Wendy’s still working on exorcising the last of a summertime child’s cold, so the house was a mucusy mess when Shelly and Bryan brought a short stack of games over: Owner’s Choice, Wasabi, Thunderstone, and Fresco. The last of which was on the SdJ short list, so that qualification plus the discussion of Eurogame design as a sort of art period, plus (a double bonus! score!) the theme of fresco painting in the Renaissance sold us on that game.
Dana bravely volunteered to settle the girl while I talked through the initial set-up with our guests. One drawback to the game is that it doesn’t play a two-player version easily. The designers have built the awkward work-around of having a dummy third player at the table. Bryan and Shelly, who played the game two-player last weekend, described the third player role as a kind of art assassin that they sent to undermine the other’s choices.
The game itself is beautiful, as you would hope for a game about art (photo by Gangster1930). And
there’s a bit of whimsy in the various activities that go on. My
particular favorite is that turn order is initially determined by the
player in last place who gets the option to choose when his workers will
rise and go to the market.
The player next up on the score chart
chooses her workers’ time to rise and so on. The early workers get the
widest choice, but they have to pay the most money, and you, the
master-painter, have to deal with their increasing sulkiness. Really.
There’s a mood track. If they get too cranky, they quit on you (though
they are easy to recover). If you send them to the theater enough (that
and a later rising time will improve their mood), then they’ll bring
along a friend who’ll pitch in at the atelier.
The game is solid. Your choices have consequence, and your workshop zooms along. I came in a woeful last place, having invested too quickly in some short gains (I may also have forgotten to pick up cash on a round or two, but what the hell) and not mixing my paints early and often. I’m already thinking about how to play it better a second time.
Dana played extremely well. Beat me by a good twenty points. Shelly and Bryan zipped well beyond us pretty early on, so the experience was pretty solidly in the “learning game” category.
I have two topics that suggest themselves out of this evening. One comes from a conversation with a colleague earlier in the day: more on technology and games. The simple fact that this game is printed on a lovely board with lots of solid cardboard pieces and wooden cubes is one thing, but the math (do you sense a theme?) that had to have been developed is a more subtle but powerful structure to the gamespace. Another, and one that’s only been touched on obliquely, is how to experience a game when you’re getting your head handed to you. I’ve been arguing that games are about many things, and only about winning at one, very surface, level. Victory is the MacGuffin. Dana and I both enjoyed the game for the theme, how the theme was realized in play, and the time spent with friends.
So how is it that I write my way to the questions worth wrestling with at the end of the post? And here I am, exhausted by work. And so much more to consider, to describe… The pale blue felt will be there tomorrow. And we’ll put the sticky runners under it again because we’ll have guests. See? You can come over. Unless you’re in New England. In which case, I insist you stay there. Good luck with the bears!
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