BoardGameGeek CON Nov 2015

I am, as some would say, a geek and/or nerd; I love games (video games, board games, card games, no-stuff-necessary games). To help this love grow, I recently attended BoardGameGeek Con. I'd never been to BGG.CON before, and how sad is that! The convention was AMAZING, and I'd recommend it to anyone who loves games.

BGG.CON went for 5 days (Wed Nov 18-Sun Nov 22). I unfortunately did not attend Wednesday, but as soon as I got my badge on Thursday I was given 4 free games EACH! Here's a photo of a friend and my pile of free games. We went straight back to the car after this so we wouldn't be carrying it around all day.

My day 1 was amazing! I played several new games, and saw a lot of fun and funny stuff. Here's a pic of my 1st day hail. The only thing paid for in this pile is the game of Poop. I had to get it because potter humor never gets old :)

I saw the game of Poop at a table in one of the two exhibitor halls. There were several versions available, and if you bought two or more, they were packaged in a little doggy bag that said "this package contains Poop"! It was hilarious! I decided on the party game version, because it sounds like something a lot of people could get a kick out of. Now for a little more detail about the exhibitor halls. There were two halls, and within them there were publishers, people trying to gain traction for their Kickstarter pages, game component sellers, and more!
Everyone got a bingo card with their badge. The bingo spaces consisted of the different exhibitors. To fill a bingo space, you had to go to the exhibitor listed on your card, talk to them, demo a game, or purchase something. Then in exchange, they had the stickers to fill the spaces. Each line of bingo was worth 10 geekgold, which you can use on BoardGameGeek.com, and once you got a blackout on your card, it could be entered into a raffle.
It took 3 days for my to fill my card.

One of the first booths my friend and I passed was the Japanime Games booth. They had tons of stuff from Krosmaster. As I walked passed it I looked at their little plushie yellow bird thing, and the thought kept repeating in my mind That looks a lot like it's from Wakfu...Eventually one of the people manning the booth asked if we had any questions. I started, "Is this related to-" He cut me off, "Wakfu? Yes. And I have NO IDEA why they didn't just keep the name, since they already had an established fan base."
He then asked if we'd like to demo the game, so we gave it a try. I got a free game figure out of it, and was told there would be a few beginners tournaments going on Friday and Saturday. Both my friend and I entered. Both my friend and I lost. However everyone still got rewarded for their time. We got more of these game figures to use in the future! The pics on the left show the regular Krosmaster Arena board with the default figures that come with it. The terrain pieces, like the boxes, trees, and bushes, DO NOT come with the base game. These are separate items and they cost a LOT. You need to buy two packages in order to fill the base board, and just the terrain pieces will run about $75. The base set comes with cardboard ones, so if you don't want to spend the $75 you'll still have those. However there's a world of difference, and these terrain pieces are awesome.

Haul at the end of my 2nd day. You can see the little figures Japanime Games awarded. The day 2 haul was also buffed by the proto room. There was a room full of games people were testing out. Some of the developers awarded prizes for spending time testing the games and giving feedback. There was a variety of types of games to test. Dungeon crawlers, word games, ameritrash. And it's always satisfying to be able to help someone improve something they believe in.

Here we see just a part of the library! The convention had a library of games that worked just as you'd expect. On the attendees' badges were barcodes. Attendees could pick a game, bring it to the check-out, get he game and their badge scanned, and then have the game for hours! It was amazing. There were some people we talked to that simply spent all of their time at the convention checking out games, and playing them in the ballroom full of tables. In the ballroom there were a variety of signs to attract people to play a game with you, so if you needed more players or a teacher it was no problem. If you can the the con along or with friends, you'd be able to get the players needed for whatever you wanted to play.

 Here's a game that looks like it's been... well loved. Goes to show that you can make a game out of anything. For the record, I did not give this game a try.

I did, however, try this one. The cave was a tile-building game (think Carcassonne). You're exploring an uncharted cave system, but don't wander too far from base camp un prepared or else you'll starve!

Remember how I mentioned a raffle earlier? Well there were tons! During the closing ceremony on Saturday night, many people were winners. There was the raffle from getting a blackout bingo card, plus every attendee also had a regular raffle ticket. Prizes ranged from a bunch of games, to hand-painted boards, to tickets for next year's con, and more!
To the left you'll see my winnings! It was 3 games, 1 expansion, and a calendar that marks regular holidays as well as weird days and conventions.

Saturday was great. My friend and I ended up staying at the con until about 1am, when the library closed. You'll see my Saturday haul in the pic on the right. I ended up buying a copy of Krosmaster Arena after trying the game and losing in a couple beginners tournaments.
This day was the longest one yet. Realizing this convention was fun from the minute it started, to when it ended, my friend and I decided we'd try to utilize the whole day Saturday. The con started at 8am. We arrived around 9am. Then things closed down at 1am Sunday morning. We were definitely sleep deprived by this time, and we could feel our immune systems failing, so we stocked up on juice and vitamins. It was all worth it though.

Sunday was the last day, and also the shortest day. BGG.CON concluded at 3pm on Sunday, so we got there around 9am to make the most of it. There were no panels and speakers on Sunday, which meant most people were just playing the games they bought or checking out the library. We did a mix of both. The best game of the con for us was Dead Man's Draw. This game was a combination of luck and strategy. The game, purely card-based, could also be difficult or hard depending on the set of rules you wanted to follow. It came with 5 alternate scenarios of winning, plus you had the regular game, and the game you could play using a captain's abilities. Essentially it was 7 versions in one. For only $15 I'd recommend it!
Game play: Essentially there are 10 suits, with cards numbered from 2 to 7 (except for one suit that went to 9). The goal of the game is to get the most points. Points are earned by counting the highest number on the cards of all 10 suits that you bank. You earn cards for your bank by blindly pulling from the deck, and flipping them up in the play area (depicted in the photo above). You can draw as many cards as you want, but if you get two of the same suits you bust, and all the cards you drew go in the discard pile. The game ends when the draw pile is depleted. That's the simplest version. Once you understand that, then you can throw in using the suits' abilities. Once you master that you can chose a captain from the captain deck, and use his/her ability. Then once you've gotten all that down, you can change the win scenario.

Sunday sadly eventually came to an end. But it was a great time. This photo is my final haul. Most of the items shown were free.

I ended up only spending money on a few games. I got Poop, Dark Stories 2, Dead Man's Draw, Krosmaster Arena, the terrain pieces for Krosmaster, and a plushie mouse from the game Mice and Mystics.

Plus I got this bag, and my cat approves.

If you enjoy games, then this is definitely a convention I'd recommend. I've been to tons of conventions before, but never a board game convention like this. When I first heard it was a 5-day convention I thought that was crazy! 5 days??? That's too much!
I was wrong. A sci-fi, anime, or comic convention is usually 3 days, and that works well. But a board game convention works differently. When playing board games you're investing a lot of time into a single events. Unlike other kinds of conventions where a glance might be all you need to experience an event, playing a game can take a LOT longer (I'm looking at you, Pathfinder!). There may not have been a lot of panels at this convention, but you didn't really need a lot of panels, since people want to play games, not listen to people talk the whole time.
The ticket price was steep (almost $100 per ticket), but just look at what it gets you! 4 free games right off the top! Plus all the additional free stuff you pick up along the way. And the ticket gets you access to the library, the ball room to play, dexterity games, game previews, and more. Considering all the physical and experiential staff I got for the ticket, I'm surprised it was only $95!
If you're considering going to the next BGG.CON, please plan ahead. I got my ticket the day it went on sale waaaaaay back in the Spring, and that first week alone the tickets were 85% sold out. Hopefully next year will allow for more attendees, but in case it doesn't, plan to get your ticket as soon as possible.