Tile laying when my brain isn’t working

 As life and work have become increasingly hectic, I have found myself revisiting Potato Carrot Tomato as a quick, lunchtime game. 

I have written about Alexander Shen and how they have a real genius for creating games and puzzles that can be played in a coffee cup’s worth of time. And I’ve written about the need for brain fog games, games you can play and enjoy without concentrating on them. And Potato Carrot Tomato is a game where those two ideas come together.

It’s a solitaire tile-laying game consisting of fifteen tiles, plus some scoring tiles. Each tile has one to three sections. Each edge will always be a potato or a carrot or a tomato so the divisions are in the rest of my life, instructor hands-on environment, always diagonal. Edges don’t have to match, but you only get points if they do.

At the end, you will score each of your largest groups. The twist is that their values will be randomly determined. At the start, you will randomly determine which vegetable will be worth one point per symbol. At about the 2/3 mark, you then randomly figure out which one of the remaining two will be worth two points and three points.

Potato Carrot Tomato is, frankly, not a good game. In fact, it is easily the weakest Shen game that I will play on a semi-regular basis. I have found that my scores end up almost always being in the same general range, high fifties to low sixties. In fact, I feel that the game doesn’t actually offer real choices, more pattern recognition with the variation in scoring being luck-based.

There are a couple of other games I’ve found myself thinking about in regards to Potato Carrot Tomato as a brain fog game. Shen also has Blankout, which is also more pattern recognition than strategy. However, I think the patterns are prettier. And there is Dice Fishing D6, which is my ultimate brain fog game. There’s no real decision making but it’s a chill process tied up in a nice package.

Apparently, I’m in the mood for a tile-laying mindless activity. (For the record, I think Ambagibus requires some actual decisions and doesn’t count. It is a very chill game though) And I’m sure Potato Carrot Tomato will fade away again but it is helpful right now.

13 Sheep keeps working in the classroom

 Using board games in the classroom is one of my dreams but it’s one that rarely pans out. In part because I want to use gamer games but also because time is never in your side. Often, ten to twenty minutes is what you have to teach AND play a game.

Despite that, I have been able to bring games occasionally into the classroom this last year. I’ve stuck to Roll and Writes since it’s easier to make them for a group and multi-player solitaire works well in a classroom environment. When time is limited, everyone playing at the same time is a big deal.

I figured Blankout would work well, particularly for younger children. It’s incredibly simple, possibly one of the most basic Roll and Writes I have seen. While I feel it’s too easy to have ties, I felt that I’m going for critical thinking in the classroom, not competition. 

However, kids didn’t take to Blankout. Maybe it was too simple or possibly the fact that is 100% abstract. There wasn’t an in for them.

So I went back to my old standard 13 Sheep. I know I write about 13 Sheep all the time but I haven’t found a game in its niche that does a better job. And believe me; I’ve looked and I’m still looking. Just because I love a game doesn’t mean I don’t look for the next step.

13 Sheep is a very simple game that only takes five minutes to play and only uses one die. Normally, a roll and write that only uses one die is a red flag but it works for 13 Sheep. (Waypoints from Post Mark games is another exception to that rule)

More than that, the theme of fencing in sheep makes the game make sense. Kids latched into that and the game clicked. I dig abstract strategy games but theme is not just making a game look pretty. Theme helps games make sense and that’s a big deal in the classroom.

I think, if I really to get heavy games in the school setting, I’d need to get run or support an afterschool game club. However, I am glad that 13 Sheep has given me a tool that is fun but still encourages critical thinking.

Starting the year with a Roll and Write

The first game I’ve learned in 2020 has been Blankout, a roll and write that I printed out and laminated. I enjoyed the game but this is going to be one of those yes... but reviews.

Here is Blankout in a nutshell: you’re filling out a grid with polynomials that are determined by rolling a die. In a multiplayer game, you all use the same rolls and whoever is the last person who can fit a shape in wins. If you’re playing the game as a solitaire, then your score is the number of shapes you were able to draw.

I like polynomials. I have ever since I first discovered Blokus at basically the start of my board gaming life or maybe when I discovered Tangrams before that. They let you play with space and patterns. And drawing shapes and Roll and Write go well together. The core concept of Blankout is great.

But...

This is far from the first time I’ve seen the idea used. Discounting non-Roll-and-Write games like FITS, I have still played games like Mosiax or 13 Sheep or Bentoblocks and that’s just scratching the surface of polynomial Roll and Writes I’ve seen or heard of.

And Blankout is probably the most simplistic, most basic one I have seen. Even 13 Sheep, which was the previous placeholder for simplest before Blankout, has a more complex goal (fencing in sheep) and a little more twists (bushes that block fences)

Bentoblocks, which is the game that reminds me the most of Blankout, has dice drafting, two choices of shape per dice and competing to fill in sections of the board. In other words, Bentoblocks has more choices baked into it and is simply more interesting.

So the biggest flaw Blankout has is that there other games that are very similar and, in my opinion, better. In and of itself, it’s definitely serviceable. In a vacuum, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a cute and light little game. I will keep it in rotation and I am planning on actually making a nicer copy.

But... here’s the other thing. A lot of the games that are like it aren’t available for free. Bentoblocks isn’t anymore and, as far as I know, Blankout still is. (You can order pads of playing sheets from the designer, though) And that’s honestly no small thing. If someone asked for me a game like this or I needed a game for a youth group of some sort, Blankout would be the top of the list. (It has kicked out the previous placeholder for that, ‘Not Another One’) I can picture running games of Blankout for groups of twenty or thirty people.

Blankout isn’t the best in its class but it is a useful tool to have in your files. Glad I tried it and it will come out on occasion.