Stocking Stuffer Guide 2012

  "Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets. Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he put in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs?"
--G. K. Chesterton

There are likely as many stocking traditions as there are families who stuff stockings. I remember commercials from my youth suggesting that a diamond tennis bracelet--because it did not break the size constraint--was a suitable stocking stuffer. (If that's the case, make the stockings bigger--roughly the square, Fantasy Flight size game box.) In my family, "stocking stuffer" is a price range rather than a size limitation, and our stockings are often accompanied by bonus grocery sacks with things that are too big to fit in the stockings we have.

But for today's discussion of my recommendations for board game stocking stuffers, I'm offering two categories: one of small size, small cost games, and one of slightly larger games falling into a similar price range. Filler (stuffer?) games, if you will.

Here are my picks for 2012. Enjoy! (And if you're interested in larger games to give as gifts, check out our full 2012 gift guide.)

Riding the Roller Coaster (a review of Carnival)

[Editors note: The following is a Nemesis Review, featuring opinions from our in-house eurogamer, @Farmerlenny, and his deadly enemy the thematic space-loving @Futurewolfie.  Make sure to read both opinions to get a better overall picture of the game!]

With their successful Kickstarter campaign for Carnival, which funded in less than a day, Dice Hate Me Games solidified their reputation in the indie publisher space. Their enthusiasm for games is contagious, and they had no problem getting others to catch the vision for their first game. (And they won my loyalty by actually delivering my Kickstarted product on time, a feat I cannot yet attribute to other Kickstarter companies.) While they just launched their campaign for VivaJava (which, incidentally, is already funded), today we're looking back at their last success story, Carnival. What do we think about it? Check out our review below!

There and Back Again: A Farmer's Tale

This is my first post in a while. Sorry about the silence from my end; I've been traveling all over creation to celebrate Christmas with family. And I've come back with a tale or two about what I played...

My bags were packed with fun games—both for under the tree and for general consumption. I brought some old favorites and some new, and here were the results.