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We’re in December now and the Christmas season is very much in full swing. I love Christmas. The music and the festivities. The decorations and the more positive vibe, it makes me feel good. It can also be a time of added stress and worry, wondering what you may get for loved ones. The blogging team here at Zatu are here to help with our 2nd installment of stocking filler ideas and give you some suggestions of other gifts you might want to pick up. If you didn’t see the first instalment of stocking fillers, please feel free after you have read this to scroll back through the blogs and see the other ideas. Here’s our further ideas for you to help bring the family together this Christmas.
Gubs – David Ireland
This one was my introduction to the world of Gamewright games. Picked up for me back in 2012 as a stocking filler and still a regular go to game for us when we have a loose 10 minutes, or on our travels. It’s a family favourite.
Gamewright have such an imagination with all their gaming concepts. Simple games with incredible artwork. They really pushed the boat out with this one though with these cute little fictional creatures. I would love to have seen the drawing board and how the creators minds worked in development.
The game is for 2-6 players and is played with a single deck of cards forming your Gubs deck. The deck is made up of Gubs, events, traps, barricades, hazards and more. The principle is simple, be the player with the most Gubs played in front of you when the game ends. The game ends when the 3 event cards are drawn that spell out “GUB”. Count up Gubs and find your winner.
Turn play is simple. Deal starting hands to each player. On any player’s turn, draw a card, then play as many cards as you have available (if you want). Or choose to pass. You can only pass once, then the following turn, you must play a card. If you draw an event card (yellow lightning) then you must play it and follow the instructions, it is rarely good.
This game describes itself as a game of wit and luck and it is very much that. There is so much chance driven in this game and the very best laid plans can be ruined in a moment. That’s what makes Gubs fun and so unpredictable. You just have to play the odds as best you can and protect yourself as much as possible. It’s why I love it. The very best part is there is always so much laughter, which is exactly what you want at Christmas time.
Sea, Salt & Paper – Roger Ball West
This card game by Bruno Cathala and Théo Rivière fits in a box slightly smaller than the Oink Games standard, and shows surprising tactical depth.
It’s mostly about set collection. On your turn, draw two cards and discard one, or pick up one of the discards; some cards you can play as a pair to get an effect (e.g. a pair of Boats lets you immediately take another turn), others you’ll try to accumulate in your hand (one Shell is worthless, two are worth 2 points total, three are worth 4). As you go along, you need to keep track of the value of all your cards, played and in hand; when you reach 7, the round ends, and you can either lock in that score or risk letting each other player have one more turn, but get bonus points if you still have the high score. Then play again; first to 30-40 points total, depending on player count, wins the game.
This can make it a little tricky for new players: with several different ways of getting points, you may lose track of what your hand is worth, and accidentally go over the limit without noticing, because nobody can check you as you go along. But I’ve taught this game a few times, and mostly players pick it up pretty quickly.
It’s the combinations and edge cases that have made this one of my favourite recent acquisitions. Pair up two Crabs, and I can scavenge for a card in one of the discard piles; but do I want to do that now or keep it back until later, when someone’s discarded a card I really want? There are only two Sailors, though the pair is worth 5: do I discard one because probably I won’t see another, or does my opponent have one already? Getting all four Mermaids lets you bypass the rest of the game and instantly win; you can’t make this your strategy, but you probably shouldn’t discard one even so. But your opponent just did. Does that mean they have something even better?
On a side note, the art by Lucien Derainne and Pierre-Yves Gallard is lovely, images of origami creations that make it clear what’s being depicted without trying to be ultra-realistic. (Icons in the corners of the cards confirm it; there’s one Fish that looks very like a Shark.)
The game uses the ColorAdd system, so players with colour vision deficits can use a secondary icon to confirm that this card is the same colour as that one—which is all the game needs.
You’ll need some way of keeping score; I generally use an app, or gaming coins, but scratch paper or matchsticks would be fine. The Extra Salt expansion adds eight newcards to the 58 in the base game, with some new effects; it all fits in the original game’s box, and there’s no need to leave them out for new players.
Red7 – Roger Ball West.
This 2-4 player climbing game by Carl Chudyk (Innovation) and Chris Cieslik (One Deck Dungeon) lets you climb higher by shifting to a different ladder.
Cards are ranked 1-7 in seven suits, red to violet. On your turn, you can add a card from your hand to your “palette” (open on the table), put one in the middle to change the scoring rule, or both; at the end of the turn, you must have the best palette on the table, or you’re out of the round. The first scoring rule is always “high card wins” (a red 7 beats an orange 7, which beats a red 6), but it can change to others such as “most of the same colour” or “most cards below 4”. You won’t get any more cards, and if you run out you’re also out.
Once you’ve got over the hump of the ability to change scoring rules, this game becomes very quick to play. There’s some luck of course, but also hard decisions: can you survive under the current rule by building up your palette? If you need to change the rule, playing a card to palette too will eat up some of your precious hand—but if you don’t, you may find the game gets away from you, as other players’ palettes outrank yours under multiple scoring rules.
A round or two makes a pleasant filler; or you can play the longer “advanced” game, scoring the cards in the winning palette (and removing them from the game) until someone hits a point total. Optional “action “rules give some of the cards special powers to balance their values (e.g. when you play a 7, you must discard a card from your palette, but when you play a 3, you draw a new card), but the game works very well even without these.
The Mind – Sophie Jones
Looking for the perfect little extra to slip into someone’s stocking this Christmas? The Mind could be just what you need. This brilliant card game is simple to learn, addictive to play, and packed with suspense that will leave everyone on the edge of their seat.
In The Mind, players work together to place cards in numerical order from a deck numbered 1-100. The twist? No speaking is allowed. No hints, no gestures, just pure psychic connection. It might sound easy, but it’s anything but. Expect long silences, intense stares, and huge sighs of relief when you get it right or groans of defeat when you don’t.
Designed for 2-4 players, The Mind works well at every player count. Round one starts with each player getting just one card to play. As the rounds progress, the challenge ramps up, and you might end up with twelve cards each. To succeed, you’ll need to trust your gut, sharpen your psychic powers, and embrace the chaos.
To help out when things get sticky, there are special cards called shurikens. These let everyone reveal their lowest card, which can be a lifesaver when no one is sure who should go next. But be careful! You also have limited lives, and every mistake costs your team one. Lose them all, and it’s game over. Luckily, you can earn more lives and shurikens as you go.
What makes The Mind such a great stocking filler? It’s a game for everyone. You don’t need to be a seasoned gamer to enjoy it. Its rules are simple, and its gameplay is accessible and engaging. Plus, it’s pocket-sized, so it’s great for travelling, pub nights, or holiday gatherings. If you’re wanting something a bit trickier, consider The Mind: Soulmates,a version which introduces new roles and colour categories.
Trio – Roger Ball West
This 3-6 player memory game by Kaya Miyano lets you collect sets of cards in order. (The original Japanese version is called “nana”, and has very different card art which some players prefer.)
You’ll have some cards in your hand and some more face down in a grid on the table, the exact numbers depending on the number of players. The ones in your hand must be sorted in ascending order, 1 to 12 (there are three of each in the deck).
On your turn, you reveal cards until you get a set of three, or see one that doesn’t match. You can reveal your highest or lowest card; or you can ask an opponent to do the same; or you can turn over one of the cards from the table. If you get three matching, you score that trio; otherwise, all the cards go back to where they came from, table cards going face- down again. First to three trios, or to get the triple 7, wins the game. Advanced rules replace “first to three trios” with “first pair of trios”: for example a trio of 2 makes a pair with 5 or 9, the numbers shown in the corner of the card.
Which is straightforward enough, but it’s not as demanding of the players’ memory as most games of this sort: you might need to recall that Bob’s low card is a 3, top left card in the grid is a 12, and Alice’s high card is also a 12. Whenever a card is revealed, everyone at the table can see it, so you want to find out what other players have while not revealing your own until you can make a trio with them.
It’s unabashedly a stocking filler game, not something to be taken dreadfully seriously, but it does an excellent job of being just that.
Sushi Go – Luke Griffiths.
As 2024 heads towards the holiday season, you might start thinking about buying someone a little game to top up their stocking. The Zatu blogger team have got our heads together to discuss a variety of games that we feel are ideal stocking fillers.
I feel Sushi Go is a superb stocking filler. Generally priced above £10 but below £20, I feel it is priced in the right for an “a little something extra” present. It also comes in a lovely small tin; packing down really neatly so is likely to fit in a stocking.
Despite the low price point and small packaging, Sushi Go gives you a lot of game. A hand building game, Sushi Go plays a lot like a Trading Card Game draft. You start with a batch of cards, take one to add into your hand, placing it in front of you, passing the rest on to the player on your left. This continues until all cards have been used.
At the end of the round, you receive points based on the cards in front of you. Each card type scores in a different way. For example, some score for pairs (tempura), others for threes (sashimi) and some score individually (nigiri). There are a couple of cards that have a special effect, for example, chopsticks. The chopsticks cards that you can use one turn as a placeholder exchanging them for a double draw on a later turn, ideally dropping them on another player on the last turn, where they now have to play this valueless card.
What makes Sushi Go interesting is that you have to play based on limited knowledge of the card pool. With a small number of players, you will see your own hand a few times, so can play with this knowledge to decide what cards to place. With a larger number of players, the game changes. Now most of your initial cards will be gone before you see them again. This places a pressure on you retaining an idea of what has already been played in previous rounds since cards are not re-shuffled in between rounds.
I can completely imagine a group of family/friends sitting around a table playing this game after a spending the day together, it encourages interaction and discussion. I have played it with a variety of different people, with different views of what they like in a game, and all find something to enjoy in Sushi Go.
Overall, I think Sushi Go would be a super stocking filler gift. A great game that you can easily add to somebody’s present selection.
And a Happy New Year.
Whatever you end up doing this Christmas. The blogging team at Zatu wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (full of gaming). Have a fantastic one.
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