Cosmic Run: Mission One feels bigger than a piece of paper

At its heart, Cosmic Run: Mission One is a Roll and Move, along with being a Roll and Write. While Roll and Move is often derided as a mechanic by those who have forgotten Backgammon, Cosmic Run uses multiple pawns and dice manipulation to make sure there’s actual gameplay.

Cosmic Run: Mission One is a Roll and Write solitaire from Dr. Finn’s Book of Solitaire Strategy and Word Games. It’s also the only game in the book that Steve Finn writes cannot work as a multiplayer solitaire.

You are trying to reach four different planets before your AI opponent reach them. The play sheet consists of four planet tracks and a column of special powers that you have to earn before you can use.

Each track actually has the planet in the middle with you coming from one side and the AI enemy coming from the other. Each track on your side has a specific requirement, like three of kind needed to move/mark off a space. There are six special powers in the column, one for each pip. They range from reroll a die to change a die to any pip.

Each turn, you roll four dice. You always have to assign a die but you can reroll the rest so you get up to four rolls without using special powers. Dice can be assigned to planet tracks or special powers to earn said powers.

After you’ve assigned and resolved your dice (which can end up doing nothing if you couldn’t fulfill a track’s requirement), you roll one die for the AI. The AI spaces have numbers on them, sometimes two. If your die roll matches one (or more!) of the number at the next space of an AI track, cross it off. If it doesn’t match, you choose which track to cross off a space on.

If the AI reaches a planet first, you either lose points depending on how far along you are for that planet or lose outright if you aren’t far enough. When all four planets are claimed, the game ends. You gain points for claimed planets and unused powers and lose them for AI-claimed planets.

I haven’t played any of Dr. Finn’s other Cosmic Run games but Cosmic Run: Mission Run definitely feels like a game that started out as not-a-Roll-and-Write. And I do like it when R&Ws stretch the medium, although it’s long past the point where anyone should be surprised when R&Ws aren’t just Yahtzee clones.

The game is remarkably accessible, in large part because it uses so many concepts and mechanics that are part of the building blocks of board games. At the same time, it manages to also be its own thing. And easy to understand doesn’t mean easy to win.

Cosmic Run: Mission One does a bang up job at both being a Roll and Move game without actually having any physical pawns and while giving you choices. It’s short and ultimately simple but feels bigger than a piece of paper and some dice.

My Perfect City uses familiar ideas to challenge us

My Perfect City from Dr. Finn’s Book of Solitaire Strategy and Word Games is an example of drawing a map on a grid. Between published Roll and Writes and design contests, I feel like I have seen dozens of games that could be described that way.

However, I also remember when I first saw Welcome to Dino World back in 2017, I felt like someone had handed me Carcassonne on a sheet of paper. That was when I really realized that the medium of Roll and Write could be so much more than different flavors of Yahtzee.

So, what does My Perfect City do to make it stand out and make it worth playing?

You are filling in a six by six grid with five different symbols/city areas (which are government buildings, banks, parks, houses and apartments, by the way) They each have their own scoring conditions and any empty spaces at the end of the game are negative points.

Okay, that’s all pretty boilerplate. So what did Steve Finn do to make My Perfect City interesting?

What I have normally seen is a symbol assigned to a die pip. In My Perfect City, each pip has three sets of symbols in specific shapes, made of one to four squares, each unit called a tile. (If that sounds confusing, it automatically makes sense when you see it)

The first placement has to touch the edge of the grid. Every placement after that has to touch a previously placed tile. And you are not allowed to flip or rotate the tiles, except through one-shot powers. There are three one-shot powers, letting you flip a tile horizontally, vertically or remove a square.

You cross off a tile when you use it. If you have crossed off every shape in a pip, you can pick any remaining tile when you roll that number. When no more tiles will fit, the game ends and you figure out your score.

So. What makes My Perfect City stand out, what makes it work? I’m going to say the variety of different tiles. 

It’s definitely an example of limitations and restrictions creating tough choices and tension. The board becomes claustrophobic. While there are eighteen tiles, the total number of squares in those eighteen is greater than the board. You can’t use every one.

That makes My Perfect City less granular. You don’t slowly fill up the board, square by square. Each move dynamically changes the board. You don’t have as many moves as you would if every tile was only one square but that means the decisions are bigger.

And that does make My Perfect City enjoyable and worth playing. The elements may be familiar but they are crafted into a thoughtful, engaging experience.

My July Gaming

July was a solid month for learning games for me. I finished going through Dr. Finn’s Book of Solo Strategy and Word Games. I got in some play testing, which always feels like a privilege. And I learned some other games.

I learned:

My Perfect City (Dr. Finn)

Paper App Galaxy

Cosmic Run: Mission Run (Dr. Finn)

Aqua ROVE

ROVE JR

Aqua ROVE - Dangerous Depths expansion (playtest)

Monster Dinner Party 

Around the World in 10-15 Minutes (USA and Europe maps)

I’ve really enjoyed Dr. Finn’s book. The games are really strong for casual play. They don’t last longer than ten, fifteen minutes and they’re easy to learn. At the same time, they deliver a definite game. I’ve been going back to them and I think I will keep doing that.

However, exploring the ROVE family was my big July experience. As I’ve said, I appreciated the design of the original ROVE, I didn’t actually enjoy playing it. Since I decided to play test an Aqua ROVE expansion, I had to learn Aqua ROVE and I decided to learn JR as well.

Both Aqua and JR meaningfully shift the movement rules in a way that are easier for my brain to handle. Aqua ROVE is arguably harder than the original game but being able to process it makes it more fun. JR is simpler, enough that it’s now on my casual play list.

Although it’s not on the list, I also tried out the dice-free variant of Paper App Golf. I appreciate that it exists but, unsurprisingly, it removes everything that’s interesting about what is already a very simple game. Paper App Galaxy, on the other hand, promises to be an interesting campaign game.

With some games, after I’ve learned them, I figure out what I’ve learned from them and I’m done. Which isn’t that unreasonable with PnP and prototypes. But last month, just about everything I learned, I plan to go back to.

Pen Pals recycles old mechanics into solid gameplay

Pen Pals from Dr. Finn’s Book of Solo Strategy and Word Games is one of the strategy games, although the name sounds like it could have been one of the word games too. Instead, it’s about making animal pens.

Like every game in the book, it’s a solitaire Roll and Write. The play sheet has six by seven grid with pigs, cows, ducks and sheep sprinkled in the squares and two spaces in each row for possible water bucket placement. At the top has a twelve by two grid of different fence shapes.

You set up the game by rolling to see which of the two water bucket spots you’ll use in each column. After that, you start fencing. The border of the grid is a fence. The first placement has to touch the border and every piece after that has to be part of the same network. You also can’t flip or rotate a shape. 

Choosing the shape of the fence is a little different than the usual R&W formula. The table has two columns for each pip and the two rows are for even and odd. Roll two dice. Pick one for the column and one for the row. You cross off a column after it’s been used. If it’s impossible to pick a column, the dice become wild and you can pick any available column. After twelve turns, game’s over and you figure out your score. 

Animals have to be in a pen with a water bucket to be worth any points. If a pen has only one water bucket, you choose either to score how many different types of animals or how many of one type of animal. The more, the merrier. If there is more than one bucket in a pen, you just score one point per animal.

Pen Pals uses a lot of well trod ideas. Thematically, it reminds me of Raging Bulls. It has a lot in common with 13 Sheep, my go-to for introducing Roll & Writes in the classroom. And, frankly, drawing shapes on a grid practically feels like the default idea for Roll & Writes.

And the tweaks Steve Finn added aren’t that crazy. The even-odd rows, the fact that you can’t rotate or flip shapes and some more unusual shapes aren’t dramatic changes. 

But they are enough to make an interesting decision tree and an engaging game. Pen Pals is a game that keeps me coming back. The short play time makes it easy to come back to and the tough choices make it worth coming back.

It doesn’t remake the wheel. Instead, it is a very good wheel. If you’ve played when a few Roll and Writes, the learning curve is practically a flat line. But that doesn’t change the fact that the game play is good.

Something I keep coming back to when I look at this book is that Steve Finn has made a collection of games that are extremely accessible and very suitable for casual gaming. It is a book for a wide audience.

The Little Flower Shop: Open for Business is a charming little package

The Little Flower Shop: Open For Business from Dr. Finn’s Book of Solo Strategy and Word Games is a such a mouthful that I’m just going to call it Little Flower Shop for the rest of this blog entry. It’s a cute little game about managing a cute little flower shop while dealing with market fluctuations. It’s also a Roll and Write (the whole book is nothing but) 

You’ve got six different types of merchandise (half flowers and half tchotchkes), one for each pip of the die. You have a column of ten pieces of stock for each but you don’t have any of them until you start rolling the dice. Off to the side is a row of ten boxes where you’ll be writing down each day’s profits. They also serve as the game’s timer. And on the bottom is the market prices for each item, which will fluctuate throughout the game.

Each turn has three steps. First of all, get inventory. Roll four dice and choose three of them to circle the corresponding merchandise. And, yes, you could theoretically get three of the same item. Second, market fluctuation. Roll two dice and cross off the current price of the corresponding merchandise so the next price in the row is the active one. Prices will end up going all over the place. Third, sell all of one item of merchandise at its current price. Write down the profits and start the next round.

Twice during the game, rounds four and seven, you have to choose a special order that you will try and fill at the end of the game. These are things like five different items or two of the same items. And they are all worth a set price. You also get three rerolls during the game.

After ten rounds, figure out how much money you’ve made. The contents page of the book has a scale for each game to figure out how well you’ve done and so far, I’ve done terribly :P

I quite like Little Flower Shop. I haven’t played any of Dr. Finn’s other Little Flower Shop games so I don’t know how this one compares. But it does feel like a larger game translated into one sheet of paper. (He has made another Roll and Write game for it so I’m planning on looking at that sometime)

Some R&Ws manage to feel bigger than a sheet of paper and, in all honesty, Little Flower Shop doesn’t manage to do that. Six items of merchandise and ten days of sales doesn’t give the game enough scope to be big. But they are enough to give a bite-sized chunk resource management experience. More than that, the game is very clean and accessible. There are no fiddly bits. The game visually just makes sense.

I have played a _lot_ of R&Ws that are filling in grids or filling out boxes. (And had a lot of fun along the way) Little Flower Shop isn’t like that and doesn’t have a ‘traditional’ R&W feel. It’s a R&W for folks who aren’t into R&Ws.

The Little Flower Shop: Open for Business is a cozy little game that doesn’t take a lot of time to play but does give you a charming experience.

Entering Dr. Finn’s world of word games

Dr. Finn’s Book of Solo Strategy and Word Games Contains three different word games: Word Wrap, Leftover Letters and Spell It Out.

To be honest, I don’t feel like I have enough to say about each one specifically for a blog each. Which isn’t to say that I think they are bad or dislike them. Quite on the contrary, as someone who generally isn’t into word games, I think they’re downright brilliant.

All of them are Roll and Writes. While they are all designed to be played as solitaires, there is no reason that you can’t play the multiplayer Take It Easy Style. They also all show a strong Scrabble influence. Letters are worth specific amounts of points and there are rules for multiplying letter and word scores.

Leftover Letters is the most complex game by virtue of having three steps. You start out with a seven by seven grid that already has some letters in it. Step one: You roll dice to fill in the fourteen empty spots. Step two: Keep rolling dice to scratch out letters, using the dice to determine the coordinates for points where four boxes come together. (So you have four letters to pick from) Step three: make words out of each column and row with the letters you have left. You don’t have to use all the letters in a group but the more letters, the more points.

Spell It Out, on the other hand, is the simplest game of the three. Possibly the simplest game in the entire book. You have a blank crossword-style layout that has space for six 2-letter words, four 4-letter words, and two 5-letter words. Every turn, roll two dice and pick a letter a group for each pip. After you fill in all the empty spaces, score all the words that are actually words.

Word Wrap changes things up by having you drawing Tetris–style shapes on a grid of letters. After you draw each shape, you write the letters you just encircled in the spaces for two 3-letter words, two 4-letter words, one 5-letter word, one six-letter word, and one 7-letter word. After you’ve filled every space in, score all the words that are actual words.

Frankly, if I put a playsheet in front of you, you’d have an idea how to play before I even started going over the rules. More than that, you’d be playing in less than five minutes. All these games are very accessible. Even more than that, use of the Scrabble’s visual language helps make the games accessible.

On top of that, I found that the games offered choices, particularly at the start. Near the end, they become more push your luck as you hope to get the letters you need to finish the words you want to make. They are all quick games, none of them lasting long enough to get tedious.

While FlipWord remains my go-to word game, I enjoyed all three of these more than my previous favorite Roll and Write word game, which was Lingo Land by Dark Imp. (Sorry, Ellie Dix) In fact, my reaction to playing Spell It Out was to play it again.

Word games aren’t my go-to for gaming, although I seem to have played plenty of them by this point. With that said, word games are clearly a large and successful niche of the gaming world. And I think all three of these games are ones that Word gamers would really enjoy. I think making them a part of the book was a very wise choice on Steve Finn’s part.

My June Gaming

For most of June, our printer didn’t want to talk to any of our devices. And, while I have plenty of games already made that I could have learned, the annoyance got in the way of me wanting to. Wow, I feel petulant writing that. However, for reasons known only to it, the printer decided to connect to the computer near the end of June and my whole dynamic changed.

I learned:

Roll for the Goal (Gladden Games)

Hens

Crunch the Numbers (Dr. Finn)

Leftover Letters (Dr. Finn)

Paper App Golf

Spell It Out (Dr. Finn)

Word Wrap (Dr. Finn)

The Little Flower Shop: Open for Business (Dr. Finn)

Nanga Parbat: Alone in the Wilderness (Dr. Finn)

Pen Pals (Dr. Finn)

Looking at the list, I realize that my real frustration was that I wanted to get into Dr. Finn’s Book of Solo Strategy and Word Games and wasn’t able to. In fact, I learned Hens on Board Game Arena just to learn a game.

I’m going to have plenty to save about Dr. Finn’s book as I go through it but I have to say that the best part is I want to keep playing the games. I go through a lot of Roll and Writes and a collection that keep me saying ‘let’s do that again’ is impressive and a joy.

It ended up being a good month for learning new games.