Designers: Oussama Khelifati Publisher: Captain Games Artist: Adrien Journel 2-7 players | 20 min. | ages 8+ | MSRP $18 | BGG Entry Time to teach & learn: 4-5 minutes
Game Synopsis
It’s bath time and all your rubber ducks have decided to join the fun. It’s nice having the whole flock together until you realize one big problem. With all this splashing around, you won’t have any water left in the tub!
One by one, players try to consolidate their duck cards from a grid into stacks. Everyone plays at the same time. Like Bingo, the Captain draws a card and calls out a number. Everyone must find this number duck in their grid and use it to cover a neighor OR fly it to a new part of the tub. If your duck has already been covered, you QUACK to let folks know you didnt get to move. If everyone QUACKS, we are all one step closer to the end of the round. The bathtub with the lowest number of splashes after three rounds wins the game.
Why We Love Duck & Cover
There’s a puzzly challenge in each bathtub grid of cards you face in Duck & Cover. Every time the Captain calls a number you have the opportunity to improve your situation. You want to manipulate your ducks into fewer and fewer stacks before the end of the round. Points are bad in Duck & Cover, so each duck you can see at the top of a stack will add to your score UNLESS… you manage to pull all your ducks into a single stack. In this case, the value of this final duck is subtracted from your score!
There’s no middle ground here. High numbers could make your score skyrocket or plummet. From the very first card the Captain calls out, there’s a deliciously tense decision to make. Do you press your luck and keep high numbers face up in your tub OR do you play it safe and cover them the first chance you get?
This tension is created by the chaos of the shuffle. No one knows what the Captain will draw next. There are two of each numbered duck plus two special cards. If a round continues deep into the draw deck, players can make more informed decisions based on which numbers remain. Informal alliances or cheering sections will form each round because of the shuffle. Some players will be begging for a 7 while others booo 7s and chant to the soapy gods for a 5.
Every bath builds to a fun crescendo in Duck & Cover. It’s a game of fluid tactics guided by a sometimes fickle and sometimes forgiving deck of cards. This means victory for you on a given round could look very different from others. Maybe the best you could do was limit your losses, given the flow of the cards. There’s an ebb and flow to Duck & Cover that makes for engaging highs and hilarious lows. It plays so quickly that, even when our toes were wrinkled up like raisins from another round of baths, Duck & Cover kept us coming back for more.
Designer: Kenechukwu Ogbuagu Publisher: Nibcard Games 1-8 players | 20 min. | ages 7+ | MSRP $24.99 Time to teach & learn: 2-3 minutes
Game Synopsis
Oya One More is a press-your-luck dice and card game. Players race to reach a point total by matching dice they rolled to the pattern on a card. Here’s the catch! You can match only a single die to a card or ALL the dice to a card. You can stop and bank your points, but if you want to keep going, you flip another card. Each card you score entices you to try for another, but if you bust, all your gains this turn are lost. Special cards may also entice you to keep going – allowing you to add points, steal dice, and manipulate or reroll dice. Bonuses for filling a card or using all the dice will have everyone chanting OYA ONE MORE as you decide whether to stop or keep going.
Why We Love Oya One More
Oya One More is a dice game that creates tension by how you spend your five dice instead of how you roll them. You roll only once each turn and then hope to apply the results on the dice to the card you have drawn. Sometimes a bust will happen right away. In this case, perhaps the dice gods really dont love you! In most cases, though, you’ll assign a single die to a card to score it or occasionally fill the card (which triggers a score multiplier).
Now the real fun and tension begins! Do you stop and bank your score or do you keep going? If you only have a couple dice left to assign, this can be a risky move, especially if they are the same value. Then again, it might be worth the risk, since bonuses for using all your dice or filling a card are tremendous. Special cards can also tempt you to continue since many of them help skew the odds in your favor. Oya One More is a game of relentless temptation. Can you resist?
Oya is the word for quickly in the Nigerian Pidgin Language and the game takes this word to heart. Turns are fast and furious. Every turn people are engaged. Everyone leans in to see whether a player busts or gets to keep going. Someone at the table will be cheering or moaning each time a card is drawn. Either the crowd will be cheering when another player busts, or the active player will be celebrating when they stop with a good score.
There are two other variants included, inspired by Blackjack and Poker, which add additional ways to explore and enjoy the game system – assigning dice to cards.
Press Your Luck games are accessible to such a wide array of players young and old. This can explain their popularity and success across many years. However, most press your luck games walk down a well worn road and fail to offer players a new or challenging experience. Oya One More creates a new approach for players to press their luck and in doing so carves a path straight to Major Fun.
Congratulations to designer Kenechukwu (KC) Ogbuagu
Designers: Tedman Getschman Publisher: Big Potato Games Developers: Ed Naujokas, Drew Richards, James A. Vaughan 2-6 players | 20 min. | ages 8+ | MSRP $24.99 | BGG Entry Time to teach & learn: 2-3 minutes
Game Synopsis
Eight races down a metal cone stand between you and marble racing immortality. Secretly choose how many of your marbles to risk on each race, then load everyone’s marbles into the launcher and let them fly! They will spin around and around the metal disc until one marble drops through the center hole and wins the race. Finish first, second, or third and you get to claim a trophy and score points. Be careful as you spend your marbles, though, because you lose them as you use them. And even if your marbles are slow, there’s an underdog bonus that will keep you in contention. Whose marbles will score big and rule over the Whirlyverse?
Why We Love Whirly Derby
The subtitle to this game should be: Physics is Major Fun! Who knew gravity and centripetal acceleration could produce so many laughs and so much joy? The simple truth of Whirly Derby is this: everyone picks a number of marbles, then we all cheer them on as they spin toward the center of a gently sloping metal funnel. If this sounds both silly and ridiculous, by god, it is. You have very little control over the outcome of any race but, if you let yourself, you will become totally invested in how each marble traces its course around the track. You’ll indignantly curse the marbles who shoulder yours out of the way and you’ll take a victory lap and look for fist bumps when your marble rockets to the finish first. You’ll claim skill when it suits you and cry foul when physics betrays you. The advanced rules introduce an element of tactics and strategy with scoring cards that require some added thought and the Thunderball, a giant marble that can prevent any player’s marble from winning. The genius of Whirly Derby, though, is its gentle but stubborn invitation to relax and give in to the essential absurdity of the game. Whirly Derby reminds us that a game doesnt require skill or grand strategy or even success to produce lasting moments of pure fun.
Imagine the love child of blackjack and rummy raised with the doting influence of its uncle stud poker. That’s Flip 7. Try to assemble a set of 7 cards one by one each round in a race to rake in big points. This is press your luck at its finest. The choice seems simple: hit or stand. Stand to play it safe And bank your points. Hit to extend your set and your score. But is the risk worth the reward? A single matching card will bust you back to nothing!
D: Chris Handy A: Clau Souza P: Perplext 1-8 players 20-30 min ages 10+ MSRP $30 Time to Teach/Learn: 4-5 minutes
It’s going to be a great day at the track. Whether you’re here to bet on your favorite, cheer on the horse you own, or enjoy a mint julep in the stands, the excitement and anticipation builds as the field thunders around the last turn, headed for the home stretch!
Long Shot: The Dice Game is a roll-and-move-and-write game.
Each roll, a horse will gallop toward the finish line, dragging others along for the ride.
Each roll, you will have a chance to shape the outcome of the race and your fortunes with a variety of special actions: betting or buying horses, concessions, or equipment.
Will you play it safe to insure a solid payout or press your luck to cash in? Collect the most money to walk away the talk of the track.
The focal point of the game are the eight chunky wooden horses moving around the race track board. The horses are brightly colored and numbered and feature charming illustrations giving each horse character.
The race track board is an oval with 15 spaces. The last four spaces are a lighter shade indicating the No Bet Zone.
There are 24 horse cards, 3 sets of 8 different horses. Each horse in a set is color coded and numbered to match the wooden tokens. The horse cards have very clever names, a special ability, a purchase cost, a listing for the odds on the horse, and a row along the bottom edge of the card with a numbered space for each horse in the race. Some spaces will be blank and some will already have an X.
It wouldn’t be a dice game without dice, right? There are two dice in the game: a movement die and a horse die The green movement die is six sided and is numbered 1-3 (1-2-2-2-3-3). The horse die is eight sided. Each die face represents one of the horses in the race and is numbered 1-8. The die face is also color coded to match the horse cards and tokens.
Everything in the game synchs up visually. So, for instance, the #4 horse is pink. Its wooden token and horse card are pink and the #4 side of the horse die is also pink.
This extends to the individual player boards as well. This is where you will keep track of your bets and purchases and also tally your bonuses and money. Again, you will see the eight horses, in matching number and colors. There are spaces to track your bets, helmets, and jerseys for each horse. There’s also a concession stand grid. It is a 4×4 grid with two colored dots for each horse in the race. There are also 3 horseshoes you can use if the dice don’t cooperate as much as you’d like.
The player boards and horse cards are all coated so they can be written on with dry erase markers. As the game unfolds, you will be marking off spaces, and keeping track of your investments. There are 8 nice markers included as well as a nifty eraser shaped like a jockey’s helmet.
Last but not least is a separate board for the solitaire edition, and a deck of 8 starting cards.
To play, select a set of 8 horses (numbered 1-8) and arrange them near the race track. Place the 8 horse tokens on the start line on the board. Each player takes a personal board, and starts with 12 dollars (recorded on the board).
Each player then draws a card from the start deck. This start card gives each player a free bet on two horses and shows a few spaces to mark off on the concession grid. This way each player begins with different interests and some skin in the game.
The youngest player rolls the dice on the first turn… and we’re off!
Long Shot is a roll-and-move-and-write game. There are three parts to a turn. Roll dice. Move horses. Then players get one action based on the dice rolled, writing the result of this action on their boards. The game continues in this pattern until three horses finish the race. When the race is done, tally your money from all sources and the player who earned the most wins the game.
Let’s look at each part of the turn at little closer.
Every turn begins with the active player rolling the movement and horse dice. The horse rolled will move 1-3 spaces based on the result on the movement die. But we’re not done moving horses yet! Consult the horse card for the horse that just moved. Remember at the bottom of each horse card is a row showing a space for each horse in the race. If that horse’s space is marked with an X, that horse gets a bonus move, galloping forward one space. So each and every turn the main horse will move and one or more horses may get a bonus move based on which horses are marked off on the bottom of the card.
That’s 2/3rds of the turn right there. Roll dice. Move horses.
The turn ends with a fun choice for each player. Based on the horse rolled, each player in turn order will get to perform an action. The actions are listed on the player boards: Bet, Helmet, Jersey, Concession, or Buy a Horse.
If you choose Bet, you write down a $1-3 bet on the horse that was rolled. Erase the money from your bank total and add it to any existing bet. The odds for each horse are listed on the board and will multiply your bet based on whether the horse finishes first, second, or third. If your horse makes it to the No Bet Zone, you get your money back.
If you choose the helmet action, you mark off the helmet space on your board for the horse that was rolled. Once you have a helmet for a horse, you may place future bets on that horse even if it is in the No Bet Zone. This means as the horse is getting ever closer to winning, you might be able to sneak in a big bet at the end.
If you choose the Jersey action, you mark off the jersey space on your board for the horse that was rolled. Then, you immediately select one of the horse cards and mark off a space at the bottom of the card corresponding to the horse that was rolled. In addition, you get to mark off ANY space on the horse card that was rolled. This means you are increasing the chances of several horses getting a bonus move.
For example, let’s say I have a big bet on horse 6. I might choose the jersey action when someone rolls horse 6 during the game so I can mark off the 6 space on horse number 8. Now every time horse 8 moves, horse 6 will get a bonus move thanks to my jersey.
If I choose to Buy a horse, I can buy the horse that was rolled. Each horse has a price listed. Deduct that price from your bank on your board and take the horse card and place it in front of you. Why buy? Two reasons. First, you get prize money if your horse finishes first, second, or third ($35 win, $25 place, or $15 show).
Second, each horse has a special ability you can now use. The abilities are usually keyed to a specific action and vary widely.
For instance, if you buy Cook the Books, it will cost you $8. Pricey! BUT, when you take the bet action, you can place a FREE $1 bet on ANY horse instead of placing a regular bet on the horse that was rolled. If you buy Nitro Nellie, when you take the jersey action, that horse immediately gets a bonus move.
Even if your horse doesn’t finish the race, its ability may make it worth the investment!
The last action is the concession stand. This is the grid of colored number dots corresponding to the horses in the race. If you choose the concession action, mark off a colored dot on the grid corresponding to the horse rolled. If you complete a row or a column in the grid, you immediately get a bonus. The bonuses are listed in a grid below the concessions area on the player board. You could get $7, you could move horses forward or backward on the track, you can put in a free bet, or a free helmet, or jersey action. You can even buy a horse for free! Every time you complete a row or column, you get a new bonus. So, with some simple strategerie in selecting which dots to mark off, you can set yourself up to cash in several times.
Last but not least are the horseshoes. Each player has three and they are wild. Normally, during the action part of the turn, everyone must use the horse number that was rolled UNLESS you decide to mark off a horseshoe on your board. Then, you can take an action based on a horse of your choice. If the #7 horse was rolled and you really really needed horse #3 to complete a row on the concession grid, you could spend a wild and make the #7 into a #3 this turn.
Let’s recap. Roll dice. The horse rolled moves based on the movement die and any horse listed on the bottom of its card with a mark gets a bonus move. Then each player gets to do an action based on the horse that was rolled. You can bet on the horse, give its jockey a helmet allowing you to bet on it in the No Bet Zone. Give the jockey a jersey allowing you to increase the chance of that horse getting a bonus move. You can buy the horse, allowing you to cash in if it finishes well AND you get a special ability. And last but not least you can cross off that horse’s number in the concession stand, trying to complete rows or columns for big bonuses.
When three horses finish, the race is done. Tally your money from prize winnings and bets. There’s a $5 bonus for each horse with a jersey and helmet marked off on your board. Add in any remaining cash in your bank and the player with the most money wins the game.
Long Shot is incredibly flexible. It can accommodate big groups or small without the game bogging down. Switch out different sets of horses (or mix and match) and the game feels fresh and different each time. And for a dice game, there are so many ways to mitigate your luck and change the outcome of the race.
The bonus move mechanism is a lovely stroke of genius in this regard. Even when one horse goes on a long streak of rolls, it will pull along several other horses in its wake.
Long Shot feels like a series of mini-games when you’re in the thick of it. Do I want to focus on buying horses and cashing in on their abilities? Do I want to focus on concessions and grab bonuses? Do I want to bet high and try to use the jerseys and helmets to move my favorite horses ahead?
In any given race you may not be able to focus on every one of these mini-games, but that’s ok. The game goes so quickly, there’s plenty of incentive to set up another race and try something different next time.
Speaking of pacing, every race seems to build to an exciting crescendo not just based on which horse will win or lose, but who will swoop in with a brilliant (or lucky!) roll allowing them to buy or bet or gain a bonus to collect a princely sum. Even when the odds are long, no one is ever truly out of contention until the third horse crosses the finish line.
There’s also a solitaire version allowing players to pit their talents against the infamous Roland Wright.
And if this wasn’t enough, there’s a deck of track events that add yet another layer of opportunities or obstacles to every decision and every race.
Long Shot gives players a snap shot experience of a day at the races. It isn’t trying to be a simulation of realistic horse racing. The emphasis is on casual play and invites everyone to join the fun.*
It banks on some of the most basic elements all game players know. Roll and move. Then roll and write. The actions are not overwhelming to understand or use. They are presented buffet style; you can pick and choose which ones to pursue – and the next race, you can go back and fill your plate in an entirely different way.
The game has nuance without being overly thinky. And that is a great because it allows Long Shot to focus on a casual, exciting, and unpredictable gameplay.
This makes Long Shot itself a long shot – that rare find – a game that can point so many to Major Fun and in so many different ways.
May 2022
*Publisher and Designer Chris Handy has intuitive grasp of casual play. Just take gander at any of the titles in his gum-pack sized games and you’ll see how open and inviting the entire series is to players of all sorts. Major Fun is like a rainbow colored bit of silly string that unites them all.
Ten is a press your luck card game with a twist. The goal is simple: assemble the longest runs of consecutive cards in four colors. How many cards are you willing to draw as you push two different totals closer and closer to ten? Use currency cards to buy from the market or win auctions for wild cards. Be careful, though! If you bust, everyone else may cash in.
Engaging, interactive, and filled with tough decisions, Ten is great for all ages. Listen in to explore the game and discover how Ten delivers on its promise of Major Fun.
ALSO in this episode… a Game Night Grab Bag segment featuring Brenna Noonan and Doug! The challenge: games where you build the board as you play.
Let’s take a bike trip around northern Taiwan. So much to see!
The night markets in Taichung, the great Buddha statue in Changhua, the Hakka Round House in Maioli, the Science Park in Hsinchu, Da Xie Old Street in Taoyuan, Cape Santiago in New Taipei City and Liberty Square in Taipei City just to name a few….
Play scenery cards to visit as many sites as you can over the course of nine stops. The traveler who plans the best and pedals great distances will score well and create a memorable trip.
Ubike Tours: Taiwan draws inspiration from two beloved modern classics: Six Nimmt and the 10 Days In series. It combines familiar mechanisms with a clever press-your-luck element to create a lovely balance of strategy and chance.
Grab a bike, explore each option and be ready to pounce when opportunity presents itself. There’s a fun world waiting for you in Ubike Tours: Taiwan behind the flip of every card.
Tune in explore the game and discover why it is Major Fun!
Rollers is a press-your-luck dice game inspired by darts.
Yes, you heard me correctly… darts! Players try to open and close 5 numbered columns on their number boards. When a number is opened and closed, others will pay you chips each time you roll this number for the rest of the round!
Sound familiar? If you’ve ever played the dart game, Cricket, you’ll see how Rollers is a clever re-imagining of this pub classic, and playable by people of all ages.
Best of all, even if you’ve never thrown a dart in your life, you’ll have no problem understanding why Rollers is Major Fun!
Deep Sea Adventure is a wonderfully simple press your luck dice game from Japan with a devilishly fun twist: when you press your luck, you press EVERYONE’S luck!
Glittering treasure entices your team of divers to swim down into the depths. Each roll brings you closer to greater riches. The problem is, everyone shares the same oxygen supply! If too many divers get greedy, no one may make it back to the boat!
The higher scoring treasures are on tokens deeper below the boat. The more treasure you take, the more oxygen you use from everyone’s supply, making it more difficult for each player to make it back to the surface with their loot. Playing it safe may insure your survival but one good haul from the depths could net you the victory.
Tune in to learn more about this hidden gem and discover why we think it’s Major Fun!
