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One (More) Night
I used to hate traitor games. I used to go out of my way to avoid being a traitor to the point where, in one game, I did the sacrilegious – I actually stopped playing as soon as the cards were dealt because I was the traitor and I knew how terrible I would be at it. It was a terrible decision, and one that I got glared at for the rest of the evening over, but being the traitor just did not work for me. I found it stressful to the point of unpleasantness. So I surprised myself when, after playing a few rounds of One Night, I really started thoroughly enjoying it.
Looking At TKG Arena: The Elemental Kings
I grew up with card games. When I look back on my childhood, I have great memories of playing Rummy and ‘Bloody Knuckles’ with one of my cousins in my grandmother’s Sea Point flat, or of another cousin teaching us some variation of Snap which we’d play together for hours on end. My high school lunch breaks were spent holed up in a classroom with friends playing nail-biting sagas of Presidents which should really be documented in history books or something. My poker habits were less impressive, though one story does involve my beating a contestant in the annual Poker World Championship (pure luck, I tell you!), but what this boils down to is that cards were the gateway drug into the addiction that is board gaming for me. So, when I was asked to review a card game, I was more than happy to oblige.
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A Study in Dystopia
It is the immensity, I believe. The hugeness of things below. The darkness of dreams.
– Neil Gaiman
So starts a wonderful, mind-bending journey into a realm shared by HP Lovecraft and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in equal measure, and threaded together in a way that only Neil Gaiman could manage in a short story called A Study in Emerald. And when Mr. Geekess found out that the Gaiman short story was being turned into a board game, we were quick to kick-start it, even before our board game addiction had properly kicked in.
Small (and brutal) World
We had been to every single shop that we could think of in Durban. We’d spent more money on board games than we had intended on a trip that neither of us could really afford but had decided to come on anyway. And we were still searching for one more game. It wasn’t like it was an obscure one – we probably could have bought it online without a problem, but we were in Durban, a city centre, and for Pete’s sake, somewhere had to have it! On the last day of our trip, we made one final attempt. It wasn’t even to a shop that we held out high hopes for – we’d been to other Exclusive Books branches with absolutely no luck, but we wanted one last try. And sure enough, as I wandered into the aisle of board games, I whooped loudly enough to make other readers glare as I caught a glimpse of the colourful box. “Baby,” I half-shouted, half-whispered, not wanting to irritate anyone else unnecessarily. “They’ve got Small World!”
Cure the World!
“Can you save humanity?” the box asks in bold letters as a group of four stand side by side, poised for action. When playing Pandemic, most often the answer is “No,” but it’s quickly followed by, “That’s not going to stop me from trying though!” Which is both unsurprising and perfectly appropriate!
Man or Munchkin
Role playing games – you either love them or hate them, there is no in-between. They can lead to fun-filled fantasy adventures with your best mates, or endless arguments about minuscule details that really don’t matter in the larger scheme of things. They can be friendship makers or breakers. Some people take them so seriously that it’s really easy to take the mickey out of them, and that is where Munchkin comes into play.
King for a Day
Ever wonder who’d win in a fight between Godzilla and King Kong? I know that they made a movie about it and all, but really, who has the time to see silly movies anyway… especially when you can act out the action yourself!
Cast your mind back to the good ol’ days, when horror movies were less about the special effects and more about the story-line; when Godzilla and King Kong ruled the silver screen and everyone marveled at how awful the acting was? Feels just like yesterday, doesn’t it? Well I can’t cast my mind back that far – since I wasn’t actually born in that golden era – but the monsters from those classic movies were Richard Garfield’s inspiration for King of Tokyo.
Traitors Hide In The Shadows (over Camelot)
Mr. Geekess and I differ in our opinions of many things – music, reading material, whether or not we should acquire a third kitten – but there are a good many things that we do agree on too! And one of those things is our love for Arthurian legends. They stem from different places – mine from reading Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series as a child, his from watching Excalibur – but when Mr. Geekess returned home from a business trip last year with a copy of Shadows Over Camelot, the origins of our excitement didn’t really matter. What mattered was that we were both bursting at the seams with excitement at playing it!
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Dare to Escape?
The sounds of the rain forest surround you and your group of friends as you clutch boldly to your fistful of dice, nails digging into your palms waiting to hear that rumbling voice. Every breathe feels loud and obnoxious. Beads of sweat begin to form. And then it begins. “ESCAPE.” With that, a scrambling of dice commences as you and your friends race to beat the clock, rolling as quickly as you can and exploring this hidden temple to find the exit and escape alive.