Game On

Winter—the perfect time to hunker down with a warm beverage and a board game created by someone you went to school with. At least three Jumbos have made a name for themselves as board game designers. Check out some of their creations, grab a few friends, and while away a chilly Saturday afternoon.

Rob Daviau, A92, once designed games for Hasbro and now has his own company, IronWall Games. During his career, he has created or helped create more than sixty titles, of which we present just a few:

Betrayal at House on the Hill (Hasbro): Players are thrust into the midst of a horror movie. In the first half, they cooperatively explore a haunted house, picking up artifacts and equipment as they go. In the second half, a random player becomes the villain in one of fifty horror movie scenarios. The rest of the group must defeat the villain to win. The game won the 2004 Origins Gamers’ Choice Award.

Risk: 2210 A.D. (Hasbro): Daviau’s first spin on the classic world-domination game casts players as generals in an experience that is both quicker and more balanced than the original. It introduces special units, defensive points, tactical cards, and a map that looks a little different each game. Risk: 2210 A.D. won the 2001 Origins Award for best science fiction or fantasy board game. It also led the way for other game designers to take the basic concepts of Risk to new settings.

Risk: Legacy (Hasbro): Here’s a game that remembers players’ actions from game to game. As they found cities or scar the land, players permanently adhere stickers to the board. Sometimes they open sealed boxes or envelopes that add new twists. A fifteen-game campaign of Risk: Legacy lasts several weeks. The game earned five industry honors, including three Golden Geek Award nominations.

Viking Funeral (IronWall Games): Two players compete to attract Vikings to their mead hall by mourning the dead or winning a brawl at the funeral—which may result in another funeral. The game requires only a standard card deck you don’t mind destroying and the free rules posted at ironwallgames.com.

Ben Cichoski, A98, and Danny Mandel, A03, met at Tufts and have had sporadic collaborations ever since. They both worked at 38 Studios—the video game company founded by the former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling—until it closed. Then they started their own game creation studio, Super Awesome Games, in Cumberland, Rhode Island.

Legendary Encounters (Upper Deck Entertainment): This game puts players into the world of the first four Alien movies. Players start with nearly identical decks that they customize during the course of the game by recruiting characters from the films. Multiple players can win by staying alive and completing three challenges. But one player might be a traitor who wins only if everyone else loses.

Gin Mummy (Super Awesome Games): This free game spins traditional Rummy in a new direction. Instead of earning points by playing sets and runs, players win by holding an ace when the game ends. But holding the ace at the wrong moment can cost a player the game. Download the rules at superawesomegames.net.

97 Cent Space Battle (Super Awesome Games): Another freebie. Each player starts with twenty-two coins: one quarter, three dimes, six nickels, and twelve pennies. Players take turns flipping their coins onto the table (battlefield). Then they try to flick their fighters into their opponent’s “headquarter” five times. Download the rules at superawesomegames.net.

MATT M. CASEY is a freelance writer and the founder of CleverMoveGames.com.