Stuck at Home? What's the big deal?
/Random – We’re on the third week of Shelter in place here in Michigan. As a graphic designer I’m used to working from home occasionally. What I’m not used to is trying to keep the kids on a schedule that feels remotely normal while trying to work from home. Luckily my wife is also working from home so between the two of us we can juggle things.
We’ve been able to play games as a family and I’ve learned to play the Pokemon Card game with my boys. I’m really happy with how much fun the game is and while there’s not a game store open to pick up cards we have been able to find deals on ebay to build up some pretty fun decks.
Prior to the lockdown I ordered a decent neoprene mat for us to play on that is much nicer than the paper mat that comes with pre-constructed decks. Add in some fancy acrylic tokens and dice we picked up a RIW prior to everything closing and we look almost professional.
The game has really clicked with my youngest. He loves math and being able to figure out the attacks and how to survive a little longer has been very cool to see develop. His reading skills are also improving as he’s forced to read the cards if he doesn’t want me or his brother to see what he’s holding.
We’ve also had time to play some board games that we never quite had time/patience to try out. Both boys are big fans of Super Dungeon Explore (we’re playing the first edition of the game currently). They like how simple the game is and don’t seem to mind how long the game can drag on. I might open up Forgotten King and read through the second edition rules to see if they play any faster. Digging through the boxes I have on the shelves came across a huge box of Impact Miniatures which are chibi versions of the characters from the 1980’s Dungeon & Dragons cartoon. Both boys really like that show, so I might come up with character cards so they can use them in Super Dungeon. I had hoped that when Legends released it would have rules that would allow character creation to make that process easier, but Ninja DIvision/Soda Pop squandered the cash their hugely successful Kickstarter generated so it’s unlikely that will ever see the light of day. Which is a real shame because their properties are very cool.
For easter the boys received Shadows in the Forest. This is a cute little game that is played in the dark. One player is the seeker with a lantern and the rest are the sprites that hide in the shadows. It’s not a highly tactical game but something that reminds me of flashlight tag. I’m sure this will be packed up for any vacations we can take once life gets back to “normal.”
Rail Raiders Infinite is a space cowboy themed game by Soda Pop/Ninja Division. This is one of the Kickstarters that managed to deliver before their financial woes were made public. It’s a very fun game with fairly simple mechanics. Essentially you roll poker dice to try and clear a train car of lawbots and/or other players, once the car is clear you can loot it to earn fabulous cash and prizes. There is a deck of event cards that grows or shrinks based on the number of players which acts as a timer for the game. Whoever has the most cash when the last card is flipped wins. I have to say the boys quickly caught on to how poker hands work and also learned that they could just shot each other to steal the other players loot. If you can find this game it’s very much worth picking up.
