With the show right around the corner and folks finalizing their schedules (or just starting to think about that), I figured it might be good to try to collect a list of games that are particularly friendly for drop-in or last-minute players, either because they are generics-only, almost always have space, or because they're designed for players to pop in and out.

Here are some I've found going through the event list again, but I'm sure there are others I missed, so if you have a personal favorite (or are running one), reply and let other attendees know why the game is great.

• Gen Con Games Library & Pick-up Play Room
  
• BGG Hot Games Room
  
• The Tower: Meatgrinder!
  
• Games on Demand
  
• Rio Grande Game Room
  
• Iron Arena for Warmachine & Hordes
  
• Pastimes (Magic: The Gathering): 2HG Draft on Demand, Booster Draft on Demand, Win-a-Box on Demand
  
• Goodman Games: Carnival of the Damned, Enter the Dagon II: Way of the Dagon, Reliquary of the Ancient Ones, Warlords of the Purple Planet
  
• Battle tech Pods
  
• Czech Games Edition - Demo
  
• HEX Sealed Gauntlet
  

Exiles is very easy to pop in and out of.

Some of our Events are sold out, but plenty of them have a few open spots left. And our setup is flexible enough to squeeze in an extra player or two ;).

The game itself plays quickly, and is very pop-in friendly.

It doesn't matter if a brand new character randomly shows up on the board, game turns are really quick (about 90 seconds), and the rules can be picked up in a few turns of play.

Plus, every one of our events is actually a scenario featuring two or three individual games. So even if you show up particularly late, you can still get a whole game in start to finish.

We are running a narrative campaign that unfolds across three back to back events replayed every day of the con, but the game is a heck of a lot of fun even if you step into the middle of the story. So if you can only show up to Ticking Around Part 3: Deep Ticking, come on down and have fun! 

I guarantee you'll not only have plenty of fun, but also make the game more enjoyable for folks that have been following the whole story!

Well, I'll beat the Nascrag boys to it and say NASCRAG!
They always have a fun, fun game, they ALWAYS have room and it is seriously a case you get what you put into it.  HAVE FUN WITH IT!

The Tower: Meatgrinder!
Huzzah!

You can generally get into one of the D&D 5E games, even though they're mostly sold out. Baldman typically has more GMs than expected, so tables will open up and be available for generics. Also, people don't show, just like anything else. However, D&D is in the Hyatt this year, so may be more difficult to find!

BGG Hot Games Room:

http://gencon.eventdb.us/event.php?GameCode=ZED16102882

A direct link for the BGG Hot Games Room full schedule.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC