Day 1 Start time: 2PM ET – 8/4/2022
Head of Studio Chris Gerber gears up for an on-location “In-Flight Short” with FFG stream host Josh Massey.
FFG is demoing “seven games” at Gen Con 2022, alongside of the Twilight Imperium 25th anniversary tournament. “Today is Marvel day,” Massey says. Gerber notes that his favorite mutants are Colossus and Gambit: as well as Magneto.
“We did a trilogy of three boxes….and a little Spider-Man drop there, but now we’re getting into the mutants, and we’re going to have a few similar campaigns dealing with them.” – Gerber
Gerber reiterates that Colossus, Kitty Pryde, Phoenix, and Cyclops have all been announced. He also announced another hero: “the next one coming” is Wolverine. That’s the hero pack after Phoenix.
“Wolverine has the amazing healing factor involved, so he actually damages himself to fuel his attack powers and obviously then can heal those back up. So he’s very unique. We’ll talk about him in the next couple of months.” – Gerber
“We’re not quite ready to divulge the next big actual campaign, but we make those scenario packs…so the next one is later this year called Mojo Mania, and all the shenanigans he’s up to. The heroes get captured…and thrown into a gauntlet of crazy television tropes, because of the way it works you get three scenarios that can link together to get a mini campaign. You face off against different genres of television, so fantasy, crime drama all that stuff down to sitcom.” – Gerber
Gerber announces “Marvel DAGGER,” a board game. It means “defense alliance for global and galactic emergency response.” A logo is coming on social media “soon.” [Edit: see above]
The duo then showed off a video of the things they discussed on the stream (which were mostly still images of the two above announcements).
Summation of the Marvel Champions news today:
- Wolverine is the next hero pack after Phoenix
- Mojo Mania is a three-scenario standalone pack due out “this year”
Caleb joins Josh in-person to talk about Mutant Genesis (images are as high-res as possible captured directly from the stream)
“We work so far ahead I have to try and remember what are the innovations. We want every box to bring something new to the game. This box in particular…we didn’t want to shoot too high…this box we wanted it to be a good entry point. Right away when I ran the first demo, “when are the X-Men coming,” we want to strike a balance to make sure it’s beginner friendly, but give people something new for people who have been with us since 2019.” – Caleb
“Each of these roles [in the X-Men box story rules] have specific cards associated with them, but it also grants you limited access to those spheres…those custom cards allow you to do things that a commander would allow you to do. We envisioned the X-Men different from the Avengers and different from the Guardians…they live together. They’re constantly drilling and using their powers together. That’s where the roles came from and where the player cards came from too.” – Caleb
“Storm is a very capable leader.” – Caleb
“You earn your campaign card for that scenario, and you also shuffle in something nasty…so this is Nimrod. Whenever you defeat one of these it’s a balance, you get something good and something bad. When you defeat this [a side scheme]…now you got ally Magneto, you flip it over, you get to control Magneto.” – Caleb
“I talked about the X-Men being very team oriented, so they have an ally focus instead of chump blocking with allies you’re encouraged to keep them in play. So one of the things I like the most about is the villains…I grew up in the ’90s so Magneto has his own crew. So we have the keyword teamwork…these sets are so fun to design, so I think it’s the only new keyword: if you’re already engaged with Fabian Cortez here, and you reveal Amelia, the moment she engages you they’re both going to activate. I might have made a treachery that triggers their when defeated ability.” – Caleb
Stream ended at 2:27PM ET
MJ Newman has shared some behind the scenes pictures of what FFG’s presence at Gen Con looks like in person
Day 2 Start time: 2PM ET – 8/5/2022
Head of Studio Chris Gerber is back with FFG host Josh Massey on day 2 of Gen Con to present the second In-Flight short.
Today is the one year anniversary of Descent’s new edition. “We could not be more pleased with the fan reception,” says Gerber.
FFG is teasing the “Act 2” cover art on the back of their shirts at Gen Con [see the image below]. It’ll pick up the story “right where Act 1 leaves off at the cliffhanger.”
Meanwhile Ghosts of Greyhaven is still a side story, though it’s not part of the main structure/storyline of the game. “We’re still working on that product,” Gerber says, “while prioritizing Act 2.” It’s still intended to be a side story to be played at any time.
Now they’ve shifted gears to Arkham Horror LCG for the Scarlet Keys expansion
“It’s pretty much the largest campaign we’ve ever made for Arkham” – Gerber
“That’s not all the Arkham Horror we’re working on. We’re working on multiple campaigns for the future.” – Gerber
Gerber then shows a map of the Scarlet Keys campaign. The concept of the foldable map will be in the final product, but the above image isn’t the exact final production version.
“This is a map of the entire…everywhere you can go in your campaign. So the cool thing about this, it starts out from a place where there’s a set beginning to the campaign, but opens up to a non-linear story. You couldn’t really have it in the [old release model].
It has all the locations you can go…some hidden locations some secret things that might be unlocked during the campaign. Also the green…locations are the side story locations, you can actually take your side stories that we’ve made like…Blob, and incorporate them as possible locations within this campaign, expanding this campaign as you see fit.” – Gerber
A “Monte Carlo product” is teased, and is an extra location on the map [MJ shared the third image in the above gallery herself].
Maxine “MJ” Newman then joins Josh to talk about Arkham Horror
Several cards are shown in a short video that rolled before MJ joined the stream. That video is roughly 13:00 into the stream.
“[Monte Carlo] All I can say is if you’re always wanted to participate, plan and execute a daring heist in Arkham, you might have your chance soon.” – MJ
“Kymani is one of the new investigators…they’re absolutely new to the IP…which is really exciting. Kymani is especially cool to me because their whole backstory involves…they are a security consultant, that’s their day job. By night they’re actually the thief that’s stealing…they’re reclaiming these artifacts from museums and collectors and bringing them back to the people who originally own them.” – MJ
“[On the pronunciation] I say [Kai]-Mani” – MJ
“You’ll be using this card almost every turn when you put this into play [grappling hook]. What’s really cool though is there’s some new cards coming that interact with tools. At least one has already been spoiled.” – MJ
“Kymani’s weakness is interesting…it’s another new character we’re adding to the IP. What you can’t see from this card is that he’s an ICCP agent that’s on to Kymani’s antics. He’s also a member of the Red Cotorie” – MJ
“We can’t say exactly…when it’s coming out [Scarlet Keys] but it is coming soon. We’ll have playthroughs.” – Josh
No news was provided on other products, including the next revised cycle.
Stream ended at 2:23PM ET
Day 3 Start time: 2PM ET – 8/6/2022
This stream is billed as “a conversation about Cosmic Encounter’s newest expansion: Cosmic Odyssey” with Jack Reda. This was said in the YouTube chat: “There won’t be any big news today, but tune in tomorrow as we close out the In-Flight Shorts for the week!”
FFG host Josh Massey intros the stream, noting that they’re at the “final table” of the Twilight Imperium tournament, with the top eight.
FFG then showed a very short video for Cosmic Encounters as a bumper, similar to the other two days of the “In-Flight Short” format. When the video ended, Jack Reda joined Josh to talk about the game.
“I was inmiddle school in Detroit in the ’80s when I was introduced to the…real board game Dune. We loved it, we played it every week. My friend said I had another game from the same designs, that’s Cosmic Encounters. We never played Dune again with that group. I mean I’ve played it again and I’m designing expansions for Dune years later, but Cosmic Encounters captured my imagination in a way I never thought possible…each expansion made the game and the universe more exciting. It inspired me to come up with my own designs for a game. I came up with designs when I was in high school.” – Reda
“The original designers asked me to join their company…and one of those things was a seventh edition for Fantasy Flight’s Cosmic Encounter…and they said unleash yourself…I’m frankly astounding that Fantasy Flight packed as much into the box as they did.” – Reda
Josh says that Reda mentioned something exciting about Cosmic Encounters off-camera and it’s the “best part of the expansion.” Reda replies that it’s a “multiverse” of Cosmic Encounter, including original references and Easter eggs. It “expands everything that Fantasy Flight has put into Cosmic Encounter over the years.” Elements of the expansion can combine or standalone for “more space stations, hazards, and an even bigger reward deck.” Reda states: “There’s new stuff as well…like the moons…those are very vibrant and robust variants, but there’s stuff that’s never been part of Cosmic Encounter before.”
“Probably one of the biggest strengths of the campaign…is a lot of people are like you have all these expansions and variants. It’s modular by design…but the campaign prescribes exactly what you’re going to use, and it parcels it out, and it’s challenging but not too challenging. It tells you ‘we’re going to use moons,’ and in the campaign guide it tells you…it handholds and walks you through the process.” – Reda
Reda is asked for a closing thought:
“We’re forward thinking, I always hear sometime an expansion comes out…there couldn’t possibly be anything else that comes out after this. We’re always thinking about the future, we don’t know if there will be an expansion after seven…but there’s one thing that hasn’t been re-imagined for Fantasy Flight, and if we ever get the opportunity to bring it out, it’ll blow people’s minds. The gauntlet is out Fantasy Flight, I challenge you to let us do it. But this expansion alone, 42 new aliens…it’s so wildly different. It would take you 100 lifetimes to see the full spectrum. We started a thing called the bucket list of virtually impossible things you can do in Cosmic…and we check them off…it’s happening, we’re trying to build a community on Discord. We want people to keep homebrewing. We’re in an age now where it’s so easy to implement those crazy new ideas and take them for a test drive.” – Reda
“We’ll catch you at the same time tomorrow for our closing of Gen Con.” – Josh
Stream ended at 2:20PM ET
Day 4 Start time: 2PM ET – 8/7/2022
In the chat before the stream: “Hello everyone, and thanks for joining us today! We’re super excited to wrap up Gen Con with you all, as well as introduce you to the winner of the Twilight Imperium 25th Anniversary Tournament!”
FFG was given a “best of Gen Con” award from Gaming Trend for Twilight Inscription, which is coming out in “September.”
A quick video was shown off of Twilight Inscription “while the team transitions over to the Twilight Imperium 25th chat.” Bethany Wehby was the champion for the Twilight Imperium 25th anniversary tournament. Bethany talked about her experience with the Twilight Imperium tournament, then head of studio Chris Gerber came on to “say goodbye” to Gen Con 2022. According to the chat, the winner of the Twilight Imperium was “received a trophy with a large War Sun on top, along with other participation prizes for each day!”
Gerber has one more “fun thing they’re excited to share.”
The Rebel vs. Empire Star Wars deckbuilding game. The stream then abruptly ended immediately, without any elaboration beyond an image. Caleb Grace (LOTR LCG/Marvel LCG) is front and center on the box.
Stream ended at 2:17PM ET
Hall of Heroes 