November is the time for colder weather, Thanksgiving, and BGG.CON! BGG.CON? I mean the annual Board Game Geek Convention in Dallas, Nov. 20-24, 2019.
Board Game Geek is a worldwide organization with thousands of people who love board games. Each year, they host a fall convention, a spring convention, and a cruise. This is an exciting year because the big fall convention is moving to their new home in the Hyatt Regency Dallas. Attendees are really excited about moving to a bigger space with more capacity in the downtown area. This year, the con will host about 3,600 people, up from about 3,000 last year in the old space. In addition to these great cons, BGG operates an award-winning website, BoardGameGeek.com. Need reviews for games? To learn about rare games? Buy games or even game piece replacements? BoardGameGeek.com is your destination. They are the Google of board games. Check them out.
Evan Conroy playing giant Rhino Hero last year” Photo credit: Julia Ziobro
My name is Evan, and I will be attending my third BGG.CON this year. I will be posting live from the con. I’ve got my fingers crossed for some great interviews. I am thrilled to be contributing to Nerd Alert News for the first time.
Board Game Geeks are part of interesting and wonderful culture. You’ll find idiosyncrasies in any subculture, and Board Game Geeks are no exception. There are role-playing gamers, of course, and there are categories of games, like Eurogames and Ameritrash. Eurogames usually come from Europe, often Germany, many have beautiful art and presentation, and they may be “point salad” games, meaning there are many ways to make points in your quest to end the game with the most points. Ameritrash is a loving term that was a bit of an answer to Eurogames. It refers to classics like Risk, and thematic games like “Star Wars,” war games, and old-fashioned dice games, etc.
Don’t forget all the dexterity games. Balance, sliding, throwing; there are so many games. Maybe you want to grab a friend and play the giant version of Rhino Hero. Or, you’re anxiously waiting for the Battling Tops tournament. Yes, it’s that Battling Tops from when you were a kid, but this tournament is wild and woolly, with people wearing costumes and a very energetic host. Lists start early for Two Rooms and a Boom, a game of working together to figure out who is the bomber before you’re blown up.
Speaking of kid’s games and old games, board gamers use Kickstarter…A LOT. They will back a game and get the original issue, often with bonus content for backers. Kickstarter has a lot to do with the current board game boom. Over 5,000 new board games were released just last year. Remember a kid’s game called Fireball Island? It used marbles to simulate the action of a volcano, as you tried to get to the top of the volcano. The BGG community didn’t just bring back Fireball Island. They brought it back with higher quality, better working action, and additional “covers” that allow you to play three different variations of the game. At last year’s con, many people were proudly carrying their brand-new Fireball Island.
But BGG is different from many cons. The heart of BGG.CON is the library. It’s an amazing collection of board games, therefore gamers to check out, for free. Last year, there were approximately 6,000 games in the library. In the new space this year, we are told to expect over 9,000 games.
See a game, check it out of the library, play, it, like it, buy it. And why wouldn’t you borrow it from the library to play it before you buy it? The BGG library is SUCH a cool feature. Grab your friends, borrow your favorite game and start playing. No friend right now? People have flags at tables all over the main room. Flags like “Player needed”, and “Teacher needed”.
It’s all about getting people together and playing. Vendors and game publishers are at BGG.CON, of course. New games and old games; you’ll find booths selling them and demonstrating them. But these booths are different than other cons. Many of the folks at these booths would love for you to sit down and play their games.
Publishers are also at the popular event, “Designer/Publisher Speed Dating”, where 16 hopeful game designers will bring their prototypes to be considered by publishers. Congoers can watch the games be demonstrated and presented. Many of the games actually get published.BGG.CON has guests, of course. What convention doesn’t have guests? This year’s guest list includes Alan Moon, Elizabeth Hargrave, Eric Lang, Eric Rayl, Martin Wallace, Matt Leacock, Kelly North Adams, Richard Ham, and Rob Daviau. You may know Alan Moon, for example, as the creator of the Ticket to Ride series of games. Ticket to Ride is a wonderful game of building train routes and earning points. It has many variations, with beautiful maps of the Nordic Countries, the Old West, India, and so many more. Richard Ham is well known to gamers and YouTubers as Rahdo, the game reviewer and demonstrator.
Join me at this year’s BGG.CON as I share all the fun and games. Ask any questions in the comments. Sorry, but if you want to go in person, all tickets are sold out, though there is a waiting list for cancellations.
Written by Evan Conroy
