Category: Tabletop Games

We stay connected more than ever through the internet and smart phones and other smart gadgets, but we have lost touch with people. Tabletop games are a fun and educational way to get back to human interaction and discovery.

With tabletop games you have to be with the people seated around the table in both body and mind or else you’ll miss an important play or cannonball your team’s chances of meeting their goal. Try texting someone while playing a game of Hanabi. This cooperative game will not go well, and the fact that Hanabi is a cooperative game means that it builds teamwork and allows you to problem solve, fostering cognitive development. Okay. You learn as you play and have fun as a group. And recently, people have found plenty of tabletop games to gather around and play in groups.

We’ve had a smorgasbord of fantastic tabletop games of all shapes and sizes in the past twenty years or so, beginning with Magic: The Gathering (the first collectible card game) and Settlers of Catan (the game that put German or designer games on the map), and we get introduced to an exciting and different game mechanic every few years: the living card game, the variable player power/ability in Hero Clix for miniatures enthusiasts, deck/pool building, and worker placement to name a few. If you don’t care for one game mechanic, you’re sure to find one that suits you. Heck, there’s probably someone working on your new favorite game mechanic right now. But each one of these games trains their players in certain skills.

You have to know or learn algebra for collectible card games—for example: your strength is equal to X, where X is the number of creatures you control times two (and this is a very simple example)—while you tune your mind toward strategy with most designer games, and even manage resources whether those resources are wood, clay, and wheat or they’re soldiers, workers, and time. You can even learn history with tabletop games. Bryce Journey, an Omaha game designer, created Aguirre, a game about the most insane Spanish conquistador who murdered most of his crew looking for the Lost Cities of Gold. You play as one of Aguirre’s crew and try to survive the expedition that’s steeped in historical accuracy. You can learn just about anything with tabletop games and learn more about the people you’re sitting with at the table.

When you play tabletop games, you find out real quick what kind of player someone is and how their mind works. I played a game of Ticket to Ride with my Uncle Paul, and he gobbled up the Eastern seaboard with his trains. Everyone at the table questioned whether or not Uncle Paul even had a ticket for the East Coast. We all thought he just wanted to block everyone else from getting a route, and sure enough when the game ended, Uncle Paul revealed his tickets and the closest ticket he had to the East Coast was Houston to Kansas City. And that was with a designer game with no bidding or bartering.

If you add bidding or bartering to any game, you get plenty of people batting their eyes at other people, asking them pretty please or they start offering real-life favors—like washing dishes for a week, not that other things aren’t offered—for help in a game. All of this is done in good fun, and that’s the main reason why I like tabletop games. They’re fun.

Four more hours until Omaha’s first Marvel Dice Masters tournament at the Game Shoppe. It’ll be a sealed tournament so some dice carry more value than others and more value than they normally would.

Yes. We’re hoping for rares and super rares in our haul–the rarer the card the more likely the die will have a lower cost and better ability–but there are two common dice/card combos we should mention, especially for sealed play: Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze) and Green Goblin (Goblin Lord).

As the text on his card suggests, Ghost Rider has no special effects. He just has good stats for a cheap price (2 energy), which is key during a sealed tournament. A cheaper cost means you have several options per turn. If you roll into nothing but energy, you can purchase two Ghost Riders in one turn or you could purchase a Ghost Rider and a cheap action.

The common Green Goblin costs more (3 energy) than Ghost Rider, but his ability makes up the difference. He buffs (increases the stats of) the Sidekick characters you have in play, and sidekicks don’t cost any energy. You get enough of the small fries in play, and your opponents are toast.

Of course these two dice/card combos won’t be as good when compared to a dice pool you can create ahead of tournament time: a constructed pool tournament. You’ll have a lot more great combos at your disposal. But for tonight’s sealed tournament, we’re looking for these two commons to go with our uncommons, rares, and super rares.

We’ve had a chance to play this game, and it’s a tasty blend of Quarriors! and Magic: the Gathering. But some of the powers don’t make a lot of sense for the character’s who own them. Why is Mr. Fantastic the defensive member of the Fantastic Four? Shouldn’t that be the Invisible Woman with her force fields? Why’s Wolverine throwing cars? Where are you Colossus? Still, Marvel Dice Masters is worth a look.

We’ll have a full Marvel Dice Masters review Early next month. Until then, keep rolling.