Everyday I worry it’s almost over. Then I think about what I want to play before we leave. What do I have to play.

Obviously there’s nothing I have to play (but if you know of somebody with a copy of QE, send them my way!), and this year I’m doing better than most at relaxing and just enjoying myself.

Princess Jing. Two designers always on my radar are Fraga and Rossi. I got to play Divinity Derby yesterday, and found Princess Jing in the library this morning. Somewhat Stratego style, but some of your pieces have mirrors, where you can see which of your opponents pieces is in front of it. Usual top notch Matagot production.

We played two of the second round of Unlock! games, House on the Hill and The Tonipal’s Treasure.

I think these are getting better. I liked the first box, but really liked the Temple of Ra PNP scenario, and loved Tonipal’s.

@OpinionatedEaters break. Second trip to Meat U Anywhere.

You stand in line as if you’re at Wendy’s, but, um, yeah there’s valet parking. Also, in addition to those $3 tacos, if you looked closely at the menu from my day one post, there’s a special Friday and Saturday meat menu.

Tenderloin in the bottom left, beef ribs in the upper left. Beef ribs. My goodness…

It literally fell of the bone about halfway through…

(How is it only Friday? Not only do I think almost everyday about how little time is left, but also how much time is left. And that I can have that beef rib again tomorrow.)

Then it was time for the Not Hot Games Room.

Wow…that looks crowded right? Yeah, so I ran an event that was largely based, as my tastes almost always are, on shedding light on lessor known titles. Really lessor known titles. I’m still working on what my thesis statement is that explains my gutteral attraction to this corner, but I’m sure I’ll write you something when I put the words together. (Please don’t hold your breathe.)

I structured it around the “Games Only You Have Played This Month” geeklists. I ran through and found titles that I thought deserved wider attention, and were either in the library or storage or I could bring myself.

It’s a terrible idea, right? I based an event on games that no one wants to play. Who would come to that?

Well, not a lot of people did, and that’s fine too. At most we probably had 15 folks, but that includes me, two of my roommates, my good friend Edward from Heavy Cardboard, and about 9 folks that one fella convinced to come through his passion for the idea.

We might be close now- one of the thing that surprised me about bggcon is how diverse each of our tastes are, even in our small hobby. I struggle to find folks interested in things out in the long tail. This event helped me find the 10 people among 3000 that also are interested in these (well, 1 who brought 9 people. Plus meeting Joe yesterday). OK, we’re not there yet, but maybe it explains some of my comfort there.

The hits seemed to be Eine Gegen Eine, a German language game which you need to deduce the rules for as you play. I brought a copy with English pasteups of a sort.

Hinkel & Stein, a Chili Spiele (R.I.P.) title, in which you’re wagering on which end of a seesaw will weigh more, with asymmetric rocks and player powers:

(It was one of two Klaus Zoch titles I included, the other being Zapp Zerapp.)

And BasketBoss, a Cwali title where you’re the GM of a team and are hiring players, bribing refs, etc. There’s no basketball simulation- just the team building.

My heartfelt thanks to the BGG.CON crew for their help with pulling titles out of storage, and granting exceptions to some library policies for this preposterousness. (And the Five By podcast folks, who had the room before me, for giving me space to setup, and leaving pie:

)

Tomorrow is Saturday. I normally spend my Saturdays being fairly burned out on playing and learning things, and stroll around looking for folks reading rules, but for whom I can teach rules to. As such, I’ll be teaching in the actual Hot Games room, where there has never been any pie, at 8 AM.

I’ve also got the puzzle hunt, so we’ll see how that goes.

(Hey, doesn’t this con have a vendor hall? Two in fact. I did walk into one of them for a minute. I typically do walk through to get some professional demos and avoid reading rules, but I’m fairly saturated on buying games from Essen, and haven’t felt any desire. Walter Obert is also a designer that gets a close look from me, so I may swing by to see if there are Way of the Panda demos, though certainly there aren’t.)

Also, tomorrow Meat U Anywhere Again. Planning on 1 beef rib, 1 brisket taco.