The Full Board Gaming convention is now in its third year. I made the trip, about two hours up the road to Torquay, to join the roughly 130 people who were looking to escape the winter chill. This is a convention focused purely on playing games, with no shops or sellers. Board game fans gather at the unique TLH hotel complex to relax, enjoy good meals, and, of course, play games.
They play a lot of games.
When I arrived on Friday morning, I met up with friends I’ve made at past conventions. These events are really important to me because they’re some of the few times each year I get to see my favorite people in person. Many people who create content about board games were there too. I chatted with the folks from the Whose Turn is it Anyway podcast, Joel from Devon Dice, Mark from Ninjageek Games, and Paul from Gaming Rules!. Besides that group, I was really happy to see old friends from different places, including Punchboard supporters Brett and Krissie, who traveled all the way from Scotland. I also reconnected with Rach and Phil, and met some new faces like Aiden, who also came up from Cornwall.
If you’ve never visited Torquay, it’s like the classic British seaside town you might imagine from old detective stories. Agatha Christie was even born there. It’s a coastal town with lots of hotels, pretty gardens, and palm trees. The TLH resort hotels feel like they’re from the middle of the last century. We played games in the ballroom, for instance. How many hotels have you stayed in that have a ballroom? Some of the carpets have seen better days, and the floors in certain rooms aren’t perfectly flat, but it all has a certain charm. It feels cozy and familiar, safe and warm.
The food, though, is excellent. The whole idea behind Full Board Gaming, and the name itself (playing on ‘full board’ meaning all meals included), is that it’s a stay-at-the-hotel convention with breakfast and dinner provided. Breakfast is a big buffet with a full English spread, cereal, oatmeal, fruit, yogurt, toast, and pretty much anything else you could want. Dinner is also fantastic. We had choices like plaice, homemade chicken and leek pie, curries, chicken escalope, and more. There were plenty of vegetables, a full salad bar, waiters to bring your drinks, and delicious desserts. It’s a world away from just grabbing a quick snack or an expensive hot dog from a food truck.
What about the games?!?
I know, you want to hear about the games. Enough about the food, let’s talk about what we played.
Schadenfreude – This is a great card game where you try to get your score as close to 40 points as possible without going over. The interesting part is that the person who comes in second place wins the trick. You should try to find a copy; it’s a lot of fun.
1 A.M. Jailbreak – This is a card game from last year where you try to get rid of your cards. It’s simple, cheerful, and really enjoyable. You can read my review of it from last year right here.
Railway Boom – If you’ve already read my review of Railway Boom, you know how much I enjoy this game. I’ve played it many times since I got it a few months ago. I played it twice more over this weekend.
Decko – Decko is a new game from Haakon Gaarder, who you might know from his other games like Villagers and Streets. This game is quite different. Someone described it to me as being like the video game ‘Balatro’ but as a board game, and that’s actually a pretty good description. It’s a really smart mix of building your deck, similar to Avante Card, and playing poker.
Keep an eye on this game. It should do very well and get a lot of attention once its Kickstarter backers receive their copies. I hope to have a review of it later this year. I really liked it.
Idle Hands – I reviewed Idle Hands last year, and it’s still one of my favorite trick-taking games. It’s a rather mean little game, similar to Stick ‘Em, where you try to give other players cards with big negative points.
私だけの晴天 (My Own Sunny Day) – This is a trick-taking game I picked up from Travel-Games last year. It has a clever twist where, at some point in the first round, you have to pick up an umbrella card and try to win tricks with it. On the way back, you have to put it away. It’s a cute, colorful, and fun game.
Lunar Trick – This is a very clever trick-taking game. The players divide the thirty cards into suits themselves, and half the deck acts as trumps. It really makes you think. It’s from the same designer who made the excellent Joraku. It’s definitely worth looking for. If you want to know more, you can read my review.
Eternal Decks – I’ve already reviewed Eternal Decks, so I won’t go into too much detail here. You can read that review right here. It’s a cooperative game where players have limited communication. It looks amazing, has lots of replayability, and is unlike anything else I’ve played. If you can find a copy, play it.
Wiggle Roulette – This is a silly game from Oink Games where players draw little wooden creatures from a bag. Most of them are eels and are worth points, but some are red snake pieces. You draw between 0 and 4 pieces secretly and try to collect as many eels as possible before you get too many snakes as a group. It’s a fun bluffing game that works well with more players.
Orleans – This is a well-known game where you build your collection of followers. Orleans is always enjoyable, and even though I didn’t win, it made me wonder again why I don’t own a copy myself…
Doggerland – Doggerland is a big game with a lot going on. It’s a game about planning your actions and placing your workers, focusing on hunting and gathering. Think of it like Stone Age, but much more complex. It’s a long game if you don’t play the shorter version, but it’s great, and I need to play it more often.
Panda Spin – Carl Chudyk, who made games like Innovation and Glory to Rome, created this game that’s kind of like a trick-taking, card-shedding game with cards you can upgrade. The cards have beautiful pictures of pandas and other animals. It takes a little while to understand, but the basic idea of beating what’s on the table is easy to grasp. I love how the cards can get really powerful if you’re forced to put them back in your hand.
Hitster – This game was new to me. It’s a fun party game where you use an app to identify songs when you scan QR codes on cards. You try to arrange the songs in order, and ideally, guess the artist and title too. It’s good fun.
Terminus – This was the last game I played at the convention, and it was a treat. I hadn’t played Terminus in almost two years, but I’m glad I got to play it again. It has a clever way of choosing actions, a shared board for building connections, goals that are both individual and shared, and a frustrating tendency to not give you what you need when you need it. There’s a lot going on, and some people might not enjoy it, but for me, it was one of the best parts of the weekend.
Summary
Full Board Gaming is a wonderful event. Matt, who organizes it, and his team work hard to make sure everyone feels welcome and included. There were so many other activities happening that I didn’t even get to participate in. They had big games of Ready, Set, Bet shown on a large screen, murder mystery events, large games of Blood on the Clocktower, ten-pin bowling, and more.
If you’re in the south-west of the UK, I really suggest you check it out. It’s a cozy, friendly, and welcoming event that’s perfect for shaking off the winter blues. I’ll see you all there again next year.
