All the Games on Our Shelves

  We've had an extended time with extended family, involving four generations staying at our house, so obviously a lot of gaming has taken place.  We started with Mind the Gap , which some of us northern California folks REALLY like and thought would be a particularly appropriate game with which to start the family visit -- a generation-based trivia game.  Not everyone was as much of a fan, but that's OK, as we certainly have plenty of other games from which to choose!  Below is a picture of family members who were gathered together; the group ranges in age from 0 to 85. Next game is one that is a time-honored tradition in our family: Rook .  EVERYONE likes Rook ! Qwirkle is a favorite of Al and Jo, our Michigan guests, and do they ever know how to maximize their play!! Then a card game called Dutch that our middle son learned in Thailand, ironically enough. The next one, Skull King , is a favorite of David's.  This game is very similar to the games Up an...

  Mysterium is a game we had played quite a while ago, having borrowed it from my brother.  It's one that intrigued us, and so it eventually ended up on our shelves as well.  We've had it for a while now, and David and the boys played it earlier in the semester, but I was too busy to join in.  I finally got my chance and am also finally getting a chance to post.  I'm not sure how best to describe this game.  In some sense it's a bit like a séance (though I know describing it that way will put some people off).  It feels to me like a combination of Clue , Dixit , and Deception .  It's a cooperative game in which players are trying to solve a murder.  It's the ghost of the murder victim who is giving clues to the other players, but he can only do so through images.  The images are pictured on cards, and I find the artwork to be gorgeous, evocative, and dreamlike. The ghost cannot speak, so the players trying to solve his murder have to do...

 As the pandemic rages on across our world, we've been taking opportunities here and there to use technology to connect with family across the globe.  For us this generally involves engaging in gaming together.  This past week a family member in Michigan found a way to modify the game Mind Trap to draw us together.  We found this to be a very good choice for distanced game play.  And, since it is a game that is also on our shelves, it is being counted here and is game 111.  I don't have a lot of pictures to share with this one, but I've photographed a few cards in order to give the idea of the questions and challenged involved in this game.  Here are the components for standard game play.  Teams take turns pulling one card from the box.  I always appreciate some clever artistry in the design, and I particularly like the look of the score pad for this one.  Of course, we didn't use it in our modified multi-team global pla...

 YEA!!  After a month of finishing out the semester and then traveling for two weeks, I'm back to gaming again!  I've also got two of my three boys home - we have Jacob here between travels to Australia and Germany, and Caleb is back from Michigan and not yet out at the coast.  The upshot of this is that I get to play MAGIC again, and that makes me happy!!  We played Planechase, which is not a format I had yet posted about here, and so here you have it. Before moving on into that, though, I'm going to be a little bit negative.  I am a gamer - duh, see blog.  I spend time in gaming stores here at home.  My house is filled with hundreds, perhaps thousands of games.  I game whenever I get a chance. SO  .  .  .  on my recent trip to Edinburgh, I thought I'd check out the gaming scene.  I didn't just want to do the touristy thing; I wanted to get local and hang out with "my kind" of people.  I was curious about th...