Let’s take a closer look.

Supporters’ club

I’ve made it a mission of mine to make sure I give as much exposure to UK-based indie designers and publishers. That said, I’ve got my standards, and I won’t review just any old thing. I was really pleased when Chris from Unlucky Archer approached me to take a look at his game, as it’s just the sort of thing which I know my family would have a blast with.

The idea is really simple. Draw a card, play a card, and aim to always have at least one card in your hand. The cards you play often require the roll of a dice afterwards to see what the outcome is. Say, for example, I play my Knight Club attack card at you. If I roll an even number you have to discard a card (good for me, bad for you), but an odd number lets you draw another card.

Play continues around the table in this manner until one person is left gloating, with a smug, smug grin on their face. If the game was only made up of the parts I’ve mentioned so far, it’d be fun for about five minutes, with all but the very smallest amount of player agency. Luckily, there’s more to this little box of cards, and plenty to keep you thinking.

Brief encounters

Included in the draw pile are a bunch of Beast Encounter cards. Draw one of these and you’re forced to play it immediately, and do battle with whatever monstrosity comes off the top of the Beast deck. Each of your cards has various different symbols and strengths, and to beat the beastie back into its box, you need to discard cards. If the cards’ values add up to what’s written on the Beast card, you are victorious, and get to draw some more cards.

Fantasy games really ought to have monsters in them, so I’m really pleased this little tangential mechanism was added. The same goes for the Blunder cards, which again, need to be played immediately. These live up to the Unlucky part of the game’s name, and you’ll end up stubbing your toe and falling into a hole, discarding a card along the way.

Each player draws a character card too, which usually gives you a one-time buff or ability to ignore something. It’s only a small addition, but there’s enough there to make you feel like there are some strategic choices to make. Each card has a few sentences of lore and light-hearted descriptive text too, which is a really nice touch. It would have been a complete game without them, but they just show how much care has been put into the game. It’s clearly a labour of love.

Final thoughts

I don’t know Amy or Chris, but having played their game a good few times now, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn they’re fantasy nerds who want to bring their love to families, with a good dose of humour. It’s a simple, lightweight game of chaos, and it does what it sets out to do really nicely.

If the idea of luck in your games is a turn-off, it’s probably not going to appeal to you. The vast majority of the cards make you roll one of the included dice, and as far as I’ve seen so far, it’s all a 50/50 chance. Some cards might look for you to roll high, or low. Some want odd or even. The differences are cosmetic though, and it often comes down to sheer luck.

Far from being a hindrance, the luck factor that Unlucky Adventurers has been daubed with is its greatest strength in my opinion. It means any player, of any age or ability, has a near-equal chance of winning. I should know, my nine-year-old is unbeaten in our house. It immediately made me think of games like Top Trumps, with the fast back-and-forth, and games that take the same length of time as it takes for your tea to be cooked.

Quick, mad-cap, card-flipping mayhem for the whole family. I’m so happy to see another UK independent designer taking their first steps into our hobby, and doing a great job at it. Check out the Kickstarter here, launching very soon!

Preview copy kindly provided by Unlucky Archer. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Unlucky Adventurers (2022)

Designer: Amy Niven, Chris Holden
Publisher: Unlucky Archer
Art: Amy Niven, Chris Holden
Players: 2-6
Playing time: 15-30 mins

The post Unlucky Adventurers Preview appeared first on Punchboard.

One of those odd questions that people seem to ask is, “Do you prefer dogs or cats?”. I’m not sure why it matters, but whether you prefer canine of feline, Atikin Games have you covered with their latest 3-in-1 Kickstarter for Playful Pets. It combines two main games: Feline Felonies, and the one I’m writing about here, Canine Capers.

I’m not sure why, but putting games in mint tins seems to be a thing, with Mint Works being the most famous. They’re undeniably cute, and I always like to find out how much game designers have managed to pack into a small package. Some games pack in way more than you’d expect, like Palm Island. Nikita Sullivan – the designer of Canine Capers – has used a really novel system of connecting the game board pieces with overlapping magnetic pieces.

Sniffing out clues

The premise of Canine Capers sees the players taking on the roles of dogs. The dogs have very active imaginations, and are busy sniffing around for clues for various imaginary capers in their village. Your job is to gather as many clues as you can, and return them to Canine P.D. in the middle of the board, working together to do the best job you can.

Roll-and-move is the order of the day here, and you roll dice to find out how many Paw Points you have for your turn. Paw points are spent moving, picking-up and dropping-off clues, and using the various special abilities available to you. If it’s not obvious by now, this is a game aimed at younger players. I played with my eight-year-old son among others, and with some occasional steering, he was easily able to understand and play the game.

Although I generally don’t like roll-and-move in a board game, in this case it fits. For some reason kids seem to really enjoy it as a mechanism, and long after I tired of rolling for the umpteenth game in a row, my son was still keen to keep going. There’s a nice balance in place whereby low rolls might mean you have limited actions available, but the special abilities available for rolling a 1 or 2 are more powerful, compensating for the bad luck.

Middle ground

There are so many mass-produced, franchise-milking board games out there for younger children that I just can’t stand. My little boy enjoys them, because of the familiar characters on them, and because they’re simple. I watch his eyes roll back into his head when I suggest anything a bit heavier, or more Euro in design, but Canine Capers slides nicely into place between them. There is at least some player agency, and there’s loads of co-operation necessary to get a good score.

As a parent, this is a great thing for me. Although after two games in a row, I started to want some variety, I’m still more than happy to play this. There are some great common concepts from hobby board games (action points, special abilities, co-operative play) as an introduction, but the cutesy paw-print player pieces and theme, and the familiar roll-and-move mechanism mean children will be happy to start playing.

Games are quite tight, and the dice rolls add a little drama to every turn. Rolling a 5 or a 6 adds another clue to the board, and if that space already has one, a cat steals it, and there’s a collective ‘Noooo’ around the table, especially if it’s a star clue, which are worth more. You can still get the clues back, but it means using up a low-scoring roll or making a detour to visit a sly fox. Cuteness abounds.

Final thoughts

The prototype I played with is clearly a personal, passionate project to Nikita. The pieces are hand-made, sticky taped together in places, and it has the smallest, cutest dice I’ve ever seen. It’s a really charming, lovely thing. It’s not a deep game, or a game you’ll be taking along instead of Agricola to game night, but it’s not trying to be. It’s a light, quick, family-friendly game. As far as I understand it, Canine Capers is the co-operative game, while Feline Felonies is more directly competitive. I’m glad I had Canine Capers, as my son is a) very competitive, and b) hates losing, so having a game where we all either win or lose together is great.

As I’ve said before on this site, there are some brilliant creators here in the UK, making brilliant games, and if you’re looking for something light to bring your family together around a table – even a tiny table in a caravan – Canine Capers is a great choice. The Kickstarter should be live by the time you read this, so check it out

A prototype copy of the game was kindly provided by Atikin Games. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Canine Capers (2021)

Designer: Nikita Sullivan
Publisher: Atikin Games
Art: Nikita Sullivan
Players: 1-4
Playing time: 30-45 mins

The post Canine Capers Preview appeared first on Punchboard.

Blind Luck is a solo RPG from the mind of William Long, of Long Games. In the game, you’re dropped into the role of that last engineer, tasked with repairing the town’s power station, and bringing light – and salvation – back to your small town. No-one knows where those Scuttlers came from, but we know that humans are their idea of a tasty snack. We also know they hate the light, and have blackened the skies. If you can get power back they’ll be driven away, for you to live another day.

Minimal requirements

Blind Luck is a print-and-play RPG. This means you can head over to its page on itch.io, pay the few quid for it, and print the included PDFs at home, or use your favourite print service. Other than that all you need is a pencil, and a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The pages lay out the backstory and rules, and help you setup your deck. Each suit represents an area in your dark town, and you’ll be exploring the various locations, searching them for weapons, food, candles, and parts to repair the power station.

The game is really simple to play. It’s as difficult as revealing a card, looking up that location in the pages, and doing whatever you need to while you’re there. You’ll go searching for the items I mentioned before, but sometimes you’ll be stumbling across Scuttlers, and you’ll need to fight those pesky critters off in order to claim the items you found. So the questions you’re probably waiting for me to answer now are: “How do I search and fight?”, and “Why don’t I need dice?”

Running around in circles

Blind Luck uses a very cool, very thematic, innovative way to work out values during searching and combat. Included in your PDF are a couple of pages of numbers. These pages, adventurer, are your dice in this adventure.

When you need to make a success check, you close your eyes (no peeking!) and draw a circle on the page. The numbers entirely contained in your loop get added together, and that’s your total. “Easy”, you’re thinking, “just draw a huge circle and you’re bound to get enough points”. If only it were that easy. Each check has a lower AND an upper limit you see, and unless you’re in that sweet spot between the two, you failed.

It’s such a cool system. It really takes practise to get the hang of just how big or small a circle to draw. The numbers only range from 0 to 5, which sounds like it would lead to a small variance, but due to the way they’re distributed across the pages, some circles score much better than others. The feeling of doing it all with your eyes shut is a really nice tie back to the setting of the game, and this idea of trying to do your best without being able to see.

Final thoughts

There’s honestly not too much more to tell you about Blind Luck. It’s a fun, atmospheric little solo RPG-type experience that’ll take you about an hour to play. I really liked the theme, and the presentation in the PDF is great, it’s really atmospheric and polished. There’s palpable tension and excitement every time you open your eyes to see what numbers you’ve circled.

There’s maybe a bit of a disconnect from an RPG standpoint, in that you can be exploring the school on one turn, then the next you’re on the high street, then onto the park. I was trying to immerse myself in the role of this last engineer in the dark, and I thought I probably wouldn’t be bouncing around from place to place like a flea if that was the case. I’d have liked to have seen either an insistence that you have to take x turns at a location, or some kind of penalty each time you move somewhere else. Of course, this is a solo adventure, so if that bothers you, just house-rule it.

That small gripe aside, Blind Luck – The Last Engineer is a great game. The balance is really good, and of the games I played, none of them were easy wins. Never knowing where the Scuttlers might be is nerve-wracking, and because there’s no picture of them, it’s up to your brain to decide what they’re like. In my head they’re like the bugs from Starship Troopers.

If you want to experience a really different sort of game, and want something you can buy now and be playing in half an hour, for the price of a pizza you really ought to give Blind Luck – The Last Engineer a look. It’s a cracking little game.

A review copy of the game was kindly provided to me by Long Games. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Blind Luck – The Last Engineer (2021)

Designer: William Long
Publisher: Self-published
Art: William Long
Players: 1
Playing time: 45-60 mins

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