ORC - cursed by being average

Ah, back to Pack O Games. While I have been taking them to events and such, I’ve been just playing ones I already know. However, I’ve had a chance to get learn a couple of them.

ORC is the shortest and possibly the simplest of the second set, despite being officially more complex than DIG. It also clearly comes from the same school as Lost Cities, Battle Line in particular.

Like all the Pack O Game games, ORC consists of thirty skinny cards. In ORC’s case, each card is divided into two sides, each each side being one of six different colored orcs and each card has a one-pip side and a two-pip side.

Randomly place three cards in a line in between the players, making sure that each color shows up once. Six battlefields. You then place draw piles of four by each color, so six piles. The first player gets one of the three remaining cards and the second player gets the other two.

On your turn, you play a card so one end faces of the the six battlefields. The color you play can’t be the same as the battlefield or the same as the color your opponent has played on that same battlefield. (Of course, if you started the battle, that’s not a concern) If you played a one pip end, draw two cards from any draw pile. Play two pips, draw one.

When draw pile runs out, determine who has more pips and they win that battle, leaving one flipped over card on their side to show it. (And, yes, there are rules for ties) When every battle is resolved, you score points based on winning battles and having cards in your hand that match the fields you won. Most points win.

First of all, let me say things I seriously liked about ORC. While I’m colorblind, each color has distinct art. That is a really great choice. I also like how the cards in your hand matter. It not only means that you have another element to consider, you don’t feel like your leftover cards are wasted.

Okay. So what’s wrong with ORC? Well, basically, why would I play ORC instead of Battle alone, which is the better game? There’s nothing wrong with ORC but there’s a deeper, richer alternative. In a broader scope, it’s competing in a big pool of two-player games, even when you’re looking at little, portable ones.

Honestly, ORC’s greatest virtue is that it takes up basically no storage space and has a minimal footprint when you play. Seriously. 

If I was going somewhere and I knew I was going to be playing two-player games, I’d pack something like Battle Line. If I just wanted to pack games for just-in-case (restaurants, plane trips, vacations), ORC would get included. Maybe as a game to play while watching TV.

Honestly, that’s kind of been my experience with the Pack O Game library in general. It’s a diverse game library that always fits in the bag. But there are some games, like GEM, that stand out as games period.

ORC isn’t a bad game. It just isn’t a standout game. I’m sure I’ll still play it and, maybe after a few more games, I’ll find that it’s decisions per minute ratio makes it a hidden gem.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/192830/orc

My holiday gaming session (so far)

While almost everyone who we’re going to see on our holiday travels are folks who don’t play board games, I knew that I’d get one good chance to game when an old buddy brought his son to see us.

As I’ve written before, I packed a tiny game library of four Pack O Game games. And that was enough for us to get a couple hours of gaming in.

We got in two games of Hue, a game of SHH, a game of DIG and three or four games of GEM. The consensus was that HUE was fun, SHH was okay (good word game but no one felt like playing a word game) and DIG was really interesting.

And they both really liked GEM. GEM was the big winner by far.

To be fair to DIG, it was the last game that I taught so that might have lessened its impact. And I do think that more plays of DIG would have made them like it more. But GEM was a hit from the first play. Replays were demanded and it’s the longest game of the four (still pretty short) My gaming buddy said that the others were fun, small games but GEM felt like a ‘full’ game.

In fact, while my friend’s son has played a lot of board games, this may have been his first auction game. If it really was, it was a good introduction to auctions. (For Sale would have been better but GEM was still good) I forwarded them the black-and-white demo so they could make a copy but I bet they will be ordering their own copy before long.

This is far from the first time I’ve taken games from the Pack O Game series out. They’ve seen plenty of play at home and at conventions. However, this is the first time they’ve had to stand on their own as the entire game library and they did well.

Minimalist game packing

December is proving to be a busy month, full of traveling. More than that, I’m not going to be around any gamers during the weeks I’ll be away from home and luggage space is particularly tight.

So I am going super light as far as games are concerned. 

In addition to a deck of cards, which is pretty a default for me, I’m taking a tiny, hard plastic case that is just big enough to fit four games from the Pack O Games line. Yeah, I’m going that small.

And I’ll admit that I also am only taking four so it won’t be as expensive if something happens and I have to replace them :D

So, here’s what I’ve packed:

HUE: It’s not my favorite of the games in the series nor one of the best but it is _the_ most accessible. Teach it and play it in ten minutes while still having interesting choices.

GEM: On the other hand, I do think GEM is one of the best games. It manages to pack a solid auction game in a tiny package. By having both the money and auctioned gems tight, the game is definitely tense and one bad choice can sink you.

SHH: I’m not big into either word games or cooperative games but I think SHH, which is both, is a game that will really click for non-gamers. The fact that it is the prettiest game in the series also makes it an easy sell.

DIG: Slot number four was a tough call. I almost went with BUS since I think it is a very clever and ambitious pick-up-and-deliver game. However, DIG is cuter (non-gamers, remember) and easier to teach. And still a good pick-up-and-deliver game.

In other words, when I knew I would have to go super minimal, I chose games that I knew would work.

Just got the second set of Pack O Games

My copy of the second set of Pack O Games came in the mail yesterday. And it should surprise absolutely no one that I have been looking forward to getting these. I have been a shameless fan of the first set. It has been a great travel library with a solid variety of games. 

The second set has ten games, compared to the eight games of the original set. One of them was a mystery Kickstarter exclusive so that was a fun surprise. Backers have been asked not to spoil that game so all I will say is that it is the game that probably has interested my wife the most out of the new set.

While it's going to take us a while to work our way through the second set, I would say that Chris Handy has upped his game with these games. On their in-house game of complexity, only one of these games is listed as casual. And that game, DIG, looks like it would've been considered intermediate in the original set.

This isn't necessarily a good thing. I personally thought that TAJ from the original set, rated challenging, ended up being fiddly due to the relative complexity of the rules for the length of play. Oh, I thought that it was innovative and ambitious but it was near the bottom of my enjoyment level.

In general, I would say that the second set really looks like it's aimed more of a gamer audience. The first has a wealth of games that are really good for a casual play and for non-gamers. It will really be interesting exploring this new set, which I truly believe was designed with a different set of goals.

I also want to note that this set has more two-player only games. Which is great by me, since a lot of my face-to-face gaming is with my wife after the toddler has gone to bed.

While I had high hopes for the original set, it exceeded my expectations. Heck, while it is not my favorite game from the series, I think SHH could break out with the mainstream audience. So the bar is set pretty high for the second set. But my hopes are still high. It's not like lightning struck once with the first set. It has five different games I know I will be playing for years to come. That's a really promising batting average. 

Summing up Pack O Game... so far

I have now had a chance to play every game in the first series of the Pack O Game line. With the second series about to come out, I figured it was a good time for a personal survey of the games that are already out.

I had thought of trying to put them in some kind of best to worst order but I ended up with too many ties. The different games fit too many different niches for me to properly compare them. So, instead, I put them in their official order.

1 HUE - A simple tile laying game with the very effective design choice of having the last tile in your hand being the colors you score. Not my favorite game but it is my favorite one to introduce people to the line with. It feels like a micro game but it a very good one.

2 TKO - A boxing game built around rock-paper-scissors. TKO feels like the least innovative game in the line. This kind of ground has been covered in other games, like Pico 2. But it's saving grace is that we have fun playing it.

3 GEM - An auctions game where you collect gems for points with a tight economy of both money and gems. This is one of the best games in the series, not just a good micro game but a good game period.

4 FLY - A dexterity game about dropping a fly swatter card to collect flies. I admire that Chris Handy included a dexterity game in the series and it does have a nice scoring system. However, it is easily my least favorite game in the series. The low height doesn't make it very frenetic or exciting.

5 TAJ - A voting game where you manipulate the position of rugs, which also changes the value of colors on the rugs. This is probably the most ambitious and intricate game in the series. However, I found it too fiddly. Too much of the game was spent making sure we were following the process instead of strategy. I would be willing to try it again and see it that can be overcome.

6 LIE - It's Liars Dice with dice faces printed on the cards. Each card has two dice so you get to have some control over your pips. Here's the thing. While I think Liars Dice is better, that doesn't change that LIE is a fun, engaging game. It's a strong part of the series.

7 SHH - A cooperative word game that is played in silence. This surprised me by how tense and exciting it is. Simple rules leading to white knuckle play. So much better than unexpected. 

8 BUS - A pickup and delivery game made out of thirty skinny cards. I love that this even exists but it's also a solid game that takes such advantage of the form. The elements flow together well and it's in the running with GEM as my favorite.

The concept of Micro Games changed when Love Letter proved that there was a real market for Micro Games and that they could have depth and complexity. Pack O Game steps up to that challenge well. If you have an interest in travel games or short form games or games that have a very small footprint, this is a collection well worth having in your collection.

Really, HUE, GEM, LIE, SHH and BUS are games that would have made an impact if they had been solo releases. Heck, I wonder if some of them, like SHH, would have made a bigger impact as a solo release with regular size cards.

Pack O Game has the gimmick of every game being thirty skinny cards. But that gimmick does not define the games or control what they are. In the end, a Micro Game has to stand as a game, not as a small package. 

And, as is ridiculously clear, I think that most of the Pack O Game series succeeds. Five of the games are very strong. Even TKO and TAJ have their string points. Seven out of eight is a good score.

And if this was it, I'd still be impressed. But Chris Handy is adding ten more games to the series. I am really curious to see what they will be like.

GEM is a 'gem' of a game :P

I have finally played GEM, the only game in the Pack O Games series I hadn't played yet. Since it's an auction game, I had wanted to wait until I could play it with at least three players. I had high hopes for GEM and it did not disappoint.

Like all the games in the series, GEM consists of thirty skinny cards in a box the size of a pack of gum. As I already mentioned, it's an auction game. You are bidding on gems that you then have to leverage for money and points. 

Each round starts out with setting out cards with gems on them, usually two gems per card. Everyone starts with three coin cards, worth one, two and three coins. Auctions are once around and you don't have to say which card you're going for.

Here's the thing. Each card has a red number and a green number on opposite ends. You get the gems with the red number, meaning they are invested. You have to pay that amount at the end of the round to turn the card to be green number, now they are leveraged. Then you can use the gems for bidding and only leveraged cards are worth points in the end. In the last round, you do get the card already leveraged. At the start of each round, you get your coins back but if you spent a gem card in a bid, it has to be leveraged again. 

Leveraged, by the way, apparently means borrowing money based on the value of a property. So, if I understand it right, you're actually going deeper and deeper into debt as the game goes on.

You get one point per gem, two points to you share a majority in a type of gem and three points if you have the sole majority in a type of gem. Most points wins.

When I heard other players swearing at the start of the last round, I knew the game was good.

What really makes GEM work is the scoring. The extra points for majorities is a big deal, a game determining deal. And there are few enough of each type that one stone can make or break a set. Which means that the auctions can turn into a real fight.

I have been concerned that it would be too easy for players to go bankrupt or fall behind. And the economy of the game is tight. But the way the coins reset themselves and the fact that you have to pay to leverage the gems makes it very hard for someone to just run away with the game.

In general, I believe that the Pack O Game series does a great job exploring and expanding the micro game. Over the last few years, designers have been pushing past the idea that a micro game has to be a simple filler and creating games that have more depth and weight. 

GEM might do the best job of this out of all the games in the first set of Pack O Game. It feels like a 'full-sized' game, one that would see regular rotation on a game night.

I went into GEM with high hopes but I was prepared to be disappointed. Instead, GEM was even better than I hoped.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/158915/gem

How SHH surprised me

I have to admit that I went into SHH with very low expectations. It is part of Pack O Game, a series of micro games that I have been very impressed by. However, it is a cooperative game and a word game, both genres that I am relatively indifferent to. There are games in both categories that I love, like Pandemic, Hanabi, Scrabble or Buy Word. But I don't go out of my way for them.

However, the second series of Pack O Game is coming out and I want to be a completist and play all of the first set. So when we had an out-of-state visitor who really loves cooperative games, I figured that it was the perfect opportunity to play SHH.

(Spoiler: it was very good!)

Like every game in the series, SHH is made up of 30 cards that are at third the width of the normal playing cards. So you end up with the tidy little box the size of a pack of gum. Twenty six of the cards show the letters of the alphabet while the other four are pass cards.

I have to pause a note that these are the prettiest cards in the entire series. Each one, in addition to showing the letter, has a bright and colorful photograph of something that starts with that letter. They really are nice looking.

Gameplay is very simple. The object of the game is to make words, one letter at a time, scoring points for every letter you successfully

use in a word. But, during the entire game, no one is allowed to say anything.

You set aside the vowel cards. They are double-sided and you place the side that has plus one facedown. Then, you do you out all twenty-one consonants to the players. And everyone gets one pass card. Now you are ready to play.

On your turn, you can do one of three things. Add a letter from your hand or one of the vowels. Flip your pass card over and skip your turn. Score the current word and start a new word.

Score a word, you put your thumb up, since you aren't allowed to talk. If everyone else puts their thumb up too, you score the word. The reason why someone would give a thumb down is if they think it isn't a real word. That's when you get the dictionary. If the word is scored, all of the consonants are put to one side has points. The vowels are put back in their row and, if the word was at least five letters long, you flip them over so they are worth a point.

The game ends when either you run out of consonants, hopefully scoring the last word at the same time, or if a word can't be scored because it isn't. A real word.. You get one point for every constant successfully used and one point for every vowel they got flipped. Thus, the highest score you can possibly get is twenty six points.

As I already spoiled, I was surprised at how good SHH was. It doesn't take any time at all to play, particularly if you mess up and can't spell a word early. However, there is a lot of tension in the game. 

The silence is keyed to the game. If you could just talk, there wouldn't be a game. But since you have to be silent, there is a lot of desperation in the game and it is really exciting when you successfully make a word.

And SHH has a very tight economy of letters. There is only one of each letter in the game and you will only use each consonant once. That makes for a brutally tight game.

Don't get me wrong. I knew from just reading the words that SHH would work as a game, as long as people didn't cheat about words being real. What I didn't expect was how much excitement and fun the game will turn out to be.

Pack O Game continues to surprise me and prove to be one of the best purchases I've made in the last couple years. The last game I have to play from the original series is GEM and I have high expectations for that.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/164158/shh