Just when you’re looking for a stocking stuffer for your favorite Dungeons & Dragons gamer, Wizards of the Coast steps in with an update to one of its classic card games. The Great Dalmuti is a multi-player card game from the mind of Richard Garfield, creator of Magic the Gathering. Artist Harry Conway has provided the D&D spin on the cards, but the core rules remain the same. It’s available now here at Amazon, and via your local game shop.
It was only a little more than a year ago that you were just weaning yourself off your eight season fix of Game of Thrones. But the board game companies think you’re not ready to move on yet, so they have new tie-in games from the series to tempt you. Get ready for the classics, like Risk, Clue, and Monopoly, but even toymaker Funko is joining in later this month with a tie-in, full of its own brand of mini-figures and other unique playing pieces.
What looks to you to be the best of the bunch? Check out eight tabletop game options below and make your choice.
Review by C.J. Bunce
This week the Wizards of the Coast roleplaying game team introduces a third way to enter its family friendly world of Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying fun in a card game format with Dungeon Mayhem: Monster Madness. Along with the barbarian Sutha the Skullcrusher, the wizard Azzan the Mystic, the paladin Lia the Radiant, and the rogue Oriax the Clever from 2018’s Dungeon Mayhem base card game, and ranger Minsc with his miniature-giant space hamster, Boo, and the shapeshifting druid Jaheira from the Battle for Baldur’s Gate expansion pack, players now have six new monsters to add to the mix, and a stylized deluxe box that allows for all 12 character card decks to be housed in one place and played as a single game for up to six players.
In Dungeon Mayhem: Monster Madness, you play as one of six D&D monsters, each with their own way to charm, crush, disintegrate, and devour their foes. They include the beholder Delilah Deathray, the mind flayer Dr. Tentaculous, Blorp the gelatinous cube, the killer lounge chair mimic Mimi Lechaise, the red dragon Lord Cinderpuff, and the owlbear Hoots McGoots. Select a character from the core deck and one from the six monsters or combine decks from any past edition you have–each player chooses a character and corresponding deck of cards and all prepare for mayhem.
If you enjoyed the previously released six characters, you’re going to love mixing them up with the new six. Their personalities are smartly coordinated with their individual powers, and players will soon find their own favorites. Kids of all ages will love attacks like crushing hugs from an owlbear, or defending an attack from a rogue using “all the daggers.” Whether prompted by an evil sneer from a wizard or an eviler sneer from a dragon, everyone will have fun with the now complete set of Dungeon Mayhem characters.
Review by C.J. Bunce
Six have been chosen by their clans. New dangers have arisen, and they must work together and learn to fight for each other to achieve their mission, ridding the land of new threats. Unfortunately none of these chosen warriors trust each other. We meet the cast of characters in the first chapter of Rising Sun, a new comic book series from IDW Publishing set in 12th century Japan, based on the 2017 CMON Limited tabletop board game Rising Sun, where clans must use politics, strength, and honor to rule the land. The story was created by Skylanders writers Ron Marz and David Rodriguez.
Readers follow Chiyoku of the Koi Clan as she confronts a dragon who fells a fellow warrior. The introductory issue paints Chiyoku like a cross between the DC Comics character Katana, Disney’s Mulan, or China’s Lotus Rong on a journey Red Sonja might take–It’s drawn in the style we’ve seen of Red Sonja on her bloody adventures with similar sweeping action. Artist Martin Coccolo (Star Trek: Year Five) renders characters that are lifelike and recognizable from panel to panel. The costumes and vibrant color work by Katrina Mae Hao bring along a realistic, historical vibe to the world of the game (check out the core Rising Sun game and expansion packs here at Amazon).
Readers encounter a similar pantheon of color-styled clans as we met in the movie The Great Wall, this time the red Koi clan, the orange Fox clan, the purple Lotus clan, the gold Bonsai clan, the blue Dragonfly clan, and the green Turtle clan. As a bonus for gamers, the first issue includes an appendix with suggested game modifications.
It has vivid action and beautiful characters, presenting a good beginning for the series. Here is a preview of the first issue of Rising Sun, plus some cover art (above) for the first three issues, courtesy of IDW Publishing:
How often do you find your favorite game on the Web playable for free?
When I was a kid, my favorite board game was Bionic Crisis. It was based on The Six Million Dollar Man TV series and was a close cousin to my brother’s favorite board game, the three-dimensional Sub Search, which was a classic hide-and-seek game like Battleship. Bionic Crisis had a deck of cards, red and yellow Lite-Brite pegs, and a pile of circuit board cards that fit in one of four orange, plastic video-game looking consoles.
After borg launched, my brother found me an original edition of the other board game based on the TV series–The Six Million Dollar Man game. It featured a fairly standard move-around-the-board format, where players had to complete four missions via four playing pieces, a deck of cards and a “high-tech” looking spinner.
Now, our friends at the Six Million Dollar Blog have created two online versions of these classic Parker Brothers board games, and you can play them both now or any time for free.
