We have formally entered the holiday season with Christmas less than a month away. With the yuletide season in mind, we give you the Absurdist Productions Holiday Gift Guide. A collection of some of our own range of products, as well as some of our favorite games by other publishers.

Churrascaria 

Publisher: Absurdist Productions

Churrascaria is our cutthroat game of gluttony where friends, family, or even complete strangers, compete to eat the most meat at a Brazilian Steakhouse. Play with your food as you swap plates, steal meats, put other players into food comas, and generally backstab each other to devour as much delicious food as possible. 

The game supports 2-6 players of ages 10 and up and plays in roughly 30 minutes.

If you want to step up the game a bit you can also pick up the Place Setting Bundle to add 6 beautiful neoprene player mats. Which makes it easier to handle cards on your plate and really makes the art of the food pop.

The Forest of Lost Children

Publisher: Absurdist Productions

This short adventure of the world’s most popular RPG system takes players into a dark fairytale. What starts as a search for a missing child will lead the players into a dark forest and a tragic story of hubris, loss, and madness. Where the final moral of the story depends on the players.

The 60-page adventure was written for a party of characters around level 3, but the encounters can easily be adjusted for higher or lower levels. And only one of them requires combat. The 60-page story is broken up into two sections with each easily played in 3 to 4 hours and the adventure can stand alone or be dropped into an ongoing campaign.

It is also available as part of a bundle including our follow-up, The Beast of Bridgedunon. Get both adventures in both physical paperback and downloadable PDF versions. The Beast of Bridgedunon also includes a foldout map.

Beyond our own offerings, here are a few of our favorite games from the last year or two that we think would make great gifts.

Parks

Publisher: Keymaster Games

A favorite for all of us here at Absurdist HQ. Every detail is beautiful, from the unique “wild” animal tokens to the National Park paintings to the perfectly designed insert. The game is a meditation on taking a leisurely hike through national parks but is also all about maintaining momentum. Enjoying the present while also planning your next step in search of the next great vista. And the game also has a few minor cutthroat elements.

Playing Parks, I can imagine coming to a beautiful photo op and realizing someone else is already there. Not wanting to disturb their experience, I quietly steal their camera and move on to the next vista.

The Taverns of Tiefenthal

Publisher: North Star Games

This is a strategy dice-rolling game with deck-building elements. You are the owner of a tavern who has to balance their resources with the customers coming in to become the most popular tavern around. Your deck contains the beer handlers, beer suppliers, dishwashers, tables, and waitresses that help you build your tavern. Your dice decide who is activated each turn to gain you resources, but your dice are shared and drafted from with all the other players as well.

The rounds go quick, the theme is fun, and time flies while playing the game.

DinoGenics

Publisher: Ninth Haven Games

While Dinosaur Island tends to get more love, we all tend to prefer Dinogenics. It’s a worker placement and set collection game where players operate competing dinosaur parks. You take turns placing workers on different locations of the main board, gathering DNA, building new structures, and generating new dinos from DNA fragments. On your player board, you’ll place buildings, fences, and dinos. Each round, you’ll attract a certain number of visitors, limited by hotel space. Players with a higher reputation (usually from having more dinos) will attract more visitors. Visitors bring money. Money lets you buy more things.

And that is it for our 2021 holiday gift guide. We do hope you will pick up a few games from us. Even if you don’t we hope you have a wonderful holiday season full of good friends and great board games.