Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
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70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 30 through 21

30. Space Base

Published By: Alderac Entertainment Group
Designer: John D. Clair

Buy Space Base

This is a game that I should have played a long time ago. But it is one that left my collection and then I played it on BGA. Once I played it on BGA, I knew that I needed it back in my collection. Much like other games like Valeria and Mochi Koro this one is about activating spots based off of dice rolls. And then building up those spots so that you can activate more things. Space Base just ramps up in a much better way than those and offers some interesting choices and an interesting moment of when you change from money to points.

29. Symbiose

Published By: Subverti
Designers: Jeremy Partinico and Christelle Partinico

Not Available Yet

Symbiose is one of the new games on the list, in fact, I’m not sure you can get it in the US yet. But this is one I’ll be getting for sure. It’s a simple game where you try and get a two tall by four wide grid full of cards. And those cards are going to score you points based off of the other cards in the grid. But there is a simple twist that makes this work. You score your grid with the central four cards. But the ones to the left and right score your opponents to the left and right. And that is enough to make this a very fun game.

28. XenoShyft: Onslaught

Published By: CMON Limited
Designers: Keren Philosophales and Michael Shinall

Out of Print

I love cooperative and deck building games. XenoShyft does both of those things really as well as you build up your deck to fight off monsters. On the deck building side I like how you always get money to add to your hand. That means that you are always able to buy something which is good and rewarding. The other part is I can just give you a card, you need more troops, I can give you one. It is now part of your deck, and it’s not to the discard, it is straight to your hand. A very tough and rewarding game.

27. One-Hit Heroes

Published By: Wiggles 3D
Designers: AC Atienza and Connor Reid

Buy One-Hit Heroes

This one is a theme that I like a lot with super heroes, but it is doing something different. You are heroes who are glass cannons, kind of. By that I mean if you take a hit you are out, but the game gives you tons of ways to avoid them. So you need to manage your hand and what the enemy is doing. And each enemy is different and each hero is different, so there is a ton of replayability in the box. Plus you level up, so to speak, as you play and get to add in new cards to your deck.

26. Planet Unknown

Published By: Adam’s Apple Games, LLC
Designers: Ryan Lambert and Adam Rehberg

Buy Planet Unknown

Planet Unknown is one of my favorite planet terraforming games. In this one I love how you are covering up the planet and activating locations to move up on tech, and other tracks. The tracks are such a fun part of the game. And as you play the game more you play not with the starting abilities but with special ones. They make you unique, and of course there is the lazy susan. Being able to spin that and then pick where you want to pick from is great. You can set yourself up well, or you can try and mess over your opponents plans or ideally both.

25. Paper Dungeons

Published By: MeepleBR
Designer: Leandro Pires

Out of Stock

I think that this is the highest roll and write game on the list and one of the most complex that I play. Paper Dungeons is a “Dungeon Scrawler”, as they call it, where you level up heroes and explore the dungeon fighting monsters. But there is more than that, you need to manage your heroes health, make adventuring gear and find treasure. Of course, if you make it to the boss monsters that is another way to get even more points, but hopefully not at the expense of too much health.

24. Kingdom Legacy: Feudal Kingdom

Published By: FryxGames
Designer: Jonathan Fryxelius

Buy Kingdom Legacy – note, there might be an additional tariff related shipping charge in the US.

I was not sure about Kingdom Legacy the first time I watched a video on it, but the more I watched the more I liked it. This is a legacy game of managing your deck of cards by destroying cards, leveling up cards, or even adding new cards. And as you go through, you need to decide which cards are best used for upgrading and points and when to use cards for resources to level up others. It’s a nice balance of multiuse cards, and a challenge to optimize your score.

23. Ready Set Bet

Published By: Alderac Entertainment Group
Designer: John D. Clair

Buy Ready Set Bet

I like betting and I like racing when it comes to games. Ready Set Bet somehow combines the two of them into real time fun and stand-up moments. Personally I like both parts of this game betting and being the person calling the race. As you call the race, it’s just to get into it and keep the race moving and watch everyone else stand-up. As a better it’s all about trying to make the right bets the fastest. If you wait too long the best spots are gone, and if you bet too quickly you’re more apt to make bad bets. It sounds chaotic, which it is, but it’s also so much fun.

22. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Published By: Stronghold Games
Designers: Sydney Engelstein, Jacob Fryxelius, and Nick Little

Buy Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Another game about terraforming a planet, Ares Expedition is a big engine building game of, well, doing a better job terraforming Mars. In this game it’s all about the action selection and how that works. I pick an action, everyone gets to do it, but I get a bonus for it. It might be a bonus of drawing more cards or a discount on building something. But then again, if my opponent(s) pick the same action, we all only do that action, and the other possible actions are skipped. So it’s always trying to guess what your opponent(s) will do to optimize your actions.

21. Hanamikoji

Published By: EmperorS4
Designer: Kota Nakayama

Buy Hanamikji

Finally is one of my favorite two player games. Hanamikoji is a game of trying to win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. Each one wants a certain gift and there is a limited number of them. You want to win the favor of four or eleven points worth.

But the biggest draw of this two player game is the action system. You only have four actions and you do one per turn and only once per round. They are simple actions like discarding two cards that won’t be used facedown, or putting one facedown that you’ll score. The other two offer a bit more with the “I Split, You Choose” mechanism in play, and makes you think about what cards you show your opponent for that.

Join Next Week

Just as a reminder, I am streaming my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition every Wednesday night at 9 PM Central Time. The next few videos have their links up, so you can click notify on them to know when I go live. Or you can subscribe to the channel and click notify to know whenever a new video comes out. Currently I am playing through Legendary Kingdoms on Monday and then my wife and I are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Fridays. So join us for those videos.

And thank you for checking out the video and articles. Let me know what your favorite game from this chunk of 10 is and which one you would love to get played.

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How To Play Tag Team

Tag Team is an autobattler game. What that means in this case is you flip cards and those cards do affects. Your goal is to knock out one of the other players fighters before they knock out one of yours. But let’s talk a little bit more about how that works.

The Fighters

Each player is going to get two fighters. These fighters offer different ways to play the game. Some are more support characters while others are damage dealers. You pick your fighters in a few different ways. One is to just randomly assign or assign “starting” difficulty characters.

The other ways are drafting. You may draft the simple or competitive way. In the simple draft you select one character from your hand of cards and then swap with your opponent and select another character there. The competitive way is to select like before and then discard a character. Then you swap hands and select a new character.

Combat

Combat is simple, you create your deck or two cards to start and you put them in an order you choose. You each flip your first card and do what that says. Then you flip the next card and do what that says. And that is how combat works.

Between Combat Rounds

The meat of the game is in the choice here between combat rounds. Between rounds you draw from your action deck. The action deck consists of the non-starting cards for your two characters. You draw three of those cards and you select one to add to your deck.

When you add a card to your deck it must slot into the deck as it already is. So when you pick your third card, after the first combat phase, you can put it on top, between the two cards, or the bottom of the deck. This is because the deck never gets shuffled, so the order is maintained between rounds. The only way to change up the order of your deck is where you slot the new card in, and that changes it in comparison to your opponents deck possibly.

What Doesn’t Work

The decision space is limited. I think that is going to be a negative for some people. Mainly because the decision space is also based off of imperfect information. I know what and where you cards are from the previous round. I don’t know where you might add something in. So if you play a strong attack, I might move to block it, but you can play a card above it to push it down further. So it feels like guess work, or it might to some.

What Works

Firstly, I want to talk about the characters. This is like Dice Throne in that each character is going to be different. And like Dice Throne there are going to be elements that might feel similar between characters. It’s about blocking and attacking at the right time. So yes, that is something that exists in all decks. But each character is going to have a little twist on it. I plan to do my ranking of all the characters in the future. I want to do that because the characters are different.

The ease to the table is also great for the game. Every card does a good job of explaining what is on the card. So while they give you a little booklet to learn about the characters, that is not needed when you play. All the information to play the characters is on the card as you flip it. And they do this with text and symbols. So I use the text as a learn a character and then symbols after that because it’s faster.

I like the decision space a lot as well in the game. It is a fun head game to try and figure out where you place a new card into your deck. I know that you know I know where you best attack is, so you move it one lower. But I know that you know so you are going to adjust it so I adjust where I place my defensive new card. Unless of course you try and trick me and don’t adjust it.

Finally the speed of the game is great. It is fast to get to the table and it is fast to play. I think it is one that I rarely will ever play one match-up in a sitting.

Who Is Tag Team For?

I think Tag Team is for people who like a good head to head game. When you play it, it’s easy to learn and easy to play, so it’s a good one to play with people who like lighter games. I also think that it’s a great game for people who often want to play a game but find they only have a short time. It has good moments in the game as you block a big attack or sneak one through, but it is also really fast, so you can play multiple times in a sitting.

Tag Team Grade and Final Thoughts

I really like this game. I think that Tag Team works as a fast battling game to the point where it is going to likely get played more than Dice Throne. Now I love Dice Throne because there are more decisions to make in the game. But I thought that an autobattler could maybe only kind of work. But it is a game that works really well.

I think the big reason that it works so well is the different characters. Each one feels different and you need to plan out how you add cards and how you plan in the game. And it is so fast of a game. I think we played two games in person last night and it was maybe 10-15 minutes tops for each battle. The second was faster than the first even with more complex characters. It is going to go high in my Top 100 next year if I keep on playing it a lot because it’s that good.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B-
Casual Grade: A
Strategy (out of 10): 4
Luck (out of 10): 5

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Catch up on previous videos here

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20 through 10

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – Top 10

10. Aeon’s End

• Published by Indie Boards & Cards in 2016
• Defend the town of Gravehold against a Nemesis and their minions by slinging spells around

To kick off the Top 10, let’s talk about one that has been in my Top 10 for a while and one that I have basically everything for. I’m guessing I’m missing a few promo cards, but Aeon’s End is one of my favorite deck building games.

This is a deck building game, tower defense, and boss battler all wrapped into one. The name of the game in this one is variety. There are other elements I like too, but variety is huge. Each mage is unique, each nemesis is unique and the market of cards that you create is unique. Everything about the game can be mixed and matched and give endless replayability. I also like that this is a cooperative game.

And, finally, I like this game best as a solo or two player. I know that it can play more, but with the turn system, it works better at lower counts. You draw to see whose turn it is. In the deck there are two nemesis cards, and one per player at four players, or two at two players. So you get these fun moments where it swings from the players getting four turns in a row to the nemesis getting three and now things look dangerous. It makes the game feel more exciting, it just works best at two players though because of that.

Buy Aeon’s End

9. Roll Player Adventures

• Published by Thunderworks Games in 2021
• Explore the lands, beat monsters and complete skill challenges in a world that remembers what you did

Now to a really big game we have Roll Player Adventures. They took the Roll Player system, tweaked it and gave us a story and adventure game. And I think that it works really well as a game, clearly, as it’s my #9. Though, like Aeon’s End, I’ll give a caveat that difficulty changes based on player count, which, isn’t a bad thing, but it something worth noting.

In this game you play through chapters of an adventure. To do that you are fighting monsters, doing skill checks, and reading story. Whenever it’s a right or a skill check you are spending cards and resources, your health, in different stats to try and complete a dice puzzle. You need to get dice of certain colors and certain numbers into specific locations. But, the game is smart and it limits you in how much you can do that, and it is what they try and use to scale, but like I said, I think that it’s easier with more.

The story is also a lot of fun. There are games on my list that have a bigger and darker story. And I like dark stories, dark fantasy can be a lot of fun, but it’s also fun to have stories that are maybe a bit sillier at times. And, I will say, they manage to create a story where it feels like it matters and continues along with the choices that you make.

Buy Roll Player Adventures

8. Dice Throne

• Published by Dice Throne Inc. in 2018
• Fight in a Mortal Combat style tournament by chucking dice and leveling up attacks

My #8 is “Battle Yahtzee”. By that, I mean that it is Dice Throne. This is a game that is played either as a head to head battle or as king of the hill. You get a hero, or character, that you play as. And they have specific abilities that you can activate by rolling dice Yahtzee style. By that I mean you get three roles, you keep some dice each time, and you see what you get at the end.

But Dice Throne is more than just a lucky game. Yes, there is an element of luck with rolling the dice. But the game often comes down to how well you can mitigate that luck. If you manage to get off your ultimate attack, well there isn’t much your opponent can do, of course that does mean that you roll all sixes. That’s very unlikely to just happen. But with cards and your combat points you spend to play them, you are able to manipulate dice, turn them to different sides, or get rerolls to try and land those attacks.

Plus the game offers a ton of variety. The first set is more standard fantasy. But then you get into other characters like a Tactician or an Artificer who do different things. And I own the Marvel set and am waiting on the Marvel X-Men set to come as well. You pick your favorites to get, or if you’re like me, you get them all.

Buy Dice Throne

7. Rogue Angels: Legacy of the Burning Suns

• Published by SunTzuGames in 2025
• Change the galaxy with a unlikely group of heroes in an epic sci-fi adventure

Now for a game that isn’t even out yet. Why do I have it on the list, because I have in my collection a prototype of the game. And I’ve even played it on Malts and Meeples. The game is basically set, through there are elements of the game that will change, but that’s mainly around components not around actual game play.

I love Rogue Angels. You know that by now because it’s on every list of Crowdfunding game that I’m waiting for. And yes, it will be again at the end of this year, most likely. This is another story, adventure, and combat game. And I really enjoy the story in it. I like having some campaign games that aren’t just another fantasy setting, and Rogue Angels gives you a good sci-fi setting. And I love how the combat, or mission element of the game works.

I want to say that this isn’t a game where every scenario is a go and beat someone up. No, this is a game where you might want to dive into combat. Or you might want to sneak through, and it all depends on the scenario. I love that for a game because I don’t always want to beat up the bad guys. And with how the game activates the bad guys, well, getting rid of the wrong bad guys at the wrong time just means you’ll be dealing with the other ones all the time.

Late Pledge Rogue Angels

6. Floriferous

• Published by Pencil First Games in 2021
• Create the best scoring group of flowers in this drafting game

Now we have the smallest game in my Top 10 list. But Floriferous was there last year and it is staying there again this year because I love what the game does. I enjoy a good drafting game, and I think that drafting makes sense in a lot of different games. But how Floriferous does it works for me because it combines drafting with building out your own scoring.

And the drafting itself is clever. You either draft a flower or you draft a scoring card from a column. The scoring cards are always at the bottom of the column, though, which matters for drafting the next column. Because the turn order for that next column is determined by the previous column you drafted from, aka, the higher you are up in the column the sooner you draft again. So yes, you need scoring cards, but that means you draft later next time.

I also want to call out drafting the scoring. I like it when a game does that because it offers a great decision point. When I draft, I might want that scoring card, but if you don’t have enough flowers, it won’t do much for me. And on the flip side, if I draft too many flowers I’m not going to be scoring anything.

Buy Floriferous

5. Slay the Spire

• Published by Contention Games in 2024
• Climb the spire, fight monsters and can you defeat them all in this cooperative deck building game

Next up is a new one to the list and it’s debuting all the way up at #5. Now it’s not the last new one to the list, there is one higher, though just barely higher. Slay the Spire is a video game that I love to play. In fact I’ve been on a kick of playing it recently. It’s a rogue like deck building game where you climb a tower.

The board game is the exact same thing. But it takes a solo video game experience and makes it multiplayer. In fact, while the solo is fun, I think that it’s even better two player or two handed. And I want to play it with more. Because you figure out a strategy of who wants to attack which enemies. Because each player has their own enemies that will attack them, but you can attack the other person’s enemies. So you might have more defense and handle it as well.

With all of that said, the game does change one thing. How some things activate is changed, so you’re not needing to keep track of “every seven turns” or “every three times you shuffle” but it makes it easy to keep track of. And they scale down everything. I like that because I don’t want to be keeping track of six enemies with 50 health each. So while the math is very much the same, the numbers are just lower.

Buy Slay the Spire

4. The 7th Citadel

• Published by Serious Poulp Games in 2024
• The Citadels are in ruins. How can you rebuild society and deal with the threats?

The other new to the list game and debuting at #4 is The 7th Citadel. I should have put it at #7 just to make it a bit more fitting. But I love this game and you can see me playing it for some sessions on Malts and Meeples YouTube.

This is an adventure game. These Citadels have fallen and now in a dangerous and post apocalyptic feeling world, though uniquely so, you need to survive. You play as leaders of a settlement has has formed out of the 7th Citadel. And now you need to deal with some threat that is coming.

The main mechanism is the same as The 7th Continent. You spend cards to try and complete checks, fight monsters, and deal with challenges. And the cards are going to be your life. Plus you are flipping over cards and exploring areas of the map and dealing with encounters that happen. But the game gives you more direction than the 7th Continent does as the threat gives you missions to go on as you build up your settlement for whatever that coming threat might be.

Late Pledge The 7th Citadel

3. Stars of Akarios

• Published by OOMM/Open Owl Studios in 2022
• Explore space, fight battles, and unravel the story of why you were attacked

This is the one that launched into the Top 10 last year and it’s sticking around. I love this game, clearly, but it’s another one of those big campaign games, and it’s one that’s set in space. But this game feels different than so many others. I don’t know why, but it gives me the feeling of stories like Ender’s Game and Space Dandy all wrapped into one with obvious nods to other sci-fi stories as well.

I really enjoy how they created a game that is split into three different element. The one, space exploration, is a bit weaker. There is some randomness to it, and I feel like I never found anything major on it. But I love the other two element. You get to have a 7th Citadel/7th Continent style exploration on planets. But instead of playing cards for checks you roll dice. And it’s a really fun time, but the biggest part of the game is space combat.

And I wasn’t sure how much I’d love the space combat. But I really enjoy it, it’s this great tactical puzzle as you use special abilities that you can only use so much. And then you spend dice to maneuver and you need to figure out how to even get into range to shoot the enemy and ideally in a flanking position. I love sitting there looking at the dice and trying to figure out how to make it work.

Late Pledge Stars of Akarios

2. Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon

• Published by Awaken Realms in 2019
• The lands are returning to Wyrdness, you’ve been sent out to help Avalon survive, if you can

Now or one of a few campaign games that I’ve completed, at #2 we have Tainted Grail. And this is the base game and the two expansion campaigns. I love them all. I need to play Kings of Ruin as well, but I’m not sure when I’ll get to that because of, well, my #1 on the list.

But this game, let’s start off with the highest praise, has the best writing of any board game I’ve ever played. The story that it tells is amazing and for that reason we did play in story mode to be able to experience as much of that story as possible. I’ll talk about why in a little bit. This is a grim dark game, but it manages not to dwell on the darkness to the point where it’s overbearing but creates this amazing fantastical and dangerous world to deal with.

And let’s talk about that story mode and why we played that way. One of the criticisms of the game is that it’s too hard. There is too much grind and too much survival. That is what the game was advertised as, so why people thought it was bad, and not just not for me, when they got what they knew they were going to get, I don’t know. But story mode makes it easier, but not too easy. So you do need to engage with that survival aspect of the game, but you can delve into the story more so. If you find the game, get it, and I do recommend playing on story mode.

Buy Tainted Grail

1. Gloomhaven/Frosthaven

• Published by Cephalofair Games in 2022
• Battle monsters, explore lands, and build up the town in this epic campaign

Finally the number one stays the same. The #1 on the list is really Frosthaven, Gloomhaven and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. I don’t think it’s fair for them to be separate on the list. While Frosthaven does build on Gloomhaven and add in some elements like the town management, the core loop of the game is the same. I do think the added element of the town management would push it even a little bit higher than Gloomhaven for me though.

But the main part of the game is going into scenarios and trying to complete their objectives. This almost always includes killing some bad guys, and often times the win condition is kill all the enemies. Though in Frosthaven that is less often, though still the most common scenario goal.

The element that is the best about the game is the characters though. I love how every character is unique. And from the cards that you get to play, it feels that way. Sometimes you want to be that tanking character, or a fast damage dealer, or a support or healer character. And the games offer all of those.

And then the card play where you might want to go fast, so you can get in and out dealing damage quickly, or maybe you want to go slow to draw the enemies towards you, there is a lot of great strategy. I love picking cards, too, where I might plan to use the bottom and top halves in one way but then give myself the flexibility to change it. Needless to say, I love my #1 game.

Buy Frosthaven

Upcoming Streams

Just a reminder on my streaming schedule. It’s not just all my Top 100 Games (of all time).

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again. And generally the streams do start between 8 and 8:30 PM central time.
• Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to be my 200 through 101 next week. After that I’m going to do some videos looking back on 2024. So expect to see my Top 10 Games of 2024 and probably Top 10 crowdfunding games I backed in 2024 as well.
• Friday at 9 PM central my wife and I are streaming a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3. Join us for the adventure of Nina and Kaerok and see what choices we make.

The best way to know when we go live, though is to subscribe and click that notification bell. I can’t promise, and in fact it’s pretty unlikely, that I’ll have events to click on ahead of time. Though I do want to get better at it. I hope that you can join a stream and hop into the chat. And let me know what games in this list are your favorite or that you want to try.

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How To Play Adventure Land from Haba

Adventure Land is a game of collecting items, whether those are swords, herbs, companions or gold. And then you fight monsters. In the box there are three different scenarios. But that basic element is true throughout the scenarios. The other rule is that you can only move your adventurers down and to the right. So as you play, swords, herbs, gold, any of them might pop up behind you and will you be able to get them?

That’s the main hook of the game. You play a set of adventurers who only move in certain ways, down and to the right. But not all the items start out on the board. You flip out more cards throughout the game to place more items. So players have a changing landscape. And sometimes everything starts on the far side of the board, so what do you do there. Do you push an adventurer across the board to grab them knowing they won’t collect much more? Or do you wait it out scoring fewer points?

Are There Enough Decisions?

Let me start out by reminding people, this is a Haba game. Haba tends to make kids games in their yellow boxes. But also, this is a Kramer and Kiesling, the two designers, game and not a Haba yellow box. It is meant more as that family weight game. So it requires that it’s simple enough for kids, but not so simple that adults won’t find it interesting.

It’s more Land than Adventure

I’m not sure how well Adventure Land fits into that area. I think that it is going to be interesting to kids, and probably more interesting to people who don’t play a lot of games. For myself, I play a lot of games, so it is less interesting. It is less interesting because the decision space is very limited.

The decision around which adventurer I move and how far I go, I like it. But the decision around, is this a good thing to pick up or not. That is less interesting. The randomness as things come out, it could be interesting to adjust to, but it feels basic. I don’t feel like I am making an exciting decision in the game. I joked in the title it is more land than adventure, but it kind of feels like that. How do I use the land best to get points, not what adventure am I going on.

The decision around which adventurer I move and how far I go, I like it. But the decision around, is this a good thing to pick up or not. That is less interesting. The randomness as things come out, it could be interesting to adjust to, but it feels basic. I don’t feel like I am making an exciting decision in the game. I joked in the title it is more land than adventure, but it kind of feels like that. How do I use the land best to get points, not what adventure am I going on.

The Game Length

The game also has a 10 by 10 grid. I think all the spots have cards, so that’s 100 cards. That means as you flip out a couple at a time, it isn’t a fast game. It is a lot of turns and a lot of small moves that aren’t that exciting. If the game played with half the cards each time and you raced to grab the things, that’d be more intriguing. But because it plays with everything you know eventually cards will be flipped. So it is just a longer game, again, with more land than adventure.

What Works in Adventure Land?

But it isn’t all just okay. And I want to be clear, I think that the game is just okay with it’s decision making. I think I am just not the target audience. This, with a more interesting name and probably more interesting cover, would be a great game to sell in Target. It does what it should to create something new for a introductory game, down and to the right, while not being too complex.

I also like the scenarios in the game. They offer minor tweaks to the rules. It isn’t like any element of them is too complex, but they add just a little bit in. In a scenario you want to get to towns. Another scenario your goal is to fight monsters for your bulk of points. They aren’t massively different, but they are unique.

Who Is It For?

I think I’ve covered this, but I really want to lean into it. This game is going to be a solid game for people who want an introductory game. It should sit on the shelf with a Catan, Ticket to Ride, and be maybe even slightly more family friendly than those.

But I also think it has a shorter shelf life than those. The main compelling item in the game is how the tiles come out. Where are they going to show up on the board, and what strategy do I have for them. But there just isn’t enough variety to make games feel massively different. So it’s a game a family will play and enjoy for a year or two and then get set aside, in my opinion.

Final Thoughts on Adventure Land

This is a game that I wanted to like more than I did. Not just because Tom Vasel likes it, I got no issue with having a massively different take on a game than a review. Look at his review of Super Fantasy Brawl and my love for it. Instead, for me, I also wanted to like Adventure Land because of that main hook. Often times a hook of something like “down and to the right” movement is enough to make an interesting game.

I won’t belabor it, but it just doesn’t do enough with that. It’s about the spatial movement in the game, and that is it. For a family with a 7-9 near old, that might be enough. For me, it is just a bit dull, and I think with other Haba games out there, they are better. It’s not a bad game, it just doesn’t make me want to play it again.

My Grade: D+
Casual Grade: B-
Gamer Grade: D

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Skytear Horde

This is a fun game, I won’t do a full review on it. But I will say that I’ve played it solo and two player and I think that both of them work quite well. The game actually has three modes, solo, two player, and competitive, horde versus heroes. Now, this isn’t to say that I don’t have some issues with the game.

It’s a bit to learn at the start. The game is not light on steps. They give you a cheat sheet, which is great. But there are still enough steps that I need to remember them on the cheat sheet what they do. And the first couple of times that I played, it was a bit to remember. This third time, you see there are still rules that I’m not 100% on. But it’s definitely better in terms of what you need to look up.

And I have to say this is a pretty involved game. Which is fun because it means that you have a lot of choices to make. But it is also a game that plays quickly. It was about 40 minutes that I streamed and probably 30-35 minutes were playing the game. And that was with me chatting. So that’s great in terms of game length for a solo game. I will say that the setup, not tear down, is a bit longer.

Upcoming Streams

Like I said, ISS Vanguard will be wrapping up here pretty soon. I think. I still love what the game is doing. But the next two weeks for sure will be ISS Vanguard and we’ll see where the story and adventure takes us. 8 PM Central Time on Wednesdays. Though the easiest way to know is by subscribing and clicking that notification bell to know when I put up something new. And the upcoming video can be found here.

And then on Mondays I stream at 8:30 PM normally. I missed this past week because we had to adjust for podcast recording. Next week I want to learn and start playing My City – Roll and Build. I think that’ll be a fun shorter game and shorter campaign for Monday nights.

And, again, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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How To Play Dice Monsters Missing Mythics?

The game is quite simple. You fight monsters, you defeat them and you get a reward. If you lose, they run away and you don’t get a reward. All of this is done by rolling dice. You start with small monsters then can work your way up to large and eventually fight mythic monsters. The first person to defeat a mythic monster is the winner.

You start out with three black dice, all the die are normal D6’s in the game, but the black dice are the most basic. You keep them and roll them, if you want, against any monster you fight. Then there are dice that have powers. Blue lets you reroll half your blues rounded down. Red lets you combine totals. And with green dice you get a white die if you roll a one. White dice are temporary dice, if you roll them. But two white dice can be traded in for a black. And a black and white die can be traded for a colored die.

So you build up your dice pool as you fight monsters. There are some take that cards which can trip up someone. Such as, ambushing a monster onto them. Or stealing dice. But for the most part there isn’t too much in a lower player count game. And you can bet on if someone will win or not. If there’s not a monster you like, you can bet dice if I’ll win or lose as a way to get more dice. But like I said, first to kill a mythic monster wins.

The Details

New section I want to start doing, how does it compare to what it says on the box?

Player Count

Dice Monsters says that it is a 3-6 player game. I would disagree with out of the box. At six players, which I’ve played at, it’s long. It actually breaks the next thing, the time, that I’ll talk about. It tries to help with some parts of the game being simultaneous but it’s still long.

Also it breaks the game a little bit because of how slowly it comes around for first player. You want to go first because that means you get the best selection of monsters. If you get the first monster or a good selection you are more apt to defeat it. And at six player, that is less often.

Plus with being first less often it means that you need to or end up betting more often. If you bet and lose, you lose that die. That also slows down the progression of getting dice. So for me this is probably 3-4 player game, not 3-6.

Time

The game says that it is 30-40 minutes. And this I think is probably true at the lower player counts. And I don’t think it’s a massive increase at higher player counts. But with more take that showing up consistently and more betting and failing happening, the game slows down. Especially early game goes at a snails pace. So you’re probably looking at 90 minutes about at 6 players, and that is too long for this game.

Age

Dice Monsters is for 8+. The 8 is probably because of the small dice, but in terms of ease of play, you can play younger. You won’t get all the strategy and you’ll need some cards read to you, but it’s not bad. The core of the mechanics, get dice, trade dice for other dice, and roll dice is easy enough.

What Doesn’t Work?

I already touched on one heavily, but scaling is off in this game. I’m going to praise the designer for some game mechanics they used in this game, but call miss on others. This is a miss, you start with 3 dice at 3 players or at 6 players. And as I said the take that element of the game and luck of betting on someone else messes with the flow of the game much more so at 6 players. It’s easy to lose dice at a higher count. In a lot of games, now, I’d expect to see it scale the number of starting dice, which would balance this. 3 dice for 3 and 4 players and 5 for 5-6 would make the game work better.

The betting is hit or miss for me. If it works out, it really works out for you. But it’s very iffy to start. In fact, you get a white die by fighting a monster you can’t defeat. And there is no penalty if you don’t defeat that monster. But if you bet on someone, you can double what you bet, so a green die becomes two green dice. Or you lose it. So the penalty is harsh, unless the person is set-up to easily defeat the monster.

This game also has a first to the finish problem as well. When someone goes after a mythic monster you play out your ambush monster(s) on that person to keep them from winning. That means it’s harder for them to win. Which is annoying because now that card is gone so next person or next turn when someone is doing that, they don’t get hit by an ambush monster and have a better shot.

What Works?

Simultaneous Play

I like the round structure in the game. You go around with everyone picking monsters or placing a bet. The first player always has to pick a monster, but then everyone else has a choice. Then everyone rolls for their monsters. So you either are rolling or paying attention to one person to see if they succeed or not. That part of the game is quick and feels modern because there isn’t much downtime for players.

Combat Penalties

And I think it works that you don’t lose dice if a monster runs away. You can lose dice if a monster has the ability to poison, but not generally. And you know if the monster is poisonous when you take it. With the exception of there being a take that card that can make everything poisonous for that round. But it helps someone build back into the game if they get down early You can stop betting and build slowly through taking monsters.

More Dice vs Power

Another thing is the monsters when you defeat them. They might have a bounty, some dice, you can trade them in for. But they also have a power. So now you need to decide if you use the power or you trade them in for dice. Most of the time I would say dice, but some are good powers so I’d be tempted to hold onto them. Especially the ones that are take that. Or that make it so you won’t lose dice to poison. However, this is the main decision point in the game.

End Game

Finally, I like the end game for this type of game. I don’t want to count up points when it is done. Whomever kills a mythic monster first wins. Along with the tie breaker I like as well. If two players (or more) kill a mythic monster they go into a sudden death. You face off against small monsters allocating dice from your dice pool that you lose, so a shrinking pool of dice, until one person fails and are out. If both fail, I think it’s a tie, but that’s okay in that case.

Who Is It For?

This is a game that works well with families or really casual groups that are getting into board games. It’s light and fun and doesn’t require much strategy. I think if you like Munchkin you’ll like this. And I think if you like the core of Munchkin but think there are too many moving pieces, Dice Monsters is better.

And now, you also know who this game isn’t for. Dice Monsters does curtail the take that which you find in a game like Munchkin, but it doesn’t remove it. And there is a heavy amount of luck in the game. So if you really dislike Munchkin, this is not a game for you.

Final Thoughts on Dice Monsters Missing Mythics

I’ve experienced it at 6 and I wouldn’t again without a house rule. Like I said the balance and game play times are off with that. Dice Monsters is a game that should last 30 minutes, hence being a much better Munchkin, as it won’t overstay it’s welcome. But at 6 players it really does.

That said, I don’t hate the game. I think it’s a fine light game which I can see people enjoying. When I think about it, it’s one that I’d play again. It is also one that I’d never have in my collection. Why, because I wouldn’t ever ask to play it or pull it off the shelf to play it. But I would also probably be fine playing it whenever someone asks for it. Again with the caveat that at higher player counts tweak what you start with. Because, if you don’t this is a 3-4 player game.

My Grade: C-
Casual Grade: C+
Gamer Grade: D

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The Plot – Solo Leveling

Sung Jinwoo is a hunter. But he isn’t a good hunter, in fact, he is the weakest hunter out there. He needs to do it because he got the power, but also to help support his mother in the hospital and his sister. But, every time he comes back from a hunt, he is always beat up.

This all started when weird portals or gateways started to show up around the world. He and some lucky others were given powers to be hunters. This might mean great at combat or it might mean that they can heal others. Jinwoo just isn’t good at any of them. But when things go wrong in a dungeon, he finds that his life is going to change forever.

What Doesn’t Work?

While this does some different things, I’ll talk about them later, it does feel somewhat derivative of other manga that I’ve read. Technically without it being manga, I believe, since it is South Korean. But the elements there match what I’ve read before. I would say that Lit RPG might even be a better example of what it is doing. And I also compare it to Isekai that I’ve read.

And secondly, what I don’t consider to be a major knock, is that this is violent, at least to more of a level than a lot of manga. Solo Leveling is full color, so blood looks like blood. And there is a lot of violence. More, to me, this is something that if you don’t know it’s going to be there might be a surprise. For the story it is telling it works though.

What Works?

I think that the main character is interesting. His motivations for being in the dungeons, we get to see it in flashbacks, are meaningful. This is the real world, minus the portals and hunters, and he’s doing what he needs to to take care of his family. That feels more real than a lot of characters randomly thrust into another world.

The characters also do real world type things in non-real world type situations. The conversations that they have when they go into the dungeon that kickoff the story aren’t in awe of the dungeon. It is something that is common place in their world. And going on a hunt to clear a dungeon is a job. Conversations around it are normal conversations as people talk about life, love, family, things that normal people talk about.

And I like that it is in color. I’m not sure if this should go here or be in my final thoughts, but it is something that works. The color on the page is nice. It gives it more of that comic feel and I think makes the story that much more immersive. And it isn’t like a page full of color but is used with the blank space on the page, to convey the story really well.

How Does It Compare?

I want to talk about what I compare this to, because it is my normal comic or manga that I read and write about. But it is also different. Thinking about it, I compare it in some ways to something like Blood, Blockade, Battlefront. But the monsters and creatures aren’t coming through. I also compare it to LitRPG’s that I’ve read. There is one where towers appear in the world and now monsters and magic are a thing.

But in terms of manga that I’ve read, I think it does feel different. There is a game like element to it. It does have some of that DNA that you see in things like Sword Art Online. This fantasy element and dungeon clearing element. And there are real life consequences to failure, But they are different. In Sword Art Online, someone dies, and we see them disappear in a game. here, characters address it to the real world immediately. That just adds weight to what the characters are doing.

At the same time, it is about a character leveling up. So while it does feel like there is a bit more weight to it, the basics of it are familiar. Going into a dungeon, fighting, and trying to make a living, survive, and level up, it is what we’ve seen before in a lot of anime or manga. Solo Leveling doesn’t stray too far from the expected tropes.

Final Thoughts on Solo Leveling

Solo Leveling is definitely a comic that I want to keep reading. And it is getting an anime adaptation. I want to read more of the comic and I might even want to read the light novels or LitRPG novels that the comics are based off of.

Like I said in the last section, I think that Solo Leveling, while it is familiar, does feel different. Blood Blockade Battlefront is one that it really does compare to for me. Placing a character into a world where there are real consequences and consequences to the real world feels different.

That does, I do want to see how the main character continues to progress. I think what they’ve done so far makes a lot of sense. I don’t see them leading the character down a dark path, but if they do, it would mess with my enjoyment of the series. The characters reasoning wouldn’t lead that way, but it is hard to tell. And the covers make it feel like it might, at times.

I also hope that it doesn’t just become another, here’s a boss monster, let’s level up this character and make them really powerful. That doesn’t fit with what the story has been thus far either. It should be a struggle for Jinwoo throughout. But because of who he is, and what he needs to do, he can level up and overcome.

Let me know if you’ve read this comic? Is it something that you’re interested in reading or watching the anime of when it comes out? Supposedly coming out in 2023, or is it one you’ll pass on?

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What is Lords of Ragnarok

It’s a area control, monster fighting, temple building, statue building, player power heavy board game. Now, that sounds like a lot and it is a lot in the Lords of Hellas. It isn’t what I’d call a “clean” game, there are weird interactions and things that happen, but the game is so much fun.

The main thing I talk about when I bring up this game is the end game, more details here. Basically, you win in multiple ways. Take over two areas, you win. Defeat three monsters you win. Control five temples, you win. Hold control of a statue when it’s done, you win. And that might be a lot, but in a five player game, everyone was close to winning.

That’s Lords of Hellas, Lords of Ragnarok is more of the same. This is going to be a very similar game with just a different theme. You can find more details for it over on Gamefound where there is a light preview page up.

When And Where Do I Find It?

Well, it is going to be crowdfunded on Gamefound instead of Kickstarter. You can sign-up for a notification when it goes live, and if you do and you decide to back it you get a free hero expansion, value approximately $8. The when part, no official date on when this one will launch. I am guessing that it’ll be going live around Thanksgiving, but I might be late on that.

Hype Level

1 of 5

Disclaimer like normal, I am hyped for this game, this is just how hyped I am.

1 of 5 might seem pretty low. But let’s remember that this is not a truly new game. This is a 2.0 version of Lords of Hellas or a reskinned version of Lords of Hellas. I own Lords of Hellas. So while I am excited for this because maybe some slight tweaks and a Norse mythology theme, I own it kind of already. So do I really need another copy, the answer is maybe.

Is Lords of Ragnarok a game that you’re interested in getting?

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What do I mean by this? Well, a warrior tribe might fight to the death but an owlbear might only fight until it’s gotten some food or until it knows it’s been out numbered. What is the motivation of your monsters?

Fight Or Flight

When things go poorly for a monster, what are they going to do? I gave two examples above, but think about it before you get into combat. Every monster will have a motivation for what they are doing. A group of bandits might want to intimidate and rob, a mama dragon will want to protect her young, a zombie wants to eat your brains.

So when you plan a session, and combats, think about what they want. Will a bandit surrender if the rest of their party is killed. Will they run away? Or maybe a bandit leaves the party for dead and steals their stuff if they beat them. What makes sense for your story and for the monster you bring into battle?

On the flip side, a monster that is dumber, like an owlbear, what do they do? Most wild animals don’t want to fight. They will run if put in a situation that is dangerous to them, or until provoked. But back them into a corner and they fight. Maybe the owlbear spots your gnome and is hungry, do they continue to fight the party if they knock over the gnome, or do they pick up the gnome and run? I would say that the owlbear probably plans to run and separate the gnome from the party.

How Long A Fight?

Like I talk about above, this is another question to ask when planning. How long will something fight. Let’s go back to that mama dragon protecting her young. She won’t stop fighting. On the flip side, bandits will most certainly run if things go south.

This becomes an assessment of how long a creature will fight. Think about it before the session but also during the combat. An owlbear won’t fight for three rounds and run. If it is getting hurt, it’ll run. A bandit won’t fight until it’s at 1 hit point. If half the bandits die, the other half will run. So it’s less about the timing of how many rounds of combat versus what is happening in combat that makes that determinations.

And like I said with that mama dragon, she won’t ever run. A zombie, they won’t run. But the big bad of your campaign, they might run before combat even starts. A smart bad guy tries to avoid getting killed. And if they have a plan in place they want to enact, why wouldn’t they run immediately. Now, the players might not be a threat. In that case, the BBEG would not run but would they fight?

Target Priority

Finally, I want to talk about target priority. I think this is where DM’s, including myself, trip up often. We like to go after the tank or spellcaster, but I don’t think that is how it should always go. Some monster target based on other things.

I want to go to my game. The last session, you can read about it here, I put an arcane stalker in the parties way. The arcane stalker prioritized spellcasters. Why, because that is the arcane stalkers job. They kill spellcasters for the Winter Court of the Fey. And with a teleport ability, they didn’t care so much about the fighter. It made sense for them to ignore the tank to get the casters.

On the flip side, an owlbear, they will go after who they think is the biggest threat. And an owlbear threat isn’t going to be how humans maybe perceive a threat. The larger the character, the bigger the threat. Or, on the flip side, if the owlbear just wants to grab a snack and get out, they might go for the smallest. Either way they do not prioritize based on abilities, but on a simpler system of size.

Going back to our bandit example. Think about the composition of the party and of the bandits. If the bandits have a spellcaster or ranged fighters of their own. They might send two or three members to engage the tank. Then the ranged attackers will go after the healer or a spellcaster. Basically trying to keep the tank occupied so they can’t get to their own weaker members. Target priority is really something fun you can play with in Dungeons and Dragons.

How Do You Handle This In Your Games?

I want to know what you do in your games. Leave a comment below. Or let me know over on Twitter or Facebook, information down below.

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The Session

There was a little bit of shopping as the players headed out of Castleveinea. Barrai picked up a few tinkered little toys, including a spider that jumped and a bird that toddled around as it walked. And Kip bought studded leather armor. Things were uneventful on the way back to the school, city, and tower, as they didn’t run into any more goblins. But Bokken did pick up some nice whiskey for sipping in the evenings.

Back in the town they picked up on the last lead that they had. They knew the address of Nahzir, the wizard whom Addruss had been working with. After spending a little bit of time looking around and asking about him, they end up at Moody’s Bar, where Barrai finds out some disturbing information, in the week they have been gone, Zaphir, who hates Barrai and Thrain has undergone a transformation of sorts, and still really hates them.

They do get a better idea of the location of Nahzir’s place of residence. It is a long term stay hotel sort of location. Barrai and Kip scope out one side of it from a restaurant just down the street, and Bokken disguises himself as part of a display at a florists. Kip uses his familiar Kraig to fly up to what they surmise to be Nahzir’s rooms window and Kraig doesn’t see anything inside, but sense that there might be something there. Bokken spots that there is a side entrance that some of the residence seem to be using.

As it gets dark outside, the group decides to break into the building through that side entrance. The lock is normal and they are careful, so Kip is able to pop the lock no problem and get inside. It is just a normal hotel and they make their way to Nahzir’s room on the third floor. They check the door for magical traps, but there aren’t any. Opening it up, Barrai lets his little bird toddle through and nothing happens. Bokken goes in first.

There is a flash and a bang as some explosive concussion is triggered. A figured wearing a cloak that obscures all of his body in shadow leaps out at Bokken nailing him with a couple of slashes. A fight ensues and Bokken has a rough go of it after taking a lot of damage to start and then missing on a number of attacks. Kip, unfortunately for him, casts a spell drawing the attention and ire of the cloaked figure who changes his target taking down Kip. Barrai and Bokken are able to do enough damage to taken down the being and they revive Kip as well.

They figure out that the creature is from the Fey Wilds and is an Arcane Stalker, more about them later. Getting the corpse into Nahzir’s room, they ransack it. Kip finds another coded book as well as two books on the Fey Wilds and one notebook full of notes on that subject as well. They also don’t find any clothes that would fit the Arcane Stalker, they just find clothing for Nahzir in there. The most interesting find, though, comes when Barrai opens up a dresser drawer, and in there, there is a scarab.

And that is where we ended.

Behind the DM’s Screen

So the main thing to talk about here is using supplemental materials. I picked up through Drive Thru RPG and Cawood Publishing a book of monsters and in particular Fey monsters, this came when I was reading a ton of Dresden Files and was thinking about a Fey based campaign, that is still on the table. That is where the Arcane Stalker came from. It was fun to use a different monster. I built them up with their movements and their description to make them feel more unique.

The Arcane Stalker is an elite warrior from the Winter Courts who is basically used to kill magic users. They have some magical abilities of their own, such a teleporting or dispelling magic. So I got to play around with that, I knew that they were there waiting on Nahzir for some reason, TBD for the players, but also they were going to be after any magic user first. Even though the tank Bokken is a big threat, the Arcane Stalker is all about taking out magic users. It gave it a logical priority that the players could figure out.

So grab some supplements from other companies. While I do have mainly Dungeons and Dragons books, I am also a big fan of looking for new things, and from some of the established 3rd party creators, like Cawood Publishing and others, you can find a lot of other cool things to use.

As always, does the session and campaign sound interesting as one to run or play in? If you use third party published stuff, do you have a favorite?

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