Month: January 2016

Shh!

Shh is a cooperative game that came in the same Pack O Game as Fly. In Shh, you are trying to make words using consonants from your hand and vowels from the table. The consonants can each only be used once per game. The vowels are reused and reused until the game ends. There is only one of each letter, so any words with duplicates of a letter would count as invalid.

ShhThe catch is you aren’t allowed to tell your teammate(s) what letters you have and what words you have in mind. You take turns placing letters until one person, on their turn, decides that the word is finished. When the word is declared finished, the players use a show of hands to question the words validity.

If the validity is questioned, then the players must check the validity in a dictionary. A valid word is set on the scoring pile, minus the vowels, which go back to the center of the table. If the word is more than 5 letters, flip the vowels used to the +1 side.

During scoring, count the consonants in the scoring pile and add the amount of vowels with the +1 side up. The rules include a rating out of 4 of how you scored.

I would recommend this for people who enjoy cooperative games and for families who have trouble getting their kids to sit down long enough to play a game.

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I think you’ve got the Concept

Concept is a game sort of like Charades, but instead of acting you place tokens on categories to help the other people guess your topic. If you don’t like Charades, you’re probably not going to like Concept.

Concept - games and money marked

In Concept, you draw a card and chose one of the nine phrases or things on the card to attempt to communicate without words. You set aside the card and place the Main Idea piece on what you think is the most important aspect of your chosen topic. Then you place little cubes on the other aspects. If your team successfully guesses it, you get light bulbs as victory points.

As an example, let’s say my word was whiskey. The Main Idea would be liquid, and some of my other aspects would be brown and old/adult because only adults can drink it. If my word were ninja, I might put the Main Idea on job, and aspects on death, black and star. In the photo, the Main Idea is marking the games spot and a token is marking money.  This topic turned out to be Monopoly.

I would recommend this game for anyone who enjoys cooperative or party games.

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As a comparison opinion to my rating of this game, click here.

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Please Continuo the game

In Continuo, you place tiles next to each other in any possible way to get the most matches of each color that you can. At the end of the round you count up how long each continuous color section you made was. At the end of the game you add all your rounds together and the person with the most points wins.Continuo
The house rule we played with is that instead of adding it all together, we add each of the four colors individually. The color you have the lowest total points in is your overall score. If that color passes up another color the next turn, the color that now has the least points becomes your overall score.

For instance, if I had just played the tile to the right in the picture above, I would have 7 red, 5 yellow, and 0 blue and green. That would make 0 my score for the turn. On the other hand, if we were playing the traditional way, my score would be 12. The problem with the original is that if you’re winning halfway through, you’re probably going to win the game.

I’d recommend this game to people who love strategy and math.

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Battle for Manhattan!

The ultimate battle… who will rule Manhattan?! Or would you prefer… say… Hong Kong? In Manhattan you are playing buildings to try to have the biggest buildings, the most buildings per city, and tons and tons of buildings.Manhattan

You are frequently battling over buildings, as you place pieces on each other’s pieces. This helps you achieve the goal of highest building in the world. Whoever has the piece on top at the end of the round owns the building and earns points for it.

You place pieces by playing a card. The grid of spaces is always on the bottom of the card. You play the card in front of you, and, depending on your position, may play on a building in any city if it is in that position. This way, what would get you a building in the top right of a city could get me a building in the bottom left of a city.

At the end of each round, points are awarded for each of the categories listed in the first paragraph. At the end of four rounds, when you’re out of building pieces, the person with the most points win.

Geeky Idea: Put a Godzilla figure on the board when you’re done and let him knock down the board. Either that, or a cat.

I would recommend this for people with lots of gaming experience who aren’t afraid to lose.

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No soups, no salads, no entrees… Just Desserts!

There is a wonderful game called Just Desserts. It is a Looney Labs game and I first played it with none other than the wonderful Kristin Looney. The Looneys were the gaming guests of honor at Windycon (see my previous post). I also played Seven Dragons and Looney Pyramids, but that’s a different tale.Just Desserts

In Just Desserts you are trying to match desserts to what your customers do and do not want. You start with 3 desserts and 3 guests. On your turn, you draw another dessert and flip a guest card to walk into the restaurant. The first step is to try and match a favorite. The card says what their favorite dessert is. If you succeed in giving them their favorite, the guest card becomes yours and you draw a card as their tip.

If you don’t have a guest’s favorite, you can look at the components, for example, vegetables, fruits, and spices to complete Nature Girl. Nature Girl doesn’t actually have a favorite. Let’s pretend your hand had Baklava (pastries and nuts), Pineapple Upside Down Cake (cake and fruit), and Rhubarb Crumble (pastries and vegetables). For convenience, let’s pretend you drew Cinnamon Rolls (pastries and spices). You could combine Pineapple Upside Down Cake (fruit), Rhubarb Crumble (vegetables), and Cinnamon Rolls (spices) to win Nature Girl.

Now let’s pretend that instead of drawing Cinnamon Rolls, you drew Ambrosia Salad (fruit and marshmallows). You could not get any of the guests in front of you. In this turn of events, you would draw another dessert and play would pass. You may satisfy up to 2 guests per turn.

In this game there are 7 different families, illustrated by the color of the guest card. You win the game by winning either 3 of one family or 5 members of different families.

I like this game because it is some strategy, some luck and all fun.  I would play this game with my family and friends.

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