Family game time

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D&D Starter Kit 2025 with nephew. He just spent his own money and purchased it at the game store. It comes in a wargame style box, with as much weight as a wargame in terms of poundage. If I recall correctly, this is a 2025 edition.

The start kit has a lot of pre-digested material designed to help people get started as a DM, helpful for nephew.

In any case, we did a learning game on the wilderness map. We had some bumps with getting the processes under control. Nephew was the man with the rules, so it was on him to keep everything on the rails, and overall he did a pretty good job.

I don’t think he expected as much improvisation as what is required to conduct a session as a DM. I went off the rails pretty quickly, with actions not covered by the rules. He was a bit non-plussed and didn’t know what to do at times.

We did about an hour and called it good.

Star Realms 27/51

We also played a game of Star Realms. This was me teaching him the rules. I won it, but I did have a pretty lucky initial draw with a great 2 cost Federation ship, excellent as I was first player. I think he liked this better than Jump Drive.

The 27th game of Star Realms proper, with 51 total in the Star Realms family.

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What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.