Games Played: Option, Killer Bunnies, Emerald
Gamers: Chip, Sara, Denise, Karl, Aaron, Rob, Peter, Matt, Nate
Thanks to Rob for hosting and making lunch.
OPTION (0:55)
Aaron: 268
Chip: 233
Sara: 156
Option is basically a Scrabble variant with two letters (of different colors) per tile, instead of one. Long words spelled entirely in a single color score double. This incentive helps to keep the game moving, as looking for a word with 14 letters takes much longer then looking for a word with only 7 letters. Also, players can flip any tile on the board, so long as the new letter keeps all words legal. There is an additional option rule (which we didn't use) that rewarded players for finding as many "flippable" tiles as they could.
I'm glad I tried this game, as it looked interesting, but I'd rather play Scrabble, or Quiddler. Do not play this with someone who is determined to win: it will slow down to a crawl.
KILLER BUNNIES AND THE QUEST FOR THE MAGIC CARROT (0:75 + 0:22 rules)
Denise: won
Sara, Chip, Karl, Aaron, Rob, Peter, Matt: lost
Matt brought this game along with two of the expansions (Red Booster and Violet Booster). He was very brave to try to teach a game that no one had ever played before to eight gamers at once! I'll go out on a limb here, and say that most people disliked this game. It took a few turns around the table to sort out exactly how the game worked. This was partly because the rules were unclear, but mostly because no one heard all of the rules when they were initially read.
To win the game, one needs to have a bunny in play, and own the magic carrot (selected randomly). Obviously, the more carrots you have in play, the better your chances of having the magic carrot, but a player with only a single carrot still has a chance at winning.
Unfortunately, there are a few situations that can make the game unbalanced. If you do not draw any bunnies, then most of the cards will be fairly useless. If you lose your bunny and do not draw another one, any carrots that you have collected will be useless. On the other hand, whenever you draw a money card, you take the card and draw another one. If you are fortunate enough to draw a bunch of money cards in a row, you can keep them all.
I was in the minority - I enjoyed this game. Playing with eight players was a bit too chaotic, but I would gladly play this game again with fewer players.
EMERALD (0:35)
Matt: 32
Chip: 28
Rob: 27
Sara: 24
This is a fun little strategy game. I was lucky and managed to get some valuable cards early on in the game. I tried to keep Matt from being the first player to get one of each gem, but without success. As Sara and I collected gems, he only ended up with the majority in one color, otherwise he lead would have been greater.
Sara was in the position of being able to end the game early (by taking the final 5 point knight card), but at that point it would have ended with a tie between Matt and me. Shortly later, Matt's penultimate knight was eaten, ending the game.
This is a quick game with a nice fantasy theme. It's easy enough to jump in and start playing, but there is some strategy behind it as well. I'd play it again.
posted by FlyingSheep @ 2:12 PM
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