We recently began a character campaign in Near and Far, which would be at least our 6th by my count! Near and Far holds a special place in my heart not only for it being such a great game, but also for being our very first kickstarter! I needed a quick and easy snack to pair with it, and was in the mood for something a little different, so I went with Minimalist Baker’s Quinoa Breakfast Cookies! Read on for details, and, as always, check the At a Glance tables for the specifics.

At a Glance…

The Cookies

These cookies are super easy to whip up, especially if you have already cooked your quinoa. If not, simply follow the directions for cooking the quinoa on MB’s site (I’d err on the site of heaping measurements for the quinoa to make sure to have enough). Then simply mix everything else up together and form into balls! I’m 1) partly lazy and 2) partly greedy, so I often make bigger but fewer cookies than recipes call for. This time was no exception, so I ended up with 8 instead of 12, but that was fine for our group of four. These cookies are not your typical sweet and indulgent cookie, but are rather savory, crunchy, and nutty without tasting like a bland health bar. (This was actually perfect for our friends that evening, as they hadn’t had dinner and felt like the cookies were an acceptable substitute, haha).

Near & Far

If you’ve never heard of or played any of Ryan Laukat / Red Raven’s games, you are missing out! Ryan is a true modern day Renaissance Man. He designs the games (with insanely complicated story branches), does the art, runs the company, writes the stories, and often does music for the game as well. He has help of course from friends and family, but still! The world is immersive, the art gorgeous, and the stories hilarious and heart-breaking.

In Near and Far, you are building your adventuring party, recruiting others to join your gang, hiring pack birds and pack turtles (naturally), mining for gems, dueling in town, gathering treasures, all to prepare yourself to go out into the world and face the quests that await you. You make choices, often between dialogue/skill or combat, all to accomplish the artifacts you’re trying to craft to gain you reputation. There are actually three ways to play the game: 1) one off using cards as quests, 2) character campaigns (my favorite), where all the stories are related to you specifically and build upon each other 3) map campaign where the stories are related to the things you see on the map. There’s also a co-op variant in the expansion as well.

Despite the game probably being a solid 1.5 hours per game and usually played as a campaign commitment, it is still in our top 20 most played games of all time. If you haven’t had a chance, do check it out!

PS- Would highly recommend the metal coins!

Want to buy these games? Check out your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) or Board Game Bliss using my referral!