Happy Friday, everyone. I hope you are able to stay warm, wherever you might be right now. We've had some brutally cold days here in northern PA, coupled with winds (and whiteout conditions at times). I've said it before, and I'll probably say it many times again, but winter can go away any time now. Unfortunately, this weekend winter won't be going away as we are currently forecasted to get 10+ inches of snow (plus terrible winds).
Cold, windy, miserable weather definitely keeps me inside, but at least when I'm inside, I have plenty of board games to keep me busy! The month of December was a great month of game playing with my son; he and I had a solid three weeks off for the holiday break, and we spent a lot of that time playing games. In fact, here's the visual for our December game playing:
As you can see, he's still crazy about playing Magic. However, we also played several other games inlcuding Skulls of Sedlec, Dungeons, Dice, & Danger, and I even taught him Jaipur (in part to get my "J" game for the year 2025)!
New games for me in the month of December included:
Villainopolis: This is a game that I playtested via Button Shy's playtest group online. I'm looking forward to the physical release of the game! Villainopolis shares some similarities with the other -opolis games in Button Shy's catalog, but there are plenty of neat twists here to keep the formula fresh.
Rolling Realms: I've only played this solo, but so far it's a fun solo challenge! Rolling Realms was born out of the Covid-19 pandemic. Designer Jamey Stegmeier made the game as a way to keep in touch with people via online platforms like Zoom. After the pandemic ended, he eventually published the game. In Rolling Realms, each of the realms is based on a game from his publishing company's catalog, but there are also many small expansions based on other popular games (Lost Ruins of Arnak, Terraforming Mars, etc.).
Unmatched Adventures: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: This is the latest in the line of cooperative Unmatched games. I was never a big TMNT fan growing up, but I can report that this game is a lot of fun! You get to play as one of the turtles and take on one of two main bad guys (each with their own special board and rules), plus a variety of henchmen.
Wriggle Roulette: A little game by publisher Oink, I grabbed this small box on a whim, thinking it'd be a fun, light holiday game to play with the family. It's a super simple push-you-luck game with nice components, but honestly, I think the game is too light even for a family-weight party game!
Endeavor: Deep Sea: A birthday present from my youngest brother, Endeavor: Deep Sea is a game that I've wanted to play for quite some time. It's an awesome cooperative game, and one that I hope to try to teach my son so that I can keep playing it!
Friday: A classic solo game, Friday is a game that had been sitting on my shelf for quite some time. I finally had a chance to learn the rules and play the game (most of the solo games I play are quick; Friday definitely is on the longer end of solo stuff for me, about 45-60 mins).
All things considered, December was a fitting conclusion to a year full of great board gaming. In fact, for the year, here are some stats for my in-person board gaming:
Total plays: 947
Total different games: 153
Days where I played at least one game: 364
New-to-me games: 85
I kind of doubt I'll be able to beat most of those numbers in 2026 (and that's okay). Here's to a new year of fun games!
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