Baker’s Dozen – Details on the “New” Game

As noted in a recent news item, Playroom Entertainment plans to release Reiner Knizia’s Baker’s Dozen – a re-themed version of Poison – in September. To find out what’s changed and why, I turned to Playroom’s Jessica Bethke.

“The theme of Poison was changed to a lighter theme of donuts, which is more family-friendly,” says Bethke. The number 13 was already important to the game, and since thirteen equals a baker’s dozen everything fell into place from there.

The three colors of potion cards have been replaced with three flavors of donuts, while the poison has morphed into slightly less lethal moldy donuts. Baker’s Dozen includes 56 cards – 48 regular donut cards and 8 moldy ones – whereas Poison had only 50 cards. Players receive a hand of five cards at the start of a round, instead of having the deck dealt out completely, although this method of play has been kept as a variant in the Baker’s Dozen rules.

The biggest change is perhaps the box, which takes up even more space than Poison and can’t have anything stacked on top of it – yet it’s in the shape of a donut hole box, so that has to be worth something, right?

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"The Deliciously Exciting Cardgame with baked in fun”??!?? This is one of the worst rethemings ever. Posted by Lee Fisher on Jul 24, 2008 at 12:27 PM | #

That probably depends on the market, Lee. If you’re not a gamer yet are shopping for a game, Baker’s Dozen will likely catch your eye far more than Poison would. You’re far more likely to have a donut-eating friend than a poison-loving friend, right? And think of all the Homer Simpson jokes you can make! Eric Posted by W. Eric Martin on Jul 24, 2008 at 12:56 PM | #

I think it is a great theme.  I love Poison, but I get wary glances when I try to get non-gamers to play it.  I think this will be a hit with non-gamers but gamers will love the deeper-than-apparent strategies to the game. Posted by Rob Cannon on Jul 24, 2008 at 05:14 PM | #

Donut holes? I don’t get it.... Oh!  You mean Timbits! Why didn’t you just say so? pk Posted by Patrick Korner on Jul 24, 2008 at 07:53 PM | #

Oh, and while the box idea is cute, it’s a shoo-in to claim the crown for “Most Impractical"… pk Posted by Patrick Korner on Jul 24, 2008 at 07:55 PM | #

The box takes more space than poison? I thought poisons box is oversized already… But the theme is something new at least. Posted by Peer Sylvester on Jul 25, 2008 at 06:15 AM | #

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