Author: Stephanie

Gen Con at Home 2023

Last year, hot off our excitement from our first board game convention (Origins Game Fair) and subsequent sadness we weren’t attending the largest U.S. board game convention (Gen Con) we decided to create a special board gaming weekend at home.

For Gen Con at Home 2022, (which was VERY impromptu) we did the following activities:

  • Our (then) 6 year-old created badges for the family to wear.
  • We set up a board game store where she created price tags and a shopping experience for us so we could practice money math.
  • We picked up meals from local vegan food trucks.
  • We played a giant stack of games throughout the weekend.
  • We watched Gen Con coverage on YouTube.
  • Our 6 year-old made a list of board games played to practice writing skills.

From August 3 – August 6, with a Saturday emphasis for our activities, join us in celebrating Gen Con from the comfort of your own home.

Here’s what we will be up to:

  • Creating lists of our current top 10 favorite games.
  • Making badges for our family using our old con lanyards. (the 7 year old)
  • Watching Gen Con coverage on YouTube.
  • A Saturday morning coffee run and carry-out meals all day. Junk food will also be on hand.
  • Playing a massive stack of games from Friday-Sunday. Hopefully learning 1-2 new games as well.
  • Playing games we don’t own on Board Game Arena.
  • Sharing our weekend through many posts on social media @brownhouseboardgames on IG.
  • Using the following printables and social media graphics to track our stats:

Printables and Social Media Graphics (see below)

Tag me in your IG posts so I can share them! @brownhouseboardgames

Other Ideas for Gen Con at Home Challenges

It you take on your own challenges, please tag me in your posts so I can see what you’re up to!

  • “Number Challenge” Set a goal for how many games you’d like to play in a day and see how far you get.
  • Do a “Designer/Publisher Challenge”, playing through the ones you own and ranking them.
  • Have a Roll & Write marathon and play a stack of games from this genre.
  • The “Kids Pick Challenge” – Let the kids pick all the games to play in a day.
  • The “I Miss You Challenge” – Play the 3 or 5 games in your collection you have neglected the longest.
  • Play the lightest game in your collection followed by the heaviest.
  • “New Game Challenge” – tackle that Unplayed Shelf!
  • The “Indecisive Challenge” – write game titles on slips of paper or add to a spinner on the internet and let the fates decide what you play.
  • The “Rainbow Challenge” – Get your ROYGBIV on and play a game with a box of each color of the rainbow.

Card and Dice Game Challenge

Print out this sheet to keep track of the card and dice games played throughout Gen Con at Home. Have the kiddos practice writing the game titles in the boxes.

Mid-Year Board Gaming Report IG Story Graphic

Fill in and share on IG – don’t forget to tag me so I can share yours too!

Gen Con at Home Bingo IG Story Graphic

Check the boxes as you go and share your card on IG – don’t forget to tag me!

Board Game Challenge Checklist

This is A4 document sized for easy printing!

Board Game Challenge Checklist

5 Games Getting Released at Gen Con IG Story Graphic

General Gen Con at Home List of Games Played

My Current 10 Favorite Games to Play IG Story

July 2023 Reading

This is the first post in a new series focusing on my monthly reads.

Each month’s post will be updated as I finish a book, so check back weekly for updates!

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley

After the sudden death of a friend, a group of college friends makes a pact to call on one another when needed to hold a “funeral” for one another to celebrate the person who is need of a little extra care. The idea? That we shouldn’t wait until the people we love are gone to share the moments made together and the reasons why our loved ones are so important to us. Spanning decades, we revisit the friends at various vulnerable moments in their lives and how they gather to celebrate one another in the face of losing parents, facing cancer, etc.

The Guncle was one of my favorite books of 2022, and I anxiously awaited the publication date of The Celebrants after putting my copy on hold immediately upon its entry into our library’s system. Sadly, this book didn’t have any of the warmth or heart that I loved so very much in The Guncle. The only storyline I cared about was that of Jordy and Jordan, and when the book features an ensemble cast, it’s not good when there are more characters you don’t care about than those you do. Disappointing. ⭐⭐

The Only One Left by Riley Sager

The 1929, the Hope family murders rocked the Maine coast. Most people assumed teenage Lenora was responsible, but she was never proven guilty. Following the incident, she never spoke publicly about it nor left the walls of her home, Hope’s End, the cliffside manor where the crime occurred. In 1983, home-health aide Kit McDeere tends to Lenora after her previous nurse fled. One night, Lenora communicates to Kit that she wants to reveal everything about the massacre, but even as she reveals details, Kit questions her honesty. She is left to wonder if she is safe within the mansion’s walls…and with Lenora.

Since the publication of Final Girls, Sager’s first novel, I have looked forward to his new release each year. The two most recent titles, Survive the Night and The House Across the Lake, let me down a bit. The Only One Left, however, won me over immediately and proved to be a great palette cleanser that revitalized my love and appreciation for Sager’s storytelling. The creepy mansion on the cliff’s edge, mysterious Lenora, and the 1980s vibe all worked for me. Not knowing the direction the story was heading was nice too. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Harriett and Wynn are known among their friends as the perfect couple, together since college, happy in every way. Except, they aren’t. They have been broken up for six months but haven’t revealed this to the friends they vacation with each summer in Maine. Too afraid to break their friends’ hearts, they keep their secret, and each continues to play the part of loving partner. What happens when you still want each other while pretending you don’t?  

Each Emily Henry novel is better than her last. I love how she writes relationships, but in Happy Place, I really loved the focus on friendship, group dynamics, and the strain that time and maturity places on friends who have known one another for so long and find themselves growing in different directions. It all just felt real and relatable.

The setting of fictional town Knott’s Landing, Maine is the perfect backdrop for a summer read, which is essential to my enjoyment when I read June through August. I want the cute little town with its quaint shops, descriptions of summer foods, morning boat rides hikes, and walks to get morning coffee (from a place with a cute name of course.) Absolutely delightful. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Beach Trap by Ali Brady

DNF at 39% – I realized I didn’t care for the characters or the story, so I decided to move on

California Golden by Melanie Benjamin

In 1960’s California, the Donnelly sisters grow up in a household with an absent father and a mother who would rather be out in the waves than at home prepping casseroles. But when Carol introduces daughters Mindy and Ginger to surfing, the girls view it as a way to keep their family together and ignite some mothering instincts in Carol, as they constantly fear she will leave them. The girls grow up, and their paths veer in different directions: Mindy excels in surfing, takes roles in films, attends parties, takes a tour with the USO in Vietnam, and delights in her minor celebrity status. Ginger; however, struggles with finding her identity, and ultimately seeks community and love through a cult. No matter where they are in the world, there are things that tie them together.

When I first requested this ARC, I was pulled in by the description of a surf family’s saga, set against the backdrop of 1960s California with its party scene, drugs, and cults with the Vietnam War happening abroad. I generally enjoyed the story, but there were just too many big themes there and none of them received enough attention. It all felt a bit surface-level, and I wanted to go deeper. More surfing, or more about the cult, or more about the USO tour in Vietnam, rather than a little bit of everything. ⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

Summer Reading List 2023

Creating a summer reading list is one of my annual traditions to welcome my favorite season, but this year I dedicated even more time to the process. I combed websites, listened to podcast episodes, explored Goodreads, and consulted fellow bookworms to make sure I was creating a list perfectly aligned with my reading wants and needs.

This year’s list (and here I interject that I don’t expect to read all of these between June and August, but I like to have options to pull from) is a nice mix of generally lighter fare: thrillers, rom coms, gripping family sagas, and a bit of horror. I’ll be sharing a monthly update as summer progresses, so stay tuned for some recommendations as the weeks pass.

What are you looking forward to reading this summer?

Five Star February Romance Reads

It’s February and love is in the air…so why not put your nose in a book? A sweet, romantic, escapist novel to give you all the Valentine’s Day feels is just what the month orders.

Here are a few romantic reads I have loved:

🌟 NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT BY ANNABEL MONAGHAN

As a screenwriter for a popular romance channel, Nora Hamilton turns the story of her husband leaving her and their two children into the best script she’s ever created. When it’s picked up for the big screen, cast and crew descend on her old home’s property for filming. After everyone else departs, former Sexiest Man Alive/current leading man Leo Vance sticks around because he craves a little normalcy in his life. The love that unfolds is bigger than either could have imagined, but can it overcome his big-screen life and her emotional baggage?

🌟 BOOK LOVERS BY EMILY HENRY

Cutthroat literary agent Nora Stephens is a city girl at heart, but when her sister Libby begs for a girls’ getaway to small town Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, Nora can’t refuse. Even in this rural refuge, she can’t escape the city. Charlie Lastra, a surly editor she’s had many unpleasant encounters with, is also in Sunshine Falls. Amidst their constant run-ins, Nora must remind herself she can’t stand him, or risk being engulfed by their chemistry. An ode to bookworms and romance fans alike, Henry’s latest is another winner.

🌟 JUST HAVEN’T MET YOU YET BY SOPHIE COUSENS

When Laura arrives at the hotel for her business trip to the Channel Islands, she realizes she grabbed the wrong luggage at the airport. Upon inspecting the bag, its fascinating contents helps her craft a fantasy of the bag’s owner, sparking her determination to meet him. As she tours the island with surly cab driver Ted, she works to uncover her parents’ love story and write the romantic piece her editor has assigned her while also attempting to hunt down the bag’s owner. She slowly discovers her family’s story isn’t what she was brought up believing, leading her to reevaluate what she wants in life and in love.

🌟 ON THE ISLAND BY TRACEY GARVIS GRAVES

Teacher Anna Emerson can hardly believe her luck when she is offered a tutoring position for T.J. Callahan at his family’s summer retreat in The Maldives. While Anna excitedly awaits her summer in a tropical paradise, T.J., who is in remission from cancer and catching up on stacks of schoolwork, is less excited. As the pair fly to meet his family, the pilot has a fatal heart attack and the sea plane crashes in the Indian Ocean. Floating to the shores of an uninhabited island, Anna and T.J. quickly realize their survival depends on one another. As days turn to weeks and then to months, the pair grows closer as they work to overcome the island’s obstacles, all with the threat of T.J.’s cancer resurfacing.

My First Treasure Hunt Board Game

Overview:

photo courtesy of Jumping High Five Games

You are treasure hunters who have landed on a lush tropical island ready to search for gold, but an approaching storm threatens to thwart your plans for fortune!

Players must work together to explore and discover hidden treasure chests around the island as weather cards are flipped to represent the storms that could halt treasure seekers in their tracks!

Game Play:

First, determine the challenge level of the game by deciding to locate 1,2, 0r 3 treasure chests. Players take three cards to start the game, then take turns playing a card to the discard pile and completing their action: either moving their treasure hunter down a path, flipping a cloud to a storm cloud, flipping a storm cloud back to a cloud, or getting lost in the mysterious mist. After discovering all treasure chests, players must make their way back to the dock and board their boat before the storm makes it impossible to do so.

photos courtesy of Jumping High Five Games

Gameschooling:

As an introduction to board gaming, My First Treasure Hunt helps very young players build a gaming foundation and improve basic board gaming skills like taking turns, handling cards, counting, making age-appropriate decisions, and learning simple strategy.

What We Like About This Game:

  • The box is appropriately sized for the components, a rarity in board gaming!
  • The components are very colorful and sturdy, sure to capture the attention of little board gamers.
  • Reading not required for this game, but a general knowledge of numbers and counting is.
  • The game plays in about 10-15 minutes.
  • The level of difficulty can be adjusted depending on ages/skill of children playing.

Final Thoughts

Cooperative games are fantastic to play with children because it lessens the competitive factor and focuses on everyone working together to beat the game. Playing through My First Treasure Hunt, we found the style of game play and colorful look to be similar to another cooperative board gaming publisher we love, Peaceable Kingdom. (And this is a great compliment, because we love their games!)

We were impressed with the components, rules, and overall game play. Our 6.5 year old had fun playing this simple game even though she has moved on to playing some games from our collection. She also loved coloring the including sheet featuring the characters of the Jumping High Five Games universe.

For board gaming families who start their children in the hobby at a young age, I believe the sweet spot for this game is about 4-5 years old. And while our daughter has generally outgrown the simple play of My First Treasure Hunt, she still enjoys breezy children’s games and has requested to play this one when it’s her turn to choose games for game night. For non-gaming families just introducing mechanisms to their children, I think this game is perfect for 4-7 years old.

Bottom Line:

My First Treasure Hunt is a fun, colorful introduction to board gaming I would recommend for ages 4-6.

We received our copy of My First Treasure Hunt from Jumping High Five Games for review, but all opinions are our own.