Multi-player – Page 16 – Random Geek Child

Please the Kodama!

I played a brand-new Kickstarter called Kodama today. In Kodama, you are attempting to please the Kodama, or tree spirits. You are helping grow a tree with the specific aspects that each Kodama in your hand wants. There are special point values for each of the cards.In this game there are 3 seasons, in each of which you will please a Kodama. Kodama

I liked this game because it was about pleasing tree spirits, so it covered two of my favorite subjects: the pleasing part reminds me of having pets and the tree spirits link this game with nature. This game has you growing a tree for the specific Kodama who want to hang out in the tree. The different things they want include caterpillars, fireflies, flowers, clouds, stars, and mushrooms.

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Let’s train at Medieval Academy!

In Medieval Academy, you are attempting to become the best knight of all. Here’s how: First, one person deals five cards to everyone. Then you pick up the hand you were dealt and chose a card, then pass them either clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on what turn you’re on. This repeats until all the cards are taken. At the beginning of each round, the card exchange will repeat. Then play begins. Medieval Academy

Unlike the card exchange, play always moves clockwise. You will play a card and move your chosen token that many spaces, on whichever board the card indicates. Some boards score every turn, others score on the third and sixth rounds, and the other two score only on the sixth round. All but these last two also reset at the end of round three.

Then there’s scoring. On the Gallantry board, it gives you the ability to move your piece on any other board. Two of the boards are for Jousting and just give third place one point, second place two points, and so on. The last board that scores every turn is tricky. This board is the Education board. First place gets nothing, second place gets a negative one, and third place gets a negative three. What’s scary is that this is the mild version of the last board to score.

On rounds three and six, you score in “Service to the King” not by your place in relation to others, but by where on the board you are. If you are past the six, then you get six points unless you hit the twelve, and then you get twelve points. The last two that score only on the last round are the Dragon and Charity. The Dragon board gives first place seventeen points, second place gets ten points, and third place gets a measly four points. The Charity board gives third place a negative ten, second place gets a negative five, and first place gets nothing.

Then you count your points. The person with the most points wins!

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What Hue will win?

There is a game called Hue. It came in the Pack O Game with Fly and Shh, as well as many others. Hue is about… so subtle… colors. In Hue there are several cards with different colors on each. There are five colors. You are, in the long run, trying to create long lines of each color. Ish. Let me explain. Hue

Each turn you play a card, generally to make at least 1 line of a color longer. At the end of the game you count each color. There’s a catch, however. You only get to score 3 colors, depending which ones are on your chosen score card. Your score card is the one card that you decide you won’t play. If the color isn’t on your score card, and there’s a long line of it, you can use your poison card to block off that row. Be careful, though. You only get 1 poison card each per game. Poison cards make that chosen row worth 0 points, no matter how long.

When placing, you may chose to cover a part of the rows already in place. When you do, you must cover at least a full square of the card (divided in white lines). When scoring, show your score card, then count up the longest line of each color on your card. Then multiply the color on the middle square of your card by 2. Add the 3 colors, including the doubled one. The player with the most points wins.

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Off to a new Dimension!

There is a wonderful logic game known as Dimension. You’ve got length, you’ve got width, and you’ve certainly got height, but open up to a new Dimension, where everything is round. That’s right, this game is about balancing balls. But that’s not the best part. You’re structure of spherical shapes must fit the random criteria of the draw pile, or you will lose victory points.

Each player has 15 balls, 3 of each color. Each turn one person will flip over 6 goal cards, a.k.a. the random criteria, and then the timer. Some examples of goals are: black cannot be on bottom or green must touch white. You have until the timer runs out to build as large of a structure as possible while still fitting as much of the criteria as you can. In some cases there are goals that will contradict each other no matter what, like one goal saying that green must touch green and another saying that green cannot touch green. In this case, you just choose which one you don’t want to do.

At the end of each turn you score. You get one point for each ball you use, and you lose two points for each goal you miss. If you use all five colors, and complete all the tasks, you get a bonus token. These are important for end game scoring. If you don’t have any, you lose 6 points, so I recommend getting as many as possible. Will your structures be a round wreck or a celebrated cylindrical construction? It’s your choice!

I would recommend this for anyone who enjoys logic and building.

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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.

Shh The 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.

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.
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.

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.

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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Portable games

Need a game that you can play on the go, that doesn’t take much time, and is easy to play? Here are some of our personal favorites.

Pass the Pigs; Chupacabra; Easy Come, Easy Go

Easy Come, Easy Go is a fun math and logic game that requires you to be paying close attention. You roll dice to try to get certain number combinations so you can claim a goal, like Exactly 7. The game ends when someone has 3 goals. Plus, John Kovalic drew it!
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Chupacabra is a very appetizing game where you roll and eat dice with other dice. Chupacabras can eat cows, chickens and goats. (When you eat dice you acquire them.) For every chupacabra, you can eat 1 goat or 2 chickens. It takes 2 chupacabras to eat a cow. The goal is to have all of the dice.
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Pass The Pigs is a “dice” game where you use pigs instead of dice. Depending on the position they land in (like razorback, which is when the pig lands on his back), you get points. The goal is to be the first to reach 100 points.
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