ACPL TEENS - Gen Con Update

GenCon update 2

Welcome back!

A company named Calliope graced Gencon with its presence this year, and danced around the halls, tossing their games into the air and singing songs about how wonderful they are.

Well, not really. But Calliope does sell some awesome games. Every game that stands on their shelves is under an hour of gameplay, for 2-6 players, and under $30. If any game they’re looking at purchasing doesn’t match these requirements, it’s gone. Calliope’s goal is to make their games fun and affordable for anybody who picks them up, whether they be student or parent, kid or adult, normal person or executive, Calliope has a game to match. Most of the games are family-oriented – not a lot of hard strategy, but enough to keep everybody interested. They’re quick, easy games that anybody can learn and play quickly.

One of Calliope’s new ones is Ugh!, a game of creating sets. It’s the Stone Age, and everybody needs one caveman, one pet, and one house to complete a set. The cards are color-coded, so one green card, one orange, one purple, and you’re done. But the cards are numbered 1-5, and the numbers in your sets are multiplied for points. If you get a level 3 house, a level 4 caveman, but only a level 1 pet – that’s great. You have 12 points towards winning the game!

However, like all games, there is a catch. One out of every four cards in the deck is an Ugh card, which makes you end your turn. There are worse Ugh cards, and those can cause you to discard up to three cards… and there goes your set. Collect colors and watch out for card-stealing opponents – or you’ll be saying Ugh!, too!

Another Calliope special is Double Double Dominoes, a blend of Scrabble and normal Dominoes. Dominoes are laid end to end on a board full of squares. A little less than half the squares on the board have a point number assigned to them. The numbers rank from 1 to 4, and are added to a player’s score when they cover that square with a domino. In addition, the scoring track is made up of domino pictures, and points are counted by moving pawns the correct number of squares. The number of pips (black dots) on the squares your pawn lands on tells you something else: whenever a domino with that number is played, your pawn moves ahead three spaces. Easy to learn and easy to play, Double Double Dominoes is sure to be a new family classic.