Report from the Gathering 2025

I arrived in Niagara early Tuesday morning, and somehow got impressed into service, having to put together all of the attendee gift bags.

The bags this year are fairly amazing. The organizers of the convention have actually used some of our application fees to purchase games. But we are getting some hard to find games such as English copies of fishing. These games have been amazingly hard to find on the secondary market, as the games are currently out of print. It remains to be seen how flooded the secondary Market will be come this week. A partial list of games this year includes: Fishing, FTW, Winter Court, Sushi Go, Here Lies, Buffet Boss, Burger Joint, Panda Spin and a bunch of other things. A super nice welcome gift for everyone who was able to make it to the event.

The ballroom was still fairly empty, so I was able to place my games in my favorite back corner. The convention is neat in the sense that all of the attendees bring some of their own games, and so there is a group library of sorts. If you want to play a game, you just find it on the outside of the room, play it, and then put it back when you’re done.

Rodney Somerstein again did his usual yeoman’s work of transporting a large part of his large collection here and stacking them on shelves for everyone to play. Probably 1500 games? Maybe more? Anyways, given all of the restrictions on airline luggage, it’s hard for folks who are flying here to bring a lot – so this helps make sure that there is plenty of variety for everyone.

I then took a short break to go pick up Allison from the rental car place. It was a nice reunion, as we hadn’t seen each other in person in about 23 years. Allison is such a lovely person, and she looks amazing in her skirts. One of the great things about this convention is that I have friends here that have spanned the 23 years of my attendance, and it is so nice to see old friends that come and go.

On my return, I was a bit surprised to see that the hotel had arranged for a glass of champagne for everyone checking in as a celebration of the 35th anniversary. I let them know that in my culture, the 36th anniversary is a treasured one, and it would be nice to have champagne again next year.

So, one of my goals this year is to play games that I don’t normally play. As proof of that, right off the bat my first three games at the Gathering are all cooperative games. And I maybe even maybe sort of like them. We played the gang from cosmos, which is still interesting, but still maybe a little easy with three players. We then played expressions, which the last time I played was the first day of last year’s gathering. Once a year is plenty for me, but I can see while people like it.

Then a afternoon full of playing prototypes, including my own which is an interesting trick-taking-ish game. One of the great things about playing prototypes here at the gathering, is that everyone here is so knowledgeable about games, that you always get great input and feedback on the games. Also people are definitely not afraid to tell you what they think, so you better come with some thick skin if you bring a prototype. Here is a glimpse of a mysterious green themed prototype that I can show you but not tell you anything more about.

Dining in Niagara is always an adventure, there are about 16 different ways to eat Indian or Pakistani food, but the jury is out on whether or not one is any better than any other. We skipped this entire debate, and drove to the next town over, lewiston. Found a great place that serves Detroit style pizza.

Additionally the historical marker in front of the restaurant claims that this bar is the originator of the cocktail. Both the drink, and the term. Seems like a weird fact that could not be proven, but also probably cannot be disproven.

No trip to Lewiston would be compete without a trip to Hibbard’s frozen custard. Every day the special flavors change, so you’ll always be surprised when you get up to the window to order. I chose Dark Chocolate Pomegranate which was fantastic. The custard also got a thumbs up from the Semi-GoF-Head Honcho in Craig; and he’s from Wisconsin – so he gets his custard and his curds.

After dinner, the first teach you game of many. The Gathering of friends is one of the few places you can pretty much always find people willing to play teach you, also people who are able to play teach you at a ridiculously high level.

The last game of the night was a super interesting and weird trick-taking game from india. Still can’t wrap my head around it so I don’t know what to think about it I might play it again. It’s definitely something that would be enjoyed by the trick taking crazy people on this list….

By 11:00, I am totally exhausted, because I’m an old man. Time to head up to the hotel room, finish my code names online cases for the day, and then hit the sack. More fun tomorrow.

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor