Category: Multi-player

Games for 3 or more people

Would You Use Snake Oil?

Snake Oil Elixir is a game kind of like Apples To Apples, but with a few changes. For instance, instead of choosing a random adjective as the subject, you get to pick between 2 “customers”. The other players then chose 2 of their cards which they put together to make a product for you. They throw a sales pitch and you chose which you think would be better.Snake Oil

Choosing has a few options. You could be practical, but where’s the fun in that? I know people who vote for the most random, crazy thing possible. I personally go for the most wild, crazy, but distantly relative choice.

The person who wins the round gets the Customer card. The person to the left of the previous Customer gets to be the new Customer. The process repeats until everybody has been the Customer. Then the person with the most Customer Cards wins, unless there’s a tie, in which case you keep playing. In both games we played my mother won.

I like this game because you stretch the boundaries of reality to make the most ridiculous, odd and amusing inventions to please our customers. Of course, its nothing I can’t handle as I effectively do that every time I write fiction. Some things we came up with included Fairy Pickles and Pearl Musket. One thing to note is the more people, the better the game play is.

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Can you build Machi Koro?

In Machi Koro you build a town, starting with only a Wheat Field and a Bakery. Buy Establishments and build your landmarks, roll dice to activate Establishment-related events to get more money. Some Establishments include The Forest, The Fruit and Vegetable Stand, and the Furniture Factory.

Machi Koro

I got this game for Christmas from my cousins. It was sort of funny, as we had gotten them the same thing. I enjoyed it because it is a good balance between logic and luck. Of course, Dad won, just like with most logic games. Such a surprise! Oh, wait….

There is also a fine balance, as you have to buy Establishments to get money, but don’t want to spend it all, because then you don’t have enough to buy the Landmarks, which you need to win. There are 4 different types of Establishments, which are color-coded.  The red ones allow you to steal money from other players when they roll the number of that card. The blue ones are activated on anybody’s turn, and the green and purple ones are only on your turn.

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In a Fluxx?

There is a wonderful game called Fluxx. It is a Looney Labs game (click here to see my previous post). In Fluxx, the rules are always changing. I like this game because of that fact, though my grandmother found it a bit confusing. I don’t remember when and where I first tried Fluxx, but it might have been because of the numerous Fluxx decks we have floating around the game closet (a.k.a. the Ultimate Closet of Doom, or UCD).

Fluxx 3.0

There are several variations of Fluxx, including but not limited to: Monster Fluxx, Zombie Fluxx, Pirate Fluxx, Fluxx 3.0, Fluxx 2.1, Cthulhu Fluxx, and Wizard of Oz Fluxx. The version we played this time is Fluxx 3.0. That’s a lot of Fluxx!

There are different types of cards. Keepers like The Robot are played to help achieve Goals like The Appliances, which requires The Toaster and The Television. Actions like Draw 2 and Use ‘Em are played to either mess up the other person or get you closer to winning(or both!). New Rules such as Hand Limit 1 make it tougher to win for both players. There are also other cards like Creepers and Surprises in other decks.

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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.Dimension

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.

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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