Chris

A new year means new beginnings, including a reorganized board game collection! And "new beginning" just happens to also be the theme today for my new hashtag, #boardgamewritings🔮. Each week, we'll try to infuse some creative writing into one of our posts, whether it's just a single sentence, a whole short story, or something else. The goal is to write more regularly and support each other. (DM me to join our chat!) So for this week, I've written a light little ode to my newly organized board game shelves: O, board games! O, gentle cardboard and shiny foil trim; I hoard the shiniest specimens like a botanist's rare seeds or the valiant deeds of a reluctant hero. Each bright and beautiful box has been slot into its exact right spot on my many shelves, with nary a gaping hole or too-tight squeeze, only these perfect pretty kallax cubes. Their beauty further bolstered by soft plush, calm colors, and a lush logo of custom design. I gaze in wonder at such brimming potential, such an essential new beginning for the new year. O, promises of adventure! O, perfect boredom cure! How pure and perfect and --- Wait. Where will I fit the three new-to-me traded games currently out for delivery?! *** And for #sundaystats🔮 hosted by @emptynestboardmama , here are a few stats about our collection. You can swipe to see our additional shelves, plus the beautiful little wooden "magicandmeeples" sign made for me by @spaghettiandmeeples . ✨️ Number of shelves: 1 big kallax and 7 smaller shelves (a 2-player shelf, a mystery/horror shelf, a roll & write shelf, a Disney shelf, an abstract smaller-game shelf, a party and tableau builder smaller-game shelf, and a super-small game shelf), plus a few games on display ✨️ Number of base games: 330, with 67 additional expansions (most of which are combined in the base game boxes) ✨️ Number of games to sell/trade after the recent reorganization: 77 (DM me if you want to see a list!) ✨️ Number of board game plushies: 12 Any thoughts or questions about our collection??

You might remember my recent story asking whether I should invest in a logo or keep my selfie profile pic. The vast majority of you voted that the selfie is better because it lets people see who I am. I agree and don't plan on changing it (though I might in the future). But I still wanted a cool logo that I could consider putting on stickers or maybe even a T-shirt to wear if I go to a convention, and I have absolutely zero graphic design skills to make one myself. So when I saw the lovely logo that Adelle of @twinklysigns made for @boardgameswithb7 , I decided to reach out to see about getting one of my own, and Adelle created this beautiful logo for me. I love everything about it!! I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I'll use it here on Instagram, so if you have any ideas, feel free to suggest them in the comments. But hopefully I'll at least be sending you all a sticker of it if you sign up to receive a holiday card from me in the mail a bit later this year! (I can't wait for that!!!)

It feels like it's about time for a proper intro, so hi everyone! I'm Chris, in case we haven't met yet. (I use she/they pronouns.) First and foremost, thanks for all your support, likes, comments, and messages. It's been great getting to know you all, and I hope to continuing learning more about both the games you're playing and who you are. Who am I? Well, I'm a Pisces in my 30s. I love fantasy and crystals and everything magical. I'm a dreamer who wants to write a novel filled with spells and new worlds. I'm a kid at heart, and I cannot resist cute things (especially plushies)! Other things I love include reading, hot lattes and steaming mugs of tea, journaling and reflection, snail mail and penpaling, going for runs in hot weather, long rambling walks, and looking at the sea. I also have a practical side. I've built my career as an editor, copy editor, and proofreader of everything from websites to journals to magazines to board games. (You can check out the link in my profile to get to a list of games I've worked on.) Speaking of board games, I've been playing them since childhood with my parents and brother. As my brother and I grew older, the games we enjoyed got more advanced, though I still love old favorites like Clue. I've since roped Todd (you know him better as Husband) into all my tabletop adventures, and now he's always up for a game. In 2021, we moved into a new house in a small town after living in the city, and we're still adjusting. But we've had some constant things to help us along the way: each other, our parents, and board games. I've shared a few pics here to help you get to know us a little better! Please feel free to introduce yourself in the comments or by message, because I'd love to know more about you, too! 💜

Get ready, because it's time for a new #boardgamefaceoff, started by @boardgamebeacon . The theme is AROUND THE WORLD suggested by @themidlandmeeple and @larasrsmall , and my opponent is the very lovely Nat of @smallfriesgames . Round 1 has us focused on games that are great for travel. I've gone with Azul Mini because it's the perfect size to slip into a backpack or carry-on bag. The little plastic tile holders make it easier to play on unstable surfaces, too. And Azul is such a good game that this one little package will promise hours of fun. (My only complaint is that the bag should have a zipper on top, not a button that leaves space for tiles to fall out.) Nat has gone with Bag of Chips, which I've never even heard of before. But it looks cute and colorful, so check her post to learn more, then vote for your fave in her stories. What do you think of our choices?

Today for #topictuesday🎲, hosted by @ataleoftwomeeples , the question posed by @oohboardgames is: What is your current obsession? Well, I've played Everdell Emerland three times since my Kickstarter arrived, so I guess that counts! I love the new double-sided, upgradable cards and limited-use Artisan cards, which really change up your strategy, not only from play to play but from every other Everdell game as well. I like the Archaeologist track and the surprise of pulling artifact tiles from the bag, and I like the little helper meeeples that allow you to get double resources or share jungle spaces. And I like the lush, colorful theme a lot. Every time I play, I want to play again to see if I can do better. Oh, and I'm definitely obsessed with the huge, squishy capybara plushie!! My only two complaints about Emerland: 1) Why have both a frog and a chameleon meeple? They feel so similar! I would have loved for one of them to be a sloth or a jungle bird like a toucan or a macaw. 2) Why not include stickers for the remaining meeples, if only one was going to be screen-printed? I want them all to match. This is also my choice for #WeeklyWordsofPlay, started by @theliterarymeeple , in which I suggested the theme of CLOCK, referring to a steady rotation, like the hands of the clock. But instead of that word describing the game itself, I think it describes how I feel about the game! I'm sure I will return to this one steadily over and over (and over) again in the future. Who's with me?!

🔍 Dᴇᴛᴇᴄᴛɪᴠᴇ Dᴜᴇʟs 🔎 Chris and Karine tackle a mystery and compare notes. 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗲: The Green Star, gifted by @bromlaingames 𝗗𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹: Officially 4/5; we found it to be easy/medium 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘀 ⏳️Time to solve: 1 hr 30 for Chris; 1 hr 20 for Karine 🗣 Hints: 2 for Chris, 1 for Karine 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗻... 🧩 Number of puzzles: Each page represents one puzzle, with 9 puzzles total. It's enough to make the game flow without feeling too long. ♟️Puzzle quality: There's a great variety, from deduction to cutting out pieces of paper and folding or arranging them. Chris says, "The puzzles were so engaging, I didn't realize my laptop was dying until it shut down, cutting me off from the online interface where you input the solutions." 🎲 Components: It's an easy print at home game, in color or black and white, and then you're ready to go! Have a scissor at hand, too. 🎭 Story: You’re investigating an astronomer who has engaged in suspicious activities around the Bancroft Telescope, claiming to have detected a powerful green light. 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘀 🤓 Deduction methods: It involved reading the story and comics, cutting, folding, and organizing bits of paper so you could refer to them later on. 🧐 Toughest element: For Karine, it was finding the code in the last puzzle: "We had to use a clue otherwise we couldn’t see it." Chris got stumped on a puzzle where she missed cutting out a bunch of pieces needed to solve it. 😅 Easiest breakthrough: It was just the right amount of difficulty for us. 🥰 Favorite part: Karine says, "I like that you need to fold the paper to create new pieces that will give you clues." Chris adds, "I liked how details on previous pages were important for future puzzles." 🤐 Any criticism: We both felt a bit confused by the storyline. In fact, Chris is still kind of confused. Karine admits, "I’m not a huge sci-fi fan so…" 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗱 ✅️ Chris: solved ✅️ Karine: solved 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 We both enjoyed this print and play escape game. It’s an easy last-minute game to do at home, and with a great variety of puzzles, it's a steal for only $6.

I suggested today's question for #topictuesday🎲 (hosted by @ataleoftwomeeples ): Which board game would you like to see made into a movie? I'm picking Vagrantsong (@playwyrd ), in which a group of misfits finds themselves trapped on a ghost train, returning humanity to the tortured haints and discovering the secrets buried in the boxcars. At turns whimsical and haunting, it'd be an eerie yet beautiful film, a searing look at how we manage to hold on to our own humanity, even when all hope seems to be lost. This movie would definitely call for a dark, moody aesthetic hinting at former luxury that drifted into ruin. The blacks and reds and browns would be broken up by the wispy teal accent color of the ghosts, similar to the acrylic standees in the game. The character costumes would be similarly designed: a bit drab but with a pop of color for each character. The characters themselves already have so much personality just based on the descriptions and illustrations on their player boards (swipe to see them all), and I can definitely imagine them being fleshed out for a film. There's the thrifty Wayfarer, the adventurous Runaway with her pup, the hopeful Songsmith, and more. I'm not sure who I'd choose to play each character if I were casting the film, except for the Empress, who is my favorite character and the one I play in our campaign. She's a bit quirky, incredibly determined, and fierce in her beliefs. For her, I'd absolutely cast my good friend @obarresi55 , an actor who I think looks the part and could really bring the character to life in a cool way! Who would you cast for the other characters? And is this a film you'd check out?

WHISPER is the theme for this week's #WeeklyWordsofPlay started by @theliterarymeeple . It refers to a game where you make quiet moves that have a big impact. I've gone with Off With Their Heads!, sent to us for review by @druidcitygames . It's a fairly crunchy reveal-and-write for 2 to 4 players, with a Wonderland's War–inspired theme that we really love. Each round, players reveal a card from their hand (with fewer than 4 players, you reveal cards from the deck so that you have 4 in total). Based on the outcome, you can write the number you played in certain sections of your player sheet. The player with the highest card gets to fill in the topmost section, the player with the lowest card fills in the bottom section, and the remaining players fill in the middle section. It's a really fun puzzle to decide which card to play, trying to predict what your opponents will do so you can fill in the section you're hoping for, and then where to put your number in that section. Each section has its own rules about how you score points (for example, filling in all the numbers in a mushroom in the top section) and offers you bonuses when you write numbers in specific spots, such as the chance to write the number again in another section of your player sheet. Here's where the "whisper" part comes in: At the end of each round, you'll save 2 cards from your hand. You'll use all your saved cards at the end of the game to make a poker hand (straight, flush, three of a kind, etc) to score extra points. The better your final hand, the more points you score. So all the cards you squirrel away quietly can have a big impact at game end! Overall we really like this one. Even though I went into it a little scared after I heard it had poker influences, I find myself wanting to play it often, and once you learn how it works, it really isn't complicated (though it's always nicely thinky). Would you want to try this one? And who's your favorite Alice in Wonderland character?

Looking back at April, our #bgmomentofthemonth (hosted by the awesome @thatsolomeeple ) was finally finishing our first Dorfromantik campaign, which we had started back in October 2024! We refused to consider the campaign "complete" until we had made all of the achievements. The two hardest ones for us were completing all the river tasks and earning 300+ total points. But then one day earlier in the month, we had a play where everything worked together perfectly and we drew all the right tiles at the right time. We knocked out both remaining goals at once and got our highest score of 329! We absolutely loved this campaign, and it was a really solid go-to for post-work game sessions or even weekends when we wanted to game but didn't have a ton of energy for major setup or learning rules. Now I have to decide whether I'd rather keep playing with Husband to try to achieve a new high score or reset the game so I can work through the campaign again solo. Husband and I do want to start a Dorfromantik: Sakura campaign next, so that's our #boardgameintentions (hosted by the great @oohboardgames ) goal for May! I'm super interested to see how it compares, and it looks so beautiful for the spring season.

We recently played our first Decktective game, You Can't Cheat Death, which was kindly sent to us by @dvgames_official . So here are our first impressions of the series, which consists of seven (unconnected) games in total, for #firstimpressionsfriday🎲 hosted by the awesome @nerdygirlgaming . ✨️ 𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘂𝘀: owned, but it's a one-time experience that can be reset for others to play ✨️ 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁: This series features a crime scene that you "build" using cards and the game box. This particular version takes place in a casino and involves a meeting of several criminal overlords—but somehow, all of them have been killed. It's up to you to figure out how they died, who killed them, and why. ✨️ 𝗕𝗼𝘅 & 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: We thought it was cool how you create the crime scene using cards in the deck. The cards are the only real components in the game, along with some clips to mark your answers on the final question cards. ✨️ 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀: We played this with another couple, and it was really fun to work together to try to solve the mystery of what happened. The gameplay itself was simple enough: On your turn, you either play a card or "archive" a card that you think won't be useful for the investigation. This was a bit tricky at first, since we had never played a game in the series before and didn't know exactly what would help us or not. Then you draw another card to replenish your hand. Sometimes, you might encounter a card with effects that take place immediately and lead to more developments (and questions!) in the case. You have to study the crime scene for clues and talk together about your suspicions. This worked well for us because we're all comfortable around each other, but I can see it being awkward if you're with a group you don't know very well or you're shy about sharing your ideas. The best part was getting to answer the questions at the end based on our current theories. Most of the questions felt well connected to the case and the clues, though we felt that one of them didn't make a ton of sense. ✨️ 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀: I'd love try more Decktective games!

It's time for round 3 against the amazing Becki of @becki.vs.boardgames for the #boardgamefaceoff, started by @boardgamebeacon . The theme is GAMES UNDER 30 MIN, suggested by @boardgamesafterdark . For this round, we have chosen quick roll & writes. I've gone with Cascadia Rolling Rivers, which I absolutely love. It's puzzly, crunchy, and also somehow relaxing. And I really like trying to complete the scenarios! Becki has gone with Daydream, another great one. Check out her post to learn more. So far Becki has won both faceoff rounds (very deservedly), and I think I'm in trouble again this time. Go vote for your fave in my stories!

The lovely @saraalwaysloses has a new monthly collaboration challenge called Shelf to Table, in which she and another content creator each choose a "menu" of board games for the other from their collection. For April, the theme was RAINY DAY, and I had the chance to choose her menu. For me, she chose: 🥗 Starter: A Place for All My Books 🥗 This is a cozy game that's lovely for a rainy day, when all you want to do is curl up with a book and read. It was a little longer than our usual warm-up game might be on a game day, but it's relaxing enough that we didn't mind too much. 🥘 Main dish: Creature Caravan 🥘 This one gave us a chance to escape our "rainy day" with an adventure. Creature Caravan is one of my favorites, whether multiplayer or solo. I just love the puzzle of trying to get your cards to work together and using your resources wisely. 🍰 Finisher: Daydream 🍰 A lovely ending to our game day! Daydream is lately a go-to roll & write because it's so customizable for how much time we have and how complex we want it to be. 🍽 Lineup Thoughts 🍽 Sara picked out a wonderful menu of games for us, in a combination that we likely wouldn't usually chose ourselves. We did need a good chunk of time for this "meal" but it was definitely worth it. How do you feel about her choices? And check out @saraalwaysloses to see the game selection I picked for her!