What is up, my gamer crew? I hope you all had a spectacular week of gaming!

This week in addition to weekly game night with friends, and our every night 2 player gaming, we attended Granite Game Summit 2020! It’s such a great little convention that we’re always excited to go to. Read on to see a recap of the event – there will be highlights, details, and even area food suggestions! If you’re just interested in seeing the weekly plays list, just keep scrolling down! Plays from the event start at Claim.

Do you get excited about a particular convention each year? If so, which one?

Happy Gaming~

G2S – FRIDAY

Events:
—Fancy Friday – I did see a few people dressed for the occasion and you all looked fly! I think this is such a fun little thing to add in
—Geeky Trivia – I didn’t attend this year, but have had fun in the past. It’s a nice way to meet more people and just enjoy some geeky questions
—Two Rooms & a Boom –  I didn’t participate myself, but loved seeing everyone who did hang out and have a great time!
Food:
—Chick-Fil-A – Usually a popular spot for the con, so you’re better off going at an odd time if you want to eat there.
—Willie Jewell’s Old School Bar-B-Q. – An awesome BBQ place, great plates, a bunch of different sauces to try, well worth a visit!

G2S – Saturday

–The longest day of gaming! Even though it was the most crowded day, there was plenty of space for
Events:
—Early Risers Club – I’m NOT a morning person, but I try to get to this fairly early (I tend to regret it) It’s nice to get a bit of yummy cereal while you start your gaming. I usually don’t see a lot of people at it, but if you prefer mornings to nights, check this out!
—Patrick & Eric – Caught a bit of this podcast recording at the breakfast. These dudes are pretty neat!
—Flea Market – I love seeing what people are selling because I usually find a treasure or two! This year my awesome takeaway was a Small World statue which I’m in love with! The time is short, but everything was very organized so it was easy to get in, take a look, and get back to the con!
—Designer Alley – Despite bringing my business cards, I was so wrapped up in other games that I didn’t check out any prototypes this year. But I saw a lot of really cool games at these tables and hope everyone who played had a lot of fun!
—Mini’s Paint & Take – A super fun event to learn a little bit more about mini painting with a fun mini to take away! Really neat for gamers of all ages interesting in painting.
—Flip The Table Reunion – EPISODE 10,001!!!! – I was so excited to attend this and it definitely delivered. This review of The Wayne’s World VCR Board Game fully packed with an eBay game turned Justins and Beibers was everything I hoped for. Fun, funny, entertaining, and engaging. Huge shout out to the FTT members who put on a great show! My husband even walked away with a fun Eggo waffle cereal, and we all got 10,000 points AND a ticket to Board Game Land!
—Trick Taking – I really like these little “sessions” for specific game types, because it’s really fun to get together with others who like the same mechanics as you!
—Raffles – Some awesome raffles this year with great giveaways, and a few neat games in the Play-to-Win area! My husband even managed to snag the copy of claim from PTW!
Food:
—In & Out Burritos – A cute little burrito place with a similar set up to Chipotle and some unique beverages, though a small-ish menu. Decent food, decent prices, would eat at again!

G2S – Sunday

Events:
—Word Games – Just like Trick Taking – fun to get together for specific types of games!
—3D Printing – This is such a hot topic in our hobby right now, so it was cool to see this event take place to give a little more info!
—Sign-the-Sign – I love signing the sign every year, just for the fun of being part of the community. And it’s always fun to see the raffle at the end where someone gets a ticket to next year’s con!
Food:
—Ciao’s Pizza – The pizza was alright, but a bit too greasy for our taste. Would love some nearby pizza recommendations for next year!

G2S – General

–Everyone was friendly and welcoming as always!
–As usual the generosity of attendees amazed me. I love how willing everyone is to share their games with the con!
–Registration was pretty quick! It was very easy and well organized.
–Space between the playing tables was good! Easy to navigate even once it got more crowded. The space between playing tables and the game storage tables was more narrow, but generally fine to get through, unless people were chatting in the aisle.
–However, the space under the tables, where you could store games you didn’t want to share, was cramped. It was hard to put stuff under there sometimes.
–It was absolutely freezing in the main gaming room most of the weekend. I’m sure this isn’t the con’s fault, but it was super uncomfortable, unfortunately.
–The G2S library grows a little more each year it seems and I love it. I always find a few good games to play in there!
–New this year was the merch table! Diversions was there again with board games to sell, which was great, but I loved the ability to purchase some G2S swag. I got a neat notebook, some great pens, and a sweet pin! There were also cool pint glasses, t-shirts, and probably more I’m even forgetting.
–Overall, another great year and I’m glad I attended! If you haven’t been before and you have the ability to – definitely check this con out!!

Reaction Key
❤️ – Loved It/Always Love It/Favorite
😄 – Liked It/Will Likely Play Again
🤷🏻‍♀️ – Okay/Take It or Leave It
👎🏻 – Didn’t Like/Would Not Play Again
🆕 – New-to-Me Game

🆕😄 Witless Wizards
😄 Quacks of Quedlinburg
😄 Point Salad
🤷🏻‍♀️ Plums
❤️ Villainous
🆕😄 Quaggle
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️/😄 Claim
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Second Chance – After this one, I decided no more un-themed roll and writes for me.
🆕😄 Slide Quest – This was neat. Pretty challenging though.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️/😄 Duelosaur Island – It’s not bad, but having played Dinosaur Island, I’d always rather play that.
🆕👎🏻 Ticket to Ride: Japan Map – I’m not huge on TTR in general, and this map was a no-go for me. The difference in points for the bullet trains in a 2 or 3 player game is absurd. Why do you lose 10 points just for playing the game and doing everything you could? A terrible mechanic.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Haste Bock? (AKA Shear Panic) – Cute pieces, but a mediocre game.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Sheep Boom Bah – It was sooooo silly and ridiculous.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Born to Serve – I had wanted to try this game, but it fell flat. Nothing exciting.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Pumpkin Patch: Bad Seeds
🆕😄 Cargo Noir – Probably my top game for the weekend. I was surprised how well it worked at 2 players, but it was great! Days of Wonder almost always impresses me.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Mystery House – We really wanted to like this because we like escape room style games, and this is that but with a really unique “house” mechanic. The rules were vague and the puzzles had some epic leaps in logic, so this ended up being frustrating and disappointing. Also. The house mechanism would not work with more than 2 players, in my opinion. It’s not big enough to share properly.
🆕😄 Lucky’s Misadventures – I thought this was a neat and unique deck builder! A weird rip-off (I think?) of Wizard of Oz,  but very cool.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️/😄 Wavelength –  This was a neat “mind reading” kind of game. We played it at 2 and it worked, but it was hard. I think I’d really enjoy it in a bigger group.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Dungeon Drop – I was excited for this, but it fell flat. It was too unruly without a mat or barriers for the tiny cubes.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Jetpack Joyride – I think this would have been better with a mat for sure because the pieces were hard to pick up and the cards slid around a lot. It was okay but not for me.
🆕😄 Ice Cream Combo – This was a cute, fast-paced card game that I really enjoyed. It was so colorful and a lot of fun.
🆕😄 Word on the Street – Such a neat word game! Another that would be cool in teams, but was a lot of fun regardless.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Last Call : The Bartender Game- It was an okay game, but the table presence of these components was awesome.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️/😄 Bunny Kingdom – We accidently played a bit wrong, so my reaction isn’t perfect. But I was enjoying it and I think a full correct play would solidify that excited emoji
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Azul Summer Pavilion – Probably my least favorite of the Azul  games. It felt slower and just not as put together as the others.
🆕👎🏻 Overlords of Infamy – I was legitimately angry about how disappointing this game was.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Knuckling Knights
🆕😄 Hamsterrolle
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Kodama 3D – It’s pretty much the same as Kodama but way more fiddly and annoying because of the 3D element. Just unnecessary.
🆕😄 Sticky Chameleons
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Tetris Link
🆕😄 Deep Blue – Another Days of Wonder game. I thought this was pretty neat and had some interesting elements.
🆕😄 Snow Dazed – A prototype from the great Jeff Johnston! It’s definitely adorable for a younger audience, though I did unfortunately get unlucky a few times and couldn’t do much.
🆕😄 Puff – Another prototype from Jeff! I don’t have enough breath to blow dandelions into others’ yards, apparently, but this was a neat idea! It was nice to see that even when you feel like you’re losing most of the game, there’s a definite chance you can still win. (Still not crazy about the name, Jeff) but I’m very excited to see where this one goes!
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Crumbs – This was a cute game, but didn’t do it for me at 2 players. The cards were so swingy and everything came down to a little too much luck.
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Heldentaufe
🆕😄 Tip Tap
🆕🤷🏻‍♀️ Dice Run