What about drafting?
Drafts tend to exacerbate skill differentials. Among a family, those are already likely to be larger than would be ideal.
Playing Magic with my kids, they were much more attracted to sealed than draft or constructed; limiting their options was really important. If it were me, I’d probably buy just a starter each and play a game or two with just those. Once they had an idea of how the game works and what the starters do, I’d let players choose a starter to be theirs (starting with the least capable, and taking whatever was leftover myself). If they know that’s the plan from the beginning, they’ll have a stronger incentive to not only pay attention to how their game is going, but what the other decks are like. If it’s something the family is still into after a few games, I might buy a booster box then, and maybe open boosters one or a few at a time, offering cards from each pack to everyone, with an eye to doing whatever will be most fun. That way, you get a shared family experience of the excitement of opening packs, and the kids get a chance to do some analysis, but with everyone there to talk about the way things can work well together and what that might do to the decks. In my experience, kids really get into helping each other choose well, and when everyone has had a bit of a hand in constructing the decks of the weaker players, it’s a lot easier for them to help a player who isn’t having a successful game notice something that is working well, so they have something positive to experience.
For my family, that’s been really fantastic. Often, CCGs do kind of a lot to make taking someone else’s perspective really hard. Not only do you not know their hand, often you don’t really understand their cards in play, with all that upside-down text you don’t bother to read, and you have no idea what their deck is even about. If you play a game against someone whose deck you might have played yourself in an earlier form, and which you were privy to discussions about how to improve and maybe even helped build, it’s a lot easier to empathize. So it sets you up for an emotionally more satisfying experience, with everyone better able to look out for one another. Plus, you learn the game a lot better, because you’re more invested in styles of play that aren’t the one you gravitated to at the start.
All of this focuses on the upsides, and I think all of that is very context-dependent. So, if this doesn’t sound to you like it would work, it probably won’t and it would be best to do something more procedurally fair. But my tendency to see promise in games is kind of why I play them so much. 
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Met some amazing people in Chicago and had our first game night tonight. Ran through;
- Cascadia
- Codenames
- Tsuro (with kids)
- flick car (with kids)
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I had such a nice holiday (even juggling kids all day) that I almost had a nervous breakdown just from being able to properly unwind.
Dragon Castle at 3P is even more of a gem; another player to interrupt your plans, and another player you can sabotage in return. Won all games but one, kept spirits to a minimum but cycled some dragons regularly for variety.
We had a Heat championship, and after coming second for the first two races, my deck finally cohered and I won the next two, which clinched me the win as the last race had a bonus points condition. Possibly my greatest victory, the last race ended with me an entire turn out in front.
We don’t talk about the other, much closer, races that followed.
Rhino Hero Super Battle is still great, but absolutely nerve-wracking with kids who lean on tables and swing on chairs and think nothing of thrusting their arms up to the elbow into the structure. Cardiologists do not reccommend.
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So after hanging out for Lorcana, I am glad to say that I have bounced without spending a dollar.
Why? There is no supply to buy. I cannot for the life of me find anything that hasn’t been scalped and a 50-100% markup added.
I don’t feel like I am missing out and frankly if they are this bad and producing and distributing, then I can’t say I have an interest long term.
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I have found nothing but empty boxes at my local stores as well.
This is a longstanding issue with “hot” TCG products. Resellers show up at stores when they open or know someone who tips them when the products come back in stock, and they buy everything up. It’s very irritating and I have never seen much of a solution.
Based on past experience, I kind of expected this, TBH, and it’s kept me from feeling any interest in the game. I’ve also watched it played in videos, and I have to say the gameplay does not appeal to me either. It seems needlessly complicated for a Disney game.
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I expect that either they’ll sort the supply side, and it’ll be possible to play the card game without playing the retail game at some point, or else they’ll pull a Fallen Empires and so thoroughly overproduce a future set that it’ll be cheap in a couple years. If you’re not trying to catch a particular moment when it would be great for your family, it seems like either case makes waiting on Lorcana appealing.
For myself, the game came out after the perfect window for my kids, so there isn’t really any hurry. I’ll try and learn about it in a year, maybe, and see if the hype holds up.
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Two games tonight:
I’ve played Dune: Imperium maybe a dozen times (and love it) but never with the expansions. Tonight I played with both Ix and Immortality. Both are great and the game is as intense as ever, but if I had to pick just one of the two, I think I liked what Immortality had to offer. Rise of Ix changes up a couple board spaces and gives you an interesting new track to move up and down but it does little to change the game outside of two new military units that are 1 point stronger and return to your garrison rather than supply. Immortality has a whole big science track with a new card row you can buy for science points. There is also a cool graft mechanic that lets you play tow cards as one. I think Immortality is more bang for your buck. I won this one.
I also played Great Western Trail for the first time. It is far less complicated than it looks and hd a really nice flow to it. Turns are quick and the repeat treks across the board keep things interesting. After the intensity of D:I, the point salad ending here was anti-climatic. Still, I liked it and would definitely play again. I shot myself in the foot a bit too much and took way too many negative points.
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I love Dune in all its forms - books / films / games. I first read the original book in the late 70’s as a teenager and revisited again lately prior to the current Denis Villenueve film version (imho vastly superior to the 1984 David Lynch version - Sting what you were thinking?). Consequently I snapped up Dune Imperium and both expansions as soon as I could. Definitely up there with my absolute favourites and 100% agree that while both expansions are a no-brainer, Immortality adds so much more to the experience. One of my first games with the base game I won when playing as Paul Attreides as leader with an alliance with the Fremen. I played the card (I think) Worm Riders in a battle which was enough to win the current conflict and the game. Pumped? Yes! And yet, I see on BoardGameGeek, posts saying the game lacks theme. Really? WTF?
I haven’t played GWT but do have Maracaibo in both cardboard and the app. Leaving aside the historical underpinning themes, the gameplay is really solid. Interested in thoughts from anyone who has played both as to which is best?
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That’s such a typical BGG comment. Unless you must be fully outfitted in a stillsuit in order to play the game, it “lacks theme.”
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It lacks theme in comparison to the actual Dune game, but it’s fairly thematic for a euro.
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Wait, that’s not how you play? I’ve been doing this wrong…
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I’m the DI naysayer, drinking my waste in my stillsuit. Still,. 
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DI naysayer? Sir, I invoke kanly. May thy knife chip and shatter.
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Perfectly stated! 
I just have this quaint notion that the Dune universe, like the Game of Thrones and LotR universes, isn’t suitable for Euro designs. Obviously anyone can design such a thing (to great fanfare), but it misses the point somewhat. So DI seems very much to me a good business pitch but not a great Dune game. Now, I’m comparing it to the 6-person classic which requires a lot of people and time to play, but at least that version, reprinted in 2019, definitely is saturated with the “spirit” of Dune. That said, aside from DI, if I want a Dune fix, it’s rough going elsewhere.
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Unmatched. I’m not that fussed about the Marvel sets, but Spider-Man and She-Hulk proved to be too much tempatiton. The set has a good mix, with Dr. Strange being ranged with some good heals and tricky melee nullifiers, She-Hulk with a ranged special and ferocious melee, and Spider-Man has a special that makes defending easy, combined with excellent comprehensive melee. Good mix, good map.
Heat. The custom tracks got another outing, and Monza proved to be a super-fast track, and, as the decider, very decisive, as after half of one lap (really more like a quarter or third, my ego can only take so much), one player had developed an unbeatable lead, with one player falling quite far behind, and I was unable to keep up with the lead, as she cruised to a comfortable win, never in any danger of losing.
At the other end the scale, San Marino was a really tough technical challenge that saw us stuck in a pack for most of the race.
I’m having more tracks printed off, I love this game.
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Totally agree about Heat. Snagged a copy a couple of weeks ago and haven’t been able to put it down. So quick to set up / tear down - I’ve even been playing it coming off evening shifts. A couple of laps against the solo legends drivers is a breeze. So much customisation, so much fun.
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Which is the best custom track to start with after I’m ready to move on from the 4 in the game?
Will be a little while though in all honesty. Thought I was doing well until the GB track this arvo. Had used up my last heat card slipstreaming in 2nd through the tight corner leading into the long straight on the first lap to take the lead. Could only shift to 3rd which was OK as the pack hadn’t cleared the corner and I had 3 high value standard cards which put me a fair way in front.
I then got waaay too excited shifting up to 4th and foolishly playing a stress card screaming into the 2nd lap but putting me into the corner at the end of the straight at warp 10. An embarrassing spin out, taking on the requisite heat cards compounded by a reshuffle and….more heat cards had me doing donuts in the sand trap for an extra turn while the rest of the cars sailed past. Sigh.
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