Aaron Lawn: Ten Times the Fun

Ten Micro-Reviews that all use the word Fun, have at least one footnote that might actually tell you something about the game, fail to mention Ted Alspach, and cover a variety of genres.

Galaxy Trucker¹ = fun

Not surprising, but I’ve been enjoying the experience of building and destroying ships.

Ticket Nordic² = fun

Not surprising³.  Seems to be one of the more difficult maps in terms of tickets being spread out, but this could be my complete lack of any regional geographic knowledge.

Napoleon’s Triumph⁴ = amazing, but with a lack of Fun.

After several games of Napoleon’s Triumph, I think I can say that it is brilliant, but a complete brain-burner of a wargame.

Captain Clueless⁵ = Not as much fun as VOC⁶.

Surprising.  There’s some things that have actually caused Captain Clueless to be less amusing than I’d hoped.  First, as a Kid’s game, there’s a heavy dose of luck-of-the-draw when your team gets a location.  I think I’ve come up with a fix⁷ for this, but I haven’t implemented it yet.  Second, the transition from the thin point marker and the delicate board (targeting adults) and the wide marker with the larger board (targeting kids) decreases the level of adult fun more than I expected.  Maybe I’ll just make my own Adult board.

Pow-Wow⁸ = Liar’s Dice plus extra Fun

Finally played with 8 people, and while it was a little long, it still worked.  Fast becoming my favorite ‘bluff’ style game.

Dancing Eggs⁹ = fun, but two sets may be needed for Fun.

Because, as adults, we are better at holding eggs than kids, and more likely to not have enough room to run around the table, so there is more shuffling and less hurrying.  Having twenty eggs to distribute among 4 people would probably solve this problem.  Sure, you can hang onto 4 eggs – but how about 7?

Good Question¹⁰ = Funner than Taboo.

This party game is quickly on it’s way to my favorite of the “Guess the word” party games.

Dschungel-Schatz¹¹ = Not enough Fun.

Devastated by the complete failure of Mattel to ever properly release Squad Seven in the US of A, I was prompted to open up D-S (or Jungle Treasure) as a potential substitute for foam darts and a CD-soundtrack.  Unfortunately, while it was highly amusing to watch Greg be incapable of catching a stone he had thrown 10 inches into the air, the game did not contain enough Fun.

Space Alert¹² = Sounds Fun.

Cribbage = Still Fun.

Especially if you choose novelty playing cards¹³ so you can intersperse your counting with astute comments on the pictures.

That’s 10 games.

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¹You are probably familiar with this game. ↩

²See ¹. ↩

³Since I’m a fan of Ticket to Ride in general, and Ticket with 3 players in specific. ↩

⁴Wargame regarding the battle of Austerlitz with no dice, hidden troops, and zone-ish movement.  Bowen Simmons designs wargames that are very different from all others.  I look forward to his take on Gettysburg. ↩

⁵Game of Drawing three cards and attempting to connect those three ports while blindfolded following directions from your teammates.  Supposedly for Children↩

⁶Same as above, but with strategic buying and selling of goods along the way.  Supposedly not for Children. ↩

⁷The opposing team draws three cards and chooses which port you have to go to next.  Thus making each leg of your journey likely to be hard. ↩

⁸Indian Poker crossed with the mentioned liar’s dice.  Guess the total while knowing all information –except- your own card.  The Special cards (Doublers and negatives) and special actions (tomahawks) make the game. ↩

⁹Roll the dice, perform an action, earn an egg that you have to stick in your armpit.  Don’t drop it. ↩

¹⁰Published by Repos (Cash and Guns).  Players play individually, trying to craft questions that are in-theme (example: Horror Movies) to get other players to guess the word… but misleading enough that 2 people guess wrong before the word is determined. ↩

¹¹Sometimes I think I should write an article just about Roberto Fraga.  He designs some brilliantly crazy Kid’s games.  D-S and Squad Seven and another one whose name escapes me are all about performing various silly activities to earn points. ↩

¹²Mandatory mention of game that hasn’t been published yet. ↩

¹³Especially if those novelty playing cards are the Ladies of Star Wars Playing Cards.  Who knew that 99% of the Ladies of Star Wars Have Long Hair or Tentacles? ↩

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