GREAT GAMES GEEK DADS SHOULD PLAY WITH THEIR KIDS

As a father, it is important that you spend time with your children. But, sometimes it may be difficult finding something to do, especially on those rainy days when everyone is bored and acting up. Well, this may be just the chance you were looking for to pull out a game that has been gathering dust on a closet shelf that the whole family can enjoy playing together. Turn off the electronics and spend some fun time interacting with one another with a board or card game. 

As you are probably already aware, there are copious amounts of games out there to choose from and it is impossible to have them all. Look for elements of game play that are enticing to your family and friends. Is strategy and skill important or is your crowd less serious and looking for games that involve luck and chance to win? Do you want battle royal matches where only one person is the victor or cooperative games where everyone teams together and you only win if everyone contributes together to reach an outcome. Here are a few suggestions of some games my own family has had some good times with: 

Ticket to Ride

Can you monopolize the best transportation routes on a map to create the best transportation company? There are a variety of different versions of this game like the original where players compete for train routes across the country or my kids' favorite version where you battle for cab fares around New York City. An amusing way to learn about landmarks and geography while engaging in some competitive fun. I love games that combine educational content while also being entertaining. Ticket to Ride does just that!

Carcassonne

In this game, you compete to build cities, roads, churches, and farms from tiles you select at random. There is a starter piece to get you going, and you have to attach the piece you pick somewhere on the board, obviously where it fits. To earn points, you lay a miniature person, known as a Meeple on the city or road, and once the structure is complete, you earn the points. You can lay as many Meeples on a structure as you like, and so can your opponent. The player with the most Meeple on a structure wins the points once it is completed. It is a game of both strategy and of luck. 

Pandemic 

No games blog worth its salt would miss Pandemic while we are living through a Pandemic. This is a strategy game where you work together to cure diseases that are ravaging every corner of the globe. There are epidemic cards that supercharge the infection rate and make the pandemic worse. You are fighting against time and the board to win. It is a great game for thinking out loud and working together. 

Card Games 

Every father should have a set of cards at home. There are so many different games you can play with them. There are memory games where you play the cards face down and pick two trying to find pairs. Slapjack where the clue is in the name, you deal until there is a Jack and you all try to slap it, the winner picks up the cards. You also have the more complicated games such as Poker and Rummy. You could even teach the kids a lesson by using marked cards to show your kids how card sharks and magicians trick people. 

What are some of the favorite games your family plays together?

Purchasing items through this blog's affiliate links provides our website with a small commission at no additional cost to your bill. Your support of ageekdaddy.com by utilizing these links is very much appreciated. All revenue generated is reinvested back into this dad blog to provide our audience with content to be geeked about. 

STAR WARS DESTINY DICE AND CARD GAME

If you are a Star Wars fan, there is an entertaining card and dice game from Fantasy Flight that lets players pit some of their favorite characters from a galaxy far, far away in combative duels against one another. Build a deck of characters equipped with weapons, gear and skills that access attacks and abilities via the roll of dice or the drawing of a card. Will you choose to be on Light Side or Dark Side as you engage battles taking place in settings from your favorite Star Wars adventures?

We'd initially just been playing just with the Starter Kit and while it contains everything needed to engage in Star Wars Destiny you are limited to just four characters from the J.J Abrams era of the films. The starter kit includes the Resistance's Rey and Poe Dameron as well as the First Order's Kylo Ren and Captain Phasma. If you don't mind playing the game over and over again with these four characters, Star Wars Destiny can be played as a stand alone game with just the starter kit. 

But for those who want to expand the game deeper into the Star Wars galaxy you will need to purchase blind bag card and die packs that contain additional characters, battle locations, weapons, gear and skills representative of the entire Star Wars saga. You can purchase these packs individually from retailers or in boxes that contain 38 blind bags in them. Each blind bag includes 5 cards ranging from common to rare to legendary to find and a die that supports a character, weapon or ability.

We bought a box of cards and dice to add to our playable characters, arsenal of weapons and available supporting abilities. So which characters did we pull from our blind bags to join Rey, Poe, Kylo and Phasma in our Star Wars Destiny duels? It was mostly villains and bounty hunters/mercenaries including General Hux, Seventh Sister, Thrawn, Bazine Metal, Ciena Ree, Bossk, a servant of the Dark Side and a Gamorrean Guard. I like to pair up Bossk and the Gammorean Guard to battle against my kids in games. 

On the hero side, we pulled Ezra Bridger, Quinlan Voss, K-250 and a Wookie Warrior from the blind bags in our Star Wars Destiny box. My son has been pairing up Quinlan Voss with Ezra Bridger since he is a Jedi fan. Even though I think Vos may be a bad guy but oh well?!

My daughter on the other hand has been sticking with Rey from the Start Kit and pairing her with either the Wookiee Warrior or K-250. She has shown her own Dark Side with some combinations of the female villain characters we pulled from the blind bags too. She has as much fun playing this game as my son and I do if not more. The girl has a killer instinct when it comes to Star Wars Destiny.

In addition to the character cards we pulled there were also a number of new battle fields, weapons, gear, and abilities supported by cards and die found within our box of Star Wars Destiny blind bags.
Here are a few of the weapons we pulled that we can now equip characters with. An electrostaff, emp grenade, mortar gun, ion disrupter rifle, a blaster rifle and a blaster pistol.

Sometimes I play Star Wars Destiny against my son or daughter or take them both on at the same time. Other times the twins play against one another or friends that come over. We've been getting a lot of playtime out of Star Wars Destiny. So I purchased off Etsy some card/die holders to make the game play and layout more structured. It makes the game look nicer while playing and really helps you keep track of things while you are in the midst of a battle. They really have worked out great!

Never played Star Wars Destiny before? Here is how:




Fantasy Flight Games had been supporting Star Wars Destiny by issuing booster sets of 160 new cards every quarter over the last few years that players could find in blind bags. So there were regularly new characters, equipment and skills to add to the game. Unfortunately, Fantasy Flight announced earlier this year that it was discontinuing supporting Star Wars Destiny in 2020. That being said it is still easy to get the Starter Kit and blind bag booster cards and die from a variety of retailers. There are also some print-and-play cards available to download from the Fantasy Flight website but you do need a Starter Kit to make any use of them.

My family has a blast playing Star Wars Destiny so it gets a Geek Daddy nod of approval. This dad blogger has found it to be a very entertaining Star Wars game that isn't too difficult to learn to play nor does it take up a lot of time with setting up and playing. Especially fun for parents who grew up with Star Wars to share with a new generation of fans. Great for family game nights!

Because of some complexity with game rules and a fighting theme recommend for ages 8+. Due to the game being discontinued I also recommending not waiting too long to purchase the Starter Kit or Booster Packs though they should remain fairly available at least through this year and into next. May the Force be with you in your Star Wars Destiny battles!

HOW TO PLAY TOP TRUMPS

Top Trumps is a great card game for kids. It is both educational and entertaining combining informational facts, stats and trivia with strategy as players try to trump each other with their top cards. Whether enjoying for a family game night or taking on the road  to amuse children while traveling, Top Trumps is always a fun game to play. We've played Top Trumps numerous places including over a picnic table while camping, in our car while on a road trip, and on a playground during a family reunion. A deck of Top Trumps cards is very handy to have around.

There are a wide range of themes to card decks designed to be appealing to young players. Deck themes include animals (Bugs / Cats / Dogs / Predators / Sharks / Snakes), history (Ancient Egypt, Greek Mythology / United States Presidents), movies (Despicable Me, Harry Potter, Fast & Furious), places (Countries of the World / National Parks / Space) and vehicles (Airplanes, Fastest Train, Sports Cars) among other topics. There are more than 50 Top Trumps card game decks to choose from.

My kids enjoy delving through Top Trump cards examining all the impressive imagery and information contained on each card. For example for the Dinosaur pack every card features a realistic illustration of a specific type of dinosaur including Barosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Velociraptor. Thirty dinosaurs in all!

Each card contains unique information including a paragraph highlighting important details about the featured dinosaur and playable game stats such as height, weight, and killer rating. Killer rating for example is the likelihood of which species would win in a dinosaur fight. Carnivores like a T-Rex score a 9 out of 10 while herbivores such as a Styracosaurus score a 2. Each card in the Dinosaur deck also has a Meat-O-Meter which measures what dinosaurs like to eat when it comes to carrion and plants.

So how do you play a game of Top Trumps? First you gather 2 to 10 players to compete against one another. Then you follow these 7 steps for playing the card game:

1. Shuffle and deal all cards to players face down.

2. Each player holds their cards so they can only see their top card. Don't let other players see your card either.

3. Player 1, the first person to the left of the dealer, chooses and reads what they believe is the best statistic listed on their top card and places it in the center of the players.

4. Each player reads out the same statistic on their top card and places it in the center.

5. The player with the highest value wins all the cards in the middle and adds them to the bottom of their own stack of cards.

6. This player gets to choose the statistic for the next round and the game goes on.

7. The person who eventually wins ALL of the cards is the winner!

To make the game even more competitive and add some more strategy to it, instead of just looking at one card at a time in your hand eliminate the no peek rule. This means players can look at all the cards in their hand when choosing which cards and stats to use. Once the basic Top Trump rules have been mastered this is a nice way to take game play up a notch.

We always have a good time playing Top Trumps. Plus my kids are learning while having fun. Featuring impressive eye-catching illustrations and photography and intriguing trivia, Top Trumps gets A Geek Daddy nod of approval for being a top-notch game that combines educational aspects with recreation.

For more information about how to play the game or where to purchase Top Trumps decks, head over to toptrumps.us. Also thanks to Wholesale Halloween Costumes for providing us with the Jurassic World masks and AtmosFX for the dinosaur digital decorations seen in the background.