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You picked T’au for the battlesuits, the railguns, and the promise of devastating shooting. Then a Space Marine army walked through your first volley, took the middle of the table, and started charging. Now your impressive guns are fighting for breathing room. You’re losing objectives. And you’re wondering whether you bought the wrong models—or whether there’s something about this army you haven’t figured out yet. T’au can reward careful positioning and coordinated firepower,

You finish a session feeling pretty good. The battle was tense. The villain finally revealed her plan. Someone pulled off something ridiculous with a rope. Then you realize one player barely spoke all night. Your lore enthusiast loved the revelation. Your fighter came alive during combat. Your rogue wanted to know what was in the locked chest you never reached. And you’re wondering whether everyone actually had fun—or whether some of them spent three hours waiting for their t

You’ve spotted a ’Mech you love. You can already picture it striding through smoke, turning toward an enemy, and unleashing enough firepower to change the battle. Then you discover there are two ways to play: Classic BattleTech and BattleTech: Alpha Strike. Which one should you learn? Which one fits your schedule? And will choosing one mean buying different miniatures? Here’s the reassuring part: both games take place in the same universe, and your BattleTech miniatures can s

Your Adventure Starts Here. Ever wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons but weren't sure where to begin? Maybe you don't have a group. Maybe you've never rolled a die. Maybe you just want a place to share an adventure with some good people. Come find your people at Monkey Llama Games. Our tables are always free to use when you're running your own game. Bring your friends, bring your adventure, and make yourself at home. No purchase necessary. No table fees. And if you're new? We'v

Find Your People. Play Your Game. Looking for a place to play Warhammer 40,000 in Mid-Michigan? Pull up a chair at Monkey Llama Games! Whether you're a seasoned commander, returning to the hobby, or just getting started, there's a place for you here. Our gaming tables are always free to use. Bring your own game and enjoy our space, any time we're open. No purchase necessary. No table fees. Just good games and good company. A Community That Helps You Grow Never played before?

One of the easiest mistakes a Dungeon Master can make is treating pacing like a metronome. Every scene needs to move quickly. Every player needs to stay on task. Every moment needs to push the story forward. But pacing isn't about maintaining a constant speed. It's about knowing when to accelerate, when to slow down, and when to let a moment breathe. A good D&D session doesn't move at one speed. It moves at the speed of the story. Not Every Moment Deserves the Same Attention

The first thing you notice is the smell. Not the smell of the cave itself. That comes later. At the table, it is pizza and cardboard and the faint sweetness of the soda Gabriel has been drinking for the last hour. There are character sheets spread between dice towers and pencils. Someone has left a bag of chips open. A battle mat covers most of the table, crowded with little figures that represent people who, five minutes ago, existed only on paper. Then Corbin speaks. “The p

You already play Warhammer 40,000. You know what a Space Marine is. You know the Imperium isn't exactly having a good millennium. Maybe you've painted Ultramarines, Astra Militarum, Black Templars, Tyranids, Necrons, Orks—or some combination of all of them. Then you decided you wanted to understand the story behind the miniatures. And you discovered the problem: There are hundreds of Warhammer 40,000 novels. Where do you even start? The good news is that you don't need to rea

Your buddy has a plan. He puts his Khorne army across the table, looks at you, smiles, and starts moving toward you. You already know what's coming. Chainblades. Eightbound. Berzerkers. Maybe Angron if your buddy is feeling particularly enthusiastic about your suffering. And you've probably made the mistake at least once. You move your Ultramarines toward the middle of the table because that's where the objectives are. Your buddy moves toward the middle of the table because t

If you're brand new to Dungeons & Dragons, there are two very different questions hiding inside the seemingly simple question, "Which starter set should I buy?" The first is: "Which one will get my friends sitting around the table and playing D&D quickly?" The second is: "Which one will actually teach me how to be a Dungeon Master?" Those aren't quite the same thing. D&D Essentials Kit and the newer D&D Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands are both designed to welcome new p

Let’s be honest. You already know how to host a party. You have the serving platters. You know which friends drink coffee and which ones want wine. You have a signature appetizer. There’s a pretty good chance you’ve got an espresso machine that gets more use than some kitchen appliances have any right to. Maybe you make sourdough. Maybe you have a group chat dedicated entirely to making plans that somehow always end up at your house. You’re the friend who knows how to make pe

There is a moment in a great horror game when the table gets quiet. Not because the DM told everyone to be quiet. Not because something jumped out of the darkness. Because the players are leaning forward. They want to know what happens next. That is the moment you are looking for. Running horror in Dungeons & Dragons isn't about throwing the biggest monster you can find at the party. It isn't about covering everything in blood, killing NPCs indiscriminately, or making every r

There is a particular kind of silence that falls around a table when the Dungeon Master describes the door. The characters have fought their way through the dungeon. They've spent spell slots. They've used potions. The rogue is running low on hit points. The fighter's best abilities are on cooldown. The wizard has been carefully counting what remains. And now they stand before the final door. Something is moving on the other side. The room beyond is enormous. There are claw m

A great Warhammer campaign needs more than a collection of missions. It needs pressure. An army should have somewhere it must go, something it cannot afford to lose, and more problems than it has forces available to solve. A bridge captured in a 500-point game should open a reinforcement route. A failed raid should leave an armored column without support. A desperate last stand should buy time for another player fighting elsewhere in the theatre. Military history offers plent

A Warhammer battle is exciting. Two armies meet. Objectives are contested. Units advance, fall back, charge, shoot, and fight. Someone makes a brilliant tactical decision. Someone else rolls terribly at exactly the wrong moment. Then the game ends. The models go back into their cases, the terrain gets put away, and next week you start another battle. But what if next week's battle wasn't a new story? What if it was the consequence of what happened this week? That's where a Wa

If you've ever walked into a game store and looked at the Dungeons & Dragons section, you may have had the same thought: "Okay... but which of these do I actually need?" There are rulebooks. There are adventure books. There are campaign settings. There are books filled with monsters, character options, magic items, and worlds you could spend years exploring. The good news is that you don't need all of them. Whether you're completely new to D&D, building your first character,

Giant robots. Tactical combat. Dice. Heat management. Armor getting blown off one location at a time. If that sounds like your kind of game, you may have just discovered BattleTech. The problem? You have probably also discovered that BattleTech has been around for decades. There are hundreds of BattleMechs. Multiple eras. Great Houses. Clans. Mercenaries. Different rulebooks. Different ways to play. And enough lore to make it feel like you need to complete a college course be

A good fantasy city should feel like a place that existed before the adventurers arrived. It should have businesses that open in the morning, people who have somewhere to be, arguments happening in alleys, children getting into trouble, nobles making questionable decisions, merchants trying to make a living, and at least one tavern where somebody is absolutely certain they know what really happened to the king. But here's the trick: You don't have to build the entire city. Yo

Ever wondered what those beautiful Mahjong tiles are all about? Maybe you have seen four people sitting around a table, clicking tiles together, drawing, discarding, and somehow knowing exactly what they are doing. It can look complicated. It isn't as complicated as it looks. Chinese Mahjong is a tile game for four players. At its heart, it is a little like Rummy with tiles, mixed with the luck of a card game and the strategy of a puzzle. You draw tiles. You discard tiles. Yo

Curious about American Mahjong but not sure where to begin? You are not alone. The first time you see a Mahjong table, it can look complicated. There are beautiful tiles, racks, a wall of tiles, a card full of numbers and symbols, and a whole lot of words you may have never heard before. But the game is much easier to understand once you see how the pieces fit together. Think of American Mahjong as a little like Rummy played with beautiful tiles instead of cards. You collect