If all my writing has you tired out, here’s a nearly all pictorial view of the oddball (to me) underpinnings of the show. Read on to see the overconfidence of a man in a purple jersey, class it up with a nice pen, or turn on the charm with a nice fez. It’s not over til someone rides off on a sheep…
If you bought too many games to take home on the plane, these guys have your back. Here’s hoping they don’t mean to take the shirt off your back. Is there a discount for being nekkid?Some guys can really rub it in when they win. Here we see a man who not only rubs it in, but documents their accomplishment to post onto his web site, read by dozens. (Well, many dozens, but you can still sort them into dozens.) <For those that care, it’s WormLord and apparently Mr. Martin is good at tying knots.>Posting this image again, as I found what is essentially a boardgame cafe, post a bouncer.You can’t tell as much from the photo, but this backdrop was really glaringly fuzzy. It was like looking at a red/blue 3D movie without the goggles. I was strangely drawn to it, but every time I looked away, everything _else_ was fuzzy.
There were LOTS and LOTS of things for sale that would only be jumbled together in the same room if it were GenCon.
Superhero costume anyone? We’ve come a long way from stretchy tights.Always fun to see your duck options for a custom version of Duck! Duck! Go!Meeples Source may have had a wonderful selection of every known meeple … but first you had to find them…You could choose from a wide selection of stained glass window stickers.Show even more class through the purchase of a high end fountain pen (or pencil.)Or go with the real wax seals, if that’s your thing.And it just doesn’t get any classier than a nice, old-fashioned Fez…
With its RPG connections, what is a Gencon convention without any dice?
Chessex were selling dice that brought out interior sparkles when seen under black light.
I’m a sucker for dice, but keep myself pretty well in check and rarely buy new ones. However, Systemic Games was showing off a fancy LED-filled smart-die. OK, yes it flashes cool LEDs when you roll it, but you can connect to the die using bluetooth and an app to reprogram what color you want it to flash. You can even set it to flash differently depending on what number is rolled. If your whole group has them, the GM could flash a player’s die when it was their turn, etc… Not enough for you? It’s open source code, so feel free to code it for something else, tie it into a digital platform like Roll20 for example so your physical roll appears on the digital screen. Nope, you can’t buy one yet, but they’ll be going up on Kickstarter in the near future. (Oh, and of course they just recharge wirelessly by setting them back on their charger base.)
They flash when rolling, which makes it hard to photograph, but you get the idea…Here are the innards on display. Are you hungry yet? They have a “mall” made out of food trucks just outside the convention center. While local restaurants are still busy, they’re no longer completely overcrowded.
Miniature gaming is still going strong. I thought some of the setups for the FFG Star Wars Legion game were particularly impressive.
One of the demo tables in the hall set up for some Star Wars miniatures combat. The ones in the open gaming hall were even larger, but not as colorful.Showing off the base game in the glass display case, although I’m pretty sure they don’t come painted.
Now, if you have a pile of miniatures, how to keep track of them and all though stats and rules? Gauss Toys wants you to put an RFID sticker on the bottom of them, and pug a reader into your computer. It’s that little white square plugged into the blue cord. Nothing up for sale yet, I just found a guy demoing it in the demo gaming hall.
Thumb not included.Staying with the technological theme, CMON had a demo hidden in the back of their booth (not so hidden, it had display windows to show off the occupants.) Here they were showing off a board you place on the table which detects what sorts of things you place on top of it and then ties in with computer images, etc… A company called Teburu will be doing a Kickstarter in 2020 with their first game available Zombicide Evolution (thus the CMON tie-in.) This guy here is a cup stacking pro, well, junior pro, but still sponsored an on the US team. I should have made him try to stack the huge cups behind him.
And that’s the news from GenCon. I hope you enjoyed the articles in the past few days and perhaps a bit of the photos today. With that, I’ve got nothing left to do but ride off into the sunset on top of my trusty Catan sheep….
Technically, you got some sheep buttons from the guy here and then wore them around to try and find others to trade with… I never did, but I did get a photo. (They didn’t let me keep the hat or the sheep…)
Lol! I remember you taking the photos at the Funko room. While my maître d’/bouncing skill set is mediocre at best, it was a very busy job! So many people trying to get in…I leveled up for sure.
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Those Electronic Dice look amazing!
Lol! I remember you taking the photos at the Funko room. While my maître d’/bouncing skill set is mediocre at best, it was a very busy job! So many people trying to get in…I leveled up for sure.
You saw me, without me seeing you — Matt: 1, WEM: 0.
Hello! Do you happen to recall the name of the booth in your picture of the wax seals?
Thanks!