Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair 2018

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

Next week begins the second-largest game convention, Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH, and one that many game publishers delay their new game offerings until they can make their debut there. Once again SahmReviews will make the trek across the Midwest to preview the scores of new titles for sale and even get a sneak peek at some yet to be released! In the past we scooped all the major game-industry sites by getting inside information on the Alchemists expansion, saw a prototype of Codenames Pictures and played early versions of a couple Steve Jackson Games titles! There’s no telling what we’ll discover and report on this year!

Of course we’re excited to see what new games have finally made their way to the convention and are ready to be purchased for the first time at Origins Game Fair. We polled all of the game companies we’ve presented in the past, and they provided an extensive list of brand new titles available at Origins for the first time! Although our list features many brand new games for this one event, we know there are quite a few more that are still under wraps because companies weren’t sure if they’d hit the shores in time for opening day.

If you’re headed to Origins Game Fair, you’ll want to look through this list and start making plans on which booth(s) to visit early to get your copy before they run out. If you’re not one of the fortunate ones to be attending in person, don’t fret – this list simply means these games are as close to being on the shelves of your local game store (or Amazon) as possible!

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Action Phase Games

(booth #1128)

Shogunate

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

The six great clans each strive to have their leader be first in line to succeed the Shogun. Of course, you’ll do so in a manner most, shall we say, honorable.

In Shogunate, each player is loyal to two clans. Your goal is to use your actions to manipulate the line of succession such that the leaders of your clans earn the most honor!

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Ad Astra Games

(booth #154)

Romance of the Seven Realms

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

A three player semi-cooperative game bundled into a supplement for Squadron Strike.

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Arcane Wonders

(booth #201/207)

Critical Mass: Patriot vs. Iron Curtain

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

Critical Mass is a fast-paced mech combat game. Players go head-to-head in this fighting-strategy game with deck-building aspects. Players choose their favorite mech to battle it out, with each mech offering a different loadout of cards to start the game and unique powers. Each turn, players play a card face-down. When both players have chosen a card, they reveal them. Cards resolve based on their speed if they haven’t been interrupted. Weapons deal damage and interrupt the enemy, while defending avoids weapon hits. Upgrading offers you additional cards to add to your arsenal but is vulnerable to being interrupted.

Senshi

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

You are a senshi, a warrior-monk studying diligently at the temple under the tutelage of the current master. You and your fellow students train vigorously every day to improve your mind and body, but your master is ailing, and only one senshi will become the next master. To prove your worth, you must develop four attributes: strength, agility, wisdom, and honor. A true master must be strong in all of these, and weak in none.

Senshi is a strategy game for 2-4 players that takes only 15 minutes to play! Carefully manipulate stacks of tiles that represent your four attributes: strength, agility, wisdom, and honor. Competing in a battle of wits, players will choose one of three actions each turn: study to take stacks of tiles, train to take a single tile off any stack, and test to score tiles when the time is optimal.

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Bezier Games

(booth #721)

Werebeasts

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

You are a key player in the lucrative but dangerous business of collecting werebeasts. Armed with only your good looks and several cans of indescribably tasty werechow, you must bid for the werebeasts you need — and also for the ones you don’t in hopes of throwing your opponents off track.

Your fellow collectors in Werebeasts are also collecting certain creatures that have the most value to them. If you can hide your intentions long enough, you’ll be rewarded. If you can make it to the end of the game without getting caught, you just might win.

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Capstone Games

(booth #515)

Cathargo

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

Discover and trade valuable goods to acquire special abilities. Gain influence by trading goods. Use your influence to battle enemies, secure more seats in the Merchant’s Guild, or unlock special achievements. Multi-use cards provide players various ways to improve their status within the Merchant’s Guild. The game’s components are language-independent.

Includes the exclusive Golden Achievements Promo Tiles!

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Czech Games Edition

(booth #509)

Codenames XXL

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

Two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their CODENAMES.

In Codenames, two teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. Spymasters give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. Their teammates try to guess words of the right color while avoiding those that belong to the opposing team. And everyone wants to avoid the assassin.

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Devious Weasel Games

(booth #239)

Dȗhr: The Lesser Houses

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.comA 30 minute “take-that” style card game of shifting alliances for 4-6 people who take on the roles of masters of a Lesser House in the great city-state of Dûhr. Use your unique House ability, suspicion and scandal cards, and trigger devious events to drive your rivals from favor and secure the coveted title of Great House for yourself. But beware, there may be conspiracies in play that influence your strategy, and just because a player’s House loses favor does not mean they cannot win a game.

 

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Green Couch Games

(booth #257)

Before the Earth Explodes

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

Resources are dwindling. Overpopulation is destroying the planet. Time is running out. Elite factions are exploring the cosmos for a new home, new technology, new allies, or the resources needed to repair the plight of their damaged homeworld. With nothing left to lose and on the brink of madness, these warring Earthlings, equipped with deep-space warships with expansive cargo holds, will do whatever it takes to claim the glory for saving humanity…before the Earth explodes!

In Before The Earth Explodes, two players face off with the use of simultaneous action selection, clever tactics, and intuition to be the first player to advance to the top of the technology track, colonize seven new planets, destroy the opposing faction, or meet one of the ship victory conditions.

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Greenbrier Games

(booth #1103)

BarBEARian Battlegrounds

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.comBarBEARian Battlegrounds is a simultaneous secret-action, dice-puzzle, worker placement game for up to four players. Become one of four clans of adorable bear-warriors out to build the best neighbearhood in the forest! Don’t expect this to be a picnic: your bears aren’t the only ones fishing for glory, so be prepared to ward off attacks from your furry rivals. By gathering resources, pillaging your neighbears’ villages, and developing your home turf, the tale of your clan will become legend. Are your bears worthy enough to be every cub’s bedtime story for generations to come? It’s time to gather your clan, bear down, and hold on to your honey.

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Grey Fox Games

(booth #1021)

Multiuniversum

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.comDeep inside of CERN, the Swiss research facility, a group of scientists are hard at work on the top-secret Multiuniversum project. You are one of those scientists, hard at work on a time machine when something goes terribly wrong, opening portals to other dimensions. Multiuniversum is a 1-5 player card game where players, acting as those scientists, will use their cards in the most efficient way they can to gain Discovery Points. The game comes with custom scientist meeples!

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

iello

(booth #100/101/C401)

The Legend of the Cherry Tree that Blossoms Every Ten Years

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

Do you know the legend of the cherry tree that blossomed every ten years? The story goes that once every decade, the cherry tree would shroud itself in beautiful flowers during the first days of spring. Thousands of buds grew on its branches and stretched elegantly toward the sky before becoming magnificent flowers of inestimable quality.

When the flowers on the cherry tree begin to fall softly to the ground, you rush to collect them before they wither: The one who can gather the most flowers will have their wish granted by the cherry tree. But if you are too greedy, the cherry tree will find you unworthy of its gift, and you will lose the chance to make your dream come true…

Raids

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

In Raids, players sail from island to island to collect vikings and viking-related paraphernalia, using them fight one another for good spaces and fight monsters for points.

In more detail, the game lasts four rounds, and at the start of each round tiles are laid out at the various locations on the path that all players must follow. On a turn, a player moves to either an empty spot on the path to claim one of the tiles located there or to an occupied spot. In the latter case, the attacking player must sacrifice a viking, then the defending player must sacrifice two vikings or vacate the space; if they sac two vikings, then the attacker must remove three or leave. Eventually, someone must leave.

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Mayday Games

(booth #C400)

Cahoots

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

Welcome to the world of Cahoots, a trick-taking card game in which you are forced to conspire (be “in-cahoots”) with each of your opponents to win. Cooperate, negotiate, backstab, and bluff your way to a win in this world of noir and espionage.

You can’t trust anyone, but you’ve got to work together to score points because even though you win by yourself, you can’t win alone!

 

Poetry Slam

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.comPoetry Slam is the party game all about writing short poems so that you can score big. Come up with some cosmic lines, and you’ll find everyone snapping their fingers to the rhymes. Not only that — you gotta be fast coming up with rhymes since everyone is playing at the same time. If someone else finishes before you, they may end up getting a higher score, too. So come on, grab a pen, and start slammin’!

 

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Piecekeeper Games

(booth #361)

Gearworks

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.comSudoku meets steampunk in a 1-4 player strategy card game. Strategically position your gears to fix a mysterious clockwork machine in the corner of the workshop. Collect parts created by the machine each round by being the last player to fix its various components. As a tinkerer, you can certainly put those parts to good use and create fantastical contraptions! Get a limited tinkerer promo card with purchase at Origins.

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Resonym

(booth #959)

Visitor in Blackwood Grove

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

A spacecraft crashes in Blackwood Grove, and the kid is the only one watching. Federal agents hunt down the signal, but no one can get near the craft due to its crushing forcefield. Why can some objects pass through it, but others are repelled? Hiding in the craft, the Visitor hopes the Kid can figure out the rule before the Agents and help it escape. The agents want to dissect the Visitor and keep the ship.

VISITOR in Blackwood Grove will be available at Origins before its public release at Target in August.

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Shoot Again Games

(booth #265)

Bigfoot vs. Yeti

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.com

A battle is brewing between the undisputed king of the cryptids Bigfoot and his stone cold cousin the Yeti, who is sick of being left out in the cold playing second fiddle. In Bigfoot vs. Yeti you are an up and coming cryptozoologist mounting expeditions in the hopes of proving the existence of unknown creatures such as Bigfoot, Yeti, The Loch Ness Monster, the Jersey Devil or Chupacabra. Somehow you have landed smack dab in the middle of a feud between Bigfoot and Yeti so its time to choose your side as it will help shape the fate of your research and ultimately your success!

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Smirk & Laughter

(booth #317)

Nut So Fast

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.comThe laugh-out-loud party game of quick reflexes!

You gotta be lightning-fast, in this wildly nutty party game! Flip two cards and watch for exactly four matching nut pictures. If you see a set of four, grab the nut token with the same face, right out from under other player’s noses! But “Nut So Fast”… if a number card appears, players will need to strike the correct Nutty Pose instead. A boisterous game of quick thinking, fast reactions and nutty poses for 3-6 players!

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

Stronghold Games

(booth #501/A305)

MemoArrr!

Convention season is upon us, and game debuts are all the rage. Check out what will be showing up for the first time at Origins Game Fair! - SahmReviews.comTo play MemoArrr!, 2 to 4 players need the power of recollection and the luck of Pirates. Only then can they make their escape from the island of Captain Goldfish, their pockets lined with rubies,before the lava swallows them up! In turn order, players reveal locations that are connected via animals or landscape to the most recently revealed location. If you reveal a location without any connection, you’re out of the round. The last remaining Pirate grabs one of the valuable treasures. Then all revealed locations are turned face down before the search can start afresh! Advanced rules enable players to use the special powers of the animals, which are triggered when a connected location is revealed, making MemoArrr! exciting for the young and for experienced gamers!

Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair - SahmReviews.com

You might wish to bookmark this page as we’ll be adding more games to the list once we confirm their availability at Origins Game Fair. Make sure you bring lots of extra spending money, you won’t want to miss out and have to wait for another print run! And if you see one of us running around at Origins, feel free to stop and say “Hello!”.

13 thoughts on “Games Debuting at Origins Game Fair 2018

  1. These all look like really great games. I need to get Gearworks for our family game night!

  2. I’m not much of a gamer, but a few of these games are very tempting. Thank you for introducing them to me. I know I’ll try at least one of them.

  3. These games look incredible, and I bet my son would love to hear about this! I am so going to look into these for him!

  4. There are so many games out there, I have a hard time keeping up with it all. It’s fun to try though, isn’t it? Gearworks sounds fun!

  5. Wow! So many games. I hadn’t heard of most of them but I bet they are all awesome. I am sadly not going to the game fair! That sounds like loads of fun though!

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