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Our gift guide is designed to make your holiday shopping a bit easier. We’ve suggested a number of hot items inside, listed by general category of game. These are all games we’ve played and love, and we’re happy to tell you more about any of them or show them to you in person. If you’d like some personalized shopping assistance, we’ll ask a few specific questions that will help us recommend the perfect thing:
• How old is the person you are shopping for?
• Who will they be playing games with?
• What other games, hobbies, or genres do they like?
Find us on the floor or at the counter and feel free to ask questions. That’s what we’re here for - to help you have fun!
Card games have grown massively since the days of poker and Crazy Eights. Incorporating theme elements and fun mechanics in a variety of ways, they can be quick or complex - and sometimes both at the same time.
1225 4th St.SAN RAFAEL, CA 94901
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HOLIDAY
The newest Dominion set is thought by many to be the best. We think it’s the deck-building game that will change your life for the better. Dark Ages is an expansion to the other Dominion starter sets, but it can be played on its own with the purchase of a small set of base cards.
Card Games
Another locally-designed beauty, Murder of Crows is a light-hearted, Edward Gorey-styled card game that’s super-quick and fun. Race to spell out MURDER with your cards, with each letter triggering distinct effects on the other players. Steal, switch, cancel, misplace - and
the winner’s cards form a humorously-macabre tale at the game’s end! A great warm-up game for everyone.
Murder of Crows Atlas Games, $12.952-5 players, Age 13+
Dominion: Dark Ages Rio Grande, $44.95
2-4 players, Age 13+
12 Days The Gamesmith, $12.003-5 players, Age 8+
Timeline Asmodée, $14.992-8 players, Age 8+
Designed by the legendary James Ernest and published by one of our favorite people in the industry, 12 Days is a Christmas-themed resource-management card game about gifting and collecting presents. The object is to gather sets of goodies that are worth the most points while handing off items that don’t fit your collection. 12 Days has some of the most beautiful card art we’ve seen.
Timeline is a gorgeous series of card sets that challenges players to arrange
certain historical elements according to their dates. There are many different themes
available, including Inventions, Discoveries, and Events, with lots more on the way. Quick, fun, and educational, the Timeline family of games is great for all ages.
Other Suggestions: Gauntlet of Fools, Seven Wonders
One part game and one part hobby, these represent some of our favorite things to do in the store. Ranging in genre from fantasy to science-fiction, historical or beyond, there is a ton of magnificent miniatures battle games to be explored. Some of our favorites:
Miniatures Games
Role-Playing GamesThe reason that Gamescape is even in existence is because we all grew up on role-playing games. It all started with paper-and-pencil fantasy adventures, but the industry and creativity has grown a hundred-fold, and we’re all the richer for it. Of special note this year:
2012
Gift GuideBolt ActionWarlord Games, $35.00 and up
Songs of Our AncestorsZombieSmith, $30.00 and up
Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beginner BoxFantasy Flight, $29.95
FiascoBully Pulpit Games, $25.00
If you like history in your games like we do, this is probably the best squad-level miniatures simulation you’ll find. Written by Rick Priestly of Warhammer fame, Bolt action is a quick 28mm skirmish game with a ton of support in the way of minis, vehicles, and even a line of paints.
SoOA is a great set of rules for both skirmish and full-size battles, taking place in a World War I-esque, dystopian fantasy setting. The Quar are a race of cartoonish, round-bodied, long-nosed creatures that have been at total war for more than a hundred years. Game play is fast and intuitive with lots of choices for a good tactical feel.
Lots of news on the Star Wars front this year, and this is one of the biggies. FFG’s vision of the newest SW RPG is awesome: this intro set is perfect for beginners and veterans alike, with tons of stuff inside, including rules, maps, dice, and pre-generated characters. We’re really excited about this one, because FFG does things right.
Fiasco is a brilliant storytelling game with a dark theme and no GM necessary. In the writer’s own words: “During a game you will engineer and play out stupid, disastrous situations, usually at the intersection of greed, fear, and lust. It’s like making your own Coen brothers movie, in about the same amount of time it’d take to watch one.” ‘Nuff said!
Quite simply, everyone should own a copy of The Resistance. It’s a fast and fun party game of secret identities and sharp deduction. The forces of Good and Evil stay hidden from each other to vie for King Arthur’s realm - but each side must flush the other one out to win the kingdom!
For sharp minds and bold moves, strategy games can have many different themes and multiple components and mechanics all within the same game. These are some of our favorites.
Got a bunch of people coming over and looking for a way to keep everyone happy? Our party games offer competition and fun for adults and kids alike. Team play is encouraged; laughs are a certainty.
Adapted from the pages of SMITH magazine, this creative party game pits teams of players against each other in a light-hearted battle of words and imagination. Can you describe famous people, places, and pop-culture icons in exactly six words? It takes a perfect measure of wit and articulation...
A perfect blending of strategy game and space combat simulation in the Star Wars universe. Command a squadron of gorgeous, pre-painted miniatures using cards and tactics. Each ship has its own dial mechanic, weapons, and maneuvers. Awesome!
One of the most hilarious games in the store, the whole point of Gotcha! is to make people adhere to funny rules and catch ‘em when they fail to follow them. Stack and combo the rules to make it really difficult for your opponents - and laugh the entire time. Catch your friends before they catch you!
Family GamesThese are great games that are easy to learn for all ages. Adults and kids will be able to play and compete against each other. They have a broad appeal and are very replayable.
Donkey is a reimagining of the old game of Spoons - with a couple of twists. Every round presents a unique challenge to the players, who must qualify to grab the puck at the center of the table. Like Musical Chairs, one player will always come up short and receive a letter. But when you’re a DONKEY, the fun really starts!
Takenoko Asmodée, $49.992-4 players, Age 8+
Catch a Falling Star Playroom, $35.00 1-5 players, Age 5+
There’s a new panda at the zoo, gifted by the Emperor of China to the Emperor of Japan as a sign of peace between the two nations. But there’s also a small problem: he is one hungry panda! Each player must cultivate numerous crops of bamboo and carefully tend them while staving off the hunger of that giant furball. A gorgeous game with a really nice theme.
Your job is to relight an extinguished fallen star. But it’s not an easy job, and will require dexterity and a sharp eye as players add rays of light to the star in the form of sticks. Some are magnetized and some simply stack on top. Whoever can successfully place all of their rays illuminates the star and wins!
Party Games
Dixit Journey Asmodée, $32.993-6 players, Age 8+
Dixit is a game about communicating pictures through words with the clever use of beautifully-painted cards. Score points by creatively and successfully getting players to vote for your card. A truly brilliant and thoughtfully fun game of analysis and acuity.
Gotcha! Buffalo Games, $24.953-6 players, Age 14+
Six-Word Memoirs University Games, $20.002-8 players, Age 12+
Smash valuable bases using your faction’s special abilities in different combos: pirates, dinosaurs, zombies, and lots more. Want to attack with Ninja-Aliens? You can! Invest the most power on a given base and score more points.
But your enemies have combo powers, too...
Strategy Games
This year’s Spiel des Jahres winner by the designer of Dominion! Area control with changing terrain and variable objectives make this an easy game to learn with super-fast playing time. Plays different every game - our top pick of the year.
Smash-Up AEG, $29.992-4 players, Age 12+
Lords of Waterdeep WotC, $49.99 2-5 players, Age 12+
Though it carries the Dungeons & Dragons name, Lords of Waterdeep is really a true strategy board game. Each Lord must recruit parties of adventurers to quest in his name, earning power in the City of Splendors. Expand your influence by expanding the board - no matter how nefarious your plots!
Other Suggestions: Travel Qwirkle, Mystery at the Abbey
Kingdom Builder Queen Games, $59.99 2-4 players, Age 8+
Other Suggestions: Humbug, Tsuro of the Seas Other Suggestions: Panic Station, Pizza Theory, Netrunner
Donkey Cleveland Kids, $24.993-8 players, Age 8+
The Resistance: AvalonIndie Boards & Cards, $19.99
5-10 players, Age 13+
Star Wars X-Wing Fantasy Flight, $39.95 2 players, Age 14+
Our Holiday Gift Guide just wouldn’t be complete without another smash hit from Qwirkle’s Susan McKinley Ross. Cirplexed! is a visual strategy game where players build their own board using semi-circles of differing colors.
The crafty person with the most completed circles at the end wins. Fast,fun, beautiful.
Cirplexed! Mindware, $24.952-6 players, Age 6+
