Game Review: Soaps (Where Soap Opera Writers Get Their Ideas)

By Dr Aneurin J Kennerley
November 28, 2009

Designer: Danny Goodisman
Publisher: The Game Crafter

Players: 2-5
Ages: 18+
Playing Time: 30-60 minutes
Rules Language: English
Price: $22
Links:

Version played: Comped review copy
Times played: Five, three times with 2 players, once with 3 and once with 4

A little introduction: I’m a “Brit”, and my wife and I along with approximately eight million of our fellow countrymen (1/9 of the population of the UK) settle down in front of the box every weeknight for what can only be described as a soap fest. During prime time we can enjoy Emmerdale, Coronation Street and EastEnders. If that’s not enough lather for one person you can add Hollyoaks and the Australian imports, Neighbours and Home & Away to that list. A total of 3.5 hours of screen time, wow. (If you want to know what all the fuss is about I’ll leave you to “google” them.) So when the opportunity to combine this obsession with my other – board-gaming obviously – came along I snapped up the chance to give Soaps (Where Soap Opera Writers Get Their Ideas) a quick spin (programme 4 – 60 degrees).

Soaps is a card-based game in which players are directors/writers of a new soap opera. In this role you control the fate of various show characters. Over 3-4 weeks (don’t worry – only 30-60 minutes gaming time) you get the chance to put your newly formed cast through their paces with various life-changing events from illicit affairs to lawsuits and even alien abductions. Ultimately, the pilot soap with highest audience (points) will make it to final production; the rest will fail to sud.

The game consists of two decks: characters and events. At the start of the game players draw five random character cards that will make up their initial cast. Each character, be it male or female, has a pre-determined points value (0 to 40), typecast and sexuality. In the initial setup two of your newly formed cast are married. In this “politically correct” game a marriage can exist between a hetero- or homosexual couples. However, this marriage must also take into account character typecast. For example, George, a priest, cannot have a wedding or be married. Game setup is complete when players draw seven event cards, representing the week ahead, to form their playing hand.

The game starts on a Monday with players selecting one of three possible actions; a) play an event card, b) pick an extra character card, or c) exchange event cards. Points are scored after playing one of the above choices. When an event card is played, players score the point value for that event, plus the point value of any involved characters. An extra character card scores you 40 points plus the character point value. If a player decides to exchange event cards, he must then either play an event or pick a new character but scoring only half the total points. The points scored for that day are noted, then play continues on to Tuesday through to Friday. The player with the highest score has the highest viewing figures for that week and scores 50 bonus points. Players can choose to keep or discard any remaining events cards, then draw back up to seven cards and a new week begins. In the final week (sweep week), scores are doubled.

From the outside this makes for a simple, intuitive and quick game. However, the game simply boils down to a basic arithmetic test with players working out which option from the above three would herald the highest points. In doing this players often stew over these minimal choices.

Why? In all the games I played, it became quickly apparent that playing an events card resulted in the highest score (often 100+) while picking an extra character card would on average pull in 60 points. Players are therefore forced to play events and only take extra characters when their event hand is limited or would result in fewer points than 60. However, event cards are word heavy and it can be very time consuming to work out which characters can be involved depending on the event description and their typecasts. Some character typecasts mean they cannot be involved in specific events. For example, Allen cannot be involved in affairs. Others are automatically involved. Michael is automatically involved in lawsuits. To maximise points it becomes a case of playing lawsuit (which involves two characters) not on Michael, but on your players with the highest points and then Michael is automatically involved for an extra 20 points. The result is a lot of downtime for the other players while you do some “quick” calculations.

The event cards also lead to another disappointing aspect of the game; there is very little player interaction; only two event types out of 33 are played on fellow players: “Better offer” and “Viewer outrage”. “Better offer”, an event worth zero points, allows you to steal another player’s character card at the end of the current week. “Viewer outrage” allows you to cancel another player’s event card, the score for the cancelled event is subtracted from that player and you gain half those points. It’s fun to play these cards to see your fellow player reactions but the scoring system here penalises you and hence it is often better not to play these options. Without these two cards the game could be played solitaire with a player trying to beat his last score.

However, some aspects of this game do “get your whites whiter than white”. In all games I played the scoring between all players at the end of week 4 was extremely close and in that sense the events cards are very well balanced and Danny Goodisman has done an excellent job in designing this theme-rich game. In fact the game oozes with theme and to some extent this saves the game. The broad range of events that can occur to your characters are true to the soap opera genre. The character cards are superbly drawn by Katie Green, and typecasts fit seamlessly with these caricatures. This all adds up to give players an amusing, laugh-a-minute game. If the current card sets aren’t to your liking, Danny Goodisman has also included several blank character and event cards for players to mod their own game. It would be great to see an online community adding content to the game and making it as dynamic as the genre it was built around. It would also fit well with the idea that this is “where soap opera writers get their ideas”.

In conclusion for the casual player, Soaps is a laugh-out-loud, fun, easy-to-pick-up gaming experience as you watch Cindy have a love child with Raymond, much to the displeasure of her wife Monica, who was disfigured only yesterday following her alien abduction. For the experienced gamer, it may be an attractive game to bring in casual gamers, and you’d be happy to bring it to the table every few months as a filler to lighten the atmosphere – well, if you aren’t too busy watching soaps on the television that is!

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