For the past three days, I’ve been feelin’ it. While driving to work, while lying in bed at night; a melancholy has hung over me like an inescapable shadow. I’m done with Jeffrey CCH’s Eila and Something Shiny, although it doesn’t seem done with me. This is a difficult one to write about. In the…
The Mines of Pekari is something unexpected. It’s the debut release from Oaken Table Games and designer/publisher Jay Andersen. What’s particularly interesting is the co-design credit to Jenna Felli of Devious Weasel Games. If you’ve followed my work, you would know I’m a big fan of Felli’s previous efforts, particularly Cosmic Frog, The Mirroring of…
Lost Adventures is every bit the look of a mouse. The box is small and unassuming. The only components of quantity are mini-sized cards and run-of-the-mill black cubes. Your objective is the plainly titled “golden chalice”. Aside from the competing adventurers sitting around the table, your primary antagonist is a faceless black pawn that begins…
Dungeons & Dragons, yo. We all have an opinion about it. It’s re-asserted itself in the zeitgeist. Stranger Things kicked off a full-blown renaissance, but subsequent works such as the acclaimed film Honor Among Thieves and the universally lauded Balder’s Gate 3 have created a cultural phenomenon. But there’s reason for concern. One D&D was…
Some games fire me up. They make my hair stand on end and my heartbeat. This isn’t Lacuna. Lacuna makes everything still. It imparts a serene tone that emphasizes play above competition. And it does so in a non-traditional way. Everyone likes to point out this game comes in a tube. Yes, tubes are weird…
Attribution is a tricky thing. It shouldn’t be, really. But continually, we hear stories like a Wings of Glory nod being cut from the X-Wing rulebook late in development. In the ideal world, Star Trek: Away Missions would credit David Sanders and the Warhammer Underworlds system as this new release is clearly an influenced work.…
This is a tough moment. Like when a parent takes a knee to tell their child a disappointing revelation. Usually, it’s about facts and reality not aligning with magic and brilliance. Sometimes you’re both left grieved. This is one of those times. I’m being a little unfair. It’s not that bad. It’s just frustrating and…
Find Muck is the delightfully bizarre expansion to Jenna (formerly Jim) Felli’s hottest release – the seismic Cosmic Frog. That’s the nutty game where you control a two-mile-high god-polliwog that devours land mass and then spits it up into a trans-dimensional hidey-hole. It’s a wonderful blend of efficient resource gathering – effectively set collection –…
Look, Kasper Lapp’s Fun Facts is nominated for the prestigious 2023 Spiel Des Jahres, but it’s not going to win. That doesn’t matter. A loss doesn’t diminish this absolutely fantastic release. Similar to Repos Productions’ previous breakout hit, Just One, this title slots into a very rare category of cooperative party game. It also happens…
“At a certain point, we will build machines that are smarter than we are. And once we have machines that are smarter than we are, they will begin to improve themselves. And then we risk what the mathematician I. J. Good called an intelligence explosion – that the process could get away from us.” –…
Player Elimination 