Settler of the Boards

2025 Year in Review!

By Steph

On January 3, 2026

In Year in Review

Number of Plays: 632

Unique Games Played: 351

Different People Played With: 92

Unique Locations Played At: 9

Days/Hours Spent Playing Games: 222 days / 428 hours!

Games I Spent the Most Hours On: Middara (21 hours), Marvel United (19 hours), Masters of Crime Series (12hours), Unlock! Series (9 hours) and Heroes of Barcadia (9 hours)

H-Index: 7 – That’s 7 games played at least 7 times! – Marvel United, Unlock!, Similo, Middara, The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game, Heroes of Barcadia, and Toy Battle

New-To-Me Games/Expansions Played: 255

My 2025 Win Percent: 56%

Stephen’s 2025 Win Percent: 53%

My Least Favorite New-to-Me in 2025 Games: Get Baked!, CakoZaurus, and Top Trumps

My Favorite New-to-Me in 2025 Games: Middara, Trinket Trove, and Wild Gardens

My Favorite New-to-Me in 2025 Expansions: Die of Barcane Chaos for Heroes of Barcadia, and Mastercraft for Merchants Cove

Stephen’s Least Favorite New-To-Him in 2025 Games: TowerBrix, Everdell Duo, and CakoZaurus

Stephen’s Favorite New-to-Him in 2025 Games: Middara, Trinket Trove, and Echoes of Time

Stephen’s Favorite New-to-Him in 2025 Expansions: Mastercraft for Merchants Cove, and Booze Ooze Invasion for Heroes of Barcadia

Here’s to much more gaming throughout 2026!

Our Brilliant Ruin

By Steph

On January 2, 2026

In Product Review, Reviews

Are you a horror fan? Maybe of the Eldritch variety? Do you like engaging narratives with mystery, intrigue, and monsters? Then Our Brilliant Ruin is waiting for you. This is a sociological, horror-themed drama multi-format series. If you like horror, and world building, then keep reading to see which story or stories might be right for you!

New To Me – Dec. 2025

By Steph

On December 31, 2025

In New to Me Monthly

This month I played through all the new games I bought at PAXU, and a fair amount of the games I got to review (though there are still a lot of those to go, haha!). I also spent a lot of this month playing through a Middara campaign, which has been a lot of fun too! Great way to end the year 🙂

❤️ – Loved It/Definitely Want to Play More (I rate it a 9 – 10)
😄 – Liked It/Will Likely Play Again (I rate it a 7 – 8)
🤷🏻‍♀️ – Okay/Take It or Leave It/Could Play Again (I rate it a 4 – 6)
👎🏻 – Didn’t Like/Would Not Play Again (I rate it a 1 – 3)
⚙️ – Prototype (so take the rating with a grain of salt)

Top 100 Games! (as of 2025)

By Steph

On December 30, 2025

In Favorites, Lists

I feel like this year absolutely flew by! It was a super weird year for me, lots of changes. But one thing that hasn’t changed is that I still love playing games! There’s a few new gems on the list this year, but my very favorites have been pretty consistent.

New games below are noted with a (N), while games that appeared on last year’s list have (#) next to them, with whatever place they were at last time.
How many crossovers do you have? ☺️

Jinx! We Matched!

By Steph

On December 29, 2025

In Game Review, Reviews

If I told you to write down 3 things people save up for, what would you say? If you answered house, car, and college, then we might be scoring some big points! You’ll want to match others at the table, and place answers on your board strategically so you can get 3 matches in a row! Plus, if you manage to match only 1 other person, you’ll score even higher! Let’s get jinxing!