10 board games to play at conventions & with large groups!
Check out the Level Up Retreat!
CHAPTERS
00:00 intro
00:52 conventions I am attending this summer
05:53 large group card drafting
07:48 team battle ship
10:27 there has been a murder!
12:34 pure chaos
14:35 two choo train
16:34 be hip with the crowd
19:06 camel up!
20:12 3 games with pretty cards
24:03 off with their heads!
26:59 speak, 1 word, act
30:56 outro
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Canvas would be a good convention game
Hope to see you at Gen Con! This will be our third time going. The first year I was super worried because of the size of it but honestly, the kinds of people are just lovely and we have always had good experiences. 😊
Are you driving to LevelUp? I've been interested in Levelup for awhile but seems odd place to get there without driving. Other option I saw is flying to NJ and getting on Amtrak
I feel the same about Deception, I love it but hard to table. I think the last time I played it was Thanksgiving 2021. Just got Camel Up and played it for the first time last month. Would love to try it at a higher player count.I’m going to a local con this weekend (bgg spring). Hopefully I can be more social this year as I to am an introvert.
You always make me smile. You are a tremendous credit to the hobby. The waters can run a little snarky sometimes, even with the nicest content creators, but there isn't an ounce of snark in you and I for one appreciate that.
Good list, including some I hadn't thought of!🎉
Deception is great, but you do need a larger group for it. Camel Up is definitely a fun one! Have you tried Stella? It's in the Dixit Universe and in a weird way is like a cross between Dixit and Codenames
Ugh LevelUp seems so fun and was not on my radar! I will be on vacation but adding to my list for next year. Hoping to get to PAXU this December. Great list of games! Many I need to play.
As for anxiety for a con, I totally get it. It's so much easier said than done, but try and believe that when you get there it will all click. From my experience the last few years, this community is so loving and you are so adored that it will be even more embracing than you are expecting right now.
Hadrian's Wall event at Level Up Retreat!
I heard Cartographers is great for large groups, but I have not played it myself. If playing D&D in large groups, try not to get wrapped up in the roleplaying minutiae to keep the story paced and keep going.
Can't wait to see you at Gen Con and you will do fine. It is so busy and so much going on it is hard to not just enjoy yourself!
Great recommendations! added a few to my wishlist of party style games.
I would recommend making sure you have something to drink like water. Having snacks is good as well as timing getting food can be an issue. I was blown away after one day during my first Con for how tired I was. Other games I would add would be Sushi Go Party, Formula D(always in contention for loudest table), and Feed the Kraken as you really want at least 7 for that. Cosmic Encounter at 5-6 is great. I would assume somebody at GenCon is going to run a play of Two Rooms and a Boom as that's strictly a large group game.
Dutch Blitz is such great fun! Love playing this game, I need to get it back out to the table. Thanks for the tips, I haven't been to a convention yet, but really looking forward to one soon.
My group played take5/6nimmt at pax unplugged last year and it was a huge hit! It plays up to 10 and it feels very different at each playercount. Longshot the dice game is also great!
My little bit of advice—given that my first GenCon was in 2019, so I'm still a relative newbie!—is to grab two copies of the show floor maps. One is for general reference; the other, I use on day one (and this is Tom Vasel-approved, who saw what I was doing and said "I should really do that, it's a good idea!"). I go up and down all the isles, and scratch out the booths I don't need to go back to (either because it's something I'm not interested in generally, like most merch/dice/swag/etc, or because it's a type of game I'm not interested in, like RPG's). Then you can use that "condensed" map to focus on the booths you want to spend more time with over the rest of the con.
It works for my brain, and I've done it this way every year. Of course, if that's not how your brain works in an overwhelming situation, no harm done. And I can't wait for the chance to potentially connect at LevelUp! My thing with content creators is that, regardless of overall tastes or game preferences, the most interesting folks are the ones you can see yourself enjoying playing games with, and I would love to have fun playing something together! 🙂
Not Deception! You probably don’t want to play it at the max player count. It’s best at 5-6. Give it another chance.
I loved the variety of recommendations here! We have a large friend group and are always looking for group games. We recently played Time's Up and it was a huge hit with everyone, so many laughs! Take 5, Monsdrawsity, and Night of the Ninja are a few other great larger group games; not sure how they would play at a convention. Hope you have fun Jenna!
Gen Con definitely seems overwhelming for me, but I would like to try it one day! I'll be in the Kitchener/Waterloo earlier in early July, so I will be checking out JJ's. Maybe we could meet up for some gaming then!