Review: Exploding Kittens (NSFW version)

It has been awhile since we have had a review, but this weekend we got a new game, Exploding Kittens! Exploding kittens is like Russian Roulette, except with kittens on cards. I for one was quite excited to get the game after coming across it on Amazon and then looking it up to see how it is played. It is a card game for 2 to 5 players and takes about 15 minutes per game to play. If you want to play with more people an extra deck of cards can be combined and it can support up to 8 players.

The Goal of the Game

Exploding Kittens is an easy game to play. The box does say it takes 2 minutes to learn, which I will say is not entirely accurate. However, if it takes more than 10 minutes to explain the game to 4 new players, you are doing something wrong. Each player takes turns playing and drawing cards. If you draw an exploding kitten, you die. If you are the last person left at the table, you win.

How It Is Played

You start by taking out all of the defuses and exploding kitten cards from the deck. You then shuffle rest of the cards. Every person at the table gets 1 defuse card, then everyone is dealt four cards. Then you set up your exploding kittens. To determine the number of exploding kittens, it will be the number of players minus 1. So for a four player game, there will be three exploding kittens. Take your exploding kittens and your extra defuse and shuffle those into the deck of cards. Smack the deck of cards in the center of the table and decide who goes first.

On your turn you can do 2 things. 1. Play cards. You can play as many cards as you want a turn. You can also collect pairs of cards. If you play a pair of cards (will discuss card types below) you get to pick a random card from another player’s hand. If you get 3 of a kind, you get to name a random card type in the person’s hand. If you name it right, you get the card, if you are wrong, then you get nothing.
2. You draw a card. You do this at the end of your turn instead of the beginning of your turn like in other games. You will keep going in this order until one player is left alive.

Card Types

• Exploding Kittens. It is all in the name. Kittens that kill.
• Defuse. The only way to stop an exploding kitten from going BOOM!
• Nope. Allows you to cancel the last card played, except exploding kittens and defuses. If another player throws down a Nope on a different Nope just played it becomes a Yup.
• Attack. These cards skip your draw phase. The person after you must now take 2 full turns.
• Skip. Skip your turn.
• See The Future. Look at the top 3 cards of the deck. Do not rearrange them or show them to anyone else.
• Shuffle. Allows you to shuffle the deck of cards.
• Favor. Pick a player. That player must give you a card from their hand. They get to choose the card.
• Cats (5 different kinds). There will be 5 different cat cards, depending on the version you get will depend on the 5 cats. There will be 4 of each.

My Opinion

4 = Captivating

I really like Exploding Kittens. It is a short, light, party game. It also has a lot of replay value as well. There are subtle hints of strategy for those who enjoy making things more difficult than they should, and it is easy enough that I am pretty sure it could even be played drunk. You can find it on Amazon for relatively cheap.

Now, this game says it can be played with 2 to 5 players. I do not think this game would be fun with 2 players. I will have to give it a try to see if it is. However, after player with 4 players I think that the recommended players should be between 3 and 5. The reason this game got a 4 from me is because that after playing a few times that day, I was good with moving onto the next game. As a light game, we should want to play this until the big game is out or until game time is done. With that said, it is still a great game. I thoroughly enjoyed playing it and I find the artwork stupid (in a good way) and funny.

Also

Guess what, this game is 100% accessible. I sat down with my wife and we Brailled the entire game in about 10 minutes.

Review: Sellswords

This week we are going to look at a game I picked up around the same time as Age of War and have not had enough chances to play it to give a good opinion of it. For those who missed the Age of War review see it here.

Sellswords, is a short card drafting game for two players that takes about 15-20 minutes to play. The players play with tile cards and build a 5×5 board by playing a tile each turn.

The Goal of the Game

Each player is going to play tiles on the field. At the end of the round the players will add their points up. They will then do round 2 and will add those points to the first rounds points. The person with the highest points wins.

How It Is Played

You will sit down and take the standard terrain tile, Asgard, and place it on the table. You can then take the other 3 terrain tiles and lay them off to the side. The remained card tiles, called heroes, will be shuffled together. Then 12 cards will be dealt from the hero pile. The first player gets to pick the first card, then will pass it to the other player who will pick a card and pass the pile back. This will happen until each player has 6 cards in their hands. Each player will pick a different color, blue or red, and will flip their respective hands to the correct color.

On your turn you will play a tile adjacent to another tile on the board. For the first turn, it will be Asgard. Each tile will have a number on each edge of the card and a name and ability towards the middle. You will compare numbers with all the cards that are adjacent to the card you place. If any of your numbers are higher than the enemy card they are placed next to, you will flip the card over so it has your army color. When you flip the card, it must stay in the same position it was in, just flipped on the different color side.

When you both have played your first hands you will then add up the tiles for the score, first by row, then by column. You will use the table below to score each row and column by.

Tile	Points
0	0
1	0
2	1
3	2
4	4
5	7

After you have added up your score you will write that down, then deal out the next 12 cards and follow this process again. You will score the cards for the second round then add that to your first score. The person with the highest score wins.

Abilities

To make this game a little more than a number crunching game, each card has its own unique ability that will allow it do something special. Some will add to their own attack score, or decrease the attacks of the adjacent enemies. Some have abilities that add to your score at the end of the round.

My Opinion

3.5 = Almost Captivating

The first time I played this game, it was late at night, and I had a long day and by the time I was done playing this game I was ready to throw my first score of 2 at it. Instead, I played it a few more times and ended up giving it my first decimal point.

After playing it a few more times, I actually do like it. The game is very simple. Lay down a tile so you beat the tile next to it. Okay, cool. This makes it easy enough for our light game enthusiasts. Then, for heavy gamers, they have the abilities on the cards. These abilities are gonna add to the strategy of the game because you will be thinking, okay I want this card to be under my control at the end of the round, so you will sit there and analyze for the best spot to put the tile.

There are also 3 extra terrain tiles to start with on your board. This in addition to the fact that you are only using 24 out of 50 hero cards, means this game will be different every time you play it.

Sellswords is a nice cheap quick game to pick up for two people who enjoy light strategy games. You can pick up a copy at Amazon.com.

Also

These tiles are much bigger than regular playing cards. Because of this, these cards would be able to fit all of the braille required to make the cards adaptable for blind players.

Review: Dungeons and Dragons 5e Player Handbook

After looking over the Player Handbook the past few weeks I have finally come to a conclusion on a more education decision on it. Instead of telling you at the end like most of my other reviews I do here at the Tavern, I will tell you upfront, I love Dungeons and Dragons 5e Player Handbook. I will tell you why below. However, this review is not a review of the quality of the physical book itself. There are some people out there that have issues with their books falling apart from the binding in a few months. If you want reviews of that go to Amazon.com. This review is of the content of the book, i.e. the actual game itself.

Wizards of the Coast went out of their way with 5e to make it great. When they released 4e it was not released with love. I liked 4e. It had plenty of things wrong with it, but it was good. It was great at teaching new players, because it was much simpler than 3.5. However, if lacked content that was present in 3.5, such as spells, and real multi-classing.

In 5e Wizards, it would seem, tried to distance themselves from the shortcoming that was 4e. What they came up with was a combination of the good things from 4e and the amazing things from 3.5 and crammed it all together into one game. The brought back spells, multi-classing, the 1st handbook has all of the cool classes, like 3.5 did, instead of splitting them in between 2 books (4e). They brought back crafting. They brought back a certain level of creativity that 4e had left out.

Spells

The number one thing that I could not stand about 4e was the spell system. The spell system was broken, there were 3 cantrips that were usable outside of battle. The way that everyone had powers, it basically gave everyone “spells” the took away the awesome useful spells back in 3.5. In this handbook they brought back a modified version of the spell system that was present in 3.5. And when I say modified, I mean they actually made it better. Instead of multiple cure wounds spells, there is just one cure wounds that can be used as a higher level spell. On top of that, they got rid of spells per day. Which means that your spell casters are more useful.

Crafting

What’s that? A fantasy game, that involves wearing armor and swinging swords? Oh, you can’t make your own armor or swords? Well that is stupid. Well, in the Dark Ages of 4e, this is what we had to deal with. A less creative version of our favorite tabletop rpg. Now, crafting is back in full force. Even so, that certain classes and backgrounds get proficiency with certain artisan kits.

Animal Companions

Oh, I almost forgot animal companions. In 4e there were no animal companions, unless your DM loved you and wanted your lonely druid to have one. Now.. this problem was only half fixed in 5e. The ranger still can get an animal companion. However, the druid, is yet again, left alone and afraid in the cold-hearted world of the heathen nature haters. They do have a spell you can start off with that will let you tame an animal for 24 hrs and one that will let you add said animal to your team for 30 days unless you are harmful towards said animal. Basically, if your DM loves your Druid enough to make sure you are not cold alone in the harsh world you can have one.

With all of that said, I love 5e in general. The rules bring back a lot of the imagination that was kind of blocked in 4e.

And for that it gets…

5/5 = Wonderful

Wizards did right with 5e. That may very well be because they play-tested the crap out of it, then let us all play test the crap out of it some more. Whether that is why or not, it really is great. Anyone who was ran off by 4e, should give 5e a try. I guarantee that as long as you have liked Dungeons and Dragons in the past, you will like 5e.

Review: Age of War

This last weekend, during out Play-Through Party, I happened to receive a few new games in the mail. You know what that means, it is time for another review. Anyone who is familiar with the Cthulhu based game Elder Sign, also from Fantasy Flight Games, will recognize this dice mechanism.

The game we are going to look at is Age of War. Age of War is a short, light dice rolling game from Fantasy Flight Games. It supports 2 to 6 players and it plays in about 15 minutes. It has a feudal Japan (Samurai and Castles) theme, with historical names of clans and castles.

The Goal of the Game

In Age of War, players are fighting against each other to capture as many castles as they can. Each castle is worth a different amount of points, and there are only 14 of them total. This will often lead to players trying to swipe castles from each other. This is a great and obnoxious tactic.

How it is Played

Each player is going to take their turn by rolling all 7 dice they have. They will look at the castles in the center of the table, and in front of other players. Each castle has different requirements to meet to capture it. Those requirements are shown on each castle by pictures that match what is on the dice.

They player will pick a castle out on the table they think they would like to capture. If they do not like their roll they may roll again, by removing one die from the 7 until the end of the turn.

Things to take into account when picking a castle:

• Points – Each castle has a certain number printed on their front side. That is how many points that card is worth by itself.
• Requirements – Along with points, each castle will also have different requirements it takes to capture that card. Players will pick a castle they have matching dice to.
• Clans – On top of points and requirements, there are also clans. They clans are shown with different colors and have the clan name in the bottom left hand corner of the card, below the name of the castle. When a player has all of the cards in a clan they will take those cards flip them face down in a pile with the clans card that shows points on its back side. When you have the entire clan, the cards will be worth more points.

If a player has all of the cards in a clan, those castles are safe from being stolen by other players. This often results in players trying to swipe castles their opponents need out of the middle of the table.

Once a player picks a castle, they will start matching their dice up to the pictures on the card to capture it. Once you are able to complete a line, you will take the matching dice and place them on top of the pictures on the card, and continue rolling until you match all of the requirements on the card, or you run out of dice.

The Dice

The dice each player will roll are standard six sided dice, but instead of numbers, they have pictures. The pictures are:

• One Sword – 1 Infantry
• Two Swords – 2 Infantry
• Three Swords – 3 Infantry
• Bow and Arrow – Archer
• Horseman – Calvary
• Shogun Helmet – Daimyo

Each player will take turns trying to capture castles until all of the castles are gone from the center of the table. Once this happens each player will add up all of their points and the one with the most wins.

My Opinion

4/5 = Captivating
Age of War is a great little game. It is very quick to learn and play. There is enough strategy (although it is not deep strategy) for players like myself, while still having enough of the luck attribute to be enjoyable by light gamers out there. As a light game, I love Age of War. It is also another cheap buy, that has proven a great investment. The reason it did not get a 5 for me is simply because it seems to be base too much on luck for my liking. But that is just my personal preference.

Also

Although the dice have pictures on them, and the cards have a lot of information, this game is actually accessible. For the dice, their are six different pictures, just number them 1-6, we followed the order of the table of above, and always use that order. Also, you can braille the name of each castle and clan on the cards. Then have a reference sheet that shows you a more in depth look at each castle and their requirements, organized by clan of course.

Review: Diamonds

The game we are reviewing this week is Diamonds. Diamonds is a trick taking game from Stronghold Games. In Diamonds players will collect Diamonds as they take tricks. These Diamonds are actual diamond pieces not the card suit, Diamonds. Like most trick taking games this is also going to be a light game. Diamonds is for two to six players and generally lasts twenty to thirty minutes. Now I am not normally a trick taking game fan, at all, in fact the only one I actually enjoy is Bouillabaisse.

Goal of the Game

This is a trick taking game. So it will follow the general take a trick to win points mentality. It takes rules from both Hearts and Spades and mashes them together, and adds in some rules of its own. Like all trick taking games, it is very easy to pick up but will offer some deeper strategy to explore.

Suit Abilities

• Diamonds- Add one diamond to your vault from the supply.
• Hearts – Add one diamond to your showroom from the supply.
• Spades – Add one diamond to your vault from your showroom.
• Clubs – Add one diamond to your showroom from another showroom.

How to Play: 2 Players

There are multiple variants of the game in the rule book to play. The one that we found the most fun was the 2-player variant.
Like all trick taking games, Diamonds is played in rounds. There will be more rounds for more players, but for the two player variant there is four rounds. To start the round, one person will be the dealer. They will shuffle the deck and deal out twenty cards to the players and the remaining cards go off to the side. Each player is given one vault. The vault is a small divider that you will place some of your diamonds in. If you have diamonds in the vault they are safe from other players. The contents of your vault are to be kept secret from other players. Then each player gets three diamonds to place directly in front of your vault, this is called the showroom. Your diamonds in the showroom are not safe from other players. The dealer decides on how many cards are to be passed to the other player. You can pass either one, two, or three cards. These will go to the player to your left. The player to the left of the dealer, in this case the other player, will lead the trick. In the 2-player variant rules, each player will play two cards instead of one card.

Following trick tacking convention, if you have a card that matches the suit of the lead card, you must follow with it. If it does not match it then you may play any suit in your hand. If you play a suit that is different from the lead suit, then you will get an automatic suit ability (discussed above), then the leader will play their second card, and the second person will play their second card. Who ever wins the trick gets the lead suits ability.

This will continue for ten tricks. Then each player will look at their tricks they have taken for that round. Who ever got the most of each suit will also get an additional suit ability of each suit in this order:

1. Diamonds
2. Hearts
3. Spades
4. Clubs

If you do not take any tricks in this round you get to take two Diamond suit actions.
You will then repeat this for the remaining three rounds. At the end of the game you will tally up your diamonds. One point each for the diamonds in the showroom and two points for the diamonds in the vault. Who ever has the most points is the winner.

My Opinion

4/5 = Captivating
Diamonds is a trick taking game. As I have mentioned above, I am not a fan of trick taking games, except for one. I was reluctant to even buy the game at first. (Only bought it because the wife wanted it.) However, I was very pleased with this game. It is like all trick taking games in that it is easy to learn, but it has many different ways to play, and I like that variation in a game. Diamonds also has the level of depth that all trick taking games has, and, in my opinion, it offers a very good level of depth to it in terms of strategy. When we first discussed purchasing this game it was around fifty dollars on Amazon. So, we put it off and found it recently on there for half the cost. Amazon.com

Also

This game is 100% accessible for the blind. From the diamonds being different sizes to being able to braille the cards, it is all able to be made accessible. It took less than fifteen minutes to braille the game, and that is while reading the instructions.

Review: Star Realms

This week we are going to be looking at Star Realms. Keeping up with the light game reviews pattern going, we are going to take a look at Star Realms. Star Realms is a short deck building game made for two players, but can support up to six if you have more than one copy of the game. It takes about twenty or so minutes to play, and it is easy to pick up. What makes this game stand out to me, is the depth of strategy it has for such a light game.

Goal of the Game

Both players start off with the same ten card deck and fifty points, called authority. The players then take turns buying, attacking, and trying to set up some defense until one player has no authority left. The first person to lose all of their authority loses the game.

Important Information For the Game

Along with authority, there are two other icons that you need to know. The yellow coin is called trade. It will have a number on it that represents the amount of trade it gives you. Trade is how you buy cards during your turn. When you see the trade icon on the upper right hand corner it represents how much the card costs to buy from the trade row.
The red target is called combat. This is used to attack the opposing player. When you play cards with trade or combat on them, you will add all of the cards for each type into one pool. Once you are done playing cards you can then divvy out you trade and combat as needed. For example if you have ten trade you may split that up among as many cards to buy that you would like.

Types of Cards

In this game there are two types of cards. There are ships and bases. Ships you will play from your hand and get their benefits immediately. Their trade and combat will be added to a pool and their ability will activate. An ability can be a number of things ranging from make opponent discard a card to you getting another card. At the end of your turn your ships and any cards left in your hand are discarded.
Bases, however, stay on the field until they are destroyed. And unlike ships they have defense, or the amount of damage they must sustain at one time to remove them. There are two types of bases. The first is just the regular base, that provides some ability or benefit. Then there is the other type of base, called an outpost. Outposts are the best defenders because they require that enemies destroy those first before attack you or your other bases.

There are also four factions in this game. Each faction is represented by a different colored icon and name. Depending on the nerdiness of the group you are in, you can just call them by their colors or go full out and use their names. We play with the colors and they are: green (Blob), blue (Trade Federation), yellow (Star Empire), and red (The Machine Cult). When these icons are found on the top left corner it tells you what faction it is apart from. When the icons are found in the card text box, it is an ability.

Setting Up

Each player starts with the same deck of ten cards. Eight Scouts, which give you one trade, and two vipers, which give you one combat. All of the other cards (expect the Explorers) are shuffled together to make the trade deck. You will then lay the top five cards face up into what is called the trade row. As people buy them, the trade deck will put another card into the play trade row. The Explorers will be in their own pile at the end of the trade row.
You will then each take turns following a three phase turn:

1. Main Phase
2. Discard Phase
3. Draw Phase

In the Main Phase you may:

• Play cards
• Use Primary Abilities
• Use Secondary abilities
• Use trade to buy ships or bases
• Use combat to attack your enemy

You can do these actions in any order you wish. For example, if you would to start your turn by playing all of your cards and then go on a full out attack, then buy cards at the end, you may do so. During the discard phase, you will discard everything in your hand and all the cards you played, except bases, and put them in the discard pile. Then you enter the draw phase where you will draw a new hand of five cards. You will continue this pattern until one person is out of authority.

My Opinion

5/5 = Wonderful
I think Star Realms is a great game. It is quick to pick up, fun to play, and has enough strategy to it to keep heavy gamers like myself into it. It gets major points from me being a deck building game that is not more than 30 dollars, in fact, when we picked this one up from Amazon.com it was around $11. This is also the first deck building game that I have played that actually involves constant interaction between the players unlike Dominion where it just involves collecting points until a certain condition is met. If it says anything about this game, my wife who was immediately disgusted by the nerdiness of this game, actually has been asking to play it again since I taught her.

Also

As we have done with other games we review, we look at the ability of each game to be made accessible for the blind. Most of this game would be very adaptable, but we are still trying to figure out some kinks on the cards that have more than one ability. Once we figure out if it is doable or not, we will let you know! Keep an eye on the news.

Review – Coup

Time for another review. This post we will be covering the game Coup. Coup is a game from Indie Boards & Cards that can handle 2-6 players. It is a short game that can be played in about 15 minutes. It is another one of the short, light cards games to make it on the table top scene of late. We have only played with game with 2 players so far because our normal gaming group has not been able to meet up of late. So we will be editing the review once we have that data.

Goal of the Game

The goal of Coup is to compete with the other players to try to remove their influence from the court. The game has a number of ways to get rid of the other players, ranging from a coup to an assassination. The game is made up of 5 different cards, with 3 copies of each, tokens that represent money, and a cheat sheet of what you can do on a turn.

How it is Played: 2 Players

You will split 15 cards into 3 decks, each having 1 copy of each card. Give one of those to the first player. They will then pick one card from the deck. The second player will do the same with the second deck. Put the remaining cards off to the side and put the third deck into the middle of the playing area next to the pile of coins. Each player will draw one from this deck. Your cards must be placed face down in front of you at all times because you do not want your enemy to know what cards you have. The starting player will get 1 coin and the second player will get two coins. Each player will then take turns performing actions(listed below) until only one person is left.

Actions You May Take in a Turn

• Income- Take 1 coin from treasury. No one can stop this action.
• Foreign Aid- Take 2 coins from treasury.
• Coup – Pay 7 coins to cause opposing player to lose an influence. No one can stop this action.
• Duke – Tax – Takes 3 coins from treasury. Can be used to block Foreign Aid
• Assassin – Assassinate – Pay 3 coins to cause someone to lose an influence.
• Ambassador – Exchange – Draw two cards from the deck in the center. If you would like to swap one of your cards for one of those you may. Blocks stealing.
• Captain – Steal – Take 2 coins from player of choice. Blocks stealing.
• Contessa – Only card that can block an assassination.

You may perform any one of the above actions in a turn. The trick to this game that makes it fun is you do not have to have the card to play the action. This is a game of bluffing and deceit. How you will play is, you will claim you have the corresponding card needed for to perform an action. It is then up to the opposing players to decide if you are being honest or not.

After someone claims to have 1 of the 5 cards, the opposing player has the chance to challenge them. If the challenge is successful, and the person was lying, they have to get rid of 1 of their 2 cards. If the challenge fails, and the person actually has the card they claimed to have, the challenger must get rid of 1 of their cards. To elaborate that concept I will provide an example turn.

An Example Turn

Bill and Sue are sitting down to play a game. They have both shuffled their cards and Bill will be first player. Bill has a Duke and Assassin. Bill, wanting to harm his opposing player decided to claim he has the Captain so he can steal Sue’s 2 coins. Sue decides to challenge this action, because her cards are the Captain and the Duke. Bill admits he does not have a Captain and must get rid of 1 of his 2 cards. Now it is Sue’s turn and she decided to use her Duke to take 3 coins from the treasury. Bill, seeing he has a Duke, decides to challenge Sue. Sue shows her Duke, and Bill must remove another card, leaving him with no influence left. Sue wins the game.

My Opinion

3/5 = Okay ( 2 players)
I honestly love this game. It is fun, easy to play and learn, and it is cheap. So why the 3? As I stated at the beginning of the post, I have not had a chance to play with more than 2 people. As a 2 player game, I thought that it was good, but it left me wanting more. Coup says it can be played with only 2 players, but with my wife and I being the aggressive players we are, it is too short of a game. When we play, it usually lasts about 4 turns total. It is over in a matter of minutes. But while playing the game with 2 players, you can see all of this underlying potential for when you have 3 or more players. With that said, other players may be able to get a longer play time out of a 2 player game than us. Either way, this is a good game and for less than $10 at the time of purchase, it is well worth it. This is a great game if you are in the mood to play games, but do not have the time to pull out a bigger one. When we get our 3rd and 4th players together, I will post an updated review.
Amazon.com

Also

This game is 100% adaptable for blind players. If you have a way to braille cards at your house the cards have so little information that you can braille the game within a matter of minutes and begin playing! Even the cheat sheet provided can be Brailled.