Game Portability and You

 Having gone on a recent vacation and still wanting to play games while on vacation, I've started appreciating games that have a smaller footprint. It's so much easier to pack up something like The Crew or Cat in the Box along on the trip if you want to play things physically versus trying to pack up something like Thunder Road: Vendetta (which I managed to do despite my qualms about it). It got me thinking about the portability of games, especially physical ones and how easy it is to pack them up into a suitcase or backpack.

The box for the collection is massive!

I myself am a huge fan of games that are BIG. Everdell: The Complete Collection is one of my favorite games to play and I absolutely love how big it is. Unfortunately, that means that the portability of the game is zero to none, especially if I want to take it to another location via plane. These big box games are fantastic for at home. For taking out to visit family on the other side of the world... not so much.

It's something that I find frustratingly baffling and I wish that I had an easy solution to it. The biggest problem with these bigger games is that the components are fairly difficult to distill into a smaller package, either because of the number of components contained within, the large board size, or a combination of the two. I wanted to think about some low-cost ways to bring games to the table on a trip that don't cost an arm and a leg and obviously pose that question to the rest of y'all as well.

There are lots of different ways that people have gotten around using the original components of a game and with today's post being one that I'm doing while on vacation, I think I'll keep this one a bit shorter than most of my other ramblings.

One option that comes to mind is just simply printing off a paper copy of the game. This is definitely more feasible with a game like Thunder Road: Vendetta that you could print off a copy of the game materials for. It would probably need some paper that was slightly bigger than then normal printer paper, but it could definitely be printed off and played fairly easily with the right materials.

I will admit the game looks nice on the table though.

The biggest issue that I foresee with printing off materials is the miniatures would be hard to duplicate and slim down. It could be possible to use some other types of cars (such as Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars) to fill in the gap of the vehicles that would be needed, but that wouldn't necessarily slim down the size of the game. There's also the large number of hazard and damage tokens that would need to be double sided, which would take more time and energy to cut out rather than anything that would cost too much, especially if you're just printing off the materials.

Overall, printing off the components and boards is a feasible option for those that are looking to have a simple copy that won't withstand too much punishment, but is on the cheaper end to get a duplicate of components and materials for the game. For an additional cost, there's also the possibility of laminating the materials to add some additional longevity to the board and other materials that you may use for the game. It's something that I've personally looked into with Welcome To....

On a whim after I purchased the game initially, I got four of each of the boards from each of the expansions laminated to add some longevity to the game. It was a bit of a significant upfront cost that I didn't really think through when I was quoted on how much it would cost, but I'm very glad that I did so when I got the game. It has allowed me to put all of the various boards in the base game box

(not well mind you) and has made it really easy for me to pack away and bring on vacation.

This was really nice to have them all laminated.

This leads directly into my next point, since there is an official silicone mat for Welcome To... (which I will note, that while it's not strictly necessary, it really does help with reminders while playing the game), and bring up silicone mats. Some games come with an official silicone mat (see Flamecraft for an example of a game that has it in the base game) that can be bought in addition to the game itself, while others don't have anything official, but the creative people here on BGG have made unofficial mats of their own.

It's a really clever idea to help make games slightly more portable (although then you have to worry about packing away the mat then) since it's much easier to pack up a mat versus packing up a cardboard board. It does leave you with having to pack up the various cards and other accoutrements with a game, but without a big cardboard board taking up room, it becomes slightly easier to pack up things.

Obviously, there's also the final option of just trying to pack up the entire box (which by experience, I would not recommend). It's generally not really feasible to do that since you're having to take quite a bit of space in your carry-on, if you're like me and don't trust the yahoos on the airlines to treat your bag respectfully. I managed to do it on my trip and even added a new game to my collection (Telestrations to play with my dad and brothers), which took more room, but I'm definitely not repeating this endeavor.

I know that you could also ship things to wherever you are going, but as I'm not made of money and don't really care that much to play my games on vacation, I've opted not to. If you really want to get your games to where they need to go safely, this might be the best option (albeit the most costly one).

With our hobby, it's hard to really discuss it without talking how big the boxes can be sometimes and while I would love to have more portability, I do realize that I'm very specific in what I like and that's unfortunately big boxes, which do not travel well. If this trip previously has taught me anything, it is that I'll be looking to bring smaller games and/or try to find other ways to play versus being caught with stuffing my suitcase as tightly as possible at the end of the trip.

Give me your thoughts:What are some games that you've experimented with shrinking down for portability? Are there any tips that you have in bringing games to play with your family? Do you have certain games that you only play on vacation?

Thank you so much for checking out this blog. If you liked it, please hit the green thumb at the top of the page and feel free to leave a comment on the post. I appreciate all interactions and will respond to everything that I can. If you really liked the post and want more ramblings, feel free to subscribe and get new posts every Monday/Wednesday/Friday.

*Originally posted on BoardGameGeek on 22/5/2024*

Games I Will Play, But Not Own

 There are so many games out there that I feel like my "Want to play" list continuously grows more and more. It's one of those things that continues to grow and seems to have a life of it's own the more it has things added to it. It's almost gotten to a point where I'm pretty sure that the list has grown sentient and occasionally adds on new games when I'm not looking.

And yet as it grows, I have been able to play a few games here and there that are on it as well as some that aren't on it. It's been very interesting for me to play games that have been on the list and really didn’t fit up to my expectations. I think it's a case of having high expectations for games and then finding out that whatever they promised wasn't in the the cards for the situation (pun intended). The unfortunate thing about games for me is that their cover absolutely makes or breaks if I want to give them a try and I know that's a serious case of judgment, but with how few opportunities I have to play games, I have to make a snap decision about them.

As I was contemplating on what to write this post about, I realized that there were quite a few games that I’ve played and enjoyed, but ultimately didn’t have a desire to add to my collection for one reason or another. It's that weird, in-between middle ground where I did enjoy myself while playing the game, and yet there wasn't enough for me to really feel like I was absolutely needing to have it around for me to play more. So I thought I would highlight about five games that I've played in the last year or so that, while good, weren't any games that I immediately wanted to play again. I'd play if offered, but wouldn't really seek out to play the game nor add it to my personal collection.

Raccoon Tycoon was one such of these games that it looked decent enough when I saw the cover, but I wasn't really convinced that it was going to be something that I enjoyed. As I began setting up the game with my good friend Anthony, I began to suspect that my initial feelings about the game were correct: it was a decent game, but not really one that I was really that into. Sure the gameplay was well-thought out and there was something viscerally enjoyable for me with messing with Anthony's head while doing the auctions, but I just wasn't that impressed with the game. While the auction mechanic and the urge to buy up everything in sight was strong, there was just something that hit me the wrong way with the game.

It wasn't as if there was inherently wrong with the game. Far from it. It actually felt like a much better version of Monopoly, making it feel as if the end of the game was fully in control of the players rather than a simple roll of the dice. When we finished and the final numbers had been tallied, I ended up with a whopping 87 points to Anthony's 64 points. I would like to say that I was proud of that win, but I was able to see at the beginning of the game how powerful the properties were and knew that getting them would earn me the most points.

Upon further reflection of the game and some discussion after we finished, I realized that the game probably would be most fun with three to four people that could potentially steal properties out from under you, as well as some more difficulty in getting railroads. It would present a more balanced game and there would be less swing in who was the leader at the end. It was one of those games that I wanted to like, and while I did, I still found myself preferring to keep the copy of the game in Anthony's hands rather than getting a game of my own. I think it was also the artwork of the game that really pushed it over the edge for me as I wasn't a big fan of the styling in the game. It was certainly unique and well-designed, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

And that's one of my first main points why I don't choose to add a game to my wishlist after playing it: sometimes the game doesn't really strike my fancy or feels like something that I might need to play a few more times without coming to a choice about whether to add it to my collection or not. Being able to step back from my play of the game and going "Is this really something that I'll choose to play regularly" has been a lifesaver for me when it comes to getting new games this last year, especially since things have gotten a bit tighter since Sarah became a full-time stay at home mom. I have to be really picky about what I get with my money and if it's not something that I enjoy after the first play, I'll give it some time to think about and replay to see if I really want to add it.

This might be a really controversial opinion, but I really felt like there was something missing from Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala when I had the opportunity to play it a few months ago. It wasn't as if I didn't enjoy the game, as I really thought the Mancala-like movement of the meeples was clever and there was a depth of strategy in the game that I didn't expect. The board and artwork too were very well designed with variable setup each time that it was put onto the table to allow for more replayability. I appreciated the meeples and additional pieces were all painted wooden tokens as well, which gave the game a great feel to play.

However, as we played the game, I found myself asking "is that it?" There was a surprising level of depth, but as we played more and more of the game, I couldn't help but wonder what else there would be to the game. Not that the mechanics weren't enough to spur along the game, rather I felt as if there was a missing piece that would help it all come together. The game ended with Anthony trashing me in score, getting a good 30 points over my total and I knew about halfway through that I had lost the game to him, but I wanted to see if I could manage to dig myself out of the hole I had gotten into.

I think that was what really threw me off the most about the game is that once one player really starts building up a head of steam, there's not really any effective way for any other players to really catch up to them. Even as I knew that I was going to lose to Anthony, I still tried my hardest to shrink that point gap, and yet it felt as if all my efforts were null. I chalk most of the loss to Anthony's experience playing the game, but I still find myself wishing that I could have done better during the game. I do want to try to play the game again, but again, it wasn't good enough for me to immediately go "I want that in my collection!"

Sky Team has been another game that has really been at the forefront of the gaming community in the last year (since it came out in 2023) and has been touted as one of the best games to play with two players. There's a tenseness that comes while playing the game that really feels like trying to land a plane while in the middle of a storm or something else. As someone who hasn't actually flown a plane, nor attempted to land one, I can only surmise that there's a bit of tension in the prospect.

Still, despite getting a chance to play this game twice now, I still find myself not wanting to add it to my collection, despite knowing how good it actually is. It's a bit of an odd thing for me to have encountered a game that I enjoyed, but knowing that I'll just have to live with playing it when offered by someone else.

"Why don't I want to add it to my collection?" I can hear you asking. There's a singular strong reason that I probably won't ever be adding this to my collection, or at least not anytime soon: Sarah.

Sarah is my primary gaming partner (aside from Anthony whom I connect with once or twice a week to play games) and if I'm not playing solo, I'm generally playing with her. She loves to play push your luck games, but as we've learned over the years that we have been together, we have a very different way of thinking about things. Codenames for instance, usually ends in failure because we both think about the clues that we give one another in completely separate ways. When I try to give her a clue that I think is obvious (such as "Hammer 2" for "nail" and "wood" for example) she will often choose wildly different clues that are outside my normal scope of thinking ("shark" and "pound" would be ones that she looks at).

She's also not a huge fan of games with a time-limit or significant tension to them, especially cooperative games. Sarah likes to have time to think about what her options are and anything that is too intense for her is not something that she enjoys. She will agonize for minutes over what play to make in Everdell, but as I learned a few weeks ago on our date night, she didn't enjoy the constant time pressure of For Science! due to having to make snap decisions about things. I absolutely love games like that, so it was sad for me to find that she didn't like them.

This all leads into Sky Team and why I probably won't be adding it to our collection unless Sarah really feels like she enjoys it. There's so much pressure to communicate non-verbally with your partner in the game and due to our horrible track record of reading the other's non-verbal cues and attempting to read what the other is trying to share with their body language, I doubt we'd have as much fun with Sky Team together than when I've played with others. We'll see if she likes it if/when we have a chance to play it (whenever we can get a date night in away from our kids that is) and I'll reassess then, but for now, it's sitting in the "I like it, but not enough to get it" category.

I'm not sure if I should include Near and Far on this list of games that I liked but really couldn't see myself adding to my collection. The issue with adding it here is mainly because, while I enjoyed the game, I have access to it anytime that I would like as Anthony owns a copy of the game and has stated that he would be happy to lend it to me anytime I want it.

This is really something that I've struggled with the last year or so, especially when it comes to board games. I'm all about acquiring new games and getting them into my collection to potentially play if I want to. This might stem from my video game hobby now that I think about it, but I am all about getting physical copies of media that I enjoy. Especially in the recent news with Ubisoft delisting The Crew and removing any access to even play the game on private servers, I've only had my desire to get physical copies of media to be able to play on my own.

This trend has probably extended to board games for me and I'm loathe to give up a potential game that I might want to play later and leave it in the hands of someone else's collection.

I have control issues.
It's ok.
I've acknowledged this and I'm working on it.

Near and Far is one of those examples of an excellent game that someone else has that I would have access to any time that I wanted to borrow it, but my lizard brain says "No! You need to own it!" Would I have time to play the game if I owned it, or would it just be another game that sat in my collection and gathered dust, but I had it because "I might want to play this someday!" I have to remind myself over and over again that not having a game in my collection is ok, especially since I could borrow it anytime I want to.

Of course this just spirals into the "what if?"s and that's a dangerous place to go. My mind starts thinking "What if Anthony moves away?" or "What if I'm not able to borrow it when I want to?" and although my rational brain says "If he moves away, you'll just make new friends" and "You can play one of your OWN games!" it can be difficult to reason with the anxiety that crops up.

This happened to me with Deliverance too. Anthony (who seems to be my dealer for most new board games the last few months) had gotten the game delivered from Kickstarter last year and it had the acrylic standees too. The game was beautiful and when I played it with him for the first time, I was absolutely enamored with the fantastic gameplay and incredible artwork and theme. Deliverance was an extremely well-thought out game and I could tell that Andrew Lowen had taken significant time to iron out a lot of the gameplay mechanics to make it feel and play well.

There's a second version coming to Kickstarter later this year (from what the updates have mentioned) and that will have an updated set of rules, a different campaign storyline (and some further updates to the campaign) as well as an expansion included as well, which bodes well for my play count increasing later this year when Anthony gets excited about the game again. Incredibly enough, the game is also up for a few Golden Geek awards in five separate categories, which speaks volumes to how much we as fans like the game.

It is one of those games that I'm extremely torn on getting myself, mainly because I know that while I personally would enjoy the game and like having it as part of my collection, I don't think that I would be able to get it to the table to play with Sarah and I would most likely be playing it solo. While I've heard that the solo game is excellent and being able to play through the campaign myself, I don't really think that I could justify spending $100 on a new game that may or may not get to the table as often as I want it to, especially with a friend who lives less than 10 minutes away who owns the game and is willing to lend it to me at any time. Plus, I know that Anthony probably plans on getting the upgrade for the campaign and I expect that I'll be playing through it with him at that point when it arrives.

But that's the way things go with owning games and while my collection currently only sits at 69 games (nice) compared to the average of 100-150 games on BGG, I still find myself wondering sometimes if I have too much. I think part of what I need is a better storage solution as what I have available to me is not great. I'm a visual guy and seeing all the games that I have is best for me to know and determine what I want to play, but right now they're split between two separate shelves and that makes it hard for me to choose what to play.

One advantage that I have found is to play games virtually as that allows me to try the game before I purchase it. Both Tabletopia and Board Game Arena have allowed me to play quite a few games that I wouldn't necessarily have access to and allows me to see if I like them. It's something that I'm just getting into since I'm so loathe to play non-physical games, but it's also a great way for me to try things.

All in all, what you prefer is up to you and I'd be curious to hear about games that you played and went: "That was fun, but I don't think I need to add it to my collection." It is so interesting seeing so many games on here that I love, but others have gone, "Yeah, that's not for me." Personal preference is really an odd monster.

Thank you so much for checking out this blog. If you liked it, please hit the green thumb at the top of the page and feel free to leave a comment on the post. I appreciate all interactions and will respond to everything that I can. If you really liked the post and want more ramblings, feel free to subscribe and get new posts every Monday/Wednesday/Friday.

*Originally posted on BoardGameGeek on 20/5/2024*

Furious Frantic Friday Fun, Cats in Boxes, Mantises and Flapjack Stealing Bigfoots - Game Reviews

Card Game Shuffle

It's Friday again and you know what that means! Another few reviews for games that are either in my collection or that I've played recently. In the last few weeks (and months), I've been playing quite a few card games and I'm always astounded at how diverse various card games can be. It is so interesting to me that it is a simple concept, but there's so many different ways that it can be utilized and set up to play a game.

There was an interesting Kickstarter that I came across in April where the deck has really cool iconography that will allow the player to use the information on the deck to play something like 12 or 24 different games that will be disseminated out to the backers over the course of the year. The deck itself is designed to play all of these different games from around the world and seems like an interesting idea, albeit one that is totally dependent upon the games that it is trying to emulate. I'll see if I can find a link for the Kickstarter, but on a search, I wasn't able to find anything initially.

That being said, I have played several card games that I thought I'd review today. Since there are four separate games that I'll be reviewing, I'll keep my reviews of them simple and shorter. There's generally not much to say about them too since they trend towards simpler, but I'll do my best to justify my scores.

Friday, My Good Man

Game Name: Friday
Publisher: [company=26107][/company]
Year Released: 2011
Mechanics: Deck, Bag, and Pool Building, Hand Management, Push Your Luck, Solo / Solitaire Game
BGG Score (Overall Rank): 7.1 (#532)
Expansions: N/A

Times Played: 10
Josiah's Score:  7.5 

What I Liked: Friday is a solo-only card game that comes in a small box, which really makes this a great game for anyone wanting to have a smaller collection. The game revolves around you the player acting as the titular Friday who is attempting to assist Robinson Crusoe survive the island he crashed on. Unfortunately, Robinson is a bit of an idiot and your job is to help him survive the island until the pirates come and inevitably help defeat them.

The game utilizes a single deck of cards to play the game and has a set of small wooden "food" tokens to show Robinson's life total. The game is played with that deck that you start with at the beginning of the game and over the course of the game, you take on challenges on the island and by beating the challenges, add the cards to your deck. However, the caveat comes in the form that all challenges have a specific point total to beat and if your cards don't match or beat the total, Robinson loses life. You can choose to spend life to draw additional cards beyond the indicated starting set on the challenge, but it requires you to spend a food token. Too many and you are at risk of losing the game early into the game.

There's several more mechanics that are involved in the game, including card powers, but in total, Friday represents a significant challenge, including four separate difficulty modes (the hardest being the "true" game) for players to play against. I found the game challenging and it took me several attempts to even make it to the final pirate fight, which still resulted in a loss due to my hand management. However, when I did win, I felt extremely proud of myself and immediately set into another game, which is easy to do with Friday, since the game is fairly quick to play.

What I Didn't Like: Friday represents a quandary to me. On the one hand I liked the challenge that it brought, but on the other hand, it took looking up a series of recommendations to actually beat the game. I like a good challenge, but there was so much going on in Friday that I had trouble really grasping the best way to beat it.

That being said, even with the guide on how best to play and what was recommended, I still found myself losing about 30% of the time, proving that the game still had more to teach me. Ultimately, I played 10 games before returning the game to my friend from whom I had borrowed it and I managed to beat all 4 levels at least once (twice for the final level). It left me feeling accomplished and like there wasn't anything else I needed to do for the game, which was an odd feeling to have at the end of a game.

Overall Thoughts: I liked Friday when I was playing it. It was a really clever game and had some smart gameplay to it. Despite needing to look up some support on how best to proceed, I still ended up having fun with it and had to learn quite a bit about the challenge of the game after. What left me wishing there was more was that after beating the final difficulty twice, I had no desire to play again for some time. I might borrow it again for my Solo-Tober challenge, but until then, I feel like I've enjoyed all Friday has to offer me at this point. It's a good solo game, but don't expect it to hold your attention for prolonged plays.

Schrödinger's Card Game

Game Name: Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition
Publisher: Bézier Games
Year Released: 2022
Mechanics: Enclosure, Hand Management, Predictive Bid, Trick-taking
BGG Score (Overall Rank): 7.6 (#347)
Expansions: N/A

Times Played: 12
Josiah's Score:  8.75  

What I Liked: I'm a huge nerd, so when I played Cat in the Box for the first time, I was immediately enamored with the theme and clever implementation. Trick-taking games were what I grew up with, so pairing both nerdy science things and trick taking card games is like adding ice cream to pie; they both work so well together.

The game starts with each player making an estimate on how many hands they will take during the game and allow them to earn extra points if they were correct. Hands proceed with the lead choosing what color the card being played is (by "observing" it) and placing their token on the observation board, players cannot place another token on the same color and number combination without causing a paradox. The caveat is that as the rounds proceed, fewer and fewer places to put tokens on are available as each player hand dwindles. At one card left in each player's hand, the round ends, or if a player causes a paradox, that causes the round to end.

Points are totaled with a combination of tricks taken and if a correct estimation of tricks taken is made, players score the total of the largest grouping of their observation tokens. However, the player that caused the paradox loses one point per trick taken, making it part of the challenge to determine how many tricks to attempt to take. The game lasts as many rounds as players so at the end of the final round, points are totaled and the player with the highest point total wins.

I also love the tokens in the box and the production of the observation board is excellent. Each of the cards is well designed, and easy to read along with a cute depiction of a cat that corresponds to the card value. The double layered observation board helps prevent the tokens from moving and with the reversible setups, allows for some variation in play if wanted.

What I Didn't Like: While the game advertises that it is 2-5 players, the two-player mode feels slightly less than the larger grouping in the game. With 5 players it's possible to prevent a paradox if everyone plays their cards well. However, with two players, there's no way to avoid a paradox and the game ends in the final round with it. I wish that there was a way that the game could be played with two using the same result, but ultimately that's how it works out.

Overall Thoughts: I really enjoyed my first few games of Cat in the Box and think that it will remain in my collection for quite a long time. While it's not the be all, end all with card games, I think that Cat in the Box takes the normal trick-taking mechanic and turns it on it's head well enough that it's worth adding to my collection.

Cards and Webcomics

Game Name: MANTIS
Publisher: Exploding Kittens
Year Released: 2022
Mechanics: Hand Management, Set Collection, Take That
BGG Score (Overall Rank): 6.7 (#3,137)
Expansions: MANTIS: Power Token

Times Played: 4
Josiah's Score:  7 

What I Liked: If simplicity is what you're going for, then MANTIS is the game for you. Every action in this game boils down to two options: try to take other's cards, or bank your own cards. There's not much more to this game and it is very "take that" in its nature. Players see that the card offers one of three potential colors on the back and they can choose to either try to steal opponents cards of that color or bank cards of their own with that color. The caveat is that if players choose either option and the front of the card is a color that doesn't exist in their "bank", it gets added to it, either yours or your opponent. The whole game is about stealing other people's cards and it is brutally efficient at that.

I do appreciate that the game is color-blind friendly and has all of the various colors represented by different icons and illustrations on the front of the card. It makes the game much more easy to play with a larger group of people and allows everyone to be involved in the game, should they choose to be.

What I Didn't Like: I'm going to be honest here. I'm not a big fan of most of what The Oatmeal puts out. I enjoyed the comics in college, but they've since had their day in the sun for me. It seems like you cannot walk down any aisle that contains games without running into at least one that has been produced by the guy, including Exploding Kittens, Really Loud Librarians, or Throw Throw Burrito. They're all super simple party games that you can play with others and while they may have merit, I just am sick of seeing them ubiquitously everywhere.

This is a bit of a personal pet peeve and rant here, but I personally feel that they take up space that could be better suited for better games. I'm not saying that party games are bad and they absolutely have their place, but it is frustrating that games like this take up so much space when there's so many other games out there that are fantastic. I'd much rather have more space for games like Magic Maze, or Welcome To... so people can learn that there's more to board games than party games. I'm glad that games like Wingspan, Ticket to Ride, and Azul have become more popular, but let's get some better games on the shelves now! *rant over*

My biggest complaint about the game (aside from my rant about party games) is that it's super simple to play. And honestly, that's not a really big complaint as that's all the game sets out to be. It doesn't try to reinvent the wheel and just has a simple mechanic to play the game in less than 10 minutes.

Overall Thoughts: Honestly, this game surprised me with how much fun I had with it. I enjoyed it when I played it and I know that Sarah did too. Is it going to be the game that I play all the time when I want something light? Probably not. But it is a quick and fun game that might be worth it to add to my collection to round off a night with a simple and fun game to play. I will say this: the game does accomplish what it's trying to do extremely well. It's a very "take that" card game, and it does it well. No need for additional frills and that's ok.

Lumberjacks Rolling Dice

Game Name: Flapjacks and Sasquatches
Publisher: Prolific Games (I)
Year Released: 2008
Mechanics: Dice Rolling, Take That
BGG Score (Overall Rank): 6.1 (#10,133)
Expansions: Flapjacks & Sasquatches: Cup of Joe Expansion, Flapjacks & Sasquatches: Company Store, Flapjacks & Sasquatches: North Forest Stash, and Flapjacks & Sasquatches: Salute to Bill & John

Times Played: 2
Josiah's Score:  6 

What I Liked: This probably has to do with the company that I played this game with, but I really enjoyed the ridiculous nature of this game and the funny illustrations on the cards in Flapjacks and Sasquatches. It was a simple, "Take 1 Card, Play 1 Card, Roll Dice if Able" game, but the illustrations on the cards were great and there was never a clear winner even at the end of the game until the dice had finally stopped rolling. While there was a significant amount of luck with the dice rolls that led to a little swingy-ness, there was absolutely a ton of fun we had while playing the game.

It also oozes "Minnesota" to me, from the flannel to the Paul Bunyan and Babe references, so there's a bit of state pride in why I like this game.

What I Didn't Like: This game is absolutely situational. Would I play this with my normal gaming group? Maybe, but most likely not. Would I play it with a group of friends at lunch time with only a half-hour to play? Absolutely. There's not much to it and having the right group of people to play with really makes a difference.

The game itself doesn't really have anything difficult to learn to play and the components are iffy at best. I've also heard that one of the many expansions for the game (the "Company Store" Expansion) just breaks the game entirely, making it not fun to play.

Overall Thoughts: If you're looking for a fairly decent game that has a small package that will most likely come out while camping, Flapjacks and Sasquatches is a fun one to consider. The dice rolls can be swingy and there's a lot of "take that" in the game, but overall, it was a really fun situational game to play. I'd be down to play it again over lunch, but doubt I'll actively seek to bring it to the table again.

Final Thoughts

There are so many card games out there and many of them are a dime a dozen. However, it's the card games that we can actively play that are the ones that we enjoy the most, so find ones that you enjoy. Even if there's something that doesn't intrigue someone else, it might be worth it to try it out to see what the game feels like to you. You may even find that you enjoy it enough to add to your own collection. That's certainly something that I've begun to learn this year.

Not every game that I play has to be the "MEDIUM WEIGHT CHAMPION OF 20XX; GOLDEN TOWER GEEK TABLETOP AWARD FOR THE LAST DECADE!!!!!1!!!" It's fine to enjoy games that don't have a really high BGG score (that's more for me than anyone reading this blog, to be honest). If I enjoy them, great. If I don't? That's not a big deal. I've added another game that I don't really care for to the ever growing list of likes and dislikes and that's part of the journey.

I'm doing my best to enjoy the time that I get to spend playing games with friends and family and that's the biggest part of the hobby for me. Connection is important and even if the game isn't the best, there still can be some great connection that happens.

Give Me Your Thoughts:What are some card games that you've personally connected with, either because of the group that you've played with, or due to fond memories with that game, that generally wouldn't be part of your usual collection? What are some fun, off the wall card games that you've found over your time in this hobby that you feel like would be a great recommendation to add to any collection (i.e. not the usual suspects of The Crew, Forest Shuffle, etc.)? What games do you like to wind down the night with, especially ones that don't require much thinking?

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*Originally posted on BoardGameGeek on 17/5/2024*