Roll For It (Deluxe Edition) /// Once A Month Gamer

St. Patrick's day is next week, and I thought I'd review a game that requires strategy and a lot of luck. So if you are feeling lucky, why not play a game of Roll For It!

Roll For It! Deluxe combines the fast-paced action ofRoll For It! with the beauty of Calliope's iconic artwork. The Deluxe edition combines the contents of both the red and purple games and now supports 2-8 players ages 8+ and plays in 20-40 minutes.

Mr. LL gave me this game for Yule and we can't stop playing! It is so quick and fun and probably the easiest game to learn in our entire collection. We love it so much, that we play through the whole deck before counting up to see who won (instead of keeping track to see who gets to 40 points first).

The game comes with 8 sets of colorful, mini dice (6 die to each set). You choose your dice, shuffle the cards, place three face up and the rest in a draw pile. Then you determine who goes first and, well, roll for it! Each card has specific dice it needs to be completed (like 6 dice all with the 5 side showing). After you roll your dice, look at what you have and you have a few options for what to do next: complete a card, save dice for a particular (these will not be rerolled on your next turn), or just keep all your dice to roll again. Then it is the next player's turn, and on it goes. The first player to score 40 points wins!

PUBLISHER:
Calliope Games

DESIGNER(S):
Chris Leder

COST: $38.00
(however, the non-deluxe version of this game is $15)

I personally find I can play this game again and again and it has yet to get old. You have to put a bit of strategy into the decisions you make—making sure you have enough dice to complete a card, deciding is it really worth all your chances for that one 15 point card—but a lot of it depends on the luck of the dice roll.

I love the art for this Deluxe edition of the game, and the metal tin you keep it in. Roll for it is great for two players but if you want a longer game, then you'll need 3 to 4.

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Love Letter /// Once A Month Gamer

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and when I think of "love" board games, I think Love Letter.

Love Letter is a fun, quick game that is very easy to learn and great for just two or up to four players! After the first week of owning this game, it looked like we had owned it for years–partly because Bigby "loves" this game too, but mostly because we can't stop playing it!

THEME: Renaissance

PUBLISHER:
Alderac Entertainment Group

DESIGNER(S):
Seiji Kanai

COST: $9.99

Image via amazon because i'm having photography issues at the moment.

From Love Letter's website:

In the wake of the queen’s arrest, all the eligible young men of Tempest (and many not so young) seek to woo Princess Annette. Unfortunately, she has locked herself in the palace, and everyone must rely on those within the palace to bring their romantic letters to her. Will yours reach her first?
Love Letter is a game of risk, deduction, and luck, for 2–4 players. Get your love letter into Princess Annette’s hands while keeping other players’ letters away. Powerful cards lead to early gains, but make you a target. Rely on weaker cards for too long and your letter may be tossed in the fire!

This game is seriously addicting. Mr. LL and I keep playing because it is so fun, quick and so far we've been pretty balanced in wins against each other. The only bad thing I have to say about this game is that it is apparently just too tempting for dogs. We had it all packed back up in its little bag and left in on the coffee table for ten minutes, max, only to come back into the living room to find Bigby hand shaken all the cards out of the bag, chewed four of the little pieces to bits and was throwing the empty bag around the room.

Luckily, this game's price point is low enough that we can just buy a new game if we get desperate enough. Had he chewed up our Mice and Mystics game, I might be looking for a new home for Bigby (j/k).

So, if you are looking for a quick, fun and thematically appropriate game this Valentine's day, I recommend you give Love Letter a try!

Munchkin /// Once A Month Gamer

The OAMG poll ended in a tie! Munchkin was one of the winners and next month will be the other one! Thanks, again, to all who voted!

A dungeon crawling card game where you kill everything you meet, backstab other players and grab all the treasure for yourself, all the while laughing your ass off. Munchkin (affiliate link) is a game to be played with no sore losers.

Munchkin
THEME: Dungeon, Fantasy, Humor
PUBLISHER: Steve Jackson Games
DESIGNER(S): Steve Jackson
COST: $24.99
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: Munchkin 

This card game is HUGE. Every board game enthusiast should have a copy of this game on their shelves. It is such a big hit with players across the globe that it has almost forty expansions/variants/sequels (and sequels to variants)!

Here is what you get in the box: one die, two decks (the door deck and the treasure deck), and the rules/setup instructions.

The setup is simple, there is a Door deck and Treasure deck. You shuffle each deck, individually, then deal each player four from both decks. Set the remaining cards in each deck with reach of all the players.

The game mechanics are also simple Roll to see who goes first. Then, the turns go as follows: 1. kick open the door (draw a card from the Door deck and place it face up on the table) – if you draw a monster you must fight it, if you draw a curse then it applies to you immediately, if you draw any other card you place it in your hand (or you can play it immediately, like a class or race); 2. look for trouble/loot the room (this step is for the players who did NOT fight a monster when they kicked open the door) – looking for trouble is when you play a monster from your own hand and fight it, as where looting the room is when you draw a second card from the Door deck but no one else sees what it is; 3. charity – if you have more than five cards in your hand, you must play enough cards to get it to five or below…otherwise you must give your excess cards to the player with the lowest level.

Here is an example of a game setup. each player starts out with 8 cards, but by the end of your turn, you can only have 5 in your hand. i am showing you "my" hand here, so you can see the types of cards that will be in your hand.

The first player to reach level ten wins! Sounds easy enough, right? Well, I may have neglected to mention that the other players will be throwing down curses, monsters and monster enhancers on your turn to prevent you from advancing. Maybe. If you have a really good friend (or greedy friend) in the game, they may help you with your combat, should you need it. Usually at a cost (they want to split or take ALL the rewards).

a close up of some of the cards. they are hilarious, so the first few play throughs may take some extra time, as you will want to stop and read all the cards!

​Munchkin is a fast and fun game. I love the funny cards, illustrated by John Kovalic, that have names like the Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment. It is for three to six players, and I would personally recommend playing it with four or more. Three players make it harder/easier to gang up on your fellow players, depending on who is playing. Just remember what I said in the beginning, do not play this game with sore losers.

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Have a suggestion for a board game you’d like to see on this Once A Month Gamer post? Have any questions about this month’s game? Leave a comment down below.