GAMA Expo 2025: Tricky Kids, Beasts, 365 Adventures: The Dungeon, and Ham Helsing: Monster Hunter | BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin

▪️ In September 2021, Fireside Games announced that it would adapt Ham Helsing — a three-book graphic novel series from writer/artist Rich Moyer that features a monster-fighting pig — for tabletop play, with a “Kickstarter for the project in 2022”.

That crowdfunding project did not happen, and more than three years later Ham Helsing: Monster Hunter is now scheduled to debut at Gen Con 2025, with a retail release in September 2025. Here’s an overview of this 1-4 player game from Justin De Witt:

In this co-operative, deck-crafting adventure board game, you play as Ham, Ronin, Malcom, and Lobos as they attempt to save the world! Each character has a special ability and their own deck with custom cards that fit their style of play.

On your turn, use the symbols on the cards in your hand to travel to new locations (some of which allow special actions), to defeat minions before they overrun a location (each of which has a limit), and to use Knuckles (the “fearless” mercenary bear) to scare off minions. When battling minions, you need to match their color(s) with the cards you play. Some minions will bite back, so keep an eye on your health as well.

For each minion defeated, you gain skills and money, and with enough skill points, you’ll get free attacks. Spend your cash to buy attack cards and special cards at the Rat Market. Attack cards let you do more damage in battle, move, heal, and more. Special cards allow for combos, shared bonuses, and damage boosters. These upgrade cards are transparent, so if a symbol can fit on your card, you can slip that upgrade into the sleeve of a starting card to improve it for the rest of the game.

When you feel strong enough, go after the villain. The game includes four villains, each with a different starting health, special ability, and power-ups; villains power up when a location on the board is lost.

After each round, the villain moves one location closer to Mud Canyon. If you haven’t brought the villain’s health to 0 by the end of the last player’s turn at Mud Canyon, your bacon is burnt.

▪️ In an earlier GAMA Expo 2025 round-up, I mentioned that Pandasaurus Games plans to release a new edition of Wolfgang Kramer‘s Hacienda in 2025 — and I missed out on including a fourth Kramer title in that post because I didn’t realize that he was co-designer on 2003’s Gulo Gulo along with Jürgen P. Grunau and Hans Raggan.

I bring that up because Pandasaurus also plans to release a new edition of Gulo Gulo in 2025, with Daryl Andrews now being listed as a co-designer in this game. (Andrews is also a co-designer on two other Kramer titles being refreshed for the current market: Donald Duck in Happy Camper, which was first released as Goldland, and Leylines, which is based on Auf Achse.)

▪️ Other titles coming from Pandasaurus Games in 2025 are:

• Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon, a 1-4 player development game from Fabio Lopiano, Nestore Mangone, and Sorry We Are French that’s due out in August and that you can read about in Lopiano’s designer diary.

• KADO, a gift-giving card game for 2-5 players from Antoine Bauza and Lumberjacks Studio that I previewed in October 2024 and that is due out in the U.S. in September.

• Paper World, a drafting card game for 2-4 players from Alexandre Aguilar, Benoit Turpin, and Lumberjacks Studio that I also previewed in October 2024 and that is due out in September.

• 365 Adventures: The Dungeon 2026, a solitaire game from Lee Ju-Hwa and SWAF that combines a calendar and an adventure game. Here’s an overview of the setting and gameplay:

Whispers of a dark force deep within the dungeon, the master of the undead, spread fear throughout the villagers. That’s why Mira, armed with her magic, her bow, and an unshakeable will, sets out into the dungeon. She knows that only by conquering these horrors can she bring peace to her homeland.

Day after day, guide Mira through the dungeon, exploring each floor and confronting the shackled undead and unexpected surprises. Keep track of your monthly score, upgrade your gear with magical items, and unlock new rules as you progress.

You need only five minutes maximum each day to play: Move your hero to the current day, roll your dice up to three times, then choose a monster of the week to fight. At the end of the month, note down your score and move on to the next month, where a new atmosphere text and a new rule await you.

I’ll note that copies of the 2025 edition of 365 Adventures: The Dungeon will be among the door prizes that people can take home at BGG.Spring thanks to convention sponsorship by SWAF.

One of the pages from the 2025 dungeon

• Tricky Kids, a trick-taking game from Danielle Reynolds and Steven Ungaro in which you set the values of the seven cards in your hand each round, with those values adding up to 21.

• Beasts, a co-operative card game from Clarence Simpson.