These Staff Picks Have Tickets Available!
Here are a few fun games running at U-Con, and all of these have tickets available at the time of writing!
Board Games
Fri 9a Fri 5p History of the World – Historical strategy game of leading civilizations through ages, conquering territories, and building empires.
Fri 10a Terraforming Mars -The Dice Game – Dice-driven engine-building game about developing and terraforming Mars.
Fri 10a Wingspan Pocket – Compact bird-themed card game featuring engine-building and resource management.
Fri 2p Sat 9a Sat 10p Nuclear War – Satirical card game of diplomacy, propaganda, and nuclear annihilation.
Fri 4p Sun 1p Sentinels of the Multiverse – Cooperative superhero card game battling villains with unique powers and teamwork.
Fri 8p Railroad Ink – My favorite roll and write, Railroad Ink transforms over the course of play from a meditative city builder into a scramble of “how can I bend this railroad just a bit to avoid ruining my longest highway.” I feel like everyone I play this game with comes in with a different strategy, so I’m always pleasantly surprised to see how we all wind up with different results even when we’re all building with the same set of components.
Fri 8p Sat 10a Formula D – Strategic dice-driven racing game with gear shifting, cornering, and risk-taking.
Sat 9a 26th Annual Abstract Games Tournament – Play an array of lesser-known combinatorial games, with no random, hidden, or dexterity elements. Most are for two players and can be learned and completed within about 40 minutes. This year Guest of Honor Kristin Looney will be joining us, come beat them at their own game.
Sat 10a Glory to Rome – Strategic card game rebuilding Rome through resource management and clever card combinations.
Sat 11a Frostgrave Open – As a very novice entrant to the world of miniatures, Frostgrave is probably the game I’d most want to check out over the whole weekend. Skirmish sized, you don’t have to roll every die you can find in your living room to get through a turn like certain other games (looking at you, Warhammer). And being model agnostic, if you like it, you can use whatever you have laying around (Lego minifigs, the dog from Monopoly, my Ron Swanson action figure, whatever) so you don’t need a significant financial outlay to get started. Add in a really unique setting, narrative scenarios, and the more manageable task of painting a smaller number of minis if you do want to get a more uniform look on the table, and you have a recipe for a great time in the long and short run.
Sat 3p Sat 4p Apples to Apples – Humorous party game matching cards to subjective descriptions, judged by players.
Sat 5p Codenames – Team-based word association game identifying secret agents using one-word clues.
Sat 12p Family Business – Mob-themed card game of rival crime families, betrayals, and eliminating opponents.
Sat 8p PARSEly with Andy Looney – Guest of Honor Andy Looney will facilitate your 1980s style text adventure game using the PARSEly system!
Sat 9p Monikers – Team-based party game combining clues, charades, and guessing.
Sun 9a Roll For the Galaxy – Strategic dice-placement game building a galactic empire through exploration, technology, and trade.
Sun 12p Splendor – Strategic engine-building game collecting gems, acquiring developments, and attracting nobles.
Sun 3p Zombie Dice – Fast-paced push-your-luck dice game where zombies collect brains while avoiding shotgun blasts.
Sun 3p Steampunk Rally Fusion – A bunch of famous scientists through history get together to race their zany contraptions. Maybe adding those jet turbo boosters to your penny-farthing will give you a lead in the straightaway, but they may also explode when you come to the rough terrain. Hopefully the dice go in your favor, but either way, the story you build as you play and the gizmos your opponents will employ to beat you to the finish make the race a silly fun time for everybody.
Miniatures
Multiple Sat & Sun slots – Battletech – Tactical sci-fi wargame featuring giant combat robots and detailed warfare.
Fri 1p Sat 10a Sat 3p Brick Battles – Miniatures wargame using LEGO-built armies, vehicles, and battlefields.
Fri, Sat, & Sun afternoons – Paint and Take – Get a mini and use our paints! (Costs vary)
Sun 3p Clay-O-Rama – Comedic combat game featuring player-sculpted clay monsters with unique abilities. A Family fFriendly event!
Roleplaying
Fri 9a Brindlewood Bay: Dad Overboard – A cozy murder mystery in which players will work together to collect and piece clues to come up with a convincing theory, then play to find out if their answer is correct.
Fri 7p Raptor Ruckus – Fossil Falls – The party encounters Rip, a veteran park river guide, hastily packing a raft to go downriver. Keen to get moving, he agrees to take them along, assuring them he has a way off the island. Raptor Ruckus is based on Mörk Borg. A deadly game where the players are staff and/or visitors to a failed dinosaur island amusement park (a la Jurassic Park). Characters will be provided. Please bring something to write with and a standard RPG dice set. – 1 left!
Fri 7p Sun 10a Quantum Black: Ballgowns and Beasts – Rescue princess in this modern action-horror RPG featuring secret agents battling supernatural and cosmic threats.
Fri 8p Sat 2p Coven & Crucible: Gremlins in the Workshop – A beginner-friendly, witchy adventure about a magical creature infestation, what could possibly cause that?
Fri 8p 6cess Cinematic: 1985 vs the Vampire – A story and player driven cinematic rules lite game in which character creation is a part of the game. It is the fall of 1985 in the sleepy town of Forester’s Bay. You and your friends are certain that there are vampires and werewolves in town. Adults don’t believe it. Can you stop them before it’s too late?
Sat 2p D&D: A Fey in Chains – A Dungeon’s and Dragon’s adventure that is not your typical rescue mission.
Sat 7p Into the Maelstrom : Pirate Borg Tournament – Battle undead pirates aboard a legendary haunted ship in this swashbuckling Pirate Borg tournament! Explore a gothic floating castle, uncover artifacts, and stop a sinister ritual while competing against other crews for points and glory. Perfect for fans of pirate adventures, dark fantasy, and D&D-style action.
Sat 8p Coven & Crucible: Girls Night Out – Ghosts, exes, and witchy friends in this modern urban fantasy RPG featuring supernatural creatures, magical mysteries, and action from 13th Moon Games.