Not every hundred plays weighs the same

 Playing a game a hundred times is a big thing. Maybe a big, silly thing but it is still a thing. There are a lot of games I haven’t played ten times after all. (Not counting the vast, perhaps unfathomable, number of games I have never ever played)

Of course, some games to are easier to rack up plays of. Getting in ten plays of Advanced Civilization requires not just a lot of time but organizing that time with a bunch of other folks. On the other hand, the short solitaire games that make up a lot of my current play are easier to play over and over. Playing Onirim daily over breakfast lets the plays add up lol

Anyway, the reason why getting centuries for individual games has been on my mind is that I noticed there were two games that I was creeping close to a hundred plays. And while they have some things in common (short, simple solitaire games that my copies are PnP), it’s the differences that made me feel like writing.

Tanuki Matsuri is one of the free games that were released during the Covid lockdown to help folks cope with life. It’s a Roll and Write where you are checking off boxes, so it works well even when you have smudgy dry erase markers. 

The appeal of the game is that virtually every space in the game (all but three) have you make some additional move. Part of the joy of playing it is setting up cascades of actions.

However, it’s not that hard to figure out what you need to do to get a high score. (Optimizing strawberries and flowers, by the way) It’s the fact that there are multiple paths to doing that keeps Tanuki Matsuri entertaining.

The other game is Food Chain Island and it’s a whole other kettle of fish. The first game in Scott Almes’ Simply Solo series (which means it probably needs no introduction), it honestly breaks down to being a solitaire peg puzzle with special powers. 

And it’s brilliant.

Admittedly, I am playing it more consistently lately but I feel like I’m still figuring things, still improving my game. The random layout means that the relative value of a card changes every game. And I still haven’t broken out the expansions or used one of the alternate layouts. There’s a lot of game left for me to discover.

Tanuki Matsuri is fun but the fact that I can play it on a clipboard and don’t need a table has helped it get so many plays. (It is far from the only game like that so getting this many plays is still a feather in its cap) Food Chain Island, on the other hand, is just plain solid. And it’s the one more likely to get two hundred plays.

My September Gaming

During September, most of my gaming was playing Roll and Writes. They just fit well into limited time and space needs while still giving me a full gaming experience.

I learned the following games:

Knaster

Trek 12

Super Slopes

Not a big month for learning games but there are some good experiences there.

Knaster is really a revision of Wurfel Bingo and one that does improve on the design. That said, it doesn’t really bring a new experience to the table. It does its job but it doesn’t sparkle.

On the other hand, Trek 12 did sparkle for me. It took the act of writing numbers on the board, which I may well have done in a hundred different games at this point, and made it feel new again. A number of ways to manipulate the numbers and reasons to consider connections. And the different boards really did feel different.

I printed off boards from the publisher’s website so I could play the basic game. And their clever plan worked because I am now seriously thinking about buying the game.

Super Slopes is an 18-card game from Button Shy which isn’t a Roll and Write. It’s a tile-laying game about building ski slopes. I need to play it more to get a real opinion on it but I do think it has promise and I like the solitaire option. It’s biggest ‘flaw’ for me is that you’re building a map brick style and other Button Shy games like Insurmountable and Wild River have covered that ground. That made it harder for me to judge Super Slopes on its own merits.

I also revisited Tanuki Matsuri, a game that I played during lockdown back in 2020. At that time, I quite liked it. And, going back to this simple game of cascading effects, I still find it engaging and it’s back on my regular playlist.

Tanuki Matsuri has been good for my frazzled brain

 Okay, here’s the basic idea: Superlude Editions has released Tanuki Matsuri, a Roll and Write game set in the same world as their card game Tanuki Market, as a free print-and-play for Covid relief. It’s not the best PnP I’ve seen that’s been released as Covid relief nor the best Roll and Write I’ve ever seen. But it’s a very accessible family game at a time when that’s what is really needed.

Tanuki Matsuri is about mischievous Tanuki spirits stealing fruit from Granny’s fruit stand and also hosting a party for Granny. Which sounds like a pretty raw deal for Granny but it does work as an excuse for cute pictures of Tanuki so I’ll let it pass.

The rules are just a page long and the whole thing is free (at least for right now) so I won’t get too detailed about the rules. It’s one of those Roll-and-Writes where the die you pick let’s you check off a box on the sheet, in this case either a fruit or part of the flower trail that leads to Granny’s party. Okay, you circle them but the principle is the same. The game ends when you either circle the last flower or temple gate(whose sole purpose is to be a timer)

Ah but there’s a clever bit. Every single thing you circle has some kind of bonus. Circle a fruit. Circle a flower. Circle a score multiplier. Cross out a score multiplier. Circle a temple gate. And it’s pretty easy to chain bonuses and get multiple actions out of each turn. Without the bonus actions, there would be nothing to the game. For all interesting purposes, the bonuses are the game.

Tanuki Matsuri is a very light and simple game . Maybe _too_ light and simple even for a family weight game. I’m also pretty sure there is an optimal path to getting points (maxing out the flower path and the strawberry column), which is mildly mitigated by the bonuses allowing multiple ways to pursue that.

_But_ here’s the thing. As a game aimed at people who are under some level or another of lockdown, Tanuki Matsuri is golden. It’s got a cute theme that will appeal to a wide audience range, including youngish kids. It is very easy to build: one page per two players plus a writing tool and any three six-sided dice (no color combinations required) And it’s very easy to learn and play, which is very helpful in a casual, family game in these strained times.

I have to admit, between lockdown parenthood and remote school, my brain is fried. A year ago, Tanuki Matsuri would have been a blip on my radar. Now, the simplicity of it really clicked for me and I was engaged by it when I sometimes haven’t had the brain power for more intricate games. And our six-year-old liked to chain bonuses, even if he wasn’t interested the scoring system.

I don’t know if Tanuki Matsuri has the legs for a lot of replay or to be a game that is in regular play rotation for months or years to come. But it has been a very good game me for where I am at right here and now and I have recommended it to friends, particularly those with small children.