The holiday season is here and many people are trying to brainstorm creative gift ideas for loved ones of all ages. Inflation and supply chain issues have persisted for many industries, and hobby gaming has been no exception.
That’s one of the trends that gaming expert James Lowder has noticed, but he says there’s also some more positive ones to include - like the rise of role playing games into the mainstream, making his recommendations all the more important.
TOP PICK
Publisher: Coyote & Crow LLC; Designer: Connor Alexander
2–6 players; ages 14 and up
"This was a good one this year in part because it also touches upon a trend, and I think one of the most positive things that’s happening in hobby gaming right now, especially role playing games. And that’s the inclusion and foregrounding of diverse creative voices," says Lowder.
"[Coyote & Crow is] a science/fantasy role playing game designed entirely by Native American and First Nation creators. And the setting game is an alternate future where North America was never colonized," he explains.
The game is a fully realized original secondary world that in itself has already supported a supplemental adventure book, a standalone dice game, and an original novel. "In an of itself it's a great game and a fascinating world. It's well worth people's time to explore it," says Lowder.
Family Games
Publisher: Flatout/Alderac; Designer: Randy Flynn
1–4 players; ages 10 and up
Cascadia is a puzzly tile-laying and token-drafting game where you are trying to build the most balanced harmonious ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest. Each player takes turns building out their own terrain and populating it with wildlife.
"It was the winner of the Spiel des Jahres (the prestigious German Game of the Year award) this year. Plays for kids as young as 10 and it's got enough weight to it and enough complexity to it that adults will find it really entertaining as well," says Lowder.
Publisher: NorthStar; Designer: Ben Goldman
2–5 players; ages 11 and up
A cooperative, deductive puzzle game set in Wonderland, each player serves as newly appointed royal gardeners for the Queen of Hearts. The goal is to arrange the palace grounds in a way that will make the Queen happy and allow you to stay ahead of her axe and keep your head.
"It utilizes a limited communication mechanic," notes Lowder. "All of the players have 'whim' cards, [where the] Queen has let each one of the gardeners know that this is some secret whim she has in mind for how the garden has to be laid out. The players can't communicate that to other players though ... and so how the players cooperate and lay the tiles, that's the way in which players can communicate what the whims they are trying to achieve are."
Hobby Games
Publisher: Hasbro; Designers: Doug Hopkins, Stephen Baker
2–5 players; ages 14 and up
Hasbro has released this classic sword and sorcery dungeon crawl board game from the late 1980s with supplements that give it a lot of replayability.
"They've resurrected it and done a very respectful recasting of it," notes Lowder. "It's what you would expect — one person plays the dungeon master and then one to four players run through adventures fighting monsters and gathering treasure."
Publisher: Granna/Portal; Designers: Katarzyna Cioch, Wojciech Wiśniewski
1–4 players; ages 10 and up
Players are 15th Century printing pioneers in this game, competing for recognition and wealth. "It's played over six rounds, but it takes about two hours to play [and] there's a lot of strategy involved here. Great components — it's got cool typeset tokens and a rotating gear mechanic on the board," says Lowder.
Two-Player Games
Publisher: Pandasaurus; Designer: Peter C. Hayward
2 players; ages 10 and up
"It's an abstract strategy game played across three four-by-four gridded boards, like chess boards, that represent the past, the present and the future. Players are rival time travelers trying to erase each other from history so they can prove they are the one true inventor of time travel," Lowder explains.
Each player has a token that identifies the era they are currently acting in, and they can use their turn to move within an era or to move between eras, basically trying to eliminate all of the other copies of your rival so that only one exists in one time.
"The game escalates in difficultly, which is terrific, adding in more components and time travel wonkiness as you get more experience. So this one is another one that scales up, making it a lot of fun to play over time," adds Lowder.
Publisher: Smirk & Laughter; Designer: Scott Brady
2 players; ages 10 and up
"It's a clever and challenging game of not quite herding cats," says Lowder. The point of this game is to arrange your kittens on a bed so that three will line up to become cats, and then you try to arrange three cats in a row to win the game.
"But every time a kitten jumps up on the bed, they 'boop' the other kittens and that makes them all move around so that foils your plans," he explains. "It's a simple idea, but the execution is excellent and it's easy to learn and challenging. It's a great two-player game for both kids and adults."
Kids Games
Publisher: Amigo; Designers: Jens-Peter Schliemann, Bernhard Weber
1–6 players; ages 5 and up
"It is a marvelous game," says Lowder. "It's a great design as a game and a toy, which for younger kids is really important."
Players are trying to move their sorcerer's apprentices down the mountain ahead of the witches who want to get to the bottom before them. However, the will-o'-the-wisps marbles rolling down the mountainside can mess up and impact your movements.
"The other part of this that makes it just an absolutely fantastic game for younger kids is it can be played either cooperatively or competitively, and the difficulty level is scalable."
Role-Playing Games
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS STARTER SET: DRAGONS OF THE STORMWRECK ISLE
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast; Designers: Jeremy Crawford, James Wyatt, et al.
2–6 players; ages 12 and up
"Role playing games are fully part of the mainstream now," says Lowder. With a major movie coming out next year and major publishers releasing books on role playing history, this starter set is Lowder's individual RPG pick for the year.
READ: 'Slaying the Dragon' explores Wisconsin roots of Dungeons & Dragons and storied past
"Dragons of the Stormwreck Isle" is a streamlined rule set for Dungeons & Dragons, hearkening back to the classic box sets from the 70s and 80s, which were designed to be a simple and accessible role playing game product for people who had never played before according to Lowder.
"It's a 32 page book for playing first through third level characters. It includes pre-generated characters and then a 48 page adventure scenario, even includes the dice. So if you've wanted to learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons this is a terrific place to start," he says.
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