Best of Gen Con 2025

It was another busy convention year for the tabletop team here at GamingTrend! In what appears to (sadly) be a new tradition, we are once again later with our 'Best of' writeup than we would prefer, but if you read on I'm sure you will agree that it was well worth the wait! (Heck, we couldn't even talk about Brass: Pittsburgh until a month after the show). Enjoy:

Best game everybody wants to play—Spooktacular

Turns out, when you have a table full of B-horror monsters in a points race where the best way to score points is dramatically changing the board state, you wind up doing your best and hoping the current doesn't bash you against the rocks too hard. But watching the disaster unfold is so much fun, we don't care.

Best promise of things to come—Daggerheart

We found Daggerheart to be one of the most promising TTRPGs to hit the market in this new wave of D&D challengers, and frankly, we were concerned Darrington Press hadn’t announced any new product for the sellout core rules yet. Naturally, they responded at Gen Con with a veritable deluge of news for the future of the game- Kickstarters, actual plays, collaborations, homebrew kit… It was massive and a great sign of what is in store for the game!

Best game to have a cat “help” play—Knitting circle

Rondel-draft yarn tiles to make garments, it couldn't get simpler. Except that you have to alternate between the knit and perl sides when you drop those tiles onto your garment cards.And you really should try to make a color pattern. And there's public objectives you'll want to finish, with bonuses for doing them first. Oh, those garments have a mix of flat points and multipliers, so you'll probably want to tailor your strategy to maximize that. So maybe it could be simpler, but the good news is that everything except that first sentence is extra stuff you'll tack on depending upon your group. Add in a heaping helping of cat aesthetics, and we're sold.

The 'Team' designers win again! (Last year was for Sky Team)

Best ‘war’ game—Tag Team

Yes, Tag Team is unquestionably a war game and we won't be hearing any arguments to the contrary. Jokes aside, Tag Team plays like a Vs fighter/war hybrid with both players drafting two fighters, and building and flipping cards from a fixed-order deck in a race to KO one of their opponent’s characters. When you get no choice but to add a block card, you better remember where your opponent’s attacks are. Or be like us and don't, because it's always funny when you flip over “I block your.. oh. Oops, nevermind.”

Sanctuary basically combines the cards with the tiles that go in your zoo.

Best spin-off that might end up being better than the original— Sanctuary

When we heard about a streamlined spin-off of the megahit zoo management game Ark Nova, we were somewhat concerned it wouldn’t retain the crunchy goodness that made the game so compelling. After a demo with designer Mathias Wigge we are actually eager to get some quality time with this one, as it really looks like he pulled off streamlining the game mechanically without sacrificing a lick of complexity.

Best game resurrection—Euthia by SteamForged Games

Despite a successful crowdfunding campaign for Diea Games’ first entry, Euthia: Torment of Resurrection, the sequel campaign didn’t gain enough traction to create a follow-up. Luckily, SteamForged Games took note of their plight and offered assistance in running a new crowdfunding campaign to both make the sequel a reality and bring the original game to a new audience.

I'm pretty sure Joe thought about TPKing us once or twice.

Best guest designer for a game expansion—Joe Mangianello

Celebrity appearances in video games have become fairly commonplace these days, but it isn’t often (outside of TTRPG actual plays) you see that sort of thing in board games. Actor, reality show host, and Drangonlance fanatic Joe Mangianello may be the first one to actually step in and design a board game expansion with the HeroQuest: The Crypt of Perpetual Darkness. Maybe, just maybe, Joe is a gamer first and an actor second?

Best Gamemasters of Gen Con—Gooeycube GMs

We are big fans of GooeyCube here at GamingTrend, and their D&D 5E product line is consistently amazing, but this year we decided to recognize the unsung heroes of GooeyCube- their team of dedicated Gen Con gamemasters, Led by head GM Casey Wren and assisted by Matt Wilcox. We’ve played a lot of TTRPG sessions at conventions, and it is safe to say that the sessions we’ve played with GooeyCube have been among the best! Lucky for you, they do a lot of cons every year, so if you see GooeyCube show up on Tabletop Events, you know you’re getting a great experience!

Best game we can’t wait to play—Brass: Pittsburgh

While we weren’t able to say much about the game at the time, what we saw at Gen Con of Brass: Pittsburgh, the sequel to one of the most popular board games of recent years, Brass: Birmingham, was enough to make us wish we could just drop everything and play it all weekend. From building tech trees to resource and network diversity, Pittsburgh's got everything we'd want in a Brass game. Keep an eye on our coverage as more is revealed about the game leading up to the crowdfunding campaign.

All of our Brass: Pittsburgh coverage leading up to the Gamefound Campaign in January

Check out Jim Zub's Conan The Barbarian now!

Best comic book appearance—Conan by Jim Zub

One doesn’t typically think about comics at Gen Con, but Conan the Barbarian and the sword & sorcery genre have been deeply entrenched in board games and TTRPGs for decades, both directly and by inspiration. Really, it should have come as no surprise that Jim Zub and Titan Comics (publisher of the current run of the famous barbarian) were present this year, and after checking out what Zub and a rotating cast of amazing artists have been doing with the character, we couldn’t stop reading the stack of collected trade paperbacks we purchased. Evocative of the classic marvel run both in tone and appearance, it’s no wonder Zub’s time on the title has people calling him “My dad’s favorite comic writer”. Check out our reviews of the latest issues!

Best ‘be the change you want to see in the world” moment— TrollLord Games’ The Factory

2025 has been a very challenging year for a tabletop industry that seemed to be finally recovering from the Pandemic production and shipping issues, and by far the biggest issues have revolved around the rollercoaster ride of tariffs. Troll Lord Games had already been printing domestically since 2003, but in an effort to keep it that way and maybe help some other small press publishers along the way, they decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign for The Factory, a locally built, locally staffed print manufacturing facility in Arkansas.

Best game about making games—The Game Makers

There have been quite a few games themed around designing board games, but this is the first game centered around the next step, production and manufacturing. The Game Makers tasks players with mastering a wide spread of interconnected mechanics to become the best at, well, making games. All of the games featured are real-world games, and the contract requirements are based on these real-world counterparts!

Best entry point into a long-established game—New Legion starter packs

One of the largest initial challenges for new miniature wargaming players is finding out where to start. Even if you’re experienced, getting into a new game can be a challenge when determining what products you actually need to play the game. While the Star Wars Legion core sets are great for two absolute beginners to get their feet wet, they have a bit of a price tag for two armies that still don’t have quite enough units to field for a typical game. Atomic Mass Games’ new Starter Sets solve this problem, including all the tokens, dice, and maneuver templates you’ll need to run the 600-point armies featured in each box. Now, if you already know which faction you want to take to your local scene, you can jump right in without any extra fluff.

Best game to carry around with you anywhere—Compile

Small enough to fit in a cargo pants pocket (kind of), this card game has taken the GamingTrend staff by storm since it first appeared (and quickly sold out) last year. We were very relieved to see the game find a home when Flat River Group dissolved and reformed as Luna Games, and made sure we nabbed a copy of the second installment in the series, Main:2. We'll have reviews up of Main:1 and Main:2 on GamingTrend soon!

Best board game that captures the spirit of the original (TIE)—Halo: Flashpoint and Doom

There were not one, but two excellent tabletop adaptations of video games this year. Mantic Games’ Halo: Flashpoint really showcases the frantic action of a classic Halo TDM and is as intuitive as it is fun.

All of our Halo Flashpoint coverage, more coming soon!

On the other hand, Modiphius’ DOOM Arena sent us back to the nonstop bloody carnage of the original DOOM, blowing apart everything from Imps to Cyberdemons. Both games are so great that we couldn’t decide between them!

Check out our in-depth preview of Doom: Arena here!

Best conversation about games we had all week—Jamie Sabriel

Friday night, there was an informal hangout/party with some industry peeps at our hotel's bar. It was there that we had our favorite sit down and bullshit sesh with Jamie, where we got to chat about how AI has no place in tabletop, 2-player design, and their involvement in the burgeoning movement of games without set victory conditions.

Best thematic adaptation—Grendel

Ever since Mind MGMT got us paying attention to Jay & co. over at Off the Page, we've had a good time with everything they've put in front of us. Of course, we're overjoyed that they've landed Grendel, but now we're torn between excitement for what might be their best game yet and grief that it doesn't come with an indirect indie comic recommendation, ‘cause if you don't know Grendel, what are you doing with your life?

Best marriage of disparate mechanics—Primacy

Communal rondel. Economy. Player powers. Combat cards. Special-use cards. Area control. It doesn’t feel like it should work, but trust us, it does. We've gotten a chance to play this a few times as the prototype keeps evolving, and we love how designer Alex Wolf keeps refining it (even with some of our suggestions!). Keep your eyes on GamingTrend for more about Primacy as it gets closer to the crowdfunding campaign next year!

The board is bigger, but not necessarily better

Best way to play John Company—An Archivist’s Dream

John Company, designed by brothers Cole and Drew Wehrle, was already a game that people talked about. By putting players in the well polished shoes of the wealthy British families who wielded control over the East India Trading company during its heyday, it is one of the few tabletop experiences that really makes you think about what damage you might be doing as you score points in relation to the exploitation of an entire country's resources and people. Naturally, the perfect candidate for creating a megagaming experience! Check out Nick's piece on how fun it was to feel even worse than you would during a regular game:

Mr. B's picks

This year we saved five awards for something very special. We let tabletop industry legend and all-around nice guy Sean Brown (Mr. B Games, Mayfair Games) pick five recipients of our Best of Gen Con award, based on whatever criteria he saw fit to use. Needless to say, we were happy with the results. Check out the video above for the winners!

And that'll do it! Our Best of Gen Con Awards for 2025! Until next year, game on!

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