Diggy Diggy Hole (Splendor)

You turn the jewels in your hand, checking the quality carefully.  True, you may be some minor noble who doesn't know a Princess cut from a Radiant, but that's beside the point.  These look good, and you have always been able to find contacts to make them seem better.  Your job isn't to make, it's to sell the splendor of these jewels, and sell you shall...



BACKGROUND:  Splendor is a tile collection game for 2 to 4 players, and created by Marc André with art by Pascal Quidault, and published by Space Cowboys.  Each player attempts to collect gems to gather more ways to collect gems and gather Nobles to your side

GAMEPLAY:  3 rows of 4 development cards are laid face-up.  Each turn, players may either gather 2 gem tokens of 1 kind, 3 gem tokens of all different kinds, 1 "wild" gold token and reserve a card in their hand so only they may play it, or spend their gems back to the center in order to buy a development card, according to its cost on the bottom left.  Players may only have 10 tokens at any time, returning any excess back to the center.



DEVELOPMENT:  Development cards count as 1 free gem in their top right each turn, and unlike the tokens, players are not limited to how many they can hold.  Development cards are also the only way to collect Nobles.  Nobles can only be collected at the end of a turn, when a player has the number of developments indicated on the Nobles card.

WINNING:  Nobles and various Development cards have Prestige Points in the top left.  The first player to reach 15 Prestige wins.

CONCLUSION:  Splendor is, should I say it?  Splendid.  There's a lot to like about this game.  It's easy enough that I can realistically teach all but the youngest of players how to play, but a depth most simpler games fail to reach.  The complaints I have are minor at best, laughably silly at worst.  First, games tend to be way too short.  It feels like you've just bought your first 2nd level Development, and the game is over.  The other is the amount of players.  Obviously, re-balancing this game would be hard for more than 4 players, but I would really like to make it so that might whole game night group of 5-8 players can play this together.  With the release of the Cities of Splendor expansion, that may end up becoming more of a reality sometime down the line.  Until then, as I said, this game is a Splendor to behold.

High Noon (Bang!)

The call of the west has brought you to this here town.  Layin' low, tryin' to make ends meet.  The Sheriff is who knows where, while the deputy has been keepin' an eye on ya.  Carefully, you glance over to your buddy, who nods.  You look the deputy deep in the eyes, makin' sure you know that he knows you ain't goin' for your gun. BANG!  The deputy drops.  BANG!  You look down and see blood on your shirt.  looking back up, you see the smoking gun that killed you.  Quite simply, you were betrayed.



BACKGROUND:  Bang! is a hidden role card game created by Emiliano Sciarra & Alessandro Pierangelini, and published by dV Giochi for 4-7 players.  Each person takes a role of either Sheriff, Deputy, Outlaw, or Renegade, and try to make the faction the last one standing.

GAMEPLAY:  The Sheriff is revealed, but all other players keep their role hidden.  Each player also takes a character card with an ability and Bullets equal to the number on their card.  The Bullets determine the health of the player, as well as the maximum size of the their hand.  Players start by drawing two cards, playing any number of cards, and finally discarding down to the number of Bullets left.



BORDERS:  There are 2 types of cards, Blue-bordered cards, which are played in front, and Brown-bordered, which are played and discarded.  In order to hit an opponent, a player generally plays a Bang card, and the number on the gun determines the 'distance', or how far away opponents are.  To start, each opponent to a players left and right is 1 space away, with the number increasing both by the number of player between the two.

WINNING:  When you lose your last Bullet, you are eliminated from the game, unless a card says otherwise.  When you are eliminated from the game, show your role card and discard all the cards you have in hand and in play.  The Sheriff and Deputy's win when all Outlaws and the Renegade are eliminated.  The Outlaws win when the Sheriff and Deputies are all eliminated.  The Renegade only wins when every other role card is eliminated.

CONCLUSION:  Bang is a more aggressive version of Resistance or Secret Hitler.  Instead of playing your opponents slowly and politicking between turns, your actions moreso than most games show your plans, and you play the field quickly.  Obviously, for mechanics sake, players shouldn't know who's who, but that is going to turn off a fair amount of people.  However, if you're looking for a Wild West style of Mafia, or just have really wanted to try to shoot someone in Werewolf, mosey on down to your local game store and pick it up.

Explosive Declaration (Le Boomb!)

5...Your palms are sweating as the die gets closer to you.
4...You breathe deep as the player before you rolls nothing.
3...You shake as the die was cast, and now you have the bomb before you.
2...Nothing.  You wait in silence, praying the bomb is moved.
1...YES!  The bomb is passed, you are safe, for now.
LE BOOMB!  You were so lucky...



BACKGROUND: Le Boomb is a dice game for 2+ players, and was created by H. Jean Vanaise & Pete Fenlon, and published by Mayfair Games.  In short, the game is hot potato with a die and a bomb.



GAMEPLAY:  Each turn, a player rolls the die and passes it.  If a player rolls the lit fuse, nothing happens. When a player rolls the bomb, they are passed it.  Then, once any player rolls the explosion, the player holding the bomb is out.

WINNING:  The game ends once all but 1 player is eliminated, the last player standing wins.

CONCLUSION:  If you've ever played Dreidal or LCR, you'll know exactly what kind of game you're looking at.  For those that haven't, this game can be summed up in 3 words: Short and simple.  There's no strategy, no mechanical complexity, just you and the luck of the die.  Again, I'm gonna recommend this to those people who are unwilling to play most board games, or maybe children who have a short attention span, but that's about it.  There's plenty of really good games that you can pass on something this simple.

D&D PvP (Dungeon Mayhem)

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a brand new episode of DUNGEON MAYHEM!  Who will stand on top, will it be the strong, ferocious Barbarian?  Will the mighty Paladin shine on top?  Does magic find its purchase here with the Wizard, or shadows with the Rogue?  Find out in Dungeon Mayhem!  



BACKGROUND: Dungeon Mayhem is a card game designer by Jordan Comar, Roscoe Wetlaufer, and Kyle Ferrin.  It was published by Wizards of the Coast (Yeah, that one) in 2018.  Players take the role of 1 of 4 different D&D themed characters and fight each other until the last one is standing.

GAMEPLAY:  Each players starts with a health tracker at 10, and a hand of 3 and their dungeon deck and reference card.  Each turn, a player plays 1 card from their hand.  Depending on the symbols in the top left, players do different effects.  Crossed swords mean that player can attack another player with a card, whereas lightning bolts allow for more cards played.  Each deck has its own individual effects, such as attacking everybody, or ignoring effects for a turn.



WINNING:  Each time a player's life hits 0, they are eliminated.  The winner is the last player standing.

CONCLUSION: Dungeon Mayhem is a simple game to understand that can be a quick game to enjoy.  Games generally don't last longer than 20 minutes, even when you're starting to learn the game.  Due to the simplicity of the game, you can also pull it out and just play a couple rounds with a group anywhere.  It might be a bit too luck driven if you're looking for a game primary on strategy, but there's enough actual strategy to still enjoy the game for most people.  This is one dungeon you should definitely crawl.