The late seventies saw the introduction of two games that were not only popular, but which each launched an entirely new genre.  That’s pretty rare and the fact that both debuted in the same year is remarkable.  The decade also laid the seeds for modern boardgaming, with the first publication from one of the hobby’s greatest designers and the introduction of its most celebrated award.
   Larry

Dungeons & Dragons; Creation of Roleplaying Games (1974)
The story behind D&D is fairly well known.  Dave Arneson, a young miniatures wargame fan, began running a fantasy-based campaign in which the participants played individual characters.  He based the combat on a game called Chainmail, which was co-created by Gary Gygax, but Arneson added many other elements, including the critical concept of character improvement through experience.  After running this successfully for a couple of years, Arneson showed the game to Gygax and the two decided to publish it.  Gygax wrote up the rules and added some modifications of his own.  The result was Dungeons & Dragons, which, despite its roughness, sold far better than either of its co-designers imagined it would.  It really was a new kind of gaming.  Roleplaying could be found in earlier recreational pastimes, but the type of play acting that players could indulge in with D&D was brand new and proved to be immensely popular.  Just as appealing to players was the identification with a fictional character of your own devising whose abilities would grow over time.  Many competing RPG systems arose following the release of D&D and, within a decade, it was a thriving branch of gaming that wound up having immense influence (both positive and negative) on society.

I was introduced to D&D in 1980 by a co-worker, soon after the first hardbound rulebooks of the game (referred to as Advanced D&D) were released.  I fell for it hard and loved being both a player and a referee.  I continued roleplaying with various systems for the next 20 years and it was a huge part of my life for most of that time.  Even though I eventually switched to Eurogaming as my principal recreational activity, some of my best gaming memories came from my roleplaying days.  The sort of gaming I participated in required a huge investment in time, but when it worked, it was incredibly enjoyable and satisfying.  I’m very happy I discovered it when I did.
   Larry Continue reading →

Uno Ultimate – MARVEL edition

• Designer: uncredited
• Publisher: Mattel
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 7+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Mattel USA

Uno is one of the staples of American childhood gaming.  It’s the sort of game you can find in just about every home, a deck will always be found at the lake house or summer camp cabin, or in the recesses of the basement toy chest.  Just about everyone knows the rules (or thinks they know the rules) – though apparently you can’t stack +4 and +2 cards – https://twitter.com/realUNOgame/status/1314309660589998080  and https://twitter.com/realUNOgame/status/1124720366130204672

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We close out this retrospective week at the OG with a piece on our favorite expansions from the past couple years.  Some of us go hard for expansions, while others turn up their noses at the concept, but love ‘em or hate ‘em, expansions seem to be the lifeblood of the industry in many ways and they only seem to be proliferating.  Today we share the expansions that we think are really worth your time!  Let us know in the comments what board game expansions really worked well for you in 2020 and 2021.

Talia: My favorite expansion from 2020-2021 is definitely Through the Ages: New Leaders and Wonders.  As a huge fan of the base game, I was skeptical that an expansion could fit, but Vlaada and the CGE team knocked it out the park with this brilliant approach to expanding Through the Ages.  I’ve played a handful of times in person and dozens, if not hundreds, of times on the mobile app.  The expansion has become an essential part of exploring this game and makes for a fascinating setup as you consider the range of card combinations in any given game.  I have also really enjoyed the 7 Wonders Duel: Agora expansion, which adds a new winning condition that makes an already tense two-player game even more tense and fascinating, and Root: Underworld, which adds even more enthralling faction combinations to a system with seemingly endless variability.  Lastly, as a growing fan of roll-and-write games, I’ve greatly enjoyed the many new Railroad Ink and Cartographers expansions (including the epic boards and eldritch expansion for Railroad Ink, and the various map packs for Cartographers).  I’ve already played so much Railroad Ink (59 times) and Cartographers (22 times), and expect to play both a lot more in the year to come.

Mark Jackson: I am a sucker for expansions… and the last couple of years has had a number of really solid additions to these, well, additions to games I love.

• According to the ‘Geek, there have been 5 expansion boxes for the Unmatched game system in the last two years – and while I love all of them (some of which we playtested), I’d strongly recommend Cobble & Fog and Little Red Riding Hood vs. Beowulf as the two strongest boxes. (Yes, I know – Vol. 2 was released right before Christmas 2021… but I haven’t had as much time with it as the others.)
• In the same vein, FFG has finally managed to get the Marvel Champions LCG pipeline moving – and the sheer number of expansion sets (heroes, villains, campaign boxes) is staggering. Since both of my boys love the MCU and the comics, we keep acquiring them. My suggestion: save getting villain expansions like Kang or The Wrecking Crew until later – the hero & campaign boxes are the best bang for your buck.
• Undaunted: Reinforcements not only adds new troops and scenarios to the excellent Undaunted games, it also adds the ability to play 2 on 2 AND a robust solo AI for all the currently published scenarios. ‘Nuff said.
• If you liked It’s a Wonderful World, there’s a plethora of expansions available – I wrote about them earlier this year here on the OG.
• Other expansions that deserve a mention:
  • Tobago: Volcano
  • Era: Medieval Age – Rivers & Roads Expansion
  • Clank!: Adventuring Party
  • 7 Wonders Duel: Agora
  • The Dragon & Flagon: The Brew that is True

Vaccine

• Designer: Donghwa Kim
• Publisher: A.ger Games
• Players: 2-6
• Age: 7+
• Time: ~10-15 minutes
• Played with Review copy provided by A.ger Games

Vaccine is a small format tile game where players act as researchers trying to develop a vaccine.  To do this, they must collect virus samples while avoiding contamination.  The bulk of the game is found in the 30 wooden vaccine tiles.  They are randomly sorted into a 6×5 rectangle on the table.  There are 6 sample tiles (white in color to be easily seen) – one of each type of virus.  These are shuffled face down and each player gets one in secret.  The color seen on this tile is that player’s goal for the game – they will try to collect as many of these as possible, preferably without the other players knowing what their goal is.

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The end-of-year retrospective week continues at the OG with a further look back at 2020.  It’s often hard to try all of the games from a given year by the time that year ends, and it’s always valuable to have more time to explore new releases before deciding on your favorites.  So today we dig back into 2020, having had more time to explore that year’s games, and we share our favorite 2020 releases.  With another year under our belt, we’re even more confident that these are the gems from 2020 that we still love to play.  What are your favorite 2020 games?

Talia: My game of the year for 2020 is definitely The Fox in the Forest Duet.  I just adore the two-player cooperative trick-taking fun of this 30-minute gem.  Working together in this card game to collect all of the gems, while avoiding getting lost in the forest and using all of the various card abilities, is always a blast.  My runner up is Lost Ruins of Arnak, which is perhaps the first deck-builder that I actually enjoy, in large part because it gives me Caylus vibes as a tight, competitive worker placement game where the deck-building is much more of a means than an end.  Two great games that I’ll be happy to play hopefully for years to come!

Liga: I would like to mention three titles, published in Italy in 2021, which for me were absolutely deserving and of great value and that I played a lot: My City, Lost Ruins of Arnak, and Nidavellir.