I love the look and feel of the game. Basically players are taking dinos from their hand and putting them in their zoo habitats. You get rewards for different placement bonuses. Once you have played around 20 times you get to a pretty comfortable strategy but there is enough that gets mixed up to keep you thinking each time you play the game. A perfect filler or warm-up game. I highly recommend for kids as you can put the dinosaurs anywhere and get some kind of points, and it is enough for adults to have a good time as well. Your hard-core gamer friends might not be too impressed, but I would be very surprised if there isn’t something in here that everyone can enjoy.

Stuffed Fables is a storybook adventure where the stuffed animals protect their children from nightmares. It is designed for ages 7+ but as it is written, I would guess it needs to be closer to 10+. Here are the reasons I like it and why the age should be modified:

There is a lot of story here. I liked the story and enjoyed getting into the world. However, the kids I know (and some adults) can’t sit still listening to a page of story before anything happens. If you are playing with youngsters, I would suggest reading the story ahead of time and paraphrasing for your audience.

The mechanics are straight forward. Different colored dice go into a bag and the colors you pull that turn determine if you can heal, move, melee or ranged attack, and if the bad guys activate that turn. There are wild dice to group with other colors. Dice can be rolled individually for more actions or same colors can be rolled and added together for more chance of success. Items and abilities also grant bonuses and/or change the color of dice.

The scenario book is also the map. There are times I want to set out massive tile maps and there are times I just want to play. The book drastically reduces setup time. In our first play through, we did the whole first adventure in 3.5 hours and we went through 4 maps. Side note – the adventures are split into smaller sections and we could have split them up and come back later if we wanted to.

Who this is for: Players looking for a lighter version of Jaws of the Lion, a game to play with youngsters, and adorable miniatures.

Who might enjoy this less: Power players looking for crunchy tactical battles, those less interested in the the children’s story style, or those that want a heavier plot.

If you are familiar with d20 rpg character building concepts this will be an easy game to pick up for you; races, classes, ability stats, alignment and background are all implemented in this game.

And the goal of the game? To score most points after 12 rounds. Thematically? Before you enter a dungeon or a fight with your fiercest enemies.

A game round consist of chipping dice, choosing what die you want and puti it on your player mat and then useing the power of that ability score you place the die in. Then you in turn order buy an item from the market is you have the cash for it.
Sounds quite simple? It is, but when you dig a little deeper you will find more layers of tactics and meets the eye at first glance.
And I like it!

I have been wondering about getting one of the expansions (Monsters and minions) where you test your mettle against some real monsters so that when your character is build the game doesn’t end (like in the base game).
I am a bit unsure of how long I will be playing this as I already have played all classes solo twice and 3-4 sessions with friends.
This is a good game but there are so many times to play it before you have have experience what is has to offer.
I am glad I have added it to my collection as this is a great intro game, but I am rethinking the expansion – at least for now.