Three games to try for your birthday, séance, or exorcism
Happy New Year friends! Okay, I may be a wee bit late, considering it’s almost February, but there’s nothing like starting a fresh year with eminent nuclear disaster and a new Tide Challenge or whatever Darwinian Sadomasochist Award thinning mankind’s already dubious genepool.
On a lighter note, I’ve just celebrated 35 years of surviving on the pale blue dot and decided a night of roasting marshmallows, doing trivia for money, solving a murder mystery and conjuring the dead was just what I needed. Let’s just say that pinning tails on donkeys seems very pedestrian next to good old fashioned necromancy.
HQ Trivia
I do loves me some trivia, especially if money is to be won. HQ Trivia is a live game that airs at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. every day. It’s like a primetime television game show blended with You Don’t Know Jack games. Players with the app attempt to answer 12 trivia questions with a chance to split a $2,000 prize at the end.
Vine created their trivia game with a short fuse for each question so there is very little chance of Googling the answers. HQ Trivia does have a noticeable lag on Apple IOS and is prone to freezing up on a player’s phone causing them to be eliminated even though they selected the correct answer.
Hopefully with the immense popularity and viewership ranging in the millions HQ Trivia will fix the bugs and maybe expand that glorious prize to equal that number.
Mysterium
A ghost haunts a Scottish Manor and a brilliant astrologist assembles a team of world renowned psychics to help solve who was behind the ghost’s death finally sending it to eternal peace. Mysterium can best be explained as Clue! having a spooky baby with a Rorschach test.
This game comprises of at least two psychics and another player who assumes the role of a mute amnesiatic ghost. The ghost player must lead the psychics to a murder suspect, murder location, and murder weapon within seven turns through the use of vision cards. Vision cards feature beautiful abstract artwork that channels a bit of Burton with Gaimen with a splash of Dali.
Mysterium is a real exercise in abstract thinking for both the ghost player and the psychic players. Setup is a bit labor intensive but the rules are straightforward. The real fun is in the theatrics that one can have while being a ghost or even the psychic. I utilized my new salt lamp to answer questions with one flicker for yes and two for no.
Mysterium is a family friendly game and if you have little ones that can’t sit still you can employ them as child “ghost helpers” to sneak vision cards under the table to add a bit more creep to the fun. Definitely a must have for the board game collection.
Stranger Things Quija Board
There is nothing like sending the little ones off to bed while the adults slip into a mellow buzz with adult style beverages only to scare the living crap out of one another. Maybe the sweet neon red Stanger Things logo tempted me or maybe the spirits were beckoning me to finally tap into some spiritual awareness.
I think my biggest drive to want a Quija board for my birthday is trying to figure out what the heck makes it a game in the first place. Sure there are rules, always say goodbye to the spirit after each session, have an open mind, never feed your Quija board after midnight and so on. That’s it really, no dice, no points, just you and the threat of imminent demonic possession I guess?
The Stanger Things Quija board is designed look like Winona Ryder’s mental breakdown from the popular show. The letters are easy to read but the plastic planchette leaves much to be desired especially if the thing drifts towards the edge of the board when the “spirits” dial in numbers.
Either the planchette needs to be smaller or the board needs to be at least an inch wider at the top and bottom. If you have large lands manipulating this thing can be problematic.
The Quija still carries some otherworldly sense of the unknown and is great fun taken seriously or not. I think we spent the first 15 minutes touching the planchette and laughing hysterically at ourselves.
Stanger Things Quija Board is a nifty novelty item that is light and easy to pack out for a family game night fit to scare Grandma into a coma. So if that is your game, I highly recommend it.
When not vaporizing zombies or leading space marines as a mousepad Mattis, Brandon Watson is making gourmet pancakes and promoting local artists.