Game Review: Fantasy Pub

By Brad Keen
March 9, 2008

Publisher: Tilsit / Mind the Move
Designer: Emanuele Ornella
Players: 2-5
Ages: 12+
Playing Time: 20-40 minutes
Rules Language: French, German & Italian (with English rules (PDF) on BGG)
Useful links: Summary cards (PDF) and Player’s Aid (PDF)

The opening blurb from Mind the Move: “Welcome to the Fantasy Pub!! In this special and ill famed Pub you will direct Imps, Dwarves, Orcs, and Trolls in a hot spot night-party! Everyone has money to spend and wants to drink really good beer! You will move around tables, have a stop at the bar, and meet friends and dangerous guys. The goal of the game is to drink, collect points and leave the Pub before you are completely drunk or run out of money!”

Fantasy Pub was designed and originally self-published by Emanuele Ornella and Mind the Move games. This was Ornella’s first self-published game, debuting at the Essen Game Fair in 2003 with an initial run of 500 copies that quickly sold out. Ornella later released a free expansion – the Bar Man Variant (ZIP file) – that was a welcome addition to the game.

Fantasy Pub is currently published with upgraded components and art by Tilsit Editions. This edition integrated the Bar Man variant into the core rules, and from this point on, I will discuss the Tilsit edition of the game.

For those of you unfamiliar with Fantasy Pub, it may come as a surprise that a (simple?) roll-and-move game with a fantasy drinking theme was designed by the same person who later produced the complex bidding mechanisms of Il Principe, the Mediterranean themed trading game Oltre Mare, and the medieval fantasy setting and heavyweight route-building game Hermagor. But Fantasy Pub is a fun game with some surprisingly complicated and devious decisions to be made.

What Do You Get?

• 84 coins (front)/beers (back)
• 35 character cards, with 2 Imps, 2 Dwarves, 2 Orcs, 1 Troll in each of five different colors
• 1 Barkeep card and base
• 6 Tables (Cards) numbered 1 to 6
• 1 Door to the Pub Card
• 2 Dice
• 1 Rulebook

The quality of the Fantasy Pub components is very high. The cards are sturdy, and their extra height comes in handy during the game. The dice are small but of an adequate size and they roll nicely. The components all fit nicely in the box, although the plastic insert was definitely not designed for this game. If I were not so compulsive about my games, I probably would have discarded it.

The rulebook is where things get interesting (for us English-speaking gamers) and is perhaps one of the reasons why I have a soft spot for Fantasy Pub. The Tilsit edition rules are officially translated only in French, German, and Italian. I knew this when I purchased the game, and I was thus prepared to experience the joys of rules translation. With the help of Google Translator and my friend Nathan Morse, I took it upon myself to translate the Italian rules into English. In addition to this, I created Summary Cards and a Player’s Aid. All of these files are available on BGG, and can be accessed using the links at the beginning of this review. I actually found translating the game very enjoyable, but it made me much more appreciative of the work that goes into translating game rules.

The Game

The goal of Fantasy Pub is to help your clan of seven different characters (of four different races) become the best drinkers in the land. Your clan members enter the Pub, spend their money, drink beer, and hopefully leave before drinking too much or running out of money. If a player’s character successfully exits the pub, that player collects beer tokens equal to the number of beers that the character has drunk. If a character is thrown out of the pub, the player gets nothing. The game continues until one player successfully collects a number of beer tokens determined by the number of players in the game:

Players	2	3	4	5
Drunk Beers	15	13	11	9

To setup the game, lay the Door to the Pub and the six Tables clockwise in ascending order in a circle in the center of the table. Place 1 coin on each of the tables (but not the Door). Place the Barkeep on its base beside the Door. Set the remaining coin/beer tokens aside to be used as a bank for the remainder of the game. Each player will choose a color and take the seven corresponding character cards. Shuffle your cards and place them in a pile, face down, in front of you. Then turn over the first card and place it on the Door to the Pub along with four coins.

At the beginning of each player’s turn, he rolls two dice. Each die allows a player to carry out an action. A player must carry out at least one of the following actions per turn while the second action is optional. The actions can be carried out in any order, and an action can be used twice in one turn if the rules permit it (although the rules will never permit a player to bring two characters into the pub in one turn). The actions are:

• Bring one of his character’s into the Pub
• Move one of his character’s around the Pub
• Move the barkeep
• Exit the Pub

When I teach this game, I usually discuss some of the basic rules of the game at this point. First, a player may move only their own characters into, around, and out of the pub. Second, a player may have only one of their clan members on the Door to the Pub at a time. Third, a Table can have either multiple characters of the same race seated at it or one character of multiple races; a table can never have multiple characters of multiple races seated at the same time. For example, a Table could have 4 Orcs seated at it, or 1 Orc and 1 Troll, but it could never have 2 Orcs and 1 Troll.

For each of the possible actions, with the exception of moving the Barkeep, a player can either use a single die to perform one or two actions or combine the value of the dice to perform one action. As long as he doesn’t already have a character on the Door to the Pub, he can bring a new character into the pub (by drawing it off of the top of his deck) along with a number of coins equal to the value of the die/dice used (as long as this number does not exceed 6). A player can also move his character clockwise around the bar a number of spaces equal to the value of his die/dice minus the number of beers that the character has drunk. Each Table and the Door count as a space. Finally, a character can use a die/dice (regardless of its value) to have a character exit the pub as long as the number of beers that that character has drunk is equal to the number of coins left on it and that character is on the Door to the Pub. The final action that a player can take is to use one die to move the Barkeep to a Table, forcing any one of the characters at that table to drink a beer.

Aha! We finally get to the best part of the game. When a character drinks a beer, the player controlling that character takes one of the coins on that character and flips it over to reveal a beer. If a character cannot do this, i.e. it doesn’t have the money to pay for its drink, the character is kicked out of the pub. A character is also kicked out immediately upon drinking its sixth beer. If this happens, all of the beer and coins left on that character are returned to the central bank.

How else do characters drink? A character will never drink at the Door to the Pub, nor will it drink when it’s alone. But, as soon as a character is joined by the Barkeep or by other characters, the drinking begins. If a character is joined by other members of its own race, each character drinks a beer to celebrate and flips over one of its own coins to reveal a beer. If a character is joined by characters of other races, then a round of drinking occurs where characters buy beers for each other in a hierarchical order by taking of its coins and placing it on the other character, beer side up. The Imp buys a beer for the Dwarf, the Dwarf buys for the Orc, and the Orc buys for the Troll. Further, if a Table does not have all four races present, you still follow this order, and simply skip the missing race. For example, if an Orc joins the Imp at a Table, the Imp would buy a beer for the Orc. Again, if a character cannot pay for its own or for another character’s beer, or if it has just drunk its sixth beer, it is thrown out of the Pub.

Okay, this sounds very simple, right? Get your characters into the pub, move them around, drink some beer, and leave. There is one more twist. Each race has a special ability. The Imp, whenever it stops at the table or the Door, must pick up a coin (if there is one). The Dwarf can move either clockwise or counter-clockwise around the pub. The Orc can exit the pub if it is either at the Door to the Pub or if it is at the same table as the Barkeep, and the Troll must leave a coin behind whenever it moves from one table to another location. These special abilities add layers of depth to the game.

As soon as a player collects the necessary number of beer tokens, by successfully getting his characters out of the pub, he wins the game.

Sample Turns with Two Players (Note that all pictures refer to the start of the turn before any actions are carried out.) It is the first turn of the game, and Chris (the Red player) rolled a 6 and a 3. Chris also has an Orc at the door to the pub. Right now, his options are somewhat limited, so Chris first moves the Orc to Table 3 (using the 3 die), then brings a new character into the Pub with six coins on it (using the 6 die). Now take a look at the picture on the left for another sample turn. It is hard to make out, but Chris has two Orcs on the board: one at Table 2 and the other at Table 4. Chris rolled a 4 and a 2. Right now, the Barkeep is at Table 4, but Chris decides to bring the Barkeep to Table 2 and forces his Orc to drink a beer. (He could have forced the Imp to drink, but wisely chose not to.) Now that Chris has used the 2 die, he has the option of performing a second action with the 4 die. Since Chris’s Orc is now at the same Table as the Barkeep and because he has consumed three beers (which is greater than or equal to the number of coins left on the Orc), his Orc can leave the bar and Chris is now three beers closer to winning the game.

Why is Fantasy Pub my Game of the Month?

I suspect that this will be a common conclusion for my “Game of the Month” reviews, but I think that Fantasy Pub is a great game. The fantasy theme is light and fun. It is fun to roll the dice and move fantasy characters around a pub, to call the barkeep to a table and force an opponent’s character to drink its sixth beer, to join a bunch of Imps at a table and drink in celebration, and to laugh at the Troll as he drops coins while moving around the tables.

Beyond the simple veneer of rolling dice and moving characters, however, lies a very complex game. On your turn you have many different and complicated choices, and you will find that interesting combinations of those actions will arise throughout the game. Suppose you have a Troll with four coins and two beers at Table 4, and you have rolled two 3s. Can you get to the door of the pub? YES! Since you have two beers, each 3 will allow you to move one space, so you can use one of the dice to move one spot to Table 5, leaving a coin at Table 4. Then you can use the second 3 to move the final two spaces to the door, leaving a coin at Table 5. Thus, next turn, you will start with a Troll at the Door to the Pub that you can have exit with any one of your dice. This is just one example of the many interesting combos that you will come up with as you play.

But this praise comes with some caveats. Fantasy Pub (in my opinion) is best when played as a quick and fun game. I have a lot of fun when the game lasts 30-40 minutes, but when it goes beyond that, I start losing interest. My suggested fix for this is to either lower the number of beers required to win – my group plays to 10 beers and finds that this works out great – or to set a time limit and the winner is the person who drank the most in that time frame.

The second thing that I have learned with this game is that some people simply do not enjoy the multitude of options allowed by four actions and two dice. Other gamers (or perhaps non-gamers in particular) may have difficulties with the complexities inherent in the rules. It can be frustrating to keep track of how many spaces you are allowed to move in a turn (you will likely mess this up the first time you play, forgetting to subtract from your movement the amount of beers that your character has on it) or just when a character is allowed to leave the pub.

Looking back to the previous examples, you can see that there were many different things that I could have done on my turn. Now imagine how many options I would have if I had more than two characters in the pub. If you know that your gaming buddies do not enjoy these types of choices in a game, I would not suggest this game for your group. Or, another way to limit these choices and to alleviate potential downtime in the game is to suggest that new players limit themselves to two characters in the pub at a time. This not only keeps the Pub from filling up, but it reduces the chances of analysis paralysis as players try to sort through the multitude of available actions.

Finally, and most importantly, you must use a dice tower when you play!

To wrap this up, if you like rolling dice and you like fantasy-themed games, you will probably like Fantasy Pub. Yes, it is a roll-and-move game, but this is not Parcheesi or Monopoly. A player is presented with a wide variety of choices after every roll of the dice. You often have the option of helping yourself move closer to winning or trying to decide whether to knock your opponent back a step. Although the sheer number of options can be overwhelming at times, with the right gaming group you will have a great time playing this game. If you read my review on Schwarzarbeit, you will know that I enjoy lighter games, but I also love heavy games. In fact, Hermagor, also designed by Emanuele Ornella, is one of my favorites. But I appreciate games that fill a certain category and time slot. I usually bring out Fantasy Pub at the end of a gaming session, when we are all a little tired and ready for a quick and fun game. It fills that niche perfectly.

Thanks from Brad and the BGN editor to Werner Baer, Hilko Drude, and Peter Schott for providing the images used in this article.


Want to submit a review of a game that’s been neglected, praised or recently released? Boardgame News welcomes your game review submissions at contributions@boardgamenews.com

---

Comments:

You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free!

Thanks for the tip o’ the hat, Brad!  Fantasy Pub has interesting choices, and I would like to play it again. Posted by Nathan Morse on Mar 10, 2008 at 09:00 AM | #

"Finally, and most importantly, you must use a dice tower when you play!” What’s a dice tower? - Derek Posted by Derek Carver on Mar 19, 2008 at 06:16 AM | #

Derek, think of the tower in Wallenstein that you drop colored cubes into. A dice tower works somewhat the same way, but you drop the dice into the top of the tower, they hit plastic shelves inside that randomize them, then they fall into a tray at the bottom of the tower so they don’t scatter your game bits all over the place. If you want to see samples, here’s a link to one manufacturer, VixenTor Games: http://www.vixentorgames.com/subcategory.asp?category=2 Eric Posted by W. Eric Martin on Mar 19, 2008 at 07:44 AM | #

< Back Home