Dave Rathbun – Page 7 – Sundered Realm

Game Review: Lanterns

Lanterns: The Harvest Festival box cover art — Lanterns: The Harvest Festival

Title: Lanterns The Harvest Festival
Players: 2-4
Play Time: 30′
Designer: Christopher Chung
Publisher: Foxtrot / Renegade Game Studios

Overview
This is one of many games I purchased after watching in played on TableTop on YouTube. It supports 2-4 players, the rules can be explained in less than five minutes, and it plays in less than 30. As such it fits nicely into a time slot where you are still waiting for part of your gaming group to arrive or you want something lighter so you can have a conversation while you’re playing. (Tsuro also falls into this “quick play” category for me.)

Lanterns is one of many games coming to us via the Kickstarter process. I love the fact that independent game designers can get their products in front of the marketplace via this route! Not every game gets funded, and of those that do, not every game is a success. This one, however, I like.

It was recognized as a Mensa Select game for 2015. Continue reading “Game Review: Lanterns”

Dragon Slayer Dice Game Review

I am a sucker for dragons. I have stuffed dragons, pewter dragons, glass dragons, dragon posters, a dragon “piggy” bank, lots of framed dragon art, … I even have a stained glass dragon hanging up in my home office. Oh, and a dragon cake pan. No, actually I have two different dragon cake pans. So if there is something with a dragon on it or related to it in some way, I’m probably interested.

Any wonder why I bought this game? 🙂
Continue reading “Dragon Slayer Dice Game Review”

Elder Sign Character Stands

Yes, it’s another 3D printer game accessory topic. When will the madness end? Actually madness is a very real concern in Elder Sign as your investigator could potentially go insane. Or be devoured by the Ancient One. But at least with this cool game accessory you can go mad in style… Continue reading

Forbidden Island 3D Printed Tile Holders

Forbidden Island is a fantastic and fun game. It’s easy to teach and is great for kids and adults alike. The basic premise is that the players are all treasure hunters, looking for the four elemental temples in order to retrieve the magical idols. What makes the game exciting is that the island was built to protect those idols and it starts to sink under your feet as soon as you land. It’s a race against time and flood waters to make it to the end!

I’ll have a more detailed review at some point, but this post is going to be more about game “bling” than game play.

As mentioned previously, I picked up a MakerBot 3D printer a while back. It sat idle on my desk until recently. (Or in the case of Forbidden Island it sat “idol” 😆 ) Today I want to show you a really cool accessory that I was able to print for this game. Continue reading “Forbidden Island 3D Printed Tile Holders”

Acquiring Out of Print Games

The best part about a hobby is the fun and joy that it can bring. The worst part is when you are late to the party and missed out on something. That’s when you learn the meaning of horrible acronyms like HTF (Hard To Find) or OOP (Out Of Print). That has been the case for me with Merlin’s Company, the expansion for Shadows Over Camelot. This is the story of my quest. Continue reading “Acquiring Out of Print Games”

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Beyond Chess Back Story

A few weeks ago I posted the rules for a chess variant called Beyond Chess. I thought I would write more about how I came to find the game and how it helped me learn something about the game that I didn’t know before.

I found this game on eBay. I have no idea what I was looking for, because I’m not normally going out of my way to look for chess variations. The auction didn’t attract a lot of attention, and I ended up making the purchase for $15 which included free shipping. (I bought the game in March, 2016, so my memory is a bit fuzzy.) The game was listed as new but unfortunately was missing a pawn. I contacted the seller, and they looked all over but were not able to find the missing piece. That was disappointing. But rather than give up, I started a quest. Continue reading “Beyond Chess Back Story”

Shadows Over Camelot Play Session

We had some friends over this weekend. They had heard me talking about Shadows Over Camelot before, both from playing and painting activities, so they requested that we break it out. There were five players, two of whom were brand new to the game and two others who had only played it once. If you are not familiar with the game, it’s a semi-cooperative game with a potential traitor element. The knights of the round table are working to protect Camelot (most of them 😉 ) and complete quests. You win when there are 12 swords (obtained by completing or failing quests) on the round table and there are more white swords than black swords. Continue reading “Shadows Over Camelot Play Session”

Wear and Tear

I think this says it all:

The image links to the web-comic Semi Co-op and it’s well worth clicking into. The owners of the comic have a wonderful sense of humor (and cats!) and lots of stories to tell about their own board game obsession.

Game Day Lunch: Ticket To Ride + Zombie Fluxx

Our game day at work started with the classic Ticket To Ride. Part of what I am enjoying about these sessions is getting to introduce my co-workers to new games or even new styles of game-play like cooperative games. Ticket To Ride is not new. It has been out for over ten years now. It is not particularly challenging to learn. Board Game Geek members assign it a weight of 1.87 out of 5.0. But it is a well-crafted game with a beautiful board and simple rules, so we started out with that. Continue reading

Custom Box Inserts Are Awesome

One of the first things I notice when opening a new game is how is the box insert designed. Is it cardboard? Plastic? Are there dedicated spots for tokens and game bits so they don’t go all over the place? How well does the game fit back into the box after everything has been punched? Does the insert handle sleeved cards? How well is the game box designed (or not) to handle future expansions?

The good news is that I enjoy creating new box inserts. It’s yet another way I get to enjoy my hobby. In this post I’m going to show the results of one effort but not go into a lot of details as to the “how” things were done. I’ll have more posts on that later. For now, I just want to show off. 😎 Continue reading “Custom Box Inserts Are Awesome”

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