15 Games Played at SaltCon 2023

SaltCon Spring just keeps getting bigger and better every year!

This year over 2,000 people enjoyed playing board games, card games, dice games, party games, and more for 4 days straight as part of SaltCon Spring 2023.

And with that many people, there’s a broad range of gaming interests. That’s why there are also areas in the convention center set aside for RPGs, miniatures painting, dexterity games, play-to-win games, competitions, and an Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator.

But even as the event itself keeps getting bigger, this year the game playing for me was much more intimate.

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15 Stocking Stuffer Games for 2022

Time is ticking down and there are only a few more shopping days left until Christmas Day.

If that puts you in a frantic rush for finding game gifts for your friends and family this year, we can help with that!

For starters, jump over to our 2022 Board Game Gift Guide and you’ll find a bunch of great games to choose from as gifts.

If you already have what you need with those game gifts and just need a few smaller games to pack a Christmas stocking with game goodies, then this list of 15 recommended games is for you.

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Board Game Gift Guide 2022!

As the holidays approach, it’s super common for people to look for the best family board games to give as gifts to family members and friends.

This is our 12th year publishing a Board Game Gift Guide to help you find fantastic board games, dice games, card games, party games, and more for those you love.

And this year we’ve got 36 new board games to recommend!

Since there’s a wide range of people to consider for game gifts, we break down this board game gift guide into various categories with a handful of game ideas in each.

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Silver Card Game Review

When everyone you introduce a new game to starts buying their own copies, you know you have a hit game on your hands.

Such has been the case for us with the card game Silver!

It’s a card game with a mix of hidden information, memory, strategy, luck, variable character abilities, and fun artwork that has us playing it over and over.

Plus, the expansions Bezier Games has published for it makes it infinitely replayable.

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Star Wars: Jabba’s Palace card game review

The number of people wanting to plays games over lunch at the company I work at has been growing. And for such a group and setting, the board games and card games that get played are those that are relatively short and can accommodate many players.

So when I got a review copy of Star Wars: Jabba’s Palace – A Love Letter Game from Asmodee, and realized that up to 6 players could play, I knew the perfect place to break it in!

Not only are the Love Letter games fun and quick-playing, but this new iteration is a Star Wars version of the game. And there are plenty of people who love Star Wars at the office.

So what better place to give it a go!

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Star Wars: Destiny card game review

When our monthly game night fell close to Star Wars Day earlier this month, we had to dive into some Star Wars games.

And that meant it was a perfect time to play Star Wars: Destiny!

It’s a 2-player card and dice game battle that we have tons of cards for – so we could set up multiple head-to-head battles among everyone there. Plus, it can be played in 30 minutes and then we can be on to the next battle against a different opponent.

That’s also when I realized that even though we’ve had the game for a number of years, we haven’t posted our full review of Star Wars: Destiny yet.

That changes today!

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The Crew: Mission Deep Sea game review

Two years ago we took off on a quest in space and now we’re searching the depths of the sea.

In fact, it was exactly 2 years ago, in March 2020, when we reviewed The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine by Kosmos. We played it a TON leading up to doing our review. And then we played it even more in the months after that while we were all shut inside as the Covid pandemic broke out around the world.

Needless to say, we absolutely loved the cooperative, trick-taking, mission-based card game. We could hardly get enough of it, even making up our own challenging mission scenarios.

Since then, Kosmos has gone ahead and outdone themselves with the follow-up game The Crew: Mission Deep Sea!

Yes, that’s right – they found a way to make a fantastic game even better. And I don’t think we’ll ever play the original again.

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SaltCon 2022 Recap – 22 Games Played

I had a fantastic first weekend of March because I was hanging out and playing tons of games with my friends at SaltCon Spring 2022!

I look forward to this 4-day gaming event with much anticipation every year. And it was especially great this year because the air was finally clearing around the Covid pandemic. Which means we could see the smiling faces of the 1,700 or so people who came out to play all sorts of games.

This year I was able to attend 3 full days of the event and played 22 different board games, card games, and dice games!

It was a lot of fun and I’m ready to share my thoughts on each of the games I played.

(Consider it like a bunch of mini-reviews.)

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2020 & 2021 – Years in Review

In getting ready to write my 2021 Year in Review, I realized that I never posted a 2020 Year in Review.

Maybe that’s because 2020 felt like a gap year for everybody – and many things just didn’t happen.

Well, that gives me a better chance to take a look at both years and compare how they’ve shaken out for family board game playing time.

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Board Game Gift Guide 2021!

If you’re looking for some great game ideas for friends and family, you’ve come to the right place!

This marks our 11th annual Board Game Gift Guide and we love sharing great gift ideas!

And this year we’re sharing another 40 game ideas!

Since there’s a wide range of people (ages & interests) you may be considering, we break down this game guide into various categories and share a handful of game ideas in each category.

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