Members of the BYU-Hawaii Gamers Association share some of their favorite, lesser-known board games and card games. Perhaps you’ll find a new favorite for the weekend. Dominion“You are a monarch, like your parents before you, a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom ... Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams! You want a bigger and more pleasant kingdom... You want a Dominion! In all directions lie […] small bits of land, controlled by petty lords and verging on anarchy. You will bring civilization to these people, uniting them under your banner,” reads the back of the box.“‘Dominion’ is a pretty fun deck-building game,” said Brianne Burgess after winning a game of ‘Dominion’ with her friends. “It’s all about building your deck in order to get enough money to purchase the most provinces to eventually win the game.” Burgess is a sophomore from Arizona studying ICS communications.“You can get kind of competitive within the game, but it’s pretty fun to do something with your friends and do something together,” said Burgess. According to www.boardgamegeek.com, “In ‘Dominion,’ each player starts with an identical, very small deck of cards. In the center of the table is a selection of other cards the players can buy as they can afford them. Through their selection of cards to buy, and how they play their hands as they draw them, the players construct their deck on the fly, striving for the most efficient path to the precious victory points by game end.”BANG!"The Outlaws hunt the Sheriff. The Sheriff hunts the Outlaws. The Renegade plots secretly, ready to take one side or the other. Bullets fly. Who among the gunmen is a Deputy, ready to sacrifice himself for the Sheriff? And who is a merciless Outlaw, willing to kill him? If you want to find out, just draw (your cards)!" reads the back of box.“‘BANG!’ is cool. It’s an interesting hodgepodge,” said Abby Liv, a sophomore studying biology from California. “It’s an Italian-made game set in the western part of Mexico. It’s intense. The way you win depends on which role you play. Personally, I like playing renegades the best. But aesthetically, I like playing the sheriff because you get to wear the silver badge.” “It is a very intense game,” Liv continued. “Friendships last, even though in the game you get very mad at people who try to kill you.”According to www.boardgamegeek.com “The card game ‘BANG!’ recreates an old-fashioned spaghetti western shoot-out, with each player randomly receiving a Character card to determine special abilities, and a secret Role card to determine their goal.”Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes“Find yourself trapped alone in a room with a ticking time bomb. Your friends have the manual to defuse it, but they can't see the bomb, so you're going to have to talk it out – fast!” - Steam Store.Ammon Phipps, a sophomore from California studying biology recommends a game that is a mix of board game and computer game called “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.” “In one room, you have one person, they have the computer and on the computer is the bomb. In order to defuse the bomb, you have to solve the puzzles that are attached to the bomb within a certain time limit,” he said. “In order to do this, the person’s team/family/friends, are going to be in a different room with another computer. Through videofeed, they are going to communicate with him how to solve these puzzles. They know because they have all these papers and such that describe how to solve them.”“Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes,” released in 2015 for download on the Steam Store has received overwhelmingly positive reviews—98 percent of 2,012 reviews. “The more you panic, the harder it is to do,” said Phipps. “Remember, you are communicating through a video feed, you’re not in the same room. It’s really hard, and you keep looking at how much time you have left and you’re wasting precious time telling them how much time you have.” According to the Steam Store website, “Rounds are fast-paced, tense, occasionally silly, and almost always loud. Everybody has a role to play whether they are defusing the bomb or not. Swap out between rounds and share the experience with all of your friends! Puzzle solving and communication skills - and maybe a few friendships - will be put to the test as players race to defuse bombs while communicating quickly, clearly, and effectively.”
Writer: Daxon Levine
