IN: Steve & Sandy, Sean & Wendy, Tim, Armando, Ethan, Tony, Nicole, Zach, Chris, Rob O, Landon, Lauren, Elliot, Danny, David & Zooey

Beacon Patrol (led by Sean) 2022 tile laying exploration game in which players navigate the coast of the North Sea to secure its beacon buoys, lighthouses and waterways.

Sky Team (led by Tim) 2024 2-player SdJ winner where players are a pilot and co-pilot at the controls of an airliner. Your goal is to work together as a team to land your airplane in different airports around the world. To land your plane, players need to silently assign their dice to the correct spaces in your cockpit to balance the axis of the plane, control its speed, deploy the flaps, extend the landing gear, contact the control tower to clear your path, and even have a little coffee to improve your concentration enough to change the value of your dice. If the aircraft tilts too much and stalls, overshoots the airport, or collides with another aircraft, you lose the game…and your pilot’s license…and probably your life. Tim said that the plane successfully landed to thunderous applause throughout the cabin for him and Wendy. 

Tranquility 3x (led by Armando) 2020 card game where the goal is for the team to complete the grid before any player runs out of available actions. Cards must be placed so that the grid ascends in numerical order from bottom left to top right. All the players win if they manage to complete the grid and have placed a Start and Finish card. All players lose if a single player can no longer play or discard any cards legally following the rules. The players may not, however, communicate. The quiet team won all 3 times with a varied cast of characters…. and was on a roll! There is a Tranquility sequel releasing to retail late in 2024 called ‘Ascent’ with the setting changed to scaling a mountain together.

Cahoots (led by Sandy) 2018 game where cards are played to one of four piles by matching color or number. Players work together as a team to complete a series of goals — without communicating what’s in their hands. A win for the team!

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/246761/cahoots

The Game 2x (led by Ethan) 2015 multiplayer co-op with limited communication. Players add numbered cards (from 2-99) to 4 piles with 2 of them ascending and 2 descending. Get rid of the entire deck and the team wins. If anyone is unable to play the team loses. The team won the first game and never came close the second time.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/173090/game

Wilmot’s Warehouse (led by Tim)  2024 storytelling game where players work cooperatively to organize the warehouse, using memory, imagination, and silly stories the group makes up. Players draw product tiles from the stack, discuss what they look like, and place them somewhere they’ll remember. After each tile is placed, it is flipped over and can’t be looked at again until the end of the game. As a result, the team has to remember where previous tiles were placed as the group decides where to place new ones. At the end of the game, in a five-minute rush, the team has to match all 35 face-down tiles with customer cards. Consult the team’s performance review to see how well you did! Our intrepid quartet was 35 for 35 and beat our previous best time by 10 seconds!!!

Mass Transit (Led by Rob O.) 2021 card game where players attempt to get 6 city workers home to the suburbs via bus, ferry and train. The group got 5 of the 6 home, but Rob deserves a medal for leading this on the fly after being handed the rules despite never having played it before..

Return to Dark Tower (led by Sean) 2022 engine building and resource management game, paired with a technological interface unlike any seen before in games, including the titular tower, which holds more than a few secrets. Players, in the role of heroes together gather resources, cleanse buildings, defeat monsters, and undertake quests to build up their strength and discern what foe ultimately awaits them. When the heroes face the tower, the game shifts into its dramatic second act, where the players have one chance to defeat the enemy once and for all.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256680/return-to-dark-tower

Spirit Island (led by Zach) 2017 game where players defend their island home from colonizing Invaders. Players are different spirits of the land, each with its own unique elemental powers. This was Niko’s (owner of the former Purple Dragon Game Store)favorite multiplayer game. 

Dorf Romantik (led by Tony)  relaxing 2023 SdJ winning co-op game with a legacy aspect….achieve group goals and unlock new tiles and experiences. Goal is to keep increasing the team score by placing landscape tiles (with various VP awards for longest river, railroad track and largest cluster of each landscape type) to progress to new levels. Based on a very chill and successful PC game. The group score was very good and slightly improved upon Tony’s previous efforts.

Hanabi Deluxe 2x (led by Ethan) 2013 SdJ winner, a tile game in which players try to create the perfect fireworks show by placing the tiles on the table in the right order. The tile inventory consists of five different colors, numbered 1–5 in each color. For each color, the players try to place a row in the correct order from 1–5.  Players display their tiles so that they’re visible only to other players. To assist other players in playing a tile, players must give them hints regarding the numbers or the colors of their tiles. Players must act as a team to avoid errors and to finish the fireworks display before they run out of tiles.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98778/hanabi