Dale Yu: Review of The Krampus Caper (Holiday Hijinks #12)

Posted on November 5, 2026 by Dale Yu

The Krampus Caper

 

 

 

One thing we can always rely on is Santa Claus making the rounds at Christmas. But when he decides to take the year off, it’s up to some unlikely assistance to get the job done. Join forces with the Krampus as he steps up to the plate and keeps the North Pole operation running. If all goes well, nobody will be the wiser!

The Krampus Caper, title #12 in the Holiday Hijinks line, is an escape room-style game in just 18 cards! As a group, you will solve a series of puzzles to unravel a mystery. Puzzles may test your perception, wordplay, and lateral thinking. English language fluency is required.

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Dale Yu: Review of The Dreidel Dilemma (Holiday Hijinks #14)

Posted on November 4, 2026 by Dale Yu

The Dreidel Dilemma

 

  • Designers: Jasmine Hweh and Kirsten Lunde
  • Publisher: Grand Gamers Guild
  • Players: 1+
  • Age: 13+
  • Difficulty Rating: 2/3
  • Time: 60 minutes on the box; 27 min in reality
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher
  • Weblink – https://grandgamersguild.com/Games/collections/18escape

 

 

Why did they have to put you in charge of last minute Hanukkah preparations? It’s a race against the clock as you scour the neighborhood for clues that will remind you of cherished traditions, tell you what items to bring…and most importantly, let you know where the celebration is!

 

The Dreidel Dilemma, title #14 in the Holiday Hijinks line, is an escape room-style game in just 18 cards! As a group, you will solve a series of puzzles to unravel a mystery. Puzzles may test your perception, wordplay, and lateral thinking. English language fluency is required.

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Dale Yu: Review of Popcorn

Posted on November 3, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

Popcorn

  • Designer: Victor Saumont
  • Publisher: iello
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 60 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://link.amazon/B0bIHul4z
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

In Popcorn, each player manages their own movie theater and tries to show the best combination of movies in order to attract guests to their seats. The game plays out over nine rounds, and in each round you may acquire a new movie, build or upgrade your theater, and use advertising to attract new guests — then it’s showtime, with you drawing guests at random from your bag to see who has shown up. Place guests in the right seats to activate special powers; match them with the right movies, and you get a movie bonus as well, thanks to their enthusiasm for your good taste.

After watching films in your theater, guests might be spirited away to other theaters thanks to ads presented by those theater owners – but you’ll probably do the same to them, too. The bonuses from a movie get worse the longer it runs, so be sure to bring in fresh films to keep guests on the edge of your seats. After all, happy guests can help your theater win awards in town; more importantly, they can keep the “popcorn” piling up in your coffers, and whichever theater owner fills their popcorn box the best wins.

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Dale Yu: Review of Container

Posted on November 2, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

Container

  • Designers: Kevin Nesbitt, Franz-Benno Belonge, Thomas Ewert 
  • Publisher: Allplay 
  • Players: 3-5
  • Age: 14+
  • Time: 45-90 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4gaQQNd
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Every decision you make in Container shapes the market. During play, you build factories, produce containers, set prices, negotiate with your rivals, sail across the sea to trade, and (obviously) buy low, and sell high. At least that’s the goal — but can you make it happen?

The rules for Container are simple; the real challenge is understanding and timing the market. Players build machines, warehouses, and containers, then sail your containers to the island and auction them off. Be careful with your money — in the closed economy, money’s tight and your opponents are cutthroat!

At the beginning of the game, container value cards are secretly dealt to all players. Because these values aren’t shown, you’ll have to suss out what your opponents are going for throughout the game! But at final scoring, these come into play. The player with the most money wins.

 

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Dale Yu: Review of Temple Twist

Posted on October 31, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

Temple Twist

  • Designer: Bernhard Weber
  • Publisher: Kosmos
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4ynidfk
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

A cryptic notebook leads your archaeological expedition deep in the jungle to an ancient temple rumored to hold incredible artifacts. Your goal: Explore the rooms of the temple and escape before your energy runs out! But that’s easier said than done because the temple is a maze of movable walls and mysterious mechanisms! Now it’s time to work together. Using your action cards, you’ll navigate through this unique structure, move walls, and even rotate the entire temple!

In the action-packed co-operative game Temple Twist, players take turns choosing an action card from their hand to strategically manipulate the three-dimensional temple and move the explorer cube through the maze of rooms. Play through a series of increasingly difficult expeditions, or pick up some challenge cards and dive right in. This game combines strategy, co-operation, spatial reasoning, and hands-on action with a first-of-its-kind 3D-maze-gameboard that changes as you play.

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Heroscape: RenegadeCon October 2026 Report (Part 4)

Posted on October 30, 2026 by Mark Jackson

My original plan was to do one big giant Heroscapepalooza post… but life (and my personal sanity) conspired to make this a four-part mini-series.

  • If you’re interested in the February 2027 wave (Valda’s Vow) and the weird but cool mix of fairies and monsters and dwarves riding wild boars, read Part One.
  • If you loved the release of G.I. Joe (and COBRA) for Heroscape, there’s more coming. You should be reading Part Two for more information about March 2027.
  • Finally, if your ‘Scape tastes run more towards remastered sets (thank you thank you thank you to Renegade for remastering the Ashigaru!), scientists, and the mummified & yet still living remains of a giant, Part Three is right up your alley. Bleakwoode’s Bane is coming in May!

So, that leaves us with my recap of the Designer’s Roundtable. Let’s get to it!

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