What We're Playing!
/Ever wondered what games the guys behind the counter enjoy in their off time? Wonder no longer! This is What We're Playing!
Ben - Cat Lady
This month, it's been all about Cat Lady. In this cute and hilarious cat-collecting game, players draft cards featuring various cats, cat food, cat toys, and cat costumes from a shared pool, trying to create matching sets to maximize their victory points by the end of the game. Be careful how many cats you have though as each fuzzy friend you bring “home” must be fed a specific diet by the end of the game. There's even cat nip and spray bottles to manipulate the available draft pool and maximize your cats' happiness! This short, fast-paced game features card-drafting, hand management, and set collecting and is a great introductory game for new gamers. Join the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Marie Antoinette by fostering the greatest cat collection in the world and become the ultimate cat lady!
Nick - Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
With the release of Xanathar's Guide to Everything, I have been anxious to try out the new subclasses and spells. My play group and I have all rolled new characters and have been tearing through dungeons with these new subclasses. We have also taken advantage of the back story generator in the guide. With the random generators it has been fun coming up with new ways to role play our new characters. It even lets you have life-altering events! One of mine was that I drank a potion that makes me able to eat anything for nourishment. Another life changing event was written into the story and I now have a enemy who is out to get his revenge on me.
Xanathar's Guide to Everything has great resources for players as well as DMs. It has all kinds of tables for new options and guides for the DM. I recommend it for anyone who is playing or hoping to play Dungeons & Dragons!
Corey - Hero Realms
Hero Realms is a fantasy-themed deck building game, and what can I say? I’m a sucker for both of those. This game has been recommended to me since it released and for some reason I never tried it until now, but I’m glad I finally did!
Those of you familiar with deck builders won’t find many surprises here. Each player starts with an identical deck of cards featuring attack power and your card-buying resource, gold. On each player’s turn, they play the cards in their hand to gain some combination of those two resources, and use them to buy new cards for their deck and attack their opponents. Be the last one standing to win the game!
What sets Hero Realms apart is its incredible fantasy art, tight mechanics and gameplay, and quick play time. One mechanic in particular that I want to mention is chaining cards. Each card that can be bought from the main deck is marked with one of four factions - Imperial, Necro, Wild, and Guild. Many of the cards also have an extra faction symbol at the bottom of their card with an additional effect like more damage, more gold, etc. Whenever you play two cards from the same guild, they “chain” and activate each other’s extra effects.
What truly makes Hero Realm unique as a deck builder is the character packs. They give each player a unique starting deck and abilities that can be activated every turn, and help to focus your deck from the beginning, rather than everyone starting from exactly the same point.
Hero Realms is a great addition to any gamer’s collection, and fans of deck builders will love this one!
That's all this time around, but be sure to check back in next month for a glimpse into what's new, what's good, and What We're Playing!
