In Review: The Prodigals Club

"This is the role of a proper Victorian gentleman: to acquire valuable property, to attend formal dinners, and to impress influential people. In other words, the proper Victorian gentleman is intolerably dull. Maybe it's time to have a little fun.

"You compete in three distinct endeavors: trying to lose an election, trying to get rid of all your possessions, or trying to offend the most influential people in high society. Each competition has its own module. You can play any two in combination or play all three simultaneously. Each module interacts with the other two. To win you will need to balance your strategy and compete well in all areas."

The Prodigals Club has easily become one of my favorite board games over this past year. The overall theme and idea is great, the art is humorous, and the game itself is a very solid euro game that offers a good workout for the brain.

Pros:

Easy to learn — might seem overwhelming, but the rule book is well-written

Great artwork

There are always options on your turn

Can be played with Last Will

Cons:

A few members of our group had long moments of AP (Analysis Paralysis)

Setup and take-down time — not terribly fast or slow

Playtime can be up to 90 minutes, which is an issue for some people. Our group was fine with it.

Check out Rahdo's gameplay runthrough of The Prodigals Club below:

My Top Board Games for October

Fall is here and it's one of my favorite times of the year. Why? Because of board games, of course!

Now, I know that every day of the year is the perfect time to play a board game—there's no doubt about that—but any excuse to stay indoors, especially for the weather as it starts to cool down, is just another reason to play (and I'm always looking for those opportunities).

Today, I'm sharing a few board games that I love to play around Halloween. Grab one, or all three, and join me in celebration of this exciting holiday. While there are many games that I would love to add to this list, I thought it'd be best to focus on the ones that I usually play the most this time of year.

Broom Service

This game is for 2 to 5 players ages 10 and up, and lasts anywhere from 30 to 75 minutes. When I bought Broom Service, I was told that I should only play on the advanced side of the board. Let me tell you this: I am so glad that I did. My wife and I love this game so much! It plays fast, a lot is going on, and this game really encourages players to strategize. Of course, with all the sabotaging capable in this game, it can get annoying; I do understand why some people don't like this game. As for me, it's one of my all-time favorites. I'd definitely play this game any day out of the year, but Halloween just fits it's theme so perfectly that I had to add it to this list.

Potion Explosion

Potion Explosion is another no-brainer when I think of Halloween board games. The idea of witches brewing potions and then drinking them to use special abilities is a fun theme that I absolutely love. Perfect for anyone 8 years old and older, this 30- to 60-minute game offers a lot, including a striking marble dispenser.

Mysterium

If Clue and Dixit had a baby, this would be it. Here's the description from Board Game Geek: "In the 1920s, Mr. MacDowell, a gifted astrologist, immediately detected a supernatural being upon entering his new house in Scotland. He gathered eminent mediums of his time for an extraordinary séance, and they have seven hours to contact the ghost and investigate any clues that it can provide to unlock an old mystery.

"Unable to talk, the amnesic ghost communicates with the mediums through visions, which are represented in the game by illustrated cards. The mediums must decipher the images to help the ghost remember how he was murdered: Who did the crime? Where did it take place? Which weapon caused the death? The more the mediums cooperate and guess well, the easier it is to catch the right culprit."

Mysterium is perfect for Halloween parties and those evenings with a group of close friends. With a count of 2 to 7 players, an average 42-minute playing time, and a murder that's just begging to be solved, Mysterium is a perfect game to play in October (and every month).

A few more favorites

Salem 1692, Fury of Dracula, Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game, and Dead of Winter: The Long Night.

What games do you enjoy playing the closer we get to Halloween? Share in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

How I Transformed my Apartment into an Escape Room

I've always wanted to visit one of the many "escape room" locations. Growing up, I was always a fan of the escape room games available on the internet (remember those point-and-click puzzle games?). My wife loved those too, so it's only natural that the idea of a real life escape room intrigued us.

Living paycheck to paycheck with two children under the age of 2 has been one of the obstacles standing in our way. We've driven by plenty of escape rooms, tempted to pawn off our kids on a relative so that we can enjoy a night together. Whenever this does happen, there's always a new obstacle: we're tired, would rather catch up on a movie we'd missed out on, and then there's always the issue of money.

About a month ago, I decided to spend a total of $50 on two different escape room themed board games. If we weren't going to make it to the escape room, the escape room was coming home to us. I'd read many reviews on the games that I chose. I had even published a number of articles on a few highly-rated escape room board games, so I wasn't completely unfamiliar with what my wife and I would be getting into.

The games I bought were Escape Room: The Game and Unlock!, both which ended up being an extremely satisfying experience. Escape Room: The Game came with four different adventures, each requiring about an hour to complete. The website explains the experience better than I can:

“Take the viral social experience of Escape Rooms to the comfort of your own home and for a fraction of the cost that you would pay! Included in this game are 4 unique 60-minute escape room puzzles that will test your cranial skills. Use images, gears, words, keys, shapes, maps and more to solve the three stages within each escape room.”

While the first puzzle in the set was the easiest to figure out, there were plenty of frustrating and ultimately rewarding moments. Thankfully, my wife and I were not alone to solve them all.

Unlock! was a different experience as it required an app in order to play. While still capturing the essence of what I imagine a real escape room feels like, my wife and I enjoyed this game less than the other one. Ultimately, the traps on a dangerous island were not as engaging as a ticking time bomb.

Overall, the escape room games succeeded in giving my wife and I a tense and engaging experience that we won't forget anytime soon. For the time and money spent, I'd say it was definitely worth it. We look forward to playing more escape room adventures in the future, including the highly-rated Exit: The Game.

Check Out the New and Improved Battleship: Captain Sonar

One of the games that I, unfortunately, was a little slow at getting to the table is the gem known as Captain Sonar, a game where 2 to 8 players engage in a strategic game of cat and mouse. Mines will be dropped and torpedoes will be launched. Teams will work in real time (or turn-by-turn, if preferred) to sink each other's vessel.

But it's no simple task. No! Only the bravest people should go on this daring adventure into the deep open waters of what still remains undiscovered.  

This is a really fun game that can be somewhat overwhelming at first. In the preferred real-time version of this game, the table is far from being a quiet place — quite the opposite actually! Everyone is shouting and discussing once the Captains shout "DIVE!" Though the game is busy, it lasts only about twenty minutes, which is — quite frankly — a great thing. The game offers the perfect amount of tension and decisions in such a short window, that it makes for a great time.

I highly recommend this game. While I know it won't fit everyone's niche, anyone who enjoys playing the original Battleship game and wants something a little more intense is sure to enjoy this beautifully produced game from Matagot.

Mombasa - The Surprisingly Stunning Board Game

One of the best board game purchases I've ever made is when I bought Mombasa. My wife and I were vacationing down in St. George, Utah with our 1-year-old. We stopped at one of the local game stores and saw Mombasa on sale for 35% off. We'd never heard of it before, but we looked it up and read some of the promising reviews. Jump forward a few months when we actually played it and we realized it is one of the best board games we've ever played.

PROS

- Resource management, worker placement, stocks... it's all mixed surprisingly well!

- While it looks complicated, it's really not. Think of it as a mix of Prodigals Club and Trickerion and you got this little baby. If you've played those, this shouldn't be too difficult.

- It's REALLY fun!

CONS

- Time consuming

- May be complicated for some players. The rule book took about an hour for us to get through, but it is really well-done.

- I wish more people could play

Overall, one of my absolute favorite games. It's really fun and looks way more complicated than it is. Highly Recommended!!!

One of 2016's Finest Gems: INIS

Two months ago I ordered Inis. Two months? Really? It's hard to believe that this game has been sitting on my shelf for so long before I even opened it up. I have to say that Inis took me by surprise. It's a remarkably simple to learn game with lots to offer. My only regret is that I wish I would have picked it up sooner.

Some of you might be wondering why two months? It's such a great game - WHY'D you wait two whole months?! It's simple really ... life is busy. One kid, another almost here, full-time school, part-time work, three internships ... I admit that it's taken me some time to get back in the groove of reviewing board games, mostly because I haven't had time to play many lately. But this past week I sat down with my wife; our son had just gone to bed, I finished looking through the rulebook, and we played through a game of what will surely be one of the most beautiful board games in our collection for many years to come.

Inis is a game filled with conquest, adventure, and conflict. We absolutely loved the board and how the uniquely shaped tiles pieced together almost like a puzzle. For the entire hour that it took us to play, we sure enjoyed the visual feast!

The game play could not be more simple: play one of the drafted cards, claim a token, or pass.

It didn't take long to understand how the game was played, or what we needed to accomplish in order to win. The simple gameplay, while at times repetetive, always felt fresh - in my opinion - and I'm excited to play it with more people.

Inis is definitely one of 2016's finest gems. Pick up a copy and enjoy the Celtic paradise it so beautifully captures!

Showdown in Dice Town

Over the weekend I dusted off my copy of Dice Town. By the end of the game the only thought on my mind was "Why haven't we been playing this more?" It's not that we hadn't had fun with the game in the past, but our recent play was a good reminder of just how much fun it is. Dice Town will be hitting our table much more often, and we are very excited about it.

Dice Town is a very simple game where players use "poker dice" (dice with sides similar to a poker hand) to earn gold, rob the bank, obtain items from the General Store, steal items from other players, become the sheriff, and claim property. Each round consists of players rolling their dice in their own cup, secretly selecting one to keep. If they want to keep more, they must pay one dollar per extra dice kept; everyone begins the game with a set amount of money. After players have chosen which dice to keep they then reveal them and the rolling continues until everyone has all their dice set. 

Players are trying to win certain objectives on the board. For example, after the dice-rolling phase is complete, whoever has the most 9's on their saved dice gets to collect gold; the player with the most 10's gets to rob the bank, and the player with the most Q's gets to steal a card from another player. The player with the most J's gets to visit the General Store. K's determine who becomes the next sheriff. The best poker hand determines who obtains the property cards.

The game ends once all gold is gone or once all property cards have been claimed. Points are then tallied - 1 for each gold nugget, 1 for every two dollars, 5 for being the sheriff at the end of the game, and then whatever points specified by any cards collected from the General Store and also the differing property cards.

We played with four people over the weekend, and while it was a lot of fun it did take a little bit of time. I would say that the game is not too long, but there were times while we were playing that players took a while to make their decision about which dice to keep. Other than that the game flows very smoothly. Determining who gets what from their dice is very fast and easy. Overall, Dice Town is a lot of fun and a showdown worth playing.