Our daughter moved out in September 2025, and by January the kitchen table had gotten quiet. Hal and I had been married for 30 years by then, and we had gotten very good at eating supper in front of the television without saying much. I bought a conversation deck first. Then a trading game for Hal. Sky Team came in May 2026, and it is the one that changed the shape of our Friday nights.
Sky Team is a cooperative dice game from Scorpion Masqué for exactly two players, ages 12 and up. You and your partner are pilot and co-pilot trying to land a plane. There are eight dice, a control panel, two player aid screens, an altitude track, and 20 airports to fly into. Nobody wins. You land, or you crash. That sounds simple. It is not, which is the point.
The game where you and your partner are on the same side
Sky Team is the cooperative two-player game from Scorpion Masqué. Eight dice, one control panel, and 20 airports. If you have a partner who hates losing to you, start here.
Amazon See Sky Team on Amazon →Nobody has to lose for the night to go well
Hal is competitive. At Jaipur he wins a little more than half the time, and on a bad night that turns into a mood. Sky Team takes that off the table. We are pilot and co-pilot, not opponents. If the plane goes down, it goes down for both of us. The first time we crashed, he laughed. I had not seen him laugh at a game he lost in a long time.
Crashing is part of the fun, not a verdict on your marriage
Our first evening with Sky Team, we crashed three times before we landed once. Three crashes, four attempts, maybe an hour at the table. It would be easy to read a night like that as failure. It was not. Each crash showed us where we went wrong. By the fourth attempt we had a system. That is a good feeling to have with your husband at 8 p.m. on a Friday.
It gives you something to do besides try to think of something to say
This is the part I did not expect. When you are landing a plane, you are not searching for conversation. You are telling your partner you need to clear air traffic or adjust speed. The talk happens on its own, and it is about the thing in front of you. After 31 years, that is a relief. You do not have to perform being interesting. You just have to roll the dice and say what you see. That is not a small thing when you have been married for three decades.
You can be playing in ten minutes
The rules are not a weekend project. You get two player aid screens, and most of what you need is on the control panel in front of you. Our first game took a few minutes of rule reading. By the second Friday we were set up and rolling before the dishes were dry. That matters. A game that takes 40 minutes to learn is a game you stop suggesting.
Twenty airports keep the same game from going stale
Sky Team comes with 20 airports, and each one has its own layout and special rules. We have flown about eight of them in six months. That leaves a dozen we have not touched. Every new airport asks a slightly different question of us, so the game does not feel like the same puzzle every Friday. It feels like a place we have not been yet. We are not in a hurry to see all 20. The point is that there is always another one waiting.
We crashed three times before we landed once. Hal laughed at the third crash. That had not happened at our table in a long while.
The optional modules wait until you are ready for them
You do not have to add anything to the base game. When you want more, there are optional modules like kerosene leaks, ice on the tarmac, and a rookie intern who needs extra guidance. We have tried a module only a couple of times, and we backed off. That is fine. The base game still has plenty of airports left. The point is that the game grows with you instead of running out.
It lives in a basket on the sideboard, not in a closet
Sky Team is travel sized and weighs about a pound and a quarter. It does not need a dedicated shelf. Ours sits in the same wicker basket as the conversation cards and the scratch-off date cards. That sounds like a small thing. It is not. The game you can reach in ten seconds is the game you actually play. The ones in the closet are the ones you forget you own. It also means we can put it away in seconds when supper runs late.
There is no screen in the middle of it
We are not anti-television. We watch plenty of it. But there is a difference between sitting next to each other while a screen talks and sitting across from each other while you both try to land a plane. Sky Team is a table game with dice and cards and a control panel. Nobody is looking down at a phone. For an hour on a Friday, the kitchen table is the whole room.
It turns a regular Tuesday into a small occasion
We do not play every night. Sunday is the conversation deck. Tuesday is Jaipur. Friday is Sky Team. That rhythm came together slowly, but it did come together. The best part is that it does not require a reservation or a babysitter or even getting out of your work clothes. You finish supper, you clear the plates, and you sit back down. No reservations, no dressing up, no deciding where to go. That is the whole date.
It is practice at being on the same team again
I am not going to tell you a board game fixes a marriage. It does not. But it can remind you what it feels like to work on something together, with a clear goal and a shared problem to solve. After 31 years, most of what Hal and I do together is logistics. Sky Team is not logistics. It is the two of us, eight dice, and one runway. That is worth an hour.
What I'd Skip
Here is the honest part. Sky Team will not rescue a couple who genuinely does not like games with rules. It is a game, not a conversation. If your partner groans at the sight of dice, this is not the box to start with. Start with a deck of questions and no scorekeeping. Also, it is strictly two players. It is not a family game, and it is not a party game. If you want something to play with your grown kids at Thanksgiving, this is the wrong pick.
I would also skip the harder modules until you have landed at least a few of the base airports. We tried one too early and spent the evening confused instead of together. And I would not throw out the competitive games. Jaipur is still Hal's favourite, and I am not giving it up. Sky Team is the game for the nights when competing would leave one of us sulking. That is a different job.
The Friday night game that has lasted six months at our table
Sky Team is the cooperative two-player game from Scorpion Masqué. It is the one where Hal and I are on the same side. If your kitchen table has gotten quiet, this is a good place to start.
Amazon See Sky Team on Amazon →