GenCon Day 3 + Poor Demo Experiences

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For me, GenCon Sunday is usually one last trip through the dealer hall, then an early lunch with friends before making my way to the airport. The airport was an exciting time since the fire alarms were triggered at one point and no one knew what to do. But let's get back to Day 3 and some game talk first.

One of the big games that everyone seemed to want to get in on was Unmatched by Restoration Games/Mondo Games. Despite several attempts, I was never able to get in on a demo for this. And, I know there were probably reasons for this, but one day when I looked early, demos were not slated to start until 1pm. I wanted to try it out since I believe it is similar in design to the old Star Wars Duel game (which I still have my copy of) that I enjoyed a lot when it came out. Alas, no demos and they were apparently sold out within 20 minutes each morning of the show.

I do like the artwork and quality of the components. Once my local store gets it in, I'll probably try and get a demo game and see how I feel about it. The fact that I can play so many diverse heroes and villains makes it very appealing. And the first movie licensed Jurrasic Park raptors look like they could be fun.

Another game I wanted to try out was Lockup from Thunderworks. It's a worker polacement game from the same people who do Roll Player (which I truly enjoy) and it is set in the same universe as that game. I got to the booth, the demo table was unoccupied and I walked up to get a quick run through.

I don't know if it was the demo person or just the fact that it was Sunday, but I was given a brief disjointed run through of different mechanics and concepts. I never got a real understanding of how the game would play nor was the offer to run through a turn ever made. I was disappointed enough that I held off picking it up to wait until I could get a proper demo, again, hopefully at my local store.

But two bad experiences did not sour my time at GenCon 2019. Having run demo games at multiple conventions, I know that sometimes you are just going to get unlucky and get a person not as familiar with the rules or who is just having a bad day and can't quite get on track. And the point of calling these two experiences out is not to show that one bad experience should not preclude taking a closer look at a particular game. Always be willing to give it a second go around.

And just a few more photos of the two games mentioned above. I hope you enjoyed and maybe I'll see you next year at GenCon 2020.

Unmatched
Lockup 

Lockup

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