Welcome to 2024 and a new chance to bask in the halo of exciting potentials and eager resolutions. Before they begin to dim, it’s time to look back at one last feast for 2023. For the last several years I’ve spent the holiday break working on a board game themed gingerbread creation. I broadly don’t have a lot of interest in perfect recreations of baked facsimiles, of cake entombed in a prison of fondant and rice krispies. But gingerbread is my favourite canvas, the spiced cookie in balance with the sweet icing, along with a charcuterie of candy treats.

2023’s gingerboard creation is the Shrine of Life from Mycelia. This family deck builder from Ravensburger caught me by surprise in the last month as a wonderfully accessible and streamlined game. It has gorgeous art and adorable flavor text that really draws you in to the mushroom realm. You can hear my initial impressions on the Fallout Episode of the Omnigamers Club Podcast and stay tuned for a full review.

Mechanically, the shrine comes across as a little unnecessary as a glorified dice roller, but you can’t deny the table presence and it’s just too much fun to spin it like a rotary telephone and see the dew drops tumbling out like a broken gumball machine. This gingerbread version is completely functional, with a little patience, and includes meringue mushrooms, coconut moss and jellybean dewdrops. Follow me on Tiktok for a pending video of the shrine in action and how I constructed it.

I have some exciting plans to come in 2024 and my own resolution is to keep this blog more regularly updated, as a sanctuary free of social media. So please subscribe to be notified for new posts (see the sidebar to the right), and check out my 2023 retrospective for anything you may have missed.

*A review copy of Mycelia was provided by Ravensburger*