It’s that time of the year again when peppermint cloaks the city, red becomes the common colour of choice, and Santa starts popping up in malls city-wide. Do you have someone passionate about board games in your life? Or perhaps someone just starting to get into them? Are board games part of your family tradition over the holidays? If you answered “Yes!” to any of the above (or are curious) we’ve got our staffs’ top picks for you right here! This week focuses on our Edmonton staff, our next post will be our Calgary crew’s picks.

1) Trevor

When a new game hits the shelf, Trevor is usually the first to pick it up and give it a try. He always has something new to show people, whether it’s a fun new game or a groan-worthy pun. His big pick for this holiday season is the Quacks of Quedlinburg, a game about shady potion-making. What he says about it: “There’s a popular saying among people just starting their careers: fake it until you make it. This holds true for the burgeoning doctors in Quedlinburg as well, who are all vying to be the greatest potion maker around, despite having absolutely no idea what they’re doing. Starting out with only a few ingredients and cherry bombs, your goal is to make the biggest potions so you can buy the best ingredients, earn the most points, and leave the quacking to the ducks. However, all of your potion ingredients are drawn, one at a time, from your own personal ingredient bag, creating a push-your-luck, bag-building game, where you’ll be quickly reminded that highly unlikely doesn’t mean impossible.”

For a more subtly-stuffed-into-a-stocking type of game, Trevor recommends picking up one of the many EXIT games, which are marketed as an escape room in a box. Winning the Connoisseur Game of the Year in 2017, EXIT games are a fun challenge. Trevor asks “Have you ever tried an escape room? The idea is that you are locked in a room diabolically designed to only grant you your freedom after solving riddles, puzzles, and other brain twisters. The genre has also become popular in a board game format with the EXIT line of games that provide you with a book and some strange objects in a one-off escape room adventure. It is, however, a one-time play: in order to solve many of the game’s challenges, you’ll need to cut, fold, and otherwise mutilate the game components. Better hurry though, since you only have one hour to make your EXIT!”

2) Kira

Kira is intrigued by all things undead and logical, and as a result, Kira’s holiday choices reflect her interests quite well: killing zombies and brute logic. Kira’s big pick this season is Zombicide: Black Plague, a fantasy medieval version of the classic zombie crushing game. In the game, you can gear up as a paladin, magician, or more and head to the streets to push back the black plague of zombies. Zombicide is a heart-pounding, adrenaline pumping, and punishing game. You are survivors. You have a goal: survive longer. Each mission has you fighting the unrelenting hoard of zombies that have infected your town, and you’re doing everything in your power to push them back and escape. Nothing says holiday cheer like defeating zombies and getting cool items like chainmail!

Kira’s small pick for this year is a logic game called Chromacube. Chromacube is a game that is intended to be played solo, but also works well when played with one other person. The game is simple: place the correct colour of the cube into the correct spot by following clues. The logic puzzles become more abstract the more you complete, and eventually, you’ll be looking at which colours hear each other and hate each other! Chromacube is a fun brain-teasing game that is sure to please.

3) Erik

If you have a friend or family member who loves a quick and fast-paced game environment Erik has two perfect games for you. Erik is the kind of guy who really appreciates a game with good cards, and his go-to is usually a deckbuilding game or Magic: The Gathering, so it’s no surprise that his big pick is a fast-paced card playing game: 5-Minute Dungeon. Have you ever had to escape a dungeon in five minutes? No? Well, you’ve been missing out! In 5-Minute Dungeon your goal is to clear each of the 5 dungeons in 5 minutes or less. You take on a fantasy mantle (Barbarian, Valkyrie, Thief, etc), grab your deck of cards, and prepare the dungeon. The further into the game, the longer the dungeons become, and as a result your resources quickly become more sparse. You need to beat obstacles, monsters, and humans to make it to the boss! Can you make it through all five dungeons in only five minutes?

For his smaller pick this year, Erik has accused, I mean, picked Werewords! The hidden identity word guessing game based on the popular Werewolf/One Night Ultimate Werewolf games. The story of Werewords is familiar: werewolves plague a poor village, picking off unsuspecting villagers at their leisure, and the village is fed up and ready to hunt them down. However, Werewords changes it up a bit, as the Mayor of the village has discovered a magic word that will defeat the werewolves forever. The problem? He’s fallen silent, and cannot speak. The village comes together to help guess the word by asking Yes/No questions, which the Mayor can answer with tokens. With time running out, can the village be saved? Or has their Mayor turned on them? Werewords is a great party game for 4 to 10 people, up to 20 if you get the deluxe version! 

4) Aylish

Aylish’s big pick this year is as colourful and creative as her hair: Junk Art! In Junk Art, you’re creating art from well, Junk, which happens to be a mish-mash of fun coloured shapes. The goal is to (usually) build the highest structure and attract as many fans as possible while on a world tour. On your turn you pass cards to your fellow artist, hoping to play a difficult piece so their structure is less stable. The round ends differently for each city you stop in, so let that travel bug bite you and visit countries all over the world! If you or your giftee own the game Flick Em Up, you can combine the games for a special stop in the city of Nashville. Plays from 2 to 6 people.

For a little more skullduggery during this merry and bright season, look no further for Aylish’s second pick, Cheating Moth! Everybody likes a good chance to cheat now and then, and Cheating Moth actively encourages it! Based on card games like cheat, Cheating Moth brings a new level of cheating to your gaming group. The game is simple: on your turn, you play a card that is one higher or one lower than the current face-up card. If you can’t, you draw a card. The first one out of cards wins the round. You can also make individual cards disappear. And by disappear I mean quite literally – toss them over your shoulder, tuck them up your sleeves, hide them under your hat, etc. Any way you can subtly get rid of cards? Try it. One at a time, of course. But cheater beware! The starting player also has the Guard Bug, and if they notice you cheating and catch you in the act, you must take the card you were trying to get rid of back! Let the cheating commence! Plays from 3 to 5 people. 

5)  Meg

For the folks who love the Nightmare Before Christmas and spooky-themed gifts, Meg has picked the ideal game gifts for them. First, for their big pick, Meg’s picked a game for the fans of true crime and mystery solving: Paranormal Detectives. Someone has died. The scene of their death? Confusing. The dead person? Now a ghost. It’s time to call in the detectives attuned to the other side to solve the mystery of why this ghost is now, well, a ghost! Detectives are competing against each other to answer the questions of Who, Why, Where, How and with what Weapon caused the death of our dearly deceased friend. To figure out these answers they use the tools of the trade: talking boards, ghost meters, tarot cards, and so on. The Ghost must do their best to communicate their answers through these tools. Whoever answers all five story elements correctly first, wins the game with the Ghost. If no one can guess all five story elements, whoever was most correct wins, and the Ghost loses. This game can also be played completely cooperatively! Plays from 2 to 6 people.

Taking a swing to the educational side of gifts, Meg has picked Witchful Thinking for their small stocking stuffer gift! Witchful Thinking is a mathematically based potion brewing game, where you run a potion-making business. To make the potions your customers are requesting, you need to add the right ingredients to your pot. Each ingredient has a positive or negative integer that when added to the pot will change the overall sum. If you match the sum on the potion you’re trying to create, you’ve successfully created the potion and can now stock it! Whoever has created the most potions by the end of the game, wins. Plays from 2 to 4 people. 

6) Matt

Matt enjoys games that make you contemplate each move carefully, which is why their big pick this year is Deblockle, a two-player game where every move will impact the game state. The goal is straightforward: roll all of your dice to the opposite end and remove them from the board by tipping them onto the star space with the star-face up. Each side of the dice has a different action that you take, whether it’s sliding, hopping, or shifting, all to help you reach your goal. You activate these abilities by rolling the die into an open space near it and take the resulting face-up action. But, beware, if you ever roll all of your dice to the point that they cannot move you’ve become Deblockled! Whoever removes all four of their dice from the board first, wins. Plays 2.

If you’re looking for a silly but intense game, Matt has you covered with the Nasty 7. In the Nasty 7, you’re Racketeers playing a card game, counting up to 7 and then back down to 1 with every card you play. On your turn, you play the top card from your deck and say the correct number accordingly. A player can accuse another player at any time of saying the wrong number – if they have, the entire stack of played cards goes to their deck. If the accuser was wrong, then it goes to them. The first to play all their cards wins. Be careful with your accusations – some cards require no counting at all, or mumbling at best! Plays from 2 to 6.

7) Kristen

Kristen is a fan of creative pursuits – sewing, music, and art are just part of her repertoire. For her holiday picks this year, she’s picked two that are creative just like her! First up, the big pick, the one, the only 2010 Spiel des Jahres/Game of the Year winner Dixit! Kristen says that “Dixit is a game of storytelling and strategy, but my favorite part is the beautiful artwork on the cards!” Players tell stories about cards to score points. Each round there is a storyteller, and their goal is to get some but not all players to vote on their story card. Everyone else is playing a card that matches the storyteller’s story to try and steal points away. Plays from 3 to 6.

Kristen’s smaller pick this year is Patchwork Doodle! Based on the classic Patchwork, Doodle opens the doors to more players and more quilting fun. Rather than take patches and place them on your quilting board, Patchwork Doodle has you drawing pieces into your board. Kristen says that “if you like the game Patchwork this mini variation is just as good! The puzzle of trying to patch together a quilt without holes is challenging but fun.” Plays from 1 to 6. 

8) Zoe

Last, but not least, is the author’s picks – mine! My big pick is the board game I’d love to find under the tree and the serious gamer in your family might love too: Terraforming Mars. Terraforming Mars hit the market by the storm a couple of years back, and the hype is super worth it. In it, you play as a corporation terraforming the surface of Mars. The game will end once the terraforming is complete, and you score points for cards you play, tiles you own, resources you’ve collected, and a variety of other things. It’s a long haul game with a ton of variation, including a great beginner’s mode to teach you the ropes. Plays 1 to 5.

My small pick to shove into someone’s stocking is L.L.A.M.A. Llama is a super simple UNO-esque game by famed designer Reiner Knizia, where on your turn you either play a card or pick up a card. When playing a card you either can play the same value of the card that’s currently face-up, or play one higher. Your goal is to get rid of all your cards or pass with the least amount of points possible. The first to 40 points loses, while the person with the least wins! Anytime you get rid of all your cards you can get rid of one of your point chips, which can have a value of 1 or 10, so getting rid of your cards is super valuable! Plays from 2 to 6.