I like ROVE’s children better than I like ROVE

 I tried out ROVE (Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer) when it first came out because, quite frankly, Button Shy has had a very good track record for me when it comes to solitaire games. 

And I was left with two impressions. First, it was a terribly clever design. Second, I did not grok it. A game can be good and I cannot enjoy it and both those statements can be true.

In ROVE, you are trying to rearrange six module cards into different patterns and each card has its own kind of movement. (It was pointed out to me that Chess clearly influenced ROVE’s design, which turned out to be obvious when someone else pointed it out) You pay for action points by playing move cards and you try and complete seven patterns (the move and pattern cards do double duty), as well as have access to one-shot special powers on each of the module cards.

And don’t get me wrong, I think it is a good game but I am profoundly bad at it. I am so very bad at parsing it. 

I did back the Kickstarter for Rove’s two sister games, ROVE JR and Aqua ROVE, but I was in no hurry to try them out since ROVE hadn’t been engaging for me. However, when I finally did, I found both of them clicked for me much better.

Both games remove the chess-like element of each module having its own kind of movement. In JR, every module moves the same and in Aqua, the movement cards dictate how the modules will move. For whatever reason, that is much easier for me to understand. 

There are other differences. JR uses only four modules. Aqua’s patterns include requiring specific modules in specific positions. Every flavor of ROVE is distinct. I can see the value in owning all of them (of course, since I just buy the PnP files, the cost is minimal)

I can’t say that JR and Aqua have fired the original ROVE for me… because I wasn’t playing it. If anything, my enjoyment of them makes it more likely for me to revisit ROVE. 

Still, Aqua ROVE and, if I’m to be honest, ROVE JR in particular are games I want to keep playing.