure. I also skipped the food trucks entirely this year, which on the one hand is kind of a bummer, but on the other, more logical hand, probably saved 90 minutes of my life and $20 or so on overall food costs.
Other Noteworthy Games
Cyberpunk Legends (Brian W): Tony, Brian B., and I were able to demo this new card game that should be coming to Kickstarter in September 2025. We were lucky enough to have the actual designer, James Portnow, run the demo, and from start to finish, the game was just awesome. It’s a co-op campaign-style game with a central scenario deck with obstacles to overcome by creating a cooperative poker hand. Character classes are pulled from the RPG, and the story cards and character decks are packed with great Cyberpunk lore. The demo, game, and time with James were a highlight of Gen Con for me. It pulled in vibes of the Arkham Horror LCG, and even in demo form, had us eager to play more of it.
Camp Grizzly: Second Edition (Brian W): Trick or Treat Studios has brought back this long out of print slasher horror favorite. The game is targeted to launch later in August on kickstarter. Demos were available, and it looked great. What I loved about this second edition is that it introduces a new mode that removes player elimination. I was not a fan of that in the original, but it’s still there if you want to play the classic mode. For those who are unfamiliar, this is a semi-cooperative survival game where players are camp counselors who are being hunted by Otis, a homicidal maniac in a bear mask. The counselors are trying to find objects around the camp to trigger the finale (end game) and survive.
Fight 5 (Tony): While waiting to talk to someone at the Chip Theory Games booth, I watched a game of Fight 5 being demoed. The shiny cards drew me in, even if I had no idea what was going on. After getting a demo, though, I thought it was really clever. A line of cards is dealt out between each player, and everyone has 5 cards. You need to play a card face down next to each card. Once done, everyone compares their played cards. Whoever played the highest card collects all 3 cards (as long as your high card was higher than the original card). Basically, it’s the classic card game War, but with strategic decisions to make. I always love it when designers take classic card games and give them their own spin.
Kiri-ai: The Duel (Tony): When at Gen Con, I always make it a point to spend extra time in “Entrapaneurs Alley”, the area in the back corner dedicated to small and indie publishers. There are a lot of hidden gems there from designers who haven’t made a name for themselves yet. This year, I spent time in the Japan Pavilion, as their booth was called. It was a collection of different publishers from Japan, all sharing a booth. But the game that caught my eye was Kira-ai: The Duel. It’s a small, 2 player card game featuring only 16 cards. Players are dueling samurai, and they need to play cards to adjust their position, stances, and strikes. With some minimalistic style art and a cool fabric “wallet” to store the game in, it definitely one I’m looking forward to trying out.
Sanctuary (Andrew): Capstone Games hosted a sneak peek at the upcoming Sanctuary. From the designer of Ark Nova (and sub-titled “An Ark Nova Game), but Sanctuary is slimmed down considerably. No giant deck of cards, you will be just playing tiles for their effects and end game scoring while also trying to complete objectives. There are still animals of different sizes that will take up more room in your zoo, and action cards for playing different types of tiles that increase in power the longer you wait to use them. It clearly isn’t as deep as Ark Nova, but still feels similar. And we managed to learn and complete a three-player game in just over an hour. I’ll be looking forward to this one after its Essen release.
Vantage (Alex & Steph): This was at the top of our list to check out at Gen Con this year, and we were fortunate to snag a table and a copy at the BGG Hot Games Room. We didn’t know what to expect, but were gripped almost immediately as soon as we started playing. We were blown away by the narrative-building inherent in the game and the seemingly limitless replay value that is packed in the box. It immediately brought us back to reading Choose Your Own Adventure books, giving us an open world to explore over and over. While we couldn’t bring it home from the convention, we ordered it immediately, and we’re eagerly awaiting its arrival.
Dungeon and Dragons Update (Jeff) Isaac and I attended Wizard of the Coast’s DnD press party on Wednesday. And the big takeaway was Community. Dan Ayoub is the new Global Play Lead, starting around two weeks ago. He said that WOTC wants to earn back the trust of players and partners by being transparent and consistent in their communications. They will be creating “The Table” – a rotating advisory panel of fans and publishers. One of the first partnerships they announced was with Paizo. Shocking! Dan stated that they would be opening up the SRD to allow more homebrew and publishers to create content. WOTC looks to be changing from only allowing/creating in-house content to promoting/reselling others’ content. Only time will tell if this new path will work or be short-lived.
Tag Team (Spencer) This one seemed to have some hype going into the con. After Chris let me play his copy that he definitely owned, I was sold. It’s a really neat autobattler system. You combine two fighters and build synergies throughout the fight. Every time you flip through your deck (war style, no decisions involved), you go through the pool of your fighters’ cards and add a new one to your unshuffled deck. Where you put the card is often dependent on how the previous round played out. You need to put blocks in where your opponent has powerful attacks, and powerful attacks in where they can’t defend against them. The ensuing mind games are juicy. All that wrapped into a short and breezy, action-packed game with lots of unique characters to choose from.
Spooktacular (Chris) This was one of the surprising hits of the convention; it sold out pretty early on Thursday, and I’m not sure anyone saw that coming. I was able to grab a copy for my dear friend Andrew since I happened to be walking past the shelf when he sent out the distress signal. I played the game four times during the convention, even teaching it on three occasions. It’s easy to learn, fast, and way more fun than it seems like it should be. I’m going to be grabbing my own copy down the road (a reprint and expansion are both coming soon).
Arkham & Innsmouth Travel Guides (Brian W): I was looking forward to demoing either one of these, but unfortunately, due to the continuing tariff-related issues, only 1 production copy of each was available to view. So, no demos were available. A staffer did walk me through the production copy to see the components, but they were not able to give me a date for when either will be available for retail. Both games looked great, and all components are reusable with dry erase, but just a bummer not to be able to try out and don’t know when it will be available.
Staff Picks
Red Carpet (Alex & Steph): Our choice for our 2025 Staff Pick is the game that we played every day of the convention: Red Carpet by Devir. After a great demo in the convention hall, we were able to teach anyone and everyone the rules in about 10 minutes.
It’s got a light-hearted feel for when you’re in the mood for a quick and fun game, but it can also turn into a take-that slugfest if you’re gaming with that kind of crowd. The “use your phone camera” mechanic was novel to us, so we greatly enjoyed it. Most of the pictures we took at Gen Con were from playing this game, it’s a no-brainer choice for our pick of the weekend.
Light Speed Arena (Brian W): This was a total surprise for me. I had initially marked this down as a game to check out, but then I heard it was heavily app-driven and was turned off. Tony got a copy and we tried it out and I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s a real-time shooter that incorporates an app that plays out the battle and scoring. You start the timer, then draw when the app tells you from your stack of ships to the battlefield and try to eyeball your ship’s weapons and shields to destroy or block your opponents’ ships (and trying to avoid friendly fire). After all ships are placed, you take a picture of the battlefield with the app, which scans and records all ships. The app then goes through each player’s ship in initiative order (starting with ship 1-8), recording hits, misses, destroyed ships, and points. It was great, silly fun, and easily my game of Gen Con.
Fliptoons (Tony): I had a few ideas of what might be my game of the con before the convention, but Fliptoons caught me by surprise. It’s a quick playing card game where you deal out a 3×2 grid of cards. Each card will earn you money, which you can either use to cull your deck or buy better cards. Many cards also have powers that key off of where in the grid they fall, making every round both tense and interesting.
The cutesy retro style artwork is really fun (I’d love to see more of these), and even though the theme is pasted on, I still love it. Fliptoons is an under-the-radar game that definitely needs more people playing it (you can even try it out on BGA right now!).
Alibis (Andrew): My last purchase of the con is probably the one that will end up getting the most play. Alibis is somewhat of a Codenames-meets-So Clover word party game. Each player writes one word to connect two different words. Each player has one pair, and there is one leftover word that won’t be used by anyone. Most of the progress comes from players correctly determining the word that didn’t get assigned (aka the suspect without an Alibi if you are into the whole theme thing). It’s quick, easy to teach, plays a lot of players, and my kids loved it.
Guessocracy (Jacob): In this era of “truthiness,” alternative facts, and fake news, it stands to show that a game where the actual truth is of less importance than what the majority believes to be true should make a splash at Gen Con. Guessocracy is a goofy game, more of a social experiment than something that requires strategic thinking, but it’s a surefire way to yank some emotion and exuberance out of your gaming group. The concept is simply: one person rolls a dozen or so dice of varying colors and shapes into the box lid of the game, gives the other players 3 seconds to frantically count the frequency of each die face, and then covers the box lid up with a little provided handkerchief, obscuring the truth and now placing the responsibility of declaring how many of each die face was visible to the players. Everyone then votes on which die face was most represented and least represented, using two dials. Whichever number is voted for the most wins, truth be damned.
HOWEVER, if a player firmly believes that vote to be inaccurate, they can object (at great personal risk) and grab one of two foam batons and declare their divergence from ignorant masses. If they’re right, they reap the rewards. If wrong, they reap a devastating drop in popularity. I mean, what game better represents our current toxic time where the truth is what I say it is, and if you don’t believe me, you’re [insert appropriate persona non-grata term here]. But before I cover this review with my little opaque handkerchief, trust me when I say Guessocracy is a hoot.
Warlord Chess (Marcus) – This game was not new at Gen Con as it debuted on Kickstarter a few years ago, but it was new to me. I happened to run into a friend while they were at the booth, having Warlord Chess explained to them. It instantly had my attention because it seemed like a simple twist on the classic game. Most of the rules are the same as regular chess. Your pieces move the way you would expect. Bishops, diagonally; rooks, orthogonally; etc. Unlike normal chess, however, you have 3 opponents, and each player is set up in a corner.
The main rule changes are some special spaces that give powerful moves. The center of the board is the chaos symbol, which lets pawns, knights, and kings start their move from any of the four central spaces (for knights, this results in a “donut of death” due to the wide variety of spaces it could complete its move on). Each corner has a castle consisting of three corner spaces, which similarly grant expansive movement options to bishops, rooks, and queens. A bishop in the castle can switch its spaces from white to black! It is a chaotic game best played with 4 players. However, according to the designers, when playing with 3 players, it makes for a hectic game if you leave the 4th player on the board, and have each player take turns taking their turn when it comes around. This little gem is one I was very happy to stumble upon.
The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era (Brian B.) While Elder Scrolls was not a new release at Gen Con, it was the first Gen Con it was available for sale. If you like adventure games in general, or Too Many Bones in particular, this is the game for you. The dice system has been improved from TMB, not only in how you acquire new dice, but in how you spend and recover them as well. The story has, IMO, been improved as well, as you explore maps and have random encounters, some of which are tailored for your quest, while others are tailored to your location. While the price tag is hefty ($225 on the CTG website), the replay value is insane, given the number of guilds, lands, classes, races and skill lines there are to experience.
Vantage (Brian B.) Since Brandon was unable to join us this year, I gleefully solemnly took his BGQ 2025 Staff Pick trophy and awarded it to Vantage. Vantage has been one of my favorite open-world board game experiences ever. The stories you create are insane. I can’t remember the last time I hacked a computer to gain access to a device that provided my mouse companion enough of a reward that it would remain loyal to me forever… or at least until the game ended. You can follow the missions you are given, or just wander the land. Playing multiplier is a blast, from describing the card you see in front of you but that you cannot share, to trying to best resolve skill tests together. Solo is excellent as well, especially with the new website that will let you access the narrative without flipping manually through a book. If you like open-world adventures, this is the perfect game for you. It is REALLY good!
Kinfire Council (Spencer) All signs pointed to this one being right up my alley. Tight resource management, competitive worker placement, and a fun policy voting mechanic (ala Twilight Imperium). This is based on a well developed IP that Incredible Dream Studios has poured a ton of work into. Players act as councilors, working to rebuild the city, building lighthouses, and thwarting the Cult of Altan. As the game goes on, the cult will gain power. If they end up outscoring the players, the player who was most aligned with the cult, wins the game. This is all done through clever worker placement. Worker placement spots are tiered, and you must pay taxes for the higher spots. There are some spots that only certain worker types can go to. Did I mention upgrading your workers with 6 different special abilities? Such a great added layer of strategy. There are quite a few paths to victory available. Overall, this hits that medium-heavy interactive Euro sweet spot for me.
Mystic Curling Club (Chris) I saw a lot of fun stuff at Gen Con, but the thing that I found the most charming was the dexterity-esque demo for this upcoming game. Players will be physically flicking a die down a curling board (field? arena? court? who knows what one curls on?) as they try to land it closest to the center. They will also have to make decisions about whether they want the die faces to stay on one side or if rolling is a better strategy. Each curler can also unlock powers that will alter the dice. As someone who plays a fair amount of sports simulation games when I’m not pushing Eurolicious cubes, this one looks like a ton of fun. The unique theme and stellar components don’t hurt either.
