Calling all elves!!
It’s that time of the year again! The battle to be crowned Santa’s Head Elf is upon us. In Present Problem! each elf (that’s you) must gift, steal or swap their way to the most prosperous bag of loot they can muster. Play your cards right to make sure you pocket more presents than coal. But be warned, it’s every elf for themselves and nothing counts until it is in your loot bag.

Starting with the Head Elf, and moving clockwise, each elf has two choices to make. The first, will they play naughty (take a coal and take two cards) or nice (take a present and discard two cards)? The second, what card will they choose to play? Once chosen each elf lays their card face down, cards are then flipped in order and the actions followed.

Play continues over multiple rounds, with elves being able to draw new cards that allow them to swap piles, exchange items for more favourable ones, downright steal from other elves, treat themselves and/or make elves pocket their current loot. Once the last present is taken, elves have one final chance to alter their fate before loot bags are added up, and the new Head Elf is crowned.

Players: 2-5 players

Age: 8+

Time: 20-30 minutes

The Kringle Caper, title #1 in the Holiday Hijinks line, is an escape room style game in just 18 cards! As a group, you will solve a series of puzzles to unravel a mystery.

Puzzles may test your perception, wordplay, and lateral thinking. English language fluency is required.

When you have solved a puzzle on the cards, you will enter the answer into the companion website (compatible with all smart phones and computers) and it will check whether you are correct. If you are, the website will tell you which card or cards to take next. The website also contains a graduated hint system, so if you get stuck you can get just a small hint about the current puzzle to get moving again without giving too much away.

This system is non-destructible: some groups may choose to write on cards, but this is not required. A group cannot re-play the game, but can pass it on to another group for their use.

This entry in the series takes about an hour to solve, and is rated 2 out of 3 in difficulty.

Players: 1-4 players

Age: 13+

Time: 60 minutes