Matt Carlson: Two Unexpected Reviews

As a gamer, I have developed a circle of friends who all enjoy similar types of games.  One person’s personal preferences are not always the same as another’s.  This was really brought home to me in the past few weeks as I brought out two recent Rio Grande Games to show off to the local high school game club.  I had moderate interest in the puzzle-like racing game, Fast Flowing Forest Fellers, but was rather cynical towards the combination logic/party game, The 3 Commandments.  However, when I introduced the games at a recent club meeting, the students took to The 3 Commandments right away and played it all evening and again at our next meeting.  Meanwhile, I put together a game of Fast Flowing Forest Fellers and afterwards had a hard sell setting up a second run of the game.

I started our club meeting with a small group of five students who were willing to try out a new game.  I explained that Fast Flowing Forest Fellers is a kind of race game, where players use cards to move their lumberjacks down a stream in a race to the finish.  Each card can move one specific lumberjack, but a moving lumberjack can push one or two other lumberjacks (or logs – which are simply obstacles) as they move.  Special rapids spaces then push all the people and objects around the board at the end of each player’s turn.  I then explained The 3 Commandments, in which one player is the high priestess and picks out three rules cards (from a set of four) and picks two of them to be “good” and one to be “bad” but does not reveal what the rules are.  Players then “mess with” wooden pieces in a central circle area and gain points when they follow “good” rules as long as they don’t also do too poorly with the “bad” rule.  One set of rules cards are based around messing with the color and placement of the wooden pieces, while the other set of cards deal with the overall behavior of the players and could deal with quite strange ideas, such as whether a player stands up, asks permission to start their turn, or even uses their pinky finger.  Want to guess which set of cards most inspired my teenage game group?

Regardless, we dove into a game and had a good time.  The high priestess indicates which rules cards were followed after each player takes a turn (but never reveals the rules) so astute players may be able to slowly develop theories for each rule card.  Of the four starting cards, two are the moving pieces cards and two are from the “behavior” deck and they have different backs, so you will know whether the “bad” rule is a behavior card or one that deals with moving the pieces around.  After everyone has taken two turns (three if you have fewer players), scores are tallied and each player records their score.  The high priestess gains points equal to the highest score in that round.  Thus, you want to set things up so that at least one player gains as many points as possible while the other players gain as few as possible.

Despite our unfamiliarity with the rules cards, our game was quite fun to play.  I enjoyed doing a little dance, asking for permission to start my turn, and then moving the pieces around on the board using both hands and my pinky fingers.  Some players took to taking a quick trip out of the room, just in case it might score some points.  I believe that set our game up well for the second round.  We kept going over to shake hands with players at other tables, just in case it was the task needed to earn us points in that round.  The other tables were quick to grasp that something strange, and possibly fun, was going on at the next table.  The craziest moments are when one player goes through a long routine and then manages to score one, but not all, of the good points.  This meant the other players would copy that first player as much as possible, but then tack on a few extra things, looking to gain from the remaining unknown card.  The students played for two rounds before I bowed out, and got in one or two more games before the club had to end.  The next week it was back in play for most of the afternoon.  What I thought might be a somewhat gimmicky deduction/party game actually hit a sweet spot with those teens.  (In their defense, there is a healthy following of Apples to Apples in the game club, getting a play or two in nearly every week.

My final thoughts on the two games were somewhat different than my initial predictions.  I’m still not a big fan of The 3 Commandments, as I prefer my silly and my deduction games separate.  However, it is clear that if players are in the right mood, there is plenty of fun to be had.

As for Fast Flowing Forest Fellers, I think it is a fine game, but it just doesn’t end up as a style of game that I prefer.  I’m not a big racing fan, and the game is a bit too confrontational for my taste.  It felt like a standard racing game that focuses on lots of blocking and positioning mechanisms.  Players choose one of three cards to decide which token to move, then draw a new card at the end of each turn.  If the deck is against you, it will make things a bit difficult.  The game comes with several river tiles, two of which are used in any one game.  This provides many possible game setups to keep things interesting.  As with most racing/positioning games, a key component of moving forward is to cause your opponents to lose ground.  While I don’t mind a more aggressive game from time to time, I prefer my conflict to be more indirect. 

As for The 3 Commandments, I’ve warmed up to the game quite a bit.  I place it in that category of games that really need the right crowd to succeed.  Given a group of players who are looking for a bit of silliness with their next game, I think it could be a great experience.  Due to the deduction portion of the games, I’m thinking it would be best for logic/deduction fans looking for a bit of silliness rather than party game fans willing to try out a bit of deduction.

Both games are solid titles, but simply turn out to be not my preferred style of game.  However, I have been suitably chastised for trying to predict what style of games my boardgame club members enjoy best.  After all, its good for everyone to keep sampling things outside their core preferences, otherwise you’ll never have the chance to discover something new.

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