Tag: white castle

Consimworld 2024: After Pablo, Crisis: 1914, Red Dust Rebellion

Consimworld 2024: After Pablo, Crisis: 1914, Red Dust Rebellion

Every summer for the past few years, when the Arizona heat is often at its most brutal, I take a week off work to attend Consimworld in Tempe. The laid-back convention has consistently been one of my favorite cons, a weeklong event where you’ve seemingly got all the time in the world to play anything from a historical game to a trick-taker. This year CSW was held on July 12-20, 2024. 

Consimworld took place on July 12-20 this year at the Tempe Mission Palms.

Saturday, July 13

My first day at Consimworld was that Saturday, and I taught a 3P game of White Castle to buddies Mark and Dan Bullock, who was in town for the con. I’ve been playing this game a lot for the past few months.

Me making Mark and Dan take photos!

I really enjoy White Castle, and we all decided to play the game again now that everyone knew what the rules were.

One of my recent favorites: White Castle! (Not a hamburger game)

The filler game of this convention, and a delightful gem of a game overall, is Cat in the Box. It’s a trick-taking game where you declare the suit as you play it. Each game is such a clever puzzle where you try not to cause a paradox by being unable to play a card because someone else had already claimed it on a previous turn. 

See how there’s no colors on the cards? In Cat in the Box, you pick the suit when you play the card.

We then played another trick-taking game, Joraku. I really like how this trick-taking game incorporates area control with a map, with each section of the map changing value as the game progresses. By the end, soldiers are making their way toward Kyoto, the highest-value sector at the end. It’s a neat small-box game.

In Joraku, soldiers are making their way left toward Kyoto to score.

Sunday, July 14

We started the day with After Pablo, a unique game dealing with the aftermath of Pablo Escobar’s death. Yes, that Pablo Escobar. The Mexican and Colombian cartels are trying to gain control of the drug market and smuggle the illegal white powder into America. There’s area control, market manipulation and hand management, as smuggling the goods across the border requires certain cards that match the mode of transportation available at the checkpoint. You also want to avoid going to jail, as your cubes will get caught up on the “jail track.” Best to find that lawyer to get you out sooner than later! Such a weird game, and I mean that in the best possible way!

Running a cartel is hard work! Pablo Escobar knew what was up.

We then had lunch at our usual Mexican food spot across the street: Fuzzy’s Taco Shop. The margaritas are pretty nice.

The gang’s all here! Dan, Mark and Cory Graham and I all go to Fuzzy’s every year.

Next up was a game of Pax Pamir. This is one of the games we play at every Consimworld, and there is something so chill about playing a game you’ve played before, especially when you win on the last turn because the last Dominance Check is worth double the points. 

I finally got a chance to bust out my copy of this game!

We then played Dan Bullock’s new prototype: Fruit. I played this game at Circle DC and each play of it has been memorable! Fruit is about United Fruit’s banana trade and its economic and political effects on Latin America during a period of 50 years in the early 1900s. We played this game twice during this year’s CSW. I really enjoy having secret priorities and trying to sus out who has a stake in which country, all while trying to keep countries afloat or not, so that they can possibly complete their national objectives. “There’s always grievances in the banana stand,” they say! 

Dan Bullock’s gorgeous prototype. It’s also helpful for learning the geography of Central America.

Sunday night was the opening reception, as well as a raffle for all the conventiongoers! I did not win anything though. John Krantz, founder of the convention, likes to update us about the state of the con and other news.

A crowd shot of the Consimworld conventiongoers.

Monday, July 15

We started Monday with another convention classic: Maria! This 3P game based on the War of Austrian Succession, and, even though I feel like it was my best showing in the game as France and Bavaria, we still lost in turn 7 to Prussia, Saxony and the Pragmatic Army.

I love Maria! If anyone knows of a copy for sale, hit me up!

We then played Dynasty: The Era of Five Dynasties. Players spend action points to expand their military, build armies, collect taxes and play event cards. Ultimately, they are trying to overthrow the emperor, who has a different set of actions for the game. 

In Dynasty, you’ve trying to overthrow the emperor — but then you’ll get a target on your back.

Lastly, we played another convention favorite: Dominant Species Marine. I like how you’re limited to taking action spots underneath ones you’ve already taken, so timing is critical in the game, unless you gain a special pawn because you have a majority. Such a good game, but dang, it’s hard to stay alive and dominant in the ocean! 

Always a good time playing this game! And the board is just so pretty to look at.

Tuesday, July 16

Our first game of the day was a demo of VUCA Simulations’ new game: New Cold War. They had a gorgeous prototype at the con of a world map.The game is a card-driven game about the global geopolitical events from 1989-2019. Players are one of the four world powers: Russia, China, U.S. and EU, and you get three cards each round to play, with objective goals you can score during each round. The world powers are somewhat aligned, but ultimately, it’s each world power for themselves. I completed two objective cards so I was able to win on the 8th turn. Go, EU!

VUCA Simulations was at the convention, and I got to demo their newest game: New Cold War.

I then successfully took a game off my Shelf of Opportunity. My husband owns Fate of the Elder Gods, but I had never played it before. Dan and Cory both thought there was a really interesting mechanism in the game, the one where bad things could occur if an opponent did a specific thing at a very specific time. The game is set in the Cthulhu world, and you’re a cultist trying to summon a Great Old One by collecting spell cards and traveling to locations on the altar board. It’s a neat system playing matching spell cards to go to the location you want to activate and place your cultists. The game comes with lots of colorful minis, too! 

First time playing Fate of the Elder Gods! I could not summon my Great Old One fast enough.

The last game of the day was Crisis: 1914. I was super excited to play this game, which just came out. In June 28, 1914, the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie Duchess of Hohenberg, plunged Europe into a diplomatic crisis that turned into a war that engulfed the world. Players are using their diplomatic pressure to score prestige, and most importantly, prevent WWI from happening. Crisis: 1914 is a card-driven tableau-builder for 1 to 5 players. The game is so incredibly tense in its card play, yet accessible at about a two-hour run time. 

Trying to stop World War I from happening in Crisis: 1914.

Tuesday night was a treat as the guys and I went to UnderTow in Phoenix. It’s a dark immersive bar that’s Tiki themed like you’re sitting in a cargo hold of an old-world ship, complete with all kinds of sounds: a creaky boat, rain and thunder, and the occasional cannon explosion. I liked how the portholes made it seem like you’re sailing the seven seas!

We had such a fun experience at UnderTow!

The drink menu, which was printed in this fun old-time pirate-ship map, offered all types of artistically crafted libations. I made reservations a month prior, and each reservation is a 90-minute seating. What a fun night out! 

Looks at this gorgeous drink!

Wednesday, July 17

Wednesday morning started with another playtest of Fruit. And then we played Let’s Make a Bus Route. I love this game and have played it often already ever since buying it from Japan in June. It’s a roll and write where you’re completing bus routes on the same map as everyone else. You score points for picking up commuters and tourists, as well as elderly passengers, and taking them to see what they want to see. But if you circle back onto a street that someone’s already marked, you’re creating traffic. It’s fine to create traffic but don’t be the person who creates the most traffic, as that’ll be negative points at the end.  

I bought this charming roll and write from when I went to Japan in June.

I then taught a game of Dune: Imperium with the Rise of Ix expansion. Dune: Imperium is such a perfect game, and even though there are a few expansions of the game, I like Ix the best. I love having those airships out, and it doesn’t overly complicate the game like the most recent expansion of it does, in my opinion. Don’t at me, people! 

I really like the Rise of Ix expansion for Dune: Imperium.

We then ended the day with another game of Let’s Make a Bus Route and Cat in the Box, which is most definitely the filler MVP of the convention. 

Thursday, July 18

On Thursday, I had time just for one game: Red Dust Rebellion, which should be released at the end of the year. You all know I love me some COIN, and this latest COIN is set on Mars! How cool is that?! There’s even a haboob chit, which is another name for a dust storm, something us Arizonans are very well acquainted with, that occur on Mars.

Red Dust Rebellion is the new COIN game from GMT that’s coming out at the of this year.

Red Dust Rebellion tells the story of the Martian revolts of the 2250’s and the rise of Martian nationalism. The four factions are Martian Government, the Corporations, the Red Dust Movement, and the Church of the Reclaimer. As with other COINS, some of the factions are semi-allied, but the Church of the Reclaimer plays completely different than any other faction I’ve encountered. The Church of the Reclaimer can actually spend its hand of cards to skip the line to take a turn! I also learned about the Aldrin Cycler, because it really does take that long to ship supplies from Earth to Mars, a neat mechanism that the Corporations, which are Earth-controlled, must contend with. I’m so looking forward to this game!

It was so fun playing with Kai Jensen and Jeff Carr!

And that was the last game I played at Consimworld this year. I enjoy everything about Consimworld – the length of it, the convenience of the con in relation to walk-able restaurants and transportation, and just the overall chill vibe of it. It’s what keeps me coming back every year to hang out with friends and play games. And maybe next year will be the year I’ll try a Monster Game!

The main ballroom at Consimworld.
Granite Game Summit 2024 (plus Boston and Salem)

Granite Game Summit 2024 (plus Boston and Salem)

My husband and I took a trip to New England earlier this month to attend Granite Game Summit in Nashua, New Hampshire, which is an hour north of Boston. The convention was on March 7-10, 2024. I had never been to Granite Game Summit, but Chris had and enjoyed attending a few times when he lived on the East Coast.

The convention is held at the Doubletree Hotel in Nashua every year, and attendance is capped at 525 people. We also got to explore Boston and Salem, Massachusetts, before the convention. More on that at the end of this post! And before we begin, this is probably one of the longest convention recaps I’ve written. I played 30 different games — mostly card games and trick-takers, with a sprinkling of euros and party games — over the course of 3.5 days, which made my little gamer heart very, very happy.

Our lovely hotel for the convention.

Thursday

We checked into the convention Thursday night after some sightseeing in Massachusetts, and yup, I did get a chocolate chip cookie — the best! First and foremost, Granite Game Summit organizers required masks in the main rooms of the convention hall. Upon checking in, you sign the giant convention poster and at the end of the convention, organizers flip a coin onto it and one person gets a free badge for next year.

The convention this year was space themed.

There was also Granite Game Summit backdrop, which of course I took photos in front of, and there were raffles for lots of games, as well as a convention library and gamer library. 

Chris and I taking a photo in front of the convention backdrop!

It was so good to see our friend Kimberly, whom we hadn’t seen since before the pandemic. She’s one of the organizers of Granite Game Summit and is a wonderful person all around.

Me and Kimberly, one of the Granite Game Summit organizers. She’s the best!

All along the main room are tables with gamers’ games situated on them and numbers. You are free to play any game that’s on those tables as long as you return it. There are also little paper numbers next to each pile of games to take with you so you remember where to return that game. The main room closes each night at midnight but the room with the convention library is open 24/7, as well as other rooms and areas that are mask optional at the other side of the lobby.

The Granite Game Summit library, which is available 24/7 during the convention.

After grabbing a late dinner, we attended the Getting Tricky With It & Newcomer Meetup, which was all about trick-taking games (mostly).

The schedule for the convention.

First up was Scout, one of my top 10 games of 2023. Love Scout! It’s a very solid ladder-climbing game and not technically a trick-taker, but it has an added twist that you can’t rearrange your hand of cards. The cards have numbers on the top and bottom of it, and when you get your hand, you must decide right then and there if you want to play it that side up, or turn the entire hand upside down and play with those numbers. As you pull cards from the middle of your hand, you can potentially line up pairs, triples or runs.

Scout is one of those games that I keep coming back to. It’s super portable, too!

We then played Cat in the Box, a true trick-taking game that takes the genre, dare I say, out of the box! The cards in your hand are in black and white, and as you play them, you declare what suit they are and mark it with your token on the main player board. You also need to declare when you’re out of a specific colored card to play a priority suit. As cards get played to win tricks and tokens fill up the board, there comes a point when no cards can be played – as there’s only one card of each suit and number in the deck – thus creating a paradox where everyone loses. The cat artwork is too cute. 

Don’t cause a paradox! Cat in the Hat is a unique twist on trick-taking games.

Next up is Inflation, also a trick-taking game played out over 12 rounds where you’re trying to win the exact number of tricks you bid on. Tricks are won by forming the highest number from your cards played. But with each round, you play each subsequent card to the left of your previous card, adding another digit to your overall number. The cards go up to 10, but as soon as you play your 10, the 1 of the 10 is covered, turning the card into a zero. 

Making very big numbers in Inflation.

Up next was Chicken!, a game I reviewed on The Five By. This is a quick push-your-luck game where you’re trying to roll more chickens than foxes. But your roll can also lay eggs, which adds dice to your roll. As more dice get added to your roll, it’s likelihood of getting more foxes increases, but then so do the rewards. I dig the retro orange artwork of the game. And it comes in a little tube.

Don’t let too many foxes into your henhouse!

We then played Nokosu Dice. Oh man, I still totally regret not backing the Kickstarter for this! It’s a trick-taking game where you also draft dice, which then count as cards during game play. The last remaining dice after drafting will then become the leading suit color and number. Such a fun game, and I hope to find one in my upcoming trip to Japan later this summer. 

Nokosu Dice is such a great game! I need to track down a copy of this!

Charms was the next trick-taker we played. There are two decks of cards, charms and numbers, and they are shuffled together and dealt out. On your first turn, you play two cards, one number and one charm. On subsequent turns, you play one card, either changing a number or the charm in order to win tricks. A charming game! 

Charms is a neat trick-taker where you can affect the number or the charm suit.

We played these games late into the night. Our first day at Granite Game Summit was a success!

Gamer friends with boxes upon boxes of trick-taking games.

Friday

On Friday morning, I ran into Chip Beauvais, designer of Jackpot Payout, a game I had worked on the rules for a few years back. Jackpot Payout is a light deck-building game where you flip cards like you’re at a slot machine. It’s a fast-paced game and very family-friendly!

We’re playing Jackpot Payout with the game’s designer, Chip Beauvais.

We then played Chroma Cube, another game from Chip. Chroma Cubes is a roll-and color game. Roll these chonky dice with various symbols, and decide how you want to spend them by coloring in sections of a coloring sheet. This game was so delightful and very chill! I forget how much fun coloring is! We bought this game from Chip. 

Chroma Cubes is a roll-and-color that’s so satisfying!

Chris and I then took a lunch break from the food trucks outside. Wicked Tasty Trucks was there Friday through Sunday during the day through 5 p.m. This made it very easy to get food while at the con, and there were also numerous other options within walking distance from the hotel as well as the small convenience store inside the DoubleTree. 

One of the food trucks that showed up at the convention. Very convenient for gamers!

After lunch, we played Don’t Llama Dice. My husband enjoys Renier Knezia games so tried it, with neither of us having played the original Llama game. The artwork has lots of colorful rainbows. Players are trying to shed their hand of cards. On their turn, they can roll the dice or quit the round. If you roll the dice, you can discard one card from your hand of six cards that match each die.  If you roll dice that don’t match anything they have, they must take a card from llama row. If you can’t take anything from llama row, then it’s llama drama, which forces you to take the rest of the llama row cards and the round ends. Each numbered card counts only once for scoring negative points, and llamas count was negative 10 points.

Don’t Llama Dice is so colorful!

We then played White Castle (and no, it is not a hamburger game). I really liked this publisher’s Red Cathedral so I had high hopes for this game. And it did not disappoint! Players are working to become the most influential clan in Japan’s Himeji stronghold. It’s a Euro-style game where you take three actions in each round, a total of nine actions in the entire game, but of course, you may be able to combo actions depending on which of the dice you choose for your action. 

The main board for White Castle.

The red, white and black dice (equal to the total number of players plus 1) sit on these dainty cardboard bridges in ascending order, and you may have to pay to place a dice on an action slot or receive money depending on what dice is sitting there already. Overall, players can tend the gardens, defend the castle or progress up the social ladder of the nobility. The economy is extremely tight and if there’s a bad roll, everyone is choosing from less-than-ideal dice, but I love how crunchy the game is for a game that’s under 2 hours, even shorter with 2P! Chris and I immediately played the game again after playing it. 

As you place meeples onto the board, you unlock more resources to potentially gain.

For dinner that night, a group of us walked a few blocks over to Chen Yang Li for drinks and dinner, including peking duck.

They cut the duck right at your table when you order it.

The dinner was so tasty, and we had so much food! With the duck order, you get duck pancakes, a duck stir fry with veggies and duck soup. Yums!

Cheers to gamer friends!

After dinner, we played this ridiculously fun game called Himmelsstürmer, a Parker Bros game from 1991 that’s also known as the Great Balloon Race. It’s a roll-and-move game with hot-air balloons, and each player has an objective for three balloons to get to the finish line. On their turn, they roll the dice and can move any one of the balloons — and hope an opponent unknowingly moves your balloons, too. There are a few spots on the board that will make the balloon go backwards or get struck by lightning and start over. Fun times! 

Will your balloons make it to the finish line?

We then played a big game of 6 Nimmt. This game is a classic and can accommodate so many people. Always a fun crowd pleaser.

I haven’t seen some of these people since before the pandemic!

Players simultaneously play a card and cards in sequential order get added to the row its closest in number to. Rows can only hold five cards, so the sixth  one will bust it. It’s fast-paced, easy to teach and nothing beats seeing your opponent’s agony over picking up a bunch of bulls because they busted a row. 

In 6 Nimmt, avoid the bulls!

After that, we played Letter Tricks, a trick-taking card game that features suited cards with letters instead of numbers. When you win a trick, you take all the letter cards, and at the end of the game you try to create the largest word you can with your letters. What a clever twist to this genre! I love word games in all forms!

A trick-taker with letters instead of numbers so you can spell words? Count me in!

The next game we played was Don’t Drop Your Ring. Players are trying to complete their bids for winning a number of tricks or else the ring will fall off their finger, which is represented by a clear card with a ring on it placed over a card of a hand. This had some cool components but it kind of fell flat as the bidding and drafting mechanism made this game more fiddly than it was worth.

The clear card on top of the hand in Don’t Drop Your Ring moves closer and closer to falling off.

The last game we played on Friday night was Trump, Tricks, Game! a trick-taking game with  bear, wolf, wild boar and mouflon cards . A different animal is the leading suit in one of four rounds, and the cards you gain from the tricks you win will create the hand of cards for the next round. 

Different animals are the leading suit in this game depending on the round.

Saturday

On Saturday morning, we decided to stop by Designer Alley. Granite Game Summit set up a few tables for designers to showcase their up-and-coming games. We played Chip Beauvais’ daughter’s game Peep Over, and it was so cute! She hand-drew teenage peeps trying to have a sleepover, not get into arguments with mom and provide the right type of snacks. The movie posters were excellent. Chef’s kiss! 

Who doesn’t want to watch this movie?

Chris and I then played Surrealist Dinner Party. The Edward Gorey-esque artwork of surrealist characters in history drew us in as did the components, including a silver platter where resources for the multi-course menu are placed. The Surrealists are invited to the table where they can socialize, dine and then leave when satiated. In the end though, the game did not have as much substance as we would’ve liked. 

Love the artwork style on Surrealist Dinner Party but the game wasn’t for me.

We then learned Crisis, a game I actually own but have never played. I really enjoyed this one! It’s a crunchy economic game that plays in about 2 hours where players assume the role of business leaders trying to rebuild their companies and create value at a particularly challenging time in Axia.

I had never played Crisis before (even though I own it), but I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to play again!

If players fail to prosper or meet certain benchmarks, the game gets incrementally harder. Our game didn’t get punishing at all thought since we were playing at the basic level but I cannot wait to teach this to my gaming group at home on hard mode! Thanks Gil Hova for teaching the game! 

It was nice to meet game designer Gil Hova and game with him!

I then got a chance to play the most adorable push-your-luck game ever Spots! Players roll dice to place on their spotted dogs (and one cow) but if you have too many dice pips buried in the doghouse that you can’t place on your cards, all your progress on your animal cards get wiped. You can also collect bones to reroll your dice. Super enjoyable!

Spots is the cutest push-your-luck game that delightfully uses dice pips in a thematic way!

We then played Nana, in the original Korean version and animal artwork, and people have described this game as a combination between Go Fish and Memory. The object of the game is to win three sets of three cards, or two sets of cards that equal seven, or a set of 7s. On your turn, you play your highest or lowest card, or you can ask your opponent to play their highest or lowest card. As the round continues, you’ll start to deduce which cards your opponents have and force them to play so that you can complete your sets.

Nana, which is called Trio in America, is a blend between Go Fish and Memory.

Maskmen, a ladder climbing game from Oink Games, is also a neat puzzle game. Players play one to three cards on their turn of the same type of wrestler and resolve the strength of the  wrestler. At the start of the round, we don’t know which wrestler is the strongest, but as cards are played, more information is declared and sorted, which can help you shed more cards quicker, if you have the right cards in your hand. So basically, you’re seeding the strength of the wrestlers with the cards you play in the hopes of being able to shed your entire hand.

Maskmen is also from Oink Game, the makers of Scout.

Up next was Billabong, a racing game in which kangaroos are leaping across the board to cross the finish line. Kangaroos can move one space in any direction, or leap over a single kangaroo and land an equal number of spaces on the other side of that guy. If you line up kangaroos, you can keep jumping over them to get ahead. So fun! And just found out it’s available to play online on Yucata.de. 

Hop over kangaroos to get to the finish line in Billabong!

I then played An Infamous Trafic for the first time. This game was brutal. Players are creating supply chains to conduct opium trades in 19th century China. The economy is so fragile as players rely on smugglers to get their product onto land while ensuring  that the region doesn’t become a failed state, which will affect your company’s investments and bottom line. I honestly had no idea how to succeed in this game.

I played An Infamous Traffic for the first time. This economy in this game is so fragile!

Next up was Towers of Am’Harb. The rulebook for this game was substantial and in the end, we realized that it was just a Tower of Hanoi game where you activated sectors in this manner to place pieces for area control. The artwork looked great, but the font on the box cover was hard to read. This was a miss for me. 

Towers of Am’Harb is an area majority game that uses the Tower of Hanoi mechanism to activate sectors.

We then played NMR9, a very fun spatial puzzle game where you stack polyominoes higher and higher without leaving gaps underneath. The polyominoes are number shaped, and on each turn, a card is flipped over to determine which number everyone simultaneously places onto their tableau.

NMB9 is an excellent puzzly filler game.

We then played a big game of Phantom Ink. This is a great party game that can accommodate up to eight players. Players split up into two teams, with one spirit for each team. The rest of the players are mediums trying to figure out the one clue that the two spirits know. In order to deduce an answer, each team gives their spirit question cards to answer and the spirit reveals the answer one letter at a time to their table, with their team telling the spirit to stop at any time if they think they know the answer to the question. The other team may not know what question you gave your spirit but you don’t want to reveal too much for the other team to deduce. Our team was on a roll that night! 

Some of the questions we gave to our spirit to figure out the clue. Our team rocked!

We closed out Saturday night with Hamsterrolle, a dexterity game that involves a giant wheel. Players are trying to be first to place all their pieces onto the wheel, but as more pieces get placed on it, the wheel starts to roll, and eventually gravity will take over and pieces will fall out on your turn. Think Animal Upon Animal but with a wheel!

I honesty love this photo. Thanks, Kimberly for taking this!

Sunday

Sunday was our last morning in Nashua, as we had to drive back to fly out of Logan Airport in Boston that evening. We started the day with a quick and silly game, Pirates’ Blast. It’s a kids game where you’re trying to shoot cannons to move your pirate ship into your opponent’s cove. I can see why kids love this.

Chris squeezing air into his cannon to propel his ship.

We then played Dandelions, a cute area control game where you’re spreading your dandelion seeds across different gardens. Players roll a group of dice and draft them into gardens. But you can also float, puff and gust to move around the seeds.

Spread your dandelions across the fields!

Chris and I then played another game of Billabong. I am so bad at maneuvering my kangaroos to do combo jumps across the board. 

The last game we played at Granite Game Summit was Pick-A-Pepper, a game about collecting chiles and making hot sauces! The game is divided into two phases: the first phase is collecting chiles by playing cards in front of them. The highest combination gets first pick at the cards in the market to put into their ingredient display. This continues until the second phase where players are making hot sauces or collecting more cards in the display.

Making hot sauces in Pick-A-Pepper.

And then it was time to say goodbye to friends. Womp womp. Chris and I had a great time at the convention. Flying into Boston and heading north into Nashua was not a problem, and the hotel had a fair number of restaurants within walking distance, in addition to the daily food trucks. There are also a few grocery stores nearby, including a Whole Foods and a Target.

Saying our goodbyes at Granite Games Summit.

The convention library as well as gamers’ personal game library made it a nonstop four days of gaming and discovering lots of new-to-me games. Chris and I didn’t even bring any games to the con, and there was never not a time we weren’t gaming, unless we were getting food. We can’t wait to go back. And we definitely will, as Chris won a free badge for next year! Remember that coin flip I mentioned at the beginning? Thanks, Granite Game Summit! 

Our badges had a QR code on the back that made it easy to sign up for things and enter the raffles.

And for the touristy stuff …

Before Granite Game Summit, we flew in a few days before to explore Boston and squeeze in a day visit to Salem, Massachusetts, before heading to Nashua.

One highlight was visiting the Boston Library to have tea in the Courtyard Tea Room. I made reservations a month prior to the visit so that the hubby and I could enjoy tea, cute sandwiches and darling pastries. Pinkies up! 

Afternoon tea at the Boston Library was such a fun experience! The teeny sandwiches and desserts were delightful!

We also took a look around the library itself, which had an older section and the gorgeous Bates Hall, and a more modern lively section that included a live taping of a Boston Public Radio interview.

I love me some gorgeous libraries!

Another highlight was walking on the Freedom Trail to visit historic landmarks from American history (and Assassin’s Creed 3, apparently!). The red-brick line across the city makes it easy to navigate! Boston is a very walkable city, and public transportation is so easy and convenient!

The Old South Meeting House was the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

We then rented a car when we left Boston to drive up to Salem (but before heading to Nashua) to visit the House of Seven Gables, an iconic house made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book of the same name. I even got to climb the secret staircase. I learned a little bit about the history of the area as well as how this iconic house came to be.

Me in front of the iconic House of Seven Gables, made famous by the author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

We also visited the Salem Witch Museum. The first half was a little hokey, with its outdated display of life-size figurines whose stages lit up when the film-projector-type voice narrated what happened in Salem in the late-1690s. But the second half of the exhibit had some interesting factoids and the connotations of being a witch.

The Salem Witch Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

And that sums up our trip back east. I’m so glad we got to spend a little bit of time. in Boston but there’s so much more I want to see! I’m already adding to my to-see list for next year’s trip. If you made it down this far, thanks for reading! And stay tuned for another game convention I’m going to in April (also on the East Coast).