For many years, my dear friend and former roommate had a cat named Eilonwy. He —this may confuse some of you, but I promise that Eilonwy was a “he”—was a wonderful cat, with many admirable qualities, but he could not be left unsupervised with water. He could not be left supervised with water, for that matter. Any vessel containing water that was left on a surface he could reach would soon find itself right off. Had they ever met, Eilonwy would have provided Sir Isaac Newton with many an opportunity to raise his eyebrows, tilt his head slightly, and mutter, “See?”. We lost many a glass and many a mug in this way.

It was never malicious. He wasn’t making a statement, it wasn’t some sort of anti-Narcissus performance piece. Eilonwy simply could not help but bat at the surface of the water, and to do so with such vigor that its container would edge closer and closer to disaster. It became a part of the rhythm of the household: the occasional crash, the frantic dash of startled paws, a shouted, “Damnit, Eilonwy!”

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I realized long ago that publisher Itten has a library of games that balance precariously on a knife’s edge between Game and Novelty, often tipping towards the latter. They make fun, silly games that hinge on a hooky idea, games that often make a great first impression without offering anything for you to sink your teeth into, or even much of anything to gnaw on. Itten titles are often best as objects of appreciation, kooky displays of what creativity can lead to. My partner referred to them once as “coffee table board games,” a description so exact that I envy its creator.

The mileage you get out of any Itten game is by necessity directly proportional to how much mileage you get out of the hook, and how much you enjoy the presentation. The aesthetic of Crash Octopus, which looks as good on a table as any game ever has, has to be enough to hold your attention, because the game itself isn’t much. A game like Gravity 3 can only interest you if the very concept of a game made out of 15 small weights is enough to get you through the door. I am tempted to compare Itten to publisher Button Shy; they are each in their own way one of the hobby’s most consistently experimental…

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I admit I feel a bit guilty for trading away my copy of Draftosaurus, though not for the typical reason. To this day, everyone in our house refers to that lightweight Antoine Bauza set collector as ‘sweaty dinosaurs.’ We mostly enjoyed the breezy gameplay, but the game’s rhythm involved passing around a handful of dino-meeples that were oh-so warm by round’s end. The game earned its moniker. Trading that title away felt almost like trading away a pair of shared gym shorts. I hope the next owner knew the risks.

Three rounds into our first play of DroPolter, my kids reminisced: “I feel like we’re playing ‘sweaty dinosaurs’ again!” 

They’re always after me lucky charms

As a ghost emerges from beneath your bed, you reach for your collection of lucky charms—a cookie, a gem, a ring, a key, and a shell. With charms closed in one hand, players reveal a card showing the particular charms that will subdue the ghost. The first player to drop the necessary charms onto the table, without dropping any additional fare, grabs the chunky ghost waiting in the middle of the table to win the round. The charmed…

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