by A.J. Coltrane

 

Title:  Munchkin

Game Type: Lightweight Card Game

Number of Players: 2-6. Best with 3-5.

Complexity of Rules:  Low

Time to Play:  45-90 minutes. Longer with 6 players who are operating at less than 100% functionality. Sometimes much longer. Believe me.

The Concept:  Munkin is a silly, spoofy, screw-your-neighbor card game. Here’s an excerpt from the publisher’s description:

This award-winning card game, designed by Steve Jackson, captures the essence of the dungeon experience… with none of that stupid roleplaying stuff. You and your friends compete to kill monsters and grab magic items. And what magic items! Don the Horny Helmet and the Boots of Butt-Kicking. Wield the Staff of Napalm… or maybe the Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment. Start by slaughtering the Potted Plant and the Drooling Slime, and work your way up to the Plutonium Dragon…

The original version of Munchkin has a D&D theme to it. Later editions include spy/(James Bondish) spoofs, superhero spoofs, sci-fi/(Star Trek) spoofs, and horror/Cthulu spoofs. In the original edition the idea is pretty straightforward:  The players take turns opening dungeon doors. Behind each door there’s a monster that could be anywhere from easy to impossible to defeat. At that point the player may choose either to fight the monster, ask other players for help fighting it, or run away. The other players may either respond to the request for help, or tell the first player something like “Sure, I’ll help, but it will cost you one of the two treasures you’d get when we win.” Alternately the other players may decide to help the monster instead!

Everyone starts at level 1. Each time a player defeats a monster they go up a level and they get phat loot, which helps the player defeat bigger nasties. The first player to level 10 wins.

Why I like it:  The screw-your-neighbor element is fun. It’s a good game that isn’t too “serious.”

Boardgamegeek page here.

Available at Gary’s Games and Hobbies in Seattle.

This Recommendation is dedicated to the guy who always threatens to help the monsters, unless we’d rather give him the treasure we would earn by defeating the monster. You know who you are.

by A.J. Coltrane

Title:  Last Night On Earth:  The Zombie Game

Game Type:  B-Movie Zombie Horror Strategy Game

Number of Players:  2-6

Complexity of Rules:  Low-Medium

Time to Play:  About 90 minutes

The Concept:  It’s a zombie B-movie!  Players play either the zombies or the heroes in one of a number of scenarios provided with the game.  

The heroes are all drawn from horror movie archetypes such as The Sheriff, The Jock, or the Farmer’s Daugther.  Both the heroes (by searching in the buildings) and the zombies get access to cards that represent items and events that mess with the other side.  (See the Chainsaw, below right, for an example of a hero card.)

The heroes’ focus is to survive the zombie horde long enough to accomplish the scenario objective, such as “Find Two Cannisters Of Vaccine”, or, “Save The Townsfolk.”

Why I Like It:   

1.  The game board is modular and randomly assembled, so each game evolves a little differently.

2.  The heroes win or lose as a group, so teamwork is needed to defeat the zombie player.

3.  Flying Frog Productions (the publisher) did a great job with the artwork and capturing the feel of being in a B-Movie Horror.  (These guys are local.  They’re based in Kirkland.)

4.  It’s a fairly lightweight game that is easy to learn and plays reasonably briskly.

5.  The rulebook is well put-together and well worded.

6.  Shotguns, Chainsaws, and Zombies — how can you go wrong?

BoardGameGeek page here.

Available at Gary’s Games in Seattle.

by A.J. Coltrane

Title:  Dominion

Game Type:  Hand management, deck building, card game. 

Number of Players:  2-4 (2-6 with expansions.)

Complexity of Rules:  Medium/Low

Time to Play:  20-30 minutes with two people who have played a few times.  Up to about 30-50 minutes with more people.

The Concept:  From the Amazon.com product page-

In Dominion, each player starts with an identical, very small deck of cards. In the center of the table is a selection of other cards the players can “buy” as they can afford them. Through their selection of cards to buy, and how they play their hands as they draw them, the players construct their deck on the fly, striving for the most efficient path to the precious victory points by game end.

That’s it in shorthand.  Longhand, there are basically three types of cards in the game:

1.  Victory cards (“Lands”).  There are three values of Land cards that can be purchased.  The higher value cards are relatively more expensive, but also more desirable because they are more “space efficient” than the cheaper lands.

2.  Kingdom (Action) Cards.  These cards allow the player to do things like draw more cards, buy more stuff, and/or mess with the other players.  (Example of an action card to the right.  Village allows the player to draw one more card and play two additional actions.)  Each game uses a cross-section of the available Kingdom cards, and the cards all behave differently.  This means that no two games will play quite the same way.

3.  Money Cards.  Much like the lands, the more desirable cards (Gold) are relatively more expensive and more efficient than the junk the players start with (Copper.)

Ultimately the point of the game is to buy more Victory Points than everyone else.  The “twist” is that everything that a player buys becomes a part of his deck for the rest of the game — the Victory point cards just get in the way of the “productive” stuff (Money and Actions.)  Play requires a balancing act between accumulating points and getting things accomplished down the road.

Why I Like It:  Dominion is fast paced, and strategic without allowing so many choices that players get “analysis paralysis.”  It’s basically a CCG (Collectible Card Game) without the ongoing expense that the CCG genre entails.  (Read:  Magic The Gathering can be an expensive game to play.)  As stated above, replayability is high because no two games are the same.  (Even if you play exactly the same set of Kingdom cards the games will still evolve differently each time.)  It’s a good “gateway” game for casual gamers, and it’s compatible with beverage consumption.

It’s the #8 rated boardgame at BoardgameGeek.  (The Intrigue expansion is #6.)  BoardgameGeek page here.

Available at Gary’s Games in Seattle and Amazon.com.  Note that there are *many* expansions.  Start with the base set, and if you love it then buy the Intrigue expansion.  (The expansion also allows for 6 players.)

by Coltrane

Title:  Lost Cities

Game Type:  Risk management card game. 

Number of Players:  2

Complexity of Rules:  Low

Time to Play:  20-30 minutes, tops.

The concept:  Both players work on their own expeditions — the object is to have the more profitable expeditions at the end of the game.  Players must use caution — initiating an expedition has a steep price, and a “money-sink”  venture can end the chances of winning.

Further explanation:  There are five colors of “suits” (yellow, blue, white, black, and red).  Each color represents a possible expedition for each player.  The suits are numbered 1-10, and there are three “investment” (multiplier) cards in each suit. 

Each player starts with 8 cards.  The first player must either play a card onto an expedition, or opt to discard a card.  Whether the player chooses to “play” or “discard”, the color of the card must match the color of the expedition.  (In other words, a “red” card must be placed onto a “red” expedition.)  The player’s turn concludes with drawing a card either from the top of the deck or from the top of one of the discard stacks.  The Twist:  Each card “played” to an expedition must be higher in number than the last one laid down.  Also, “investment” (multiplier) cards may be played at the outset of an expedition — before any numbered cards are added.  This dramatically increases the payout/loss potential of that expedition.

Why I like it:  Lost Cities is a fast, breezy game that’s portable and goes well with beverages.  It has a good amount of strategy for a game that can be learned in minutes.

BoardGameGeek link here.  More reviews are in the forums, about 2/3 of the way down the page.

Available at Gary’s Games in Seattle or at Amazon.com.

by Coltrane

Title:  Ticket to Ride – Europe

Game Type:  Set Collection – Acquire multiple cards of one color to build train routes in Europe.

Number of Players:  2-5

Complexity of Rules:  Low

Time to Play:  About an hour with 3 people, longer with more.

The concept:   The board is a map of Europe.  Each destination is connected to others by train routes of different lengths and colors.  For example, two destinations might have 4 red “tracks” in between them.  To connect them you would need to play 4 red cards from your hand, which would allow you to play your trains to claim that “track”.  The object of the game is to collect the correct cards to complete routes between selected destinations on the map, seen below (the grey routes are “wild”, any color can be played onto those).  The “strategy part” is managing your hand, the board, and the pace of the game.

Why I like it:  Ticket to Ride – Europe is a “gateway game” for non-gamers.  People who have only played old-school games like Monopoly will like it, and it’s a good introduction to the European-style games that don’t feature a “finish line.”  It’s simple enough that anyone can play but good strategy and game management still get rewarded.   Finally, the crowd doesn’t have to be super focused to play, though it does help the game go faster.

Available at Gary’s Games in Seattle and Amazon.com.  Note that there are many flavors in the Ticket to Ride series of games  — you want the just plain “Europe” version.  (Not “Europa”, not “1912”…)

The BoardGameGeek page.   Reviews are about 2/3 of the way down the page.

by Coltrane

Title:  Betrayal at House on the Hill

Game Type:  “Horror” Strategy Game

Number of Players:  3-6

Complexity of Rules:  Low-Medium

Time to Play:  About an hour

The Concept:  Players explore a haunted house.  As the players explore they trigger Events and Omens.  As more and more Omens occur it becomes increasingly likely that the endgame starts, which is called the Haunt.  The player that triggered the Haunt becomes the Traitor.  The Traitor then receives his Win Condition for that game, which is known only to him.  The Heroes are all of the other remaining players.  The Heroes learn (in secret) what they need to do to stop the Traitor.  The Traitor’s Win Condition might be something like killing all of the Heroes.  It could be something stranger like going to the cemetary and digging up an object.  There are fifty possible scenarios in all.

Why I like this game: 

1.  Exploring the haunted house is fun.  The house never has the same layout from game to game, as the players explore they draw tiles to determine what room they just walked into.

2.  Each player is playing as an Explorer.  The Explorers are all well-known horror film cliches, such as Professor Longfellow, Madame Zostra, the athletic (and stupid) Darren “Flash” Williams, and the cheerleader-type Heather Granville.  Each Explorer has his or her own unique attributes —  Speed, Might (strength), Knowledge (smarts), and Sanity.  Many Events and actions require a check (dice roll) against an attribute to determine success or failure (such as avoiding falling down broken stairs).

3.  The Event cards have some well-written “color” text.  They’re best read aloud with the proper “B-movie horror film dramatic voice.”   For example:  “FOOTSTEPS — The floorboards slowly creak.  Dust rises.  Footprints appear on the dirty floor.  And then, as they reach you, they are gone.”

4.  The game doesn’t require too much brainwork.  It’s good for groups where people are relatively more focused on being socal and eating chips.

Here’s the BoardGameGeek page.  There are other reviews accessible about 2/3 of the way down the page.

Available at Gary’s Games or Amazon.com.  (For some reason the Amazon price is $189.95, so I’m not going to link it.  It should be about a $40-45 game.)

by Coltrane

Title: Fluxx

Game Type: Chaotic Card Game

Number of Players: 2-6

Complexity of Rules: Low. Time to learn is about 5 minutes.

Time to Play: Short, usually under 20 minutes.

The Concept: Players start by Drawing one card and Playing one card. Then, the Rules and win condition (Goal) continually change throughout the course of each game.

There are four types of cards in Fluxx:

Keepers: Players can play Keepers onto the table. These are things like Television, Cookies, Milk, Dreams, Time, Love, War, and many others. Having a combination of Keepers on the table that matches the Goal is one way to win the game.

Goal cards: In the course of the game players will receive Goal cards into their hand. A player may opt to replace the Goal card currently in play with a different, new, Goal. The “old” Goal is then discarded. For example, the current Goal might be “Milk and Cookies”. A player wins if they have Milk and Cookies (Keepers) on the table at the same time that the Goal is “Milk and Cookies”. (The player might accomplish this by playing the Goal card, or he might accomplish this by playing the Keeper cards, or possibly both on the same turn.) Another Goal could be to have 10 or more cards in hand. There are many possible Goals, although most of them involve having some combination of Keepers on the table.

New Rule cards: At the start of the game there is a Basic Rules card that states that players must draw one card and play one card. Players will receive new Rule cards into their hand which they may then choose to play onto the table. For example, the New Rule card might say “Draw 3 cards”, if the player chooses to play it onto the table then everyone has to draw 3 cards going forward, at least until *that* New Rule gets replaced. There are also New Rules that limit hand size, or the change the number of allowable Keepers or Goals in play.

Action cards: These are cards like “Trade 3 cards with your neighbor” or “Mix up the Keepers and hand them back out randomly”.

As of the 2008 edition there are now four Creeper cards in the deck. Creeper cards usually prevent the player that owns them from winning. The version of Fluxx that I play is older than 2008, so I can’t speak to these cards. I *have* played Zombie Fluxx, which has Creepers. I didn’t feel like they added anything to the game.

Clear as mud? I’ve taken Fluxx to Adult Beverage Events, car camping, and a bunch of other places. It’s a fun and lightweight game that’s been pretty universally well received.

Here’s the BoardGameGeek page. Note that there are many reviews part of the way down the page under Forums -> Reviews.

And here it is on Amazon.com.

If you’re in Seattle I’d urge you to buy it at Gary’s Games.