Family Day Weekend Play & New RPG campaign

This weekend, we had a great time playing games with our family and friends. This time around, to the surprise of my fellow players, I didn't rush around taking photos with my camera to post on here. Here's a quick summary of the games we played:

1. Labyrinth - DH, my daughter and I played the fancy tin version we received as a gift from an aunt. (Contrary to some people's beliefs, we don't spend all money in our possession on games; they are gifts or games owned by friends that we use.) We tend to play the "younger children" version of the game, where we can look at all our cards at the same time and it is not required to return to your home base colour at the end. We didn't realize that there was another, special edition version of Labyrinth that was part of the tin set. It has a variation on game play using twelve maze cards that gives players certain advantages like switching places with another player, moving through a wall, or having a second turn immediately after your first one. We didn't try these cards out because we wanted to play the quickest way possible. I won this game.
2. Forbidden Island - Once again, three of us played. This was a new game for DH but she caught on quickly. We were lucky in that many of the cards at the top of the flood deck weren't crucial to our mission. I was the explorer, so I could move diagonally. DH was the pilot, so she could fly to any spot on the board as one of her moves. My girl was the messenger, so she could give cards to people even when they weren't on the same tile. This is a cooperative game and we were delighted when we succeeded in obtaining all four treasures and escaping the island. Yeah us!
3. Lords of Waterdeep - Lords is fast becoming one of our family's favourite games. Game time is short - only eight turns, which takes about an hour. DH, DM, James, my girl and I played. DM used a very different strategy from his usual modus operandi, as did James. The eventual winner was the youngest player. She had a really unique secret Lord and earned victory points by the number of buildings she built, instead of the number of quests of a certain type that she completed. For the first time ever, final scores went beyond 100; in fact, three of the five players broke the 100 point mark.

We hope to get together again soon, not just for the fun board game action, but because after a long hiatus, we are playing another role playing game! This is a D&D campaign, set in the Forgotten Realms world. Each player has two characters. I will write more about this game as it progresses. In the meantime, here is a sketch of all the player characters, illustrated by our talented daughter.