Dark Tomb: Bloodthorn Island

On a quiet Thanksgiving day, my nephew Daniel joined Matthew, Nathaniel, and me for the second installment of the Dark Tomb series of super-tiny cooperative fantasy boardgames. Matthew and I reprised our roles from the first campaign -- a rogue-type for him, a ranger-type for me -- while Nathaniel opted for a warrior-type instead of the spellcaster he had used in the first one, and Daniel chose a cleric-type. In this campaign, we needed to procure a ship, travel to a distant island, and defeat a powerful draconic foe. We got the ship easily enough, but things went haywire soon after we set sail, as we ended up triggering all the monsters too quickly and they came swimming in hot pursuit of our vessel. Thanks to some clever use of items and Nathaniel's character's ability to reflect damage back at foes who hit him, we managed to survive the journey to the island. That final segment started off auspiciously, but the final boss turned out be a handful. Fortunately, it moved very slowly, so we were able to scamper away and come up with a plan. Matthew and I softened it up with ranged attacks, then Nathaniel allowed himself to take a huge hit so he could reflect damage back at the dragon, and finally Daniel finished it off with a powerful harpoon gun we had assembled from items scattered across the island. What a fun way to pass the time until Thanksgiving dinner!

Dark Tomb: The Ice Chasers

The third game of the pocket-sized dungeon-crawler Dark Tomb launched on Kickstarter this morning. It was funded in about five minutes! 

The boys and I played through the original Dark Tomb during our trip to New York this past summer. We'll probably dive into the second game when we visit my in-laws for Thanksgiving or Christmas. The third one should arrive just in time for next summer's travel!

Tomb Raidin'

The boys and I finished up the two remaining scenarios in the original Dark Tomb mini-box prior to returning to Nevada. Once we optimized our tactics, we breezed through the combats. We had a lot of fun along the way, and there were plenty of epic moments when all three characters got their opportunity to shine. I'll be sure to pack the Dark Tomb sequel box into our luggage for our next trip!

Narrow Escape

The boys and I delved into the first scenario of the mini cooperative game Dark Tomb the other day. (All components fit within a tin about the size of a modern smartphone.) Nathaniel is playing a spellcaster with a pet raven, Matthew is a rogue-like character, and I'm something akin to a ranger. The game plays quickly and we had fun discussing optimal tactics, but some lousy rolls set us back and nearly cost us a victory. As it stands, all three characters managed a narrow escape from the first dungeon. On to the second!

Dark Tomb

We'll be doing some traveling this summer, but the boys and I will nevertheless have plenty of game action to occupy our downtime. A recent Kickstarter called Dark Tomb is perfect for travel: It's a cooperative, d20-based game that literally fits in your pocket!