Over the last couple years, I’ve been playing the PnP offerings of The Dark Imp. The fact that I keep going back to them says that at least I think they’re pretty good. So I decided to summarize my thoughts about the games.
The Dark Imp has two lines of Print and Play games, notepad and placemats. They are all Roll and Writes and designed by Ellie Dix. The notepad games are black and white, smaller (four game sheets to a page) and simpler. Placemat games are color, take up two pages and, while not complex, they are more complex than the notepad games.
Because I am stingy on ink, I played through the notepad games first. That said, I think the placemat games are the real hidden gems. That said, part of the mission statement is to design games for classrooms and other group areas and the notepad games definitely nail that objective.
NOTEPAD GAMES
Mini Town
I have to admit, I find Mini Town to be the least interesting game in both sets. It’s a draw-a-map on a grid game, which is a pretty common format for R&Ws. And games like 30 Rails and Welcome to Dino World were big parts of me embracing R&Ws so I do like them.
I just felt like it didn’t do enough to stand out.
Lingo Land
As much as I love language, word games are a hard sell for me. There are some like Buy Word or Flipword I really like. But it’s not a genre I go for. So I’m not really into playing Lingo Land.
BUT, objectively, I think it is the best designed word R&W I have played. It is the Dark Imp game I would recommend the most for classroom use. Sometimes, you don’t have to be into a game to appreciate that it is good.
Bank or Bust
The elevator pitch is that it is Can’t Stop with special powers. It’s a Push Your Luck game where you can spend banked points for different abilities.
But here’s the thing. You roll one die and you bust on a six. The odds never change so you can’t gauge if it’s better or worse to stay in. I don’t like that. But I do like the idea and the application of special powers so I do have a fascination for the game.
Palatial
Draw Tetris-style shapes in a grid. Honestly, I think this is an even more common format than drawing a map on a grid. Roll two dice and pick one for the zoje on the grid and one for the shape.
While there are some solid flourishes, like asymmetrical zones and the two-block shape being only one that can cross zones, it’s nothing new. Which is what I said about Mini Town. And yet, I keep on pulling Palatial out and sometimes even bingeing it.
The conclusion I came to is that Palatial is just so intuitive. It’s easy to understand how it works so you can just skip to trying to play well.
PLACEMAT GAMES
Castaway
The placemat games all have a lot more theme than the notepad games and Castaway is about being stranded on a deserted island.
Which is actually one of the biggest drawbacks of the game. That is a very well traveled theme so you have a lot of choices. And I would play Island Alone over Castaway.
Castaway also had a mechanic that I liked, replanting trees. Cool idea and cool theme. However, when playing it solitaire, it let me control the tempo of the game enough that there was no tension.
I am sure multiplayer would really bump up the experience but I would still pick Island Alone for that.
The Grand Opeining
Running a restaurant on its first day, this game really leans into its theme. There are three actions. Seating guests, making food and serving guests.
The Grand Opening feels like the decision tree is simpler than the other placemat games. However, it all slots together so well. The Grand Opening has tight, enjoyable play.
Beach Life
This was the first placemat game I tried and it was a revelation for me. The artwork looked like Highlights for Children (no offense to that august publication) but the decision tree is surprisingly robust.
It’s a collection of mini-games themed around shore life like crabs and clams. Roll two dice. You use one to pick a mini-game and use the other in the mini-game. This creates a lot of interesting, sometimes painful choices.
Restaurantrepreneur
Other than being a pain to type, Restaurantrepreneur is, in my arrogant opinion, Ellie Dix’s masterpiece.
It’s themed around setting up a restaurant (clearly a theme dear to her heart) and, like Beach Life, it’s a set of mini-games. However, honestly, the mini-games are more complex and interesting. (Not rocket science but more complicated)
But the real kicker is the bank. You roll three dice each turn. One is used to pick the mini-game and one in that game. The last die, that goes to borrowing money from the bank. Which is three separate tracks: 1/2,3/4,5/6. When one ends, the game ends. That makes the end game really tense and forces you to make choices you don’t want to make. It’s awesome.
Honestly, even the weakest Dark Imp game is worth playing. But Restaurantrepreneur is a game I’d take to a game night and I think would do well.
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