This is a short one. I mentioned earlier that I’d played 7 Wonders and Bears! at #Origins2011 and I wanted to say a little bit about them, still.

This was my second time playing 7 Wonders — or almost. I came into the middle of a game in progress and took someone else’s seat while he went off for a meeting. I’d played 7 Wonders exactly once before, at a small convention in Minnesota, and dug it then. I enjoyed it even more this second time, when I sort of understood what was happening. (#honkahonka) I want to get this game into my home and play it a few more times, to get the hang of it. It’s handsome and it’s got depth without being needlessly complex (though I think it suffers from seeming more complex than it actually is). I want to play it a few more times before I write more about it.

I also sat down to play a couple of quick games of Bears!, the forthcoming real-time dice-matching game from Fireside Games, the creators of Castle Panic (which I still haven’t played!). This game is absolutely not in my wheelhouse. I really enjoyed it. It’s a great family game for camping trips, parties, and pick-up play at conventions, I think. It might suffer a bit from not having Cthulhu or zombies in the title, but it’s a simple, straightforward, and fun couple of games packaged together in a single box o’ dice. Good times.

The only downside to these games is that they made me wish I’d taken more time to play board games and their ilk at Origins. Alas.