Idle Remorse

Review: Outta Control

By jen On April 30, 2018 With No Comments

Review: Outta Control
Publisher: Parker Brothers
Year: 1992
Tagline: Hit the Buzzer! Someone’s…

cover showing give caricature people playing

how we met

I found Outta Control at a thrift shop that seems to always, always, always have something for me, whether it’s for play or to resell. They have this strange atmosphere of popcorn and cleaning agents that seems to cause 1313 Dead End Drive to grow out of the shelves themselves. I typically find anywhere from one to four games at this particular shop when I am able to get there. On this day, I found three games and one was Outta Control.

how it plays

Outta Control is a roll and move game all about memory and discipline. And trickery and attention. As part of setup, each player gets ten pink chips with the ultimate goal of trying to lose all of their chips. Then one DO card is revealed, read aloud and placed face down on the #1 spot on the DO card side of the plastic board. The same is done for a DON’T card. (Note: technically the rules do not specify whether DON’T cards should be face up or face down, so I had to reference the commercial and I can still hear children barking like dogs when I close my eyes)

The play of Outta Control is really simple. Before a player rolls the die, they must remember and do each thing from the in-play DO cards, in correct order. And all players must never do something from an in-play DON’T card, regardless of whether it is their turn or not.

Here is more of the board for your eyes

As a player rolls, their space will dictate what happens next. Spaces most frequently allow you to add or change a DO and/or DON’T card. In these cases, you may choose which card you are displacing if the card spots are already full.

Example space saying add a don't and put in a chip

An example space

Spaces will also allow you to turn in one or two chips. And if you remember to do that, good for you. However, and this is important, the game has touchstones for play. It is important that you hand the die to the next player at the end of your turn – not just to make sure they are paying attention but to indicate that you are acknowledging the end of your turn. And any chips you are allowed to turn in must be turned in before you hand the die over.

As an example, if you are on a space that indicates you can turn in one chip but you hand the die to the next player without doing so, then your chance is gone and you may not turn in that chip. Them’s the breaks!

The chips in all their pinkness

Why does all this bean counting matter? Because if you think someone has erred then you can call them out in the moment by pressing the buzzer (also pink) in the middle of the game board. You can accuse your fellow players of things like, “You did not do the fourth DO thing,” or, “You touched the die with your thumb,” or any number of silly things if they didn’t do a DO card or did do a DON’T card. If the accuser is correct then they can give the accused one of their chips. If they are mistaken then the accused can give the accuser one of their chips.

And if you catch yourself making a mistake you go straight for that buzzer and turn yourself in before anyone else does, and nothing bad will happen to you.

At times the DO and DON’T cards may contradict each other. In these cases, you do the thing during the DO part of your turn and not otherwise.

Other spaces on the board are SAFE spaces. These allow you to completely ignore the DON’T card requirements until you are no longer on the SAFE space and skip (on your next turn) the DO card requirements. This is your chance to play dirty and bait people. Don’t waste it.

The first player to ditch all their chips wins!

how it went

I have played this a few times in different company, and in all cases one thing it has in common is giggles. This game is simple, funny and ridiculous.

The other thing Outta Control has in common is me falling for every trick in the book. I fall for all the tricks. Bill can have his pawn on a SAFE space and rest his head on his hands, elbows on the table, in such a way that is completely foreign. Suspicious, even. But I will slam my hand on the buzzer and call him on it.

If you are so fortunate as to land on a SAFE space on the board, then you can lure your fellow players into this pretty trap to get rid of your chips more quickly.

My memory is not as great as it used to be, and it’s funny how frequently things will just fall out of one’s head. The DO’s are easier to remember because they must be repeated before every die roll. The DON’Ts are trickier both for being passive and being just plain difficult. Some of the DON’T cards will be that you can’t move your pawn by picking it up, you must slide it. Or that you can’t touch the die with your thumb. Or that you can’t point. Or that you can’t say the word “chips” which is a very difficult one.

Example do cards like "do give yourself a hug"

Do check out these example DO cards

Example don't cards like "don't stand up"

Don’t forget to read these example DON’T cards

It’s funny how nervous I would get during play at times. I became afraid to move, afraid to touch anything, afraid to say anything. There were periods in both games where people were semi-frozen just trying not to mess up. Which is pretty funny.

play or pass

Play! Slowly, wisely and with great care, but DO play. This game is simple and fun. I think it has a way of playing off your group dynamic that is interesting too. And if I am at the table, you almost can’t lose.

Review: Do you look like your dog?

By jen On April 25, 2018 With No Comments

Review: Do you look like your dog?
Publisher: Briarpatch
Year: 2007
Tagline: Are you a Shih Tzu or a Shepherd? Play the game and find out!

Do you look like your dog cover

how we met

I found Do you look like your dog? at a thrift shop sitting on a shelf near a Ouija game. I bought both. The woman at checkout had a lot of questions for me, but none were regarding the Do you look like your dog? purchase. That was interesting only because I was certainly questioning myself more regarding the Do you look like your dog? purchase than about the Ouija purchase.

how it plays

Do you look like your dog? is a roll and move game with a familiar party game voting mechanic.

Woman and dog that look similar making a pawn

And it is gorgeous

Each player starts the game with 8 dog bones and 3 of each DOGS and OWNERS cards. As you move your pawn around the board, you will most often encounter one of two different spaces, detailed below.

Multiple bones with different color edges

The bones, used for voting

If you land on a DOG SQUARE you will see a picture of a dog, and the goal is to match that dog with an owner. Once any player lands on one of these squares then all players will draw an OWNERS card. They may then choose from amongst any OWNERS cards in their hand and place it on their dog bowl to represent it as their bid. Each player gets a brief moment to explain why they think their card is the best choice. Then all players use their bones to vote by placing their bone in the dog bowl of the player that they felt has the best OWNERS card to match the dog. You can’t vote for yourself.

OWNERS cards showing the close-up faces of various owners

Our heroes, the OWNERS

The other very similar space on the board is the OWNER SQUARE, and play is the same except you are drawing from the DOGS deck and voting on which DOGS card best matches that particular owner.

Sample four DOGS cards showing dog faces

Our heroes, the DOGS cards

In either case, once voting is complete the cards are returned to the bottom of their decks and the dog bones remain where they are.

There are occasions where you will get sent to the doghouse. The card sending you there will indicate which specific color doghouse you go to. Then each player chooses a DOGS card in their hand that most closely resembles the player that owns that doghouse (maybe you, maybe the lead player, maybe neither). Voting happens with the bones, as usual. This is the moment when, presumably, it gets personal.

Doghouses at the corners, and a mess in between

The goal of Do you look like your dog? is to collect 7 bones at your doghouse and then return to your doghouse. Then you win!

how it went

Oh how this game is broken, let me count the ways.

Our gameplay

Each player has 8 dog bones in their color to begin the game and vote throughout play. This is not nearly enough, and the game encourages you to steal bones (by landing on another player’s doghouse in their absence) in order to keep play going. This is insufferable.

The game can be played with two to four players. With two or four players, ties happen. The game does not address ties, but I suppose they don’t matter much since you are just out to collect dog bones. But this means you are robbed of even a micro-win at times.

The DOGS cards and OWNERS cards are not so blatantly paired as the box cover or components would have you believe. But I think the game maybe went too vanilla with these cards. No one really fits together, no one lends themselves to much of a back story, no one sticks out or plays the part of the ridiculous card that always wins. This forces creativity in what story you come up with, which is nice, but the game also has few enough cards that we had several repeats in our hands during play, and the magic was lost.

Woman in white sweater card and dog with long white hair card

Sample storytelling opportunity: that sweater is obviously made from the hair of that dog

Perhaps most importantly, the game in no way ever once addresses the question “Do you look like your dog?” I am on my third basset hound and really wanted to get to the heart of this question. Occasionally it will broach the subject of “Which random dog do you most look like?” but that’s it. And your friends can only respond with what’s in their hands, so it doesn’t really count. (Also there’s no basset hounds in the deck)

Woman winking with tongue sticking out holding pug with one bad eye and tongue sticking out

The amazing picture I got back when proposing the question to my sister: Do you look like your dog?

Not everything about this game is terrible. Do you look like your dog? is extremely photogenic and I enjoyed snapping photos of it. The pawns are straight out of a Christopher Guest movie. We told some sordid tales during play. We secretly designed matching human / dog outfits in our minds. Then we rejected those early designs and envisioned more.

play or pass?

Pass. We really did try. We made up crazy backstories. We invented relationships out of thin air. We made it personal. We made it fantastical. We created heroes and villains. But this game is terrible.

FUN FACT: for those of you that are unfamiliar with the podcast Flip the Table, you should definitely check it out. But also the podcast is a big fan of the wonderful game Heartthrob. This led a friend of the podcast to create a version of Heartthrob dedicated to dogs called Barkthrob, where you determine which of three dogs your friends will prefer as you slowly learn more and more (good and bad) about the dogs. If you find Do you look like your dog? at thrift and it is not a good fit for your group, it is a good option to create Barkthrob – a better game – using the DOGS cards.

Designer Diary: Panic Mode | Breaking rules

By jen On April 18, 2018 With 3 Comments

Panic Mode text

This entry is about the game Panic Mode!
a game of office politics during Disaster Recovery

Please download the Print and Play at panicmode.games or find us on Facebook or Instagram @panicmodegame

breaking rules

I would never tell any first-time game creator not to follow the common advice on the holy board game Kickstarter blogs (James Mathe and Jamey Stegmaier blogs, and yes you need to read and absorb them – it’s seriously the least you can do) or in the Facebook groups. Most people, including me, should listen to that advice more. But if you think you have a unicorn game then you probably aren’t reading designer diaries anyway, so I’ll continue.

Panic Mode is a niche game. To me this means it is not a gamer’s game, it employs only light strategy and the humor is IT-heavy for office humor. It has a limited audience. A lot of the advice for games doesn’t fit well with Panic Mode, and it’s up to me to know where to stretch the boundaries of what I am reading. Just as it is your job to translate advice to your situation.

No one is going to hand you a checklist that applies to your particular game. You can look up all the advice you want about fulfillment, but the reality is the right answer is so dependent upon your game with its weight and its dimensions and its timing that you need to really spend the time figuring out the right answer, and be confident in the choice you make even if you see advice to the contrary. Having trouble being confident? I don’t blame you. Fake it ’til you make it.

And I swear you could spend eternity figuring out the “right” amount to set as your campaign goal, particularly if you are even entertaining the possibility of needing a second print run and paying for it from your first run proceeds. Most of the advice is too low to be realistic. But where you need to be is too high. Figure it out and commit to it.

Breaking the rules can sometimes be necessary. Here are examples of where I break the rules with Panic Mode:

I am self-publishing!
I am not shopping my game around to publishers. I am not silly; I know they would laugh me right out the door. “Your game is boring! It’s like work!” No, it’s super fun and I’m hilarious.

But self-publishing is work, and it’s stressful. It’s like learning a new language for something I don’t plan to use long-term. I’m not starting a game company. Fool’s errand? Labor of love? Whatever. I’m self-publishing.

I used Creative Commons!
Let go of your pearls and let me explain why I did this, and why it’s the right decision for Panic Mode.

If you are unfamiliar with Creative Commons, it is a non-profit that supplies marks that you can use to provide limited protection to your work, with the idea that others can contribute to the work and share it also. Panic Mode uses Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International.

My game is about IT Disaster Recovery, and a lot of its fans live and work in the open source world every day. By using Creative Commons I am effectively creating an open-source card game. I love that. I firmly believe the fans of the game will love that too. And if someone out there can swoop in and improve upon the game, why on earth would I want to stop that?

I want you to play my Print and Play! For free! Now!
Panic Mode will either print or not. My goal was always simpler: to get the game out there. I share the PnP very openly and want people to play it. It was only through playtesting that I was able to fix the tracking cards, understand which cards were unclear and – perhaps most importantly – believe that some people really enjoy the game and I should follow through with a campaign.

Thanks to sharing my PnP far and wide, people all over the world have played Panic Mode. Many of them at work! How cool is that?

Most of Panic Mode’s biggest fans are not on Facebook or Board Game Geek!
This one is tough, but it’s a fact. And it’s completely okay. I have shared my game in Facebook groups and will receive a like or two. Maybe one like in BGG Work in Progress forums. These things can be difficult because when I see them, I am also seeing all games around Panic Mode that clearly resonate with that group a lot more.

But here’s the thing. I shared my game with a group of 20,000 LinkedIn professionals and got my biggest fans and advocates. I have fans that are not in game groups, but they are still my advocates. This makes so much of my campaign a complete unknown. And that’s scary. But it also kinda makes sense. My email list at this point is not huge, but it’s real and organic and I’m super proud of it. It is 100% people that think the PDF is cool but want to just buy the game.

Tabletop gaming is growing in leaps and bounds every year. Maybe this is what it feels like to be part of that growth, to be part of breaking down a barrier between gaming and real life. There is so much gaming enjoyment to be had between zero and Advanced Squad Leader. Why not invite our non-gamer friends and colleagues to identify with gaming? If I can contribute to that goal then I am happy.

Panic Mode is simple, with only light strategy, and relies a lot on luck!
I struggled with this one, but ultimately came to accept it. I want the game to be simple for teams to play together. I want to spark discussion. If the game happens to be successful I have expansion ideas that would introduce more strategic gameplay. But I feel good about the base game as is, and I will still feel good if I am never able to expand on the current gameplay.

There are thematic reasons that I like this approach too. In reality with Disaster Recovery if you did the work up front then things will run more smoothly. If you didn’t then it won’t. I was not fond of the idea of injecting that preparation during gameplay. The fact is, your options are limited in an actual incident because all the important decisions have already been made.

in conclusion

And that’s kind of how running a Kickstarter campaign is too. There are always anomalies in both failure and success in Tabletop game campaigns, but if you did the work then you just have to play it out.

If you look at my game in social media, on Board Game Geek or any of the usual Facebook groups I don’t look strong enough to launch. And most of the time I feel certain my upcoming campaign will probably fail. But I have brief, shining moments where I remember that it’s really not clear because Panic Mode is not in that box. And your game isn’t in a box either. Read everything, interpret objectively, work for months and launch. And if you need to, launch again.

FUN FACT: I went to the South Dakota state spelling competition in 5th grade and placed 6th. The word that I missed was campaign, which I spelled campagne. For many years I assumed I was trying to spell champagne. But now I wonder if the whole thing was foreshadowing and my campaign is doomed! Super exciting!

Thanks for reading <3

Review: Gift of Enlightenment

By jen On April 13, 2018 With 5 Comments

Review: Gift of Enlightenment
Publisher: Veritas Productions Ltd.
Year: 2004
Tagline: SOME TREASURES ARE WORTH DISCOVERING!

Gift of Enlightenment cover

how we met

I discovered Gift of Enlightenment at a charity shop in Wisconsin. If you thrift a lot you may understand what I mean when I say that there are some shops that price high and others that don’t seem to care. This was a shop that prices high, so I didn’t have high hopes as I walked in the door. But I found Gift of Enlightenment for $2.99.

The box is solid and nice. It’s heavy. The back shows that I will be playing with polished rocks and crystals and warns me to avoid false idols. I absolutely, positively could not wait to play it.

how it plays

Gift of Enlightenment is a roll and move game where your object is to be the first player to follow the pathway to enlightenment, which grants you a gift from the book of enlightenment (also included in game).

The path to enlightenment is a circle

To begin, each player is given an AURA card showing each of the seven chakras which they must aim to fill with each of the seven chakra crystals. Each player then chooses a pawn, represented by a polished rock.

Aura card showing three out of four crystals

Three down, four to go on my AURA card

Then each player is dealt five HUMANITY cards which are placed face up in front of them. HUMANITY cards represent positive and negative traits about you, represented by their blue and red text, respectively. As play progresses you may be required to pick up additional HUMANITY cards. If you do, you must keep the one you picked up but can never have more than five. Discarding is often necessary.

Sample HUMANITY cards including love, understanding, peace

My starting HUMANITY cards, because I’m good through and through

On this journey to enlightenment you will encounter many different obstacles. There are chance decks that will cause positive or negative things to happen to you. You may get another turn. You may end up in a jail-like space called FALSE IDOLS. You may be forced to change direction on your next turn. You may land on one of the seven chakra spaces and have to complete a CHAKRA CHALLENGE before being awarded that particular crystal.

You may find yourself in the equivalent of jail

CHAKRA CHALLENGEs are all ever-so-slightly different from each other but generally all involve using your third eye to find a given card amongst a series of cards. For example, to obtain the Solar Plexus crystal you must shuffle the seven CHAKRA cards, line them up in front of you face down and then roll the die. You have that many attempts to find the yellow card using your inner power. In another example, you must give your neighbor the blue, green and indigo cards. They will place them face down in a line in whatever position they wish. You must use your sense of knowing to detect the blue card and energize that chakra.

Chakra cards showing seven different chakras and colors

Chakra cards, the focus of your third eye for much of the game

Once a player has five positive HUMANITY cards as well as a fully energized AURA card, accomplished by collecting each of the seven different chakras, they can safely land on PATHWAY TO ENLIGHTENMENT. The first player to do so wins the game and is rewarded with a GIFT OF ENLIGHTENMENT! This gift is found by using your cards to look up the appropriate entry in the book of enlightenment.

how it went

This game is amazing. I’m not sure how much it cost brand new, but the components are solid. You get a fancy box, you get a velvet pouch full of polished rocks, you get little shiny bedazzler crystal things, you get a book, you get a board, you get laminated instructions, you get a die, you get poker size cards, you get aura cards. And never before has my wayward group played a game with the object of achieving enlightenment.

Velvet bag, die, crystals and polished rock pawns

Some of the glorious components

One of the common complaints about this game is the play length. We were missing one of our group, so we played three player and I didn’t feel that the game was overly long. We played one or two other games that evening.

Overview of board with cards and pawns in play

Our gameplay, mid CHAKRA CHALLENGE

I definitely enjoyed the CHAKRA CHALLENGEs. They are all a little similar in that you are meant to use your intuition or inner power or third eye or whathaveyou to find the correct card. They reminded me a lot of Mario Party mini-games, except related to chakras. One could argue that failing one of these challenges is bad luck, but you could also argue that your intuition muscles are just not being exercised enough.

In either of these cases, the most control you have in the game is choosing which direction to move after rolling the die. In some cases you can choose to gamble by landing on one of the chance decks and seeing what happens. There was one memorable time during our play that Keri gambled on a chance deck; she had five positive HUMANITY cards and needed one more chakra crystal, so it made sense. Unfortunately it resulted in Keri drawing a negative HUMANITY card. As she tried to decide which positive card to get rid of, I gently suggested “Wisdom” and was rewarded with one of the most withering glares I have ever seen in my life.

Example chance cards

The game does have a certain amount of take that, mostly within the chance cards where you may be allowed to trade HUMANITY cards or otherwise mess with another player. For the most part, though, you are focused on your own game in this journey to enlightenment.

Unlike many reviews, I think this game is very simple to play. The rules were not overwhelming. Many people that have reviewed the game talk up the enlightenment aspect, some going so far as to say this is not a game so much as a tool to improve your intuition or a gateway to philosophy. I didn’t get that either, although I will admit the game gives you paths to learn more about the chakras in the book if you choose to.

In the end John won and went through the steps of narrowing down his cards to find his GIFT OF ENLIGHTENMENT. And yes, I took a picture of it. So it probably won’t come true.

Gift of Enlightenment entry encouraging one to forgive themselves for not being perfect

John’s Gift of Enlightenment, for all the world to see

play or pass

Play. This is a game of Mario Party on the path to enlightenment. I laughed. I cried (laughing). I now own a small velvet bag.

If you are looking for more shallow motivations to play, you can travel back in time by visiting Gift of Enlightenment’s website and learning about which celebrities were gifted the game. Then imagine that you might be playing at the same time!

Review: Gone Bananas

By jen On April 9, 2018 With No Comments

Review: Gone Bananas
Publisher: Lykeable Products
Year: 1984
Tagline: Who made the play — her fun loving ID, her everyday EGO or her goal-oriented SUPEREGO?

Gone Bananas cover showing three people playing

how we met

I met Gone Bananas in an antique store in, I believe, Waukesha WI. At an antique store I certainly paid more than I usually do at thrift for a stranger game. But the cover is full of “A-Peel,” and I was not going to say no. It was also rare and unpunched. I could not wait to challenge my ID, EGO and SUPEREGO!

how it plays

Gone Bananas is a roll and move game where your ultimate goal is to collect four different colored buttons and to have more WOWs than OWs. Then you win!

You will know that you have been in a game, indeed

This is accomplished by moving your banana pawn around the board, avoiding ZAPPERs that your terrible friends have set up and trying to take PSYDE TRIPS as much as possible to try and get those sweet, sweet buttons.

ZAPPERs can be purchased at the end of your turn for any space, and you can even replace an existing ZAPPER with your own by paying the capture cost. If you land on a ZAPPER of another player then only bad things happen to you. You may have to take OWs, give up WOWs or even lose a button!

Sample ID, OW and EGO cards which resemble tickets

Yes, the cards you collect could probably be used to enter you in a raffle

It is true that some of the gameplay might sound familiar. We do not have a jail, but we do have a NUT HUT. We do not have free parking but we have a FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH and HALFWAY HOUSE.

Passing through the Nut Hut

Each of our personality parts have their own chance card decks: ID, EGO and SUPEREGO.

Good example of chance cards and the humor of the game

There is also a gambling element where landing on any square that gives you a CHANCE OF LIFE allows you to bet up to your number of certain cards like ID cards and roll the dice. If you roll one of the lucky numbers 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 12 then you win and get a 1:1 return on your bet.

Many cards or squares require you to pay in a certain thing at a certain amount such as two EGOs or two IDs, etc. If you are not able to pay in then you collect two OWs.

If it sounds like Gone Bananas has a lot going on, it does. But it starts to gel pretty quickly and things get a bit more interesting and just a tad more aggressive as play continues.

how it went

When I was starting to explain the rules, Keri pretty much nailed it by saying, “OK so it’s like the Game of Life but we are bananas.” Throw in a little Monopoly and that statement is 100% accurate.

The board looks busy, and it’s one of those games where you are like let’s just start playing because wherever you land we will have to figure out what happens. Gone Bananas does a decent job of having those spaces on the board explain what happens, and very few required reference to the rulebook.

The game board with colors and text everywhere

Ever drawing your eye to the Banana Bank

Only a couple of people had ZAPPERs in play. I must have been unclear on when you can buy them, and so people felt they had to land in the area to purchase a ZAPPER. In actuality, that option is available to you at the end of every single turn for any space.

Once John had a ZAPPER in play, it was clear how that can really turn the game around. The first fly you catch in your web may not be that great, and maybe not the second one either. But from there the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It is much like having a monopoly in the game Monopoly.

components including buttons, pawns, dice and zappers

Example components including the banana pawns

Keri decided during gameplay that she would go all in every turn that she was able to gamble, and I was very proud of her. This happened after our encouragement for a large bet that did not work out for her. So why not?

In the end John won. His ZAPPER strategy paid off, as well as just happening to be able to collect all the buttons first.

play or pass

Play. I think we all started the game feeling like let’s just get through this Monopoly/Life hybrid and make a bunch of banana jokes. But I will say the game grew on me throughout play. Gone Bananas does pull off subtle aggression. I would have played it again right away if we had not had a stack of games waiting for our attention. And it definitely pokes fun at psychoanalysis in a gentle way, but in a way that is unlikely to be duplicated today.

I encourage play despite the fact that the game was designed by a psychologist who went so far as to patent it. This might be the only game I own with a patent, I’m not sure.

Review: Outta Control

Review: Do you look like your dog?

Designer Diary: Panic Mode | Breaking rules

Review: Gift of Enlightenment

Review: Gone Bananas

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Review: Outta Control

Review: Do you look like your dog?

Designer Diary: Panic Mode | Breaking rules

Review: Gift of Enlightenment

Review: Gone Bananas

About me

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