It runs in the family!

Family breaks, either in a restricted or extended format, mean games. They have always meant! Filling afternoons or evenings, sometimes afternoons and evenings, more rarely mornings.

One bag from one branch of the family, another bag from the other, full of boxes exhibiting signs of wear, testimonies of good use, and some brand-new boxes as well, still waiting for the première. Inside the boxes some light, medium or heavier games, with short or long duration. An array of options, to fit in between meals and walks, considering the availability of the big table, and the number of players.

And so it was, in this Christmas season! This time with more premières than repetitions.

Michal Golebiowski, Jetpack Joyride, Krakow: Lucky Duck Games, 2018

From video games to the tabletop. A real-time race, where players don’t take turns, aiming to be the first to get out of the labs. Take a tile and put it in your lab rooms, to guide Barry in his way out. Fast! Collect coins, avoid obstacles, fulfill missions. Eye, hand, route. Faster than the others. Freeze! Everyone stops for a moment, except who gave the order. Unfreeze! The race resumes. Pressure is the name of the game. Fun guaranteed. And one of my last collaborations of 2019, making the rules available in Portuguese.

P. Vojtech & J. Pavlásek, Whales Destroying the World, Liberec: Time Slug Studio, 2019

From one of the last to the first translation, when this card-based game was still in the Kickstarter campaign. Whales are forming armies to invade and destroy the world. It's up to the super-spies to avoid it. But who's who? Identities are secret! The bluff reigns. Groups of whales are formed, but they can also be dispersed. There are superheroes helping spies. There are pacifist turtles. A card game that allows you to gather up to 6 whales, I mean, players around the table.

Jean-Louis Roubira, Dixit, Poitiers: Libellud, 2008-2012

Illustrated cards. Imagination on the loose. A narrator per turn, saying a phrase, a word or even a sound, associated with the card he secretly chose. Which will be mixed with the cards selected by each player, based on the same motto. Who will guess the narrator's card? Who knows him best? But beware, if everyone gets it right, or if everyone fails, the narrator loses! One need to measure well the clue to disclose. And who will be able to get others to choose their card instead of the narrator's? Always a favorite for group playing.

Poker

Tradition says there will always be a long session featuring Risk or Poker. In the summer, Risk was the one. Now it was Poker's turn. An elimination game, trying to read your opponents. Small blind, big blind. A patience game, where you must practice the waiting. Pass. A game in which one must resist temptation to always be under the spotlight, in which one must resist curiosity. Fold. Observation, calculation, probabilities, potential and real gains and losses, position on the table. Vary, improvise. Feel the chips, their sound on the table. Raise. The moment of truth, confronting hands, learning, drawing conclusions when winning, losing or even drawing. A lucky strike. Bluff. Fear. Caution. Risk. Certainty. Call.

M. Kiesling &A. Schmidt, Heaven & Ale, Hamburg: Eggert Spiele, 2018. Mas Que Oca.

Another première, this game of beer crafting monks. Making the best beer requires a capable master brewer, prime ingredients and, above all, a well-balanced mix. It's unworthy to have an excellent barley when the water is low-grade. It takes money to acquire ingredients, more money for better ingredients. Then one must know where to best place them in the fields, either in the shade, to raise money by selling it, or in the sunlight, for them to develop, improving our beverage. You also need monks working in the fields. And, further still, to collect barrels. A nice bunch of options to choose from, each turn, while competing for the very same resources, and where placement and timing are paramount. To play again soon, no doubt, since a single match serves only to learn the basics and grasp the subtleness! And, then, there is an expansion waiting, in which, in addition to everything else, we must distribute the beer, by wagon, to the taverns.


There are a few more games waiting for the first time, one more just arrived, and many more to repeat, in upcoming sessions. And I think I should get some games for player counts over six!