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Staff Picks

Finished your Pandemic Legacy campaign and unsure where to go now? Are you looking for something other than Catan for the millionth time for family board game night? Come check out our staff's favorite recommendations!

 

Josh: Spelljammer Adventures in Space

Ahoy, fellow travelers of the cosmic currents! Behold, the wondrous tome of Spelljammer: Adventures in Space! A treasure trove of cosmic wonders and boundless adventures awaits within the pages of this celestial compendium. As a Plasmoid adventurer hailing from the depths of Wildspace (Yep! That is me in the photo right there!), let me regale you with tales of the Astral Plane unlike any you've heard before!

Picture, if you will, the vast expanse of the Astral Plane, shimmering with the light of distant stars and pulsing with the raw energy of the cosmos. This is our playground, where the laws of nature bend and twist at the whim of arcane magic. With the aid of our trusty spelljammers, we traverse the endless oceans of Wildspace, charting courses through the Astral Sea and leaping between worlds scattered across the multiverse.

Within this splendid set, discover all that a daring Dungeon Master needs to chart their course through the starlit expanse of Wildspace and the Astral Sea. From captivating adventures to campaign guides that delve into the deepest mysteries of the cosmos, every tool is at your disposal to craft legendary tales of cosmic conquest and exploration. And for those intrepid souls who seek to join our ranks, unearth new options and secrets to fashion characters who are truly at home amidst the wonders of the Spelljammer setting. So gather your crew, stow your gear, and prepare to embark on the adventure of a lifetime among the stars. The Spelljammer awaits, beckoning you to journey beyond the boundaries of reality and into the boundless unknown! Slurp!

Nick: Maquis

Maquis is a single player worker placement game taking place in WW2 during the nazi occupation of France. During the course of 15 days you will be using a small group of resistance members to paint graffiti, blow up bridges, and avoid the Milice.


In a turn you will take turns with the Milice placing your resistance members across the board. Be careful to leave ways for your members to get back to a safe house; avoiding Milice, handing over fake ID, and in drastic situations violence, or they will be arrested! Then you can gather resources to push your movement forward!


In those 15 days you have 2 missions to complete. If the missions are incomplete or morale gets too low, you will lose the game.
Coming with an assortment of missions and ways to ease off or ampe up the difficulty; you can make the enemy as brutal or forgiving as you could like. 

So move out, fight the good fight! Viva la revolution!

J.D: Kamigami

Thunder rumbles, the ocean surges, the world falls to chaos. This can only mean one thing. Kamigami. The gods are battling. Will you come out victorious or will you get sealed away?
 
In Kamigami you will take on the role of gods and heroes from different mythologies and folklore. Everyone from Zeus Greek “King of the Gods” or Hel Norse “God of Death”, with expansions Amaterasu Japanese “God of the Rising Sun” or Dian Cecht “The Healer” (and many more) as you fight to seal each other's powers or by draining your opponent's energy and destroying their temple. This can be done as a free for all fight allowing for minimum of two to a max of six individuals or as a team battle with two teams of three.
 
What really makes Kamigami shine is that it builds on the existing deck building game mechanic by making you plan your hand out and hope that luck is in your favour when you draw cards. In order to chain cards you look at the top left corner of the card and you will see three symbols. These symbols are only on the warrior cards and tell you how they chain. The biggest symbol is the one that represents the warrior while the other two smaller ones show which ones can chain into it. This makes Kamigami a great game for anyone 12 and up looking at getting a card game that can play 2-6 players with light to medium complexity level.

 

Dale: Rhino Hero: Super Battle

Rhino Hero is a challenging game full of ups and downs. You're building up for success but could come crashing down like a ton of bricks. It's a riveting game that will floor you with how simple you think it will be but there are lots of ways to climb one story at a time. This is a stacking game that has building up a tower and do battle with your opponents to see which one will emerge victorious! Fighting your opponents not enough for you? Rhino Hero has something that makes every game better. Monkies! Climb the tower, fight your way to the top and let's see if you can be the ultimate superhero!

Nathan: Marvel United

Are you ready to fight scary villains like Magneto, Green Goblin, and OMG they're so adorable.

Marvel United is a cooperative game for up to 1 to 4 players, a 1 vs All game for 2 to 5 players and even a team vs team game for 2 to 6 players with certain expansion.  It's a game with a very simple rule set, essentially draw a card play a card style gameplay, but it requires a lot of teamwork to take down the villain.  

Everyone picks a hero (or anti-hero), each hero has their own unique deck and super cute miniature.  You then choose a villain who also has their own unique deck and cute miniature too.  You then take turns playing cards with symbols or unique abilities on them to save civilians, defeat thugs, or remove threats.  The cool thing is you will have access to the symbols of the previous played card so working together is very important.  Once 2 of those have been completed you can now fight the villain.  The ends ends when you defeat the villain, or you lose if the villain finishes their plan, you run out of cards, or the villain deck runs out.

I love this game because it's very easy to learn and teach, but yet there's a depth to it that feel very thematic to everyone playing as heroes taking down a villain. There are a ton of expansions too, that will add a unique mechanic to the game, like the Thor expansion that adds a hidden traitor to the game.  It's definitely the villains that make this game great though.  Each one has such a unique play style that you'll never be able to go into a fight using similar strategies.  It also has two different solo modes too, although controlling multiples characters isn't too difficult in this one.

Cassi: Race to the Raft

A fun family game that gives everyone a chance to pitch in and help out. The premise of the game is pretty straight forward: You have an island and has caught fire. Now you must save your cats by racing to the raft! It sounds easy enough but with cats it's never that easy. Every cat has its own color that it likes so the cats will not walk on tiles that do not match its color. This adds an interesting mechanic and can turn it into a bit of a furball situation. This is a puzzle game that you can really sink your claws into and leave you purring in content!

Nicole: Dandelions

Looking for a travel sized game that doesn't take long to play? This is a family friendly game that looks simple to play but has a depth to it. Play as a dandelion seed seeking a garden to plant in. That's it. Roll dice to pre-determine how many spaces you will move through the game, move your pieces and try to claim as many gardens as you can! You score points for how many dice you have in a garden AND for how many pips on the dice of yours there are. A great game for unwinding after a long day, for parents to play with the kids, or for just wanting to chill on a weekend with. Like a seed on the wind, let your mind drift!

Eric: Mind MGMT

Hiding somewhere here is the recruiter. Everyone is suseptable to their influence. Left to their own devices they will take control. Place your pieces, make your moves, find the recruiter before it's to late.

Mind MGMT is a hidden movement game with an espionage theme. Your team will move around the board asking about features that you think the recruiter has visted. Both sides will have tricks and allies they can use. Read the rulebook carefully, they have hidden puzzles for you to find to unlock more content. Any time you finish a game the losing team will get to open a new box that works like a mini expansion and will help them in future games. I have barely scratched the surface of the unlockable content in my game but I love how complexity is slowly layered in. Now they have added an app to turn the game into a completely coop or even solo experience.

Having a consistent group isn't required but it is helpful so everyone can learn the nuances togeather. Understanding the basics doesn't take very long so the tutorial game is an easy one to teach. Remember to look for hidden messages finding them is half the fun. Take as many notes as the game allows. Sit back and enjoy.

 

John S: Cthulhu: Death May Die

The definition of insanity is rolling the same dice over and over again expecting a different result.