We had a fine Game Day yesterday, simultaneously celebrating May and the return of the Boy for the summer break.
Best new discovery for me was Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu, which wedges the cooperative Pandemic rules into scurrying about various Massachusetts towns (Arkham, Dunswich, etc.) trying to stamp out cultists, drive off Shoggoths, and close portals to the elder gods, even as those damned cultists and Shoggoths keep waking the Old Ones up and slowly driving you mad.
I’ve never been a huge Pandemic fan, but for some reason the ruleset worked much better for me with different set dressing. Even though we lost at the last moment.
Another game played in the next room was Stuffed Fables, which looked like great fun — sort of D&D with stuffed animals on preset maps, telling a story. Hope to play it myself next time.
Potion Explosion was another fun one — it’s been here before, but I’d never managed to play it. Simple enough mechanics to make it enjoyable, even with enough strategizing needed to make it interesting, combined with randomizing elements and marbles.
Last one I got in on was Azul, which on one level is just sort of a filling-in-patterns, but is gorgeous and tactile and relatively simple and interesting and fun.
A couple of other games I didn’t get in on included a birthday-requested round of Settlers of Catan, and some folk in the other room having at 5-Minute Marvel and 10 Minutes to Kill; the latter got unenthusiastic-enough reviews that matched my previous play time with it that it may end up going to the donation bin (fun concept and cool art, but just not quite all that in game play).
Good times. Onwards toward Game Day in June!
