GEN CON 2019!

Gen Con, North America’s largest tabletop game convention is about to crit us all this week, and with it will come HUNDREDS of new game debuts and reveals, and we’re going to write about almost none of them here!

Next year Dark Unicorn Games hopes to attend this roiling RPG mosh pit as an exhibitor, but we hear it’s a Herculean challenge to get a table. Is your mom a Gen Con organizer? Would she like an edible arrangement of flowers? Let us know.

Catlantis by Ravensburger is a card game starring super cute mer-cat meeples for ages 8 and up. This game sounds adorbs, and Ravensburgers, well, that sounds delicious! Never write blogs when you’re hungry.
Are you kidding? You have no idea what this game is about, and you’re already mentally shoving it under your Christmas tree. 

The Crusoe Crew is a solo and cooperative treasure hunt game / graphic novel adventure for ages 7+. Each playable character has their own graphic novel and, each player makes choose your own adventure-style choices about where to go and what to do, solving riddles and uncovering clues hidden within the panel art. This one sounds FUN! The game looks beautiful and sounds really innovative, and we’re excited to get our hands on it.

Don’t Get Got

Here’s a party game that you can do at, like, a party. You don’t need a table, so technically it’s not a tabletop game, but Don’t Hold That Against Don’t Get Got!.

 Each player draws a collection of secret missions, which are tasks that you must try to convince other players to do for you without letting them catch on to you. Missions consist of tasks like “get a player to compliment your hair” or “get a player to open a jar for you”. Sounds like a great jar-opening game, right? 

Medium is a mind-reading party game in which you and a partner draw word cards and must, at the same time, say the same word that links those two words together. Also, you can use Cerebro to really boost your score because there’s nothing in the rules that says you can’t.

Slide: Quest for ages 7+ is a cooperative dexterity game in which players use levers to move a marble around a board instead of grabbing the marble with your fingers, which would be easier and cheaper, but slightly less cooperative.

Here’s a game about visiting America’s national Parks. Parks, as we’ve just learned from Wikipedia, are located somewhere outside. 
This travel game for 1-5 players ages 9+ looks to be full of gorgeous art, which you can sightsee as you take on the role of a hiker following trails across parks while collecting memories and gear. It’s one of the few games we’re interested in that include bison meeple. 

Detective Club is a nifty spin on one of our favorite games, Dixit. It requires a group of players, most of whom are “detectives” who are trying to figure out which among them is the “conspirator”. The active player decides on a hint to share with all but one player. The player who did not get the hint is the “conspirator”, who will try to blend in and bluff the detectives. Everyone plays two cards with Dixit-like abstract images they’ve selected because they’re somehow related to the hint. The conspirator also puts down cards, flying blind because they didn’t get the hint. The hint is then revealed, and everyone goes around the table explaining why they chose their cards. Everyone votes (except for the active player) on who the conspirator is, and points are earned. 

There you have it. A mere smattering of new-ish family-friendly games heading for Gen Con this year. What new games are YOU excited to see? Let us know in the comments!