Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas! ‘Tis the season folks, time for all of us to
go out and buy gifts for our loved ones, lovingly wrap them in thin (and sorely
overpriced), colorful paper, and then, on Christmas day, watch them rip it off
in glee and expectation! It is a season
of thoughtful gifts for our family, friends, and even co-workers. For those of us in the boardgaming hobby, it
is extra interesting because we are often looked to by our friends/family who
don’t game and asked for gift ideas.
What I have compiled here is a comprehensive gift guide
that you should in no way use to choose for your friends or family. As a matter of fact, this is a slightly
ridiculous list of games that I would mostly never get for these people. What I’ve done is taken some of my friends
and family and taken something about each of them and turned that idea into a
game purchase. Most of these are not
games I would ever buy them but I thought it would be a fun list to put out
before Christmas. I hope you enjoy the
list and let me know what you hope to get for Christmas!
Em – Paperback (Designer: Tim Fowers, Publisher:
Self-Published)
My wife is a writer.
She has one book published and is hoping to have another done sometime
next year. When she finishes that I’m
sure she’ll start working on another project.
For her I will buy (again, not really) the game Paperback. It is a deck-builder about a character who is
writing novels for a certain amount of money per word. It is one of the best deck-builders I’ve ever
played and fits her personality wonderfully!
Fiona – Operation: Kindergarten (Designer: Harry-Pekka
Kuusela, Publisher: LudiCreations)
My 3-year-old is a beautiful and terrifying hurricane of
improbabilities! Thus, my game for her
is Operation: Kindergarten. In this game
the guardians (teachers) of the playground must protect and bring the children
back to their classrooms. All the while
chaos ensues! In this situation, Fiona
is the chaos and I’m just trying to bring her home safely!
Adam – Thrash ‘n Roll (Designer: Aleksander
Biela/Krzysztof Matusik, Publisher: Game Fabrica)
My brother Adam!
He is one of the most talented dudes I know. One of his talents is music. He is literally able to pick up any instrument
and learn it if he wants. Because of
this I needed to find a good music game.
Enter Thrash ‘n Roll! This is a
game where you control a metal band in their efforts to become the best. I may have also went with this because I want
to create a metal band with Adam!
Christina – Nyet! (Designer: Stefan Dorra, Publisher:
IELLO)
Christina is one of my fabulous sisters-in-law and
fantastic wife to my brother Adam. She
is also a lover of card games and maybe the most competitive player in our
entire family! She is a fearsome (and
very good!) card player who’d give anyone a run for their money. For her I’ve chosen the trick-taking card
game, Nyet! This is a beautifully done
card game re-released by the company IELLO and they did a great job. I think this game would be scary in
Christina’s hands!
Amanda – VivaJava: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game
(Designer: T.C. Petty, III, Publisher: Dice Hate Me/Greater Than Games)
Ah my beautiful sister, Amanda. She is maybe the only person I know who
rivals my absolute love of the “sweet nectar of the gods” better known as
coffee. Thus, my game choice for her was
easy. VivaJava: The Coffee Game: TheDice Game. This is a game about rolling
dice and making coffee. I mean, could
there have been a better game choice for her?
I think not!
Jonathan – NHL Power Play Team-Building Card Game
(Designer: Matt Hyra, Publisher: Cryptozoic Entertainment)
Amanda’s husband Jonathan was another easy game choice
for me. He is a big fan of hockey and is
even able to play in league where they live.
Thus, for Jonathan I’ve chosen the deck-building game, NHL Power PlayTeam-Building Card Game. This is built
on their Cerberus engine that many of their other card games are based on. This isn’t a game I’ve played but I think it
fits Jonathan just great!
Molly – Brew Crafters (Designer: Ben Rosset, Publisher:
Dice Hate Me/Greater Than Games)
Molly is my very cool sister-in-law and my wife’s
youngest sister. She is a super-talented
bartender and beer brewer. She and her
husband, Dustin, are very into brewing and the craft beer scene. Because of this I chose the game BrewCrafters for her. This is an awesome
Euro-style game that puts players into the part of a craft brewery building up
their brand. Molly and Dustin are
working on setting up a brewpub in the future so I think this game works
perfectly!
Dustin – Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn (Designer: Isaac
Vega, Publisher: Plaid Hat Games)
Dustin is Molly’s husband. Very cool dude! He and Molly quite enjoy playing the famous
Collectible Card Game, Magic: The Gathering.
Because of his enjoyment of this game I decided to go with a similar
(but better in my humble opinion!) game called Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn. This is an Expandable Card Game which uses
beautiful, custom dice as the mana used for spells and allies. It is an awesome game that Dustin would love!
Sean – Beardsmith (Designer: Benjamin Hale, Publisher:
HaleFire Games)
My buddy Sean is one of our primary gaming buddies. He is able to make it over often to eat,
hang, and play games. He also has a
beautiful beard! Because of this I’ve
gone with a game that technically hasn’t been made yet but will go back up on
Kickstarter in the near future. That
game is Beardsmith. It finds the players
taking the part of dwarven beard stylists.
Can you guess why I chose this for him?
Matty – The Bloody Inn (Designer: Nicolas Robert,
Publisher: Pearl Games/Asmodee)
My buddy Matty is an artist and he has a somewhat
whimsical and at the same time, macabre, style to his work. I have always been a fan. This makes me think of my choice of game for
him, The Bloody Inn. This is a macabre
game (in both theme and art) where you are an innkeeper who is trying to kill
his/her customers and take their money.
This reminds me of Matt every time I hear more about it.
Aimee – The Gallerist (Designer: Vital Lacerda,
Publisher: Eagle-Gryphon Games)
Matt’s wife Aimee is also an artist. Just like her husband, Aimee is insanely
talented. So for her I’ve chosen the
beautiful game all about running an art gallery, The Gallerist. This is a heavy Euro-style game about buying
and selling works of art, some of which I like to think were created by our
talented friend!
Tara – Prêt-à-Porter (Designer: Ignacy Trzewiczek,
Publisher: Portal Games)
One of my best buddies, Tara, was a groomsmaid in my
wedding. I have always considered her
one of the best dressed and most fashion-forward people I’ve ever known! She is always put together and looks
great! Thus, the game I’ve chosen for
her is Prêt-à-Porter. This is a game
about the fashion industry and is actually designed my Ignacy Trzewiczek, one
of my very favorite game designers. I
think it fits her perfectly!
Joe – 1st & Goal (Designer: Stephen Glenn,
Publisher: R&R Games)
Joe is a friend that I met through Tara. He and Tara are now married and are some of
the best parents I know! On top of this
he and Tara are the biggest Notre Dame Football fans that I’ve ever known! Because of this I’ve chosen 1st& Goal for Joe. This is a dice-rolling
game where you take a football team and face off against another person with
your personal dice. Go Irish?
Dave – Zombicide (Designer: Raphaël Guiton/Jean-Baptiste
Lullien/Nicolas Raoult, Publisher: Cool Mini Or Not)
Ah my buddy Dave.
He may be crazy. He’s definitely
ADD! And he is obsessed with old-school,
Italian zombie movies. Because of this
my game choice for him was obvious. I
went with Zombicide of course! This is a
fun, variable, dice-chucking, zombie-killing game that is just a fun time. All of that is basically Dave in a nutshell!
Lainey – The Big Book of Madness (Designer: Maxime
Rambourg, Publisher: IELLO)
Lainey is another friend (Dave being the other on this
list) that I get the honor of working with on a regular basis. Lainey is quite possibly the biggest Harry
Potter fan I’ve ever known! Because of
this I’ve chosen The Big Book of Madness for Lainey. This game is basically Harry Potter: The
Game. It follows a group of young
magicians who open a book which is a prison for a bunch of monsters and they
then need to get them back into the book!
See? Harry Potter: The Game!
Luke – Star Wars: Imperial Assault (Designer: Justin
Kemppainen/Corey Konieczka/Jonathan Ying, Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games)
Luke is one of my oldest and best buddies. He is also one of the biggest Star Wars fans
out there. He has lovingly taught his
family the adoration of the Star Wars universe.
Thus, his game choice was obvious.
I went with the fantastic “dungeon” crawl, Star Wars: Imperial Assault. This fits Luke’s obsession perfectly!
Becks – Letter Tycoon (Designer: Brad Brooks, Publisher:
Breaking Games)
I met Becks through my wife, Em. She is a book reviewer and thus reads around
200+ books a year. Thus, words are her
business and she loves them! Because of
this I chose the game Letter Tycoon for her.
It is a game where you actually buy “shares” in letters and thus get
money when others use them. This seemed
to fit her wonderfully!
Chris – Flock (Designer: David J. Mortimer, Publisher:
Alderac Entertainment Group)
I also met Chris through Em. He and Becks are married and live in
England. He is a biologist who is also a
hobby bird-watcher. Because of this
hobby I went with the game Flock for Chris.
This is a game where you control a flock of birds and their habits. Makes sense right?
Ruthie – Patchwork (Designer: Uwe Rosenberg, Publisher:
Mayfair Games/Lookout Games)
Ruthie is a good friend of Em. I met her through my wife. Ruthie is a very cool chica who likes to sew
and knit and is very good at it. Because
of this I went with one of our favorite games, Patchwork. In this game you are creating a quilt with
some great mechanics. Does it seem to
fit with my friend Ruthie? I think so!
Josh – Deck Building: The Deck Building Game (Designer:
Christopher Badell, Publisher: Dice Hate Me/Greater Than Games)
My buddy Josh is Ruthie’s husband. I met both of them through Em. They are fantastic peeps! Josh is a very talented guitarist and long-time gamer and in his free
time does some incredible wood-working.
I actually really hope to have him do a game table for us one day! Because of this hobby I chose the slightly
ridiculous game, Deck Building: The Deck Building Game. In this game you build a deck. I’m pretty sure Josh would rock this as much as he would rock building an actual deck!
Well, there you go, my slightly different way of doing a
holiday shopping guide. Again, please
don’t take this list too seriously (although some of these are great) as I was
just doing it for fun. So what games do
you want Santa to bring you for Christmas?
Just let me know in the comments.
Also, post in those comments if you have any questions for me. Until next time, game on!
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