Dragonkeepers

• Designer: Michael Menzel
• Publisher: Kosmos
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 30-40 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Thames&Kosmos

Anyone can herd sheep, but have you ever herded dragons? In Dragonkeepers, you compete against each other as magicians. Two stacks of cards form the “Magic Book”, which indicates which and how many dragons can be herded. With each card taken, this information changes, but luckily you can cast spells and return your cards to the Magic Book to change it in your favor and score! But which of your dragons can you spare to cast spells?

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Wok and Roll

• Designer: Daryl Chow
• Publisher: Origame
• Players: 1-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 30-45 minutes
• Played with copy provided by publisher

In this modern Asian dice game, you and your fellow players are developing menus to become the best zi char (Singaporean for Chinese restaurant) eatery in town. Every turn, the active player rolls all 6 dice, determining which to keep. Once locked in, all the other players have the chance to use only the ingredients on the 4 white dice to cook their dishes. There are lots of ways to score points, including keeping an eye out for special abilities as well as chaining combos to maximize your points. But above all, don’t waste your ingredients! Wok and Roll comes with two menus, Simple and Expert, so there’s lots of different ways to play.

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Pocket Farm

• Designer: Eric Hong
• Publisher: Mandoo Games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Played with Review copy provided by publisher

In Pocket Farm, Players become farmers. For 12 months you should wish for a good harvest, control the weather and prepare the baskets to harvest the most fruits.

The game runs for 12 rounds.

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Christmas Tree

• Designer: Zong-Ger
• Publisher: Good Game
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 6+
• Time: 15 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Taiwan Boardgame Design

Christmas Tree is a set collection card game where you cleverly collect different types of Christmas items and trade them for victory points (VP) at the right time. The more items of the same type you have, the more VP you score, but you might risk losing them if someone trades cards of the same type before you do!

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The Turkey Trial

• Designer: Jonathan Chaffer
• Publisher: Grand Gamers Guild
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 13+
• Time: ~60 minutes on the box; 22 minutes in reality
• Played with review copy provided by publisher
• Weblink – https://landing.grandgamersguild.com/holiday-hijinks/

The Holiday Hijinks series are a set of eight (so far) pocket sized escape room/puzzles.  I first encountered the series a few years ago, and we were quite impressed with the challenges provided by this small packet of 18 cards.  The idea here is an “Escape room” of sorts- with the goal being to get though the deck to the last card.

To play any of these games, simply unwrap the little sachet of cards, and you’ll find the instructions on the inside surface of the packet.  Keep all the cards facedown until instructed otherwise.  You will need a smartphone or a computer to play the game as well – there is a link on the instructions to a web based app. Continue reading →