While we spend most of our time talking about video games on Gameological, we think that board games make great gifts. Counterintuitively, they might make even better presents than ever in our present era of consoles, smartphones, and tablets. A board game is the perfect way to break out of the screen-induced malaise that can set in when reuniting family members get bored with each other around the holidays. Once the conversation runs out—which tends to happen about 15 minutes after the last sibling, aunt, or grandpa shows up—generations young and old itch to check their personal devices. It starts with a furtive peek at the tweets on your phone, it escalates when your sister gets sucked into YouTube videos on her iPad, and before long, everybody’s on a screen.
A board game is the perfect way to get everyone talking to each other again without having to actually talk to each other—when everybody’s focused on a cardboard land of adventure, there’s less of an opportunity for Grandma Rose to share her latest birther conspiracy theories or for Uncle Frank to sell you on his can’t-miss commodity-trading scheme. (Your extended family is a disgraceful bunch of deranged malcontents, is all we’re saying.) So, as we did last year, we recently headed to the Chicago Toy And Game Fair, where independent game-makers hawk their wares to gift-givers in need of inspiration. Here are a few of our picks to aid in your last-minute shopping.
Serpent Stones
Robert Harrington has been working on Serpent Stones since 2005 when he heard about the discovery of an Aztec game that used obsidian arrowheads and an adobe board. The rules to that ancient board game are likely lost forever, but its emergence got Harrington thinking about what the citizens of the Aztec empire—a civilization whose most famed recreational activity is human sacrifice—might have liked to play in their spare time. The result of Harrington’s daydream has two players trying to form a contiguous line of warrior-priests from their side of the board to their opponent’s, a quest made difficult by attack cards that can destroy or capture your cards or create obstacles to your progress like a wall of skulls.
Who it’s for: History lovers and players who think that game night could use a bit more bloodshed. [SN]
The Magic Labyrinth
The simple goal of The Magic Labyrinth is to be the first to gather five spell components randomly scattered around the board. The trick is that the multilevel board contains a customizable maze, which is covered by a cardboard lid, leaving you to try to navigate it without being able to see the walls. Pieces are connected to the surface by magnets, so when you hit a hidden barrier, your magnet drops off, and you have to move your piece back to the beginning.
Who it’s for: Anyone who’s ever wanted to test their navigation skills against those of a cheese-seeking lab rat. [SN]