admin, Author at Cards or Die

More tea Vicar? Elevenses: the card game of morning tea.

A light game that you can play between games and it won’t spoil your appetite.

The Basics
Elevenses is a game for 2 to 4 guests. It takes up to 30 minutes, but often less. It is a fine blend of strategy, risk and a dash of luck.
 
As you might expect from any game I’ve chosen, it is beautifully illustrated with willowy 1920s ladies, scrumptious biscuits and a dashing servant.
 
Each round the players vie for sugar cubes. To earn sugar cubes you must have the highest value of cards (indicated by teaspoons in the top right of the card) on display in your spread when someone declares ‘Elevenses!’. 

The Clever Bits
 
Low value cards feature an action which benefits you when you place it face up in your spread. One of my favourites is Sugar – when you play this, it enables you to look at all your face down cards at any time while it remains face up in your spread.
 
However, high value cards carry an element of risk. On playing Cakes, for instance, you must show an opponent your hand and they can choose a card to take from you. This means high value cards must be played tactically. The variety of actions you can take is an excellent feature of the game. 
 
Instead of playing a card face up, you can swap cards from your kitchen to your spread face down in arrange actions (up to 2 per turn). This allows you to save cards till later in the game. As long as you can remember where you placed them. Obviously, I mean what kind of fool would forget where they had hidden their Elevenses card? *ahem*
 
The Elevenses card can only be played once you have 4 cards face up in your spread and it can not be swapped or exchanged. An important part of the game is watching your opponents closely and deducing when they have Elevenses in their hand and when they plan to play it.
 
A starting server card allows you to keep track of who dealt and played first each round. Essential if, like me you have enough on remembering whose go it is, never mind remembering who dealt! 
 
Before you say it, I only forget whose go it is BECAUSE I’m concentrating. I’m not just instagramming pretty pictures or choosing which biscuit I would eat. Mmmmm…. bourbons…. anyway…
 
I also like the fact it comes with a card that summarises each card’s action and shows a plan of your spread. (Are you noticing a theme here?)
 
An Illustration
Me explaining in a suitably posh voice!

Feeling confident? Invite Prue Devine over- she has exacting standards when it comes to morning tea.
 
Once you have mastered the basic game (even I – with my slender grip on reality/ memory – have managed this) you can play with the expansion pack. It comes with the game so you don’t need to shell out any extra shillings.
 
The expansion comprises 6 characters, each worth two spoons. To earn the spoons you must ensure your spread contains their specified cards which will entice your character to stay to tea. 
 
Miss Carrington promises to entertain your guests with town gossip as long as you are able to furnish her with sandwiches (crustless, naturally) milk, cups and saucers before someone serves Elevenses.

The expansion adds a good layer of complexity to the game. As well as making sure you keep an eye on other people’s spoons, you also need to track which cards are visible in their spread and consider what they may have in their kitchen. This lends the tea card extra power as when you play it, you can flip an opponent’s card face down.
 
And finally…
 
A final touch which I really appreciated was the use of ‘she’ in the rule book and on the cards. OK so it would be perfect if all rule book writers used the neutral ‘they’ or the more grammatically accurate s/he. But they don’t. And, of course, retro games which I have a large collection of all assume players are male. How could women possibly have time to game when they are doing vital household chores. It was so refreshing to open a rule book where the writer had considered me: a woman, a gamer, an equal.
 
Completely absolutely finally 
 
I couldn’t resist pimping up my Elevenses, so if you play with Cards or Die you’ll find Elevenses looks like this… tea on the terrace? Charming.

 Join us at a Cards or Die event to play. 

Dixit. A game of beauty, voting and darkness.

Words can not adequately express my love for this game. But as it is a game all about communication, I’ll give it my best shot.
 
Dixit is a board game based on voting, communication and gorgeous art. How perfectly appropriate for this week. The cards are beautiful and sometimes dark. Handbag vomit card is one of my favourites (I don’t think this is it’s official name). Mainly because it resonates with my own personal handbag issues:

One of the lovely things about Dixit is the odd nature of it: many of the illustrations are very strange; you keep score by moving wooden rabbits (rabbeeples if you will) round the board. Why? Why not. Dixit has a fantasy ‘once upon a time’ feel that encourages players to unleash their imagination.
 

How do you play?
 
Dixit is a simple game to learn. 
Each player has a hand of 6 cards. 
Player 1 chooses one card from their hand. They describe the card using a word, a phrase, a line from a song, a sound: anything which for them encapsulates the image. The put the card to one side, face down. 
The other players now choose a card from their hand which best matches the phrase Player 1 has said. They hand their chosen card to Player 1. 
Player 1 shuffles all the chosen cards, along with their own choice and then lays the cards out face down. As they lay them out they number them. 
The other players must then vote on which card they believe Player 1 chose. They place their numbered voting chips face down and reveal their choices simultaneously. 
If no-one or everyone correctly identifies Player 1’s card then Player 1 score nothing. Nothing at all. Not a sausage. (Other players score points for correct identification and for having people vote for their chosen card.) 
And this, this is the nub of the game. You must be specific enough to enable people to identify your image but vague enough that not everyone gets it. This is a skill which requires adept communication and throws up interesting and diverse challenges whether playing with friends or strangers. For me, this is the beauty of the game.
 
Not only is Dixit a fun, entertaining game but it also has serious social skills benefits. It encourages empathy and imagination. A perfect game for those who may find those skills challenging.
It also makes it an ideal game for team building exercises. Playing with people you ‘sort-of know’ is at times funny and always enlightening.
Plus it gives you the opportunity to say Rabbeeples. I mean, really, what more could you ask for from a game?

Share your handbag vomit pictures with me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook @cardsordie 
Now with added expansion pack. Join us at one of Cards or Die’s events to play: 
 

Terrible Monster

Style and Substance 
As you’ve probably gathered by now if you follow me on instagram, twitter or facebook, one of the main criteria for a successful Cards or Die game is aesthetic value. Much can be forgiven if your cards or board are pretty and charming and I have definitely fallen for games which favour style over substance before. But, Terrible Monsters has style and substance – win win. Terrible Monster was unleashed on Kickstarter in 2016 by Sweet Lemon Publishing. The illustrations are by Isabel Bollmann. 

Cute Beast – Beautiful but deadly
 
One of my other priorities when choosing games for the business is that they are low threshold, high ceiling – by which I mean: easy to learn but with enough complexity to give you seemingly endless options and outcomes. Terrible Monster fulfills this perfectly. It is easy to learn and yet has ample twists and turns, making it unpredictable and challenging. Even at a point where I had carefully planned my apparently hapless opponent’s demise (I only needed to get to my next turn) my plans failed and I ended up defeated!

You think you’ve won but then – Boom! You haven’t.
 
Your objective
Your objective is simply to deal enough damage to kill your opponent. Each player only has 4 life tokens – how hard can it be? <hollow laugh>

Actual hearts – love the artwork
 
Play
Terrible Monster is a game for two players, lasting 5 to 10 minutes. Your turn consists of: drawing a card from the draw pile, playing up to two cards, maintaining your deck of 5 cards. There are three monsters in the pack and spell cards which have various effects. All of the cards state clearly what you must do when you play the card and some cards work together, so you need to consider your choices carefully. For instance, Terrible Monster deals 4 damage and so when played can end the game… but you need to be able to summon it, and both the Leech and Deduction cards allow your opponent to take Terrible Monster from your grasp!

Counter Tokens – use them wisely
 
It is also possible to use counter tokens to block your opponent’s actions but the fact that you only have two of these makes blocking a tricky decision. Do you block now or is it only going to get worse? More intense still – if your opponent blocks your action, you can counter that by using two of your tokens, enabling you to go ahead and attack them – but at what cost? Will you wish you had those later, when they summon Terrible Monster?
 
Strokes of design genius
As I mentioned above, the Terrible Monster card itself is a stroke of genius. It’s a high risk, high gain card. The rules around counter tokens make decisions high stakes which makes for a fun and intense game. Many of the spells let you manipulate the deck, see your opponents cards, move cards around, and snatch victory!
 
I also love that each player gets their own summary outlining the effects of all cards and a brief outline of all rules including order of play. I know many games have these now, but why not all of them? It’s an invaluable aid. I’ve got enough going on with working out whether I want to use my counter tokens or not, without having to remember what my turn consists of!

 If you’re designing a game – DO THIS!
 
Join us for a game
And here it is, the predictable, yet shameless plug element of the blog – come and see us at Shepley Spring Festival on 19th -21st May or at The Abbey Inn, Leeds on the first Wednesday of every month if you fancy a game. (Did I mention this is one of over 150 games you can choose from?!)
 
Check out Sweet Lemon‘s website for more brilliant and quirky games. 

Festival Dreams

You wake up late to the smell of coffee and the sizzle of bacon crisping up. The sun streams into the tent, as you unzip it, fresh air floods in. Gentle music drifts towards you, the folkiness of a melodeon or a favourite song you had almost forgotten. Someone hands you a fresh coffee and a bacon butty made with love and soft white bread and you sit in the doorway of the tent on an airbed that hasn’t deflated at all overnight, watching the festival site waking up. 
Isn’t this what happens to you every morning at festivals?
 
OK, ok, this is not a true record of my own experience. I have Earl Grey not coffee. The bed is flat and feels like rocks, and the sound that often seems to herald the morning is this lot (even when they’re ironically playing Brahm’s Lullaby, they’re anything but soothing).

If in reality you lie there trying to work out if you can hear rain or whether it’s the sound of many flags flapping, and you realise that much as you don’t want to get up, if you lie here much longer on your deflated airbed you might not be able to get up at all (how does a muddy field feel like rocks anyway?), then what you need to do is to grab a cuppa and make your way to the games tent. 
 
So come visit us at Shepley Spring Festival – May 19th – 21st. Come into our lovely red gazebo, we’ll look after you. We’ll sit you in a nice proper seat, wrap you in soft blankets and teach you games to distract you from your back pain. After all the sound of rain is soothing – it must be true, the internet says so…

…and doubly soothing with the sound of falling Jenga blocks and connect four clattering down…

Summertime Rolls

It’s Summer. I know it must be because lots of Morris Dancers got up at ridiculous o’clock this morning to dance the sun up for us. And that’s got me thinking about Summertime games for those lazy summer evenings. While you read on, why not have a background track to get you in the Summer mood…

Neighbours the Board Game
What evokes summer more than throwing a shrimp on the barbie, watching Bouncer splash about in the pool with Scott and Charlene, and cracking out a classic retro game? 
Everybody needs good neighbours and you can join forces with yours in The Neighbours board game to create the best plotline ever. I have thoroughly enjoyed playing this game and it’s had good reviews from events too. Now – whenever I read the word “hilarious” in a review part of my soul dies, but honestly Neighbours is hilarious to play (admittedly we consumed wine while we played), but it is a fun game – and the plot lines you create have to be grammatically accurate, which pleases me more than I can tell you. Pretend it’s the 80s, pretend it’s sunny, and dive right in!

Carcassonne
If for you, Summer is a time of fine wines, medieval castles and drinking dodgy homebrew (that’s basically what Monks did, isn’t it?) then Carcassonne is the game for you. Create your own beautiful settlement with luscious farm lands and well tended gardens. Watch out for robbers and farm boundary confusion (it’s just like The Archers) and ask yourself the perennial Carcassonne question: why do farmers lie down?

Or if you’re feeling really decadent, why not check out the real Carcassonne: 

http://fiveminutehistory.com/10-amazing-facts-french-medieval-city-carcassonne/

The Morris

And finally, as I eluded to earlier, nothing makes summer for me more than the Morris. Here’s my boy dancing the sun up last year (photo courtesy of Karen Fretwell). My summer is always full of dancing and colour.

On May 19th -21st, I’m excited to be celebrating all things folk at Shepley Spring Festival, bringing with me 150 games. Amongst them is Nine Men’s Morris, which dates back to the Roman Empire, and is referred to by Shakespeare as an outdoor game in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (‘The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud’- Summer and rain how very English; how very festival). Not only does it epitomise Summer but it is the ultimate retro game!
Pit your wits in this traditional strategy game – place and move your pawns carefully, creating ‘mills’ (lines of three), allowing you to remove one of your opponent’s pieces from the game. The game ends when there are no more legal moves left or one player is reduced to two pieces in play. It’s a relatively straightforward strategy game. For me, that makes the perfect strategy game , a few simple rules but lots of potential depth – good for quick play and not too difficult to concentrate on with your pimms or prosecco – another Summer requirement.

But if you can’t wait for Shepley, come and see us at The Abbey Inn, Horsforth on Wednesday night. There won’t be Morris dancing but there will be many, many good games…

Ssshhh. I have a secret mission for you…

Before you put on your slightly larger glasses…

…let’s be clear, it’s not an impossible mission or a job which requires a certain set of skills, skills that make you a nightmare for criminals. It is however a mission especially for you…

Choose from 55 Missions – with objectives to connect, care, engage, grow, surprise or create. We are about to embark on the biggest card game in the world: Sneaky Cards/ Play It Forward from Gamewright. The deck is registered and ready to be released into the big wide world. All I need now is you.
 
Taking part is easy – whether it’s leaving a generous tip, baking for a friend or taking a selfie with a stranger – you simply complete the action and pass the card on. You can log the card @sneaky cards and tweet me or contact me on instagram to let me know how you’re getting on.

All that’s left for you to do is choose your mission and get your card: contact me via the website, twitter @cardsordie, facebook @cardsordie, on the first Wednesday of every month at The Abbey Inn, Leeds, or at Shepley Spring Festival (where you can play this card forward – without even breaking sweat).
 
Here are the cards you can choose from:

This blog post will self destruct in 10 seconds….

MollyFest

Just got back from enjoying a fantastic festival atmosphere at Mollyfest. Brilliant bands, mud, flowery headbands and a fabulous atmosphere: everything you need. Molly created a very memorable experience for everyone. And as with any festival I’m wiped out today. So, having stared at the computer screen blankly for an hour last night and to save myself from doing that just now, I am just going to share a couple of videos from the event. Enjoy!

Top 5 Pub Games and A Comparison Graph.

When I read lists on the internet (an activity I spend more time doing than I care to admit) I often wonder what the criteria was. Maybe it’s the teacher in me. (The eagle eyed among you have already spotted the ‘what went well/ even better if’ feedback model that I used on my feedback forms!). You can’t reward anything without having a clear criteria that you have shared. If there’s a top spot to be awarded, we all want to know how the winner got there.
Which brings me to my criteria for the top 5 pub games. And as with all good success criteria, I may have made some of the words up.

1. Portability
2. Low threshold high ceiling (easy to learn but endless levels of possible challenge)
3. Sociability
4. Quality of components
5. Fun

The upshot of this, of course is (aside from the portability measure) you can apply this to any games, for any event and rate them accordingly. If you wanted you could also give numerical scores and make graphs….

1. Mancala

Mancala is a game I stumbled on by accident. I bought a copy of it solely because I liked the box – I took it to the counter, said ‘Is this a game?’ She said ‘Yes, I think so’ and that was it. Sold. A few weeks of showing it to people and asking ‘What’s this?’ and I had discovered Mancala. (Think Fran in Episode 1 of Black Books.

Mancala is so simple; very easy to learn. And packed into it’s own case it is super portable. For the stores at the ends you can use two glasses or you can buy a version with built in stores. (Just make sure the components are still big enough to use.)
As a game for two it is less sociable than some of the others but it is definitely a fun and addictive game. And the fact only two people are playing doesn’t stop people having an opinion on what you’re doing wrong! I left my copy in the pub at past midnight last games night because people couldn’t tear themselves away from it. It’s a permanent fixture for our Abbey games nights. 

The components are satisfyingly tactile. In fact they are so appealing that at a recent wedding fayre, despite the fact they look and feel like antique olives, someone tried to eat one which was an awkward moment, as he dried and replaced it!

2. Skull

Skull is a straightforward game of Bluff. It is easy to play but because if relies on bluff and trying to second guess opponents actions, it feels as though it has endless possibilities. It is fun to play with people you know well, or complete strangers so scores high on sociability.
The cards in the game are well made and beautifully illustrated.

Fun levels can be accurately measured by the spontaneous noise all players make when a Skull is revealed. You can of course win by not bidding, but as a fellow player said on Wednesday – ‘That’s the coward’s way out. The worst sort of winning!’ 
That depends really – winning is, after all, winning!
 

3. Exploding Kittens

Exploding Kittens is a very entertaining card game in which you try to avoid being exploded whilst trying to get someone else blown up in your place.

The cards are entertainingly illustrated by the oatmeal and of course – as it’s a card game it is designed to be portable.

It can be learnt in about 15 minutes and while it isn’t the most challenging game in the world, there is enough variation to keep you entertained for many happy hours. It is probably my most played game as it appeals to people of all ages, all gaming aptitudes and preferences. I have endlessly bought it as a gift for others and it is probably the game I have taught most so far.

http://theoatmeal.com

And, you can always add the Imploding Kittens for more challenge and confusion. Just don’t end up wearing the cone of shame!

4. Obama Llama

Last time I got this out at games night, we had a spontaneous moment while we missed Obama. That in itself was a sociable activity, if somewhat tinged with sadness. Then we got on with the ridiculous task of working out what celebrities rhyme with. You roll the dice to determine whether you have to act out your rhyme, give clues or simply describe your allocated celebrity and their rhyme.

It is very entertaining and certainly easy to learn. It doesn’t score highly on having many possible levels to it: there really isn’t any difficulty at all. But, the components are of a decent quality and it is extremely sociable.

5. Travel Downfall or just Downfall

An MB classic. Both sizes of Downfall are a popular choice. It is easy to learn: simply get your counters through in numerical order. If you want to add challenge you can specify that all of one colour must be first or put your counters in, in a random order but still have them come through in numerical order. There is plenty of challenge available. As for quality of components? Considering the game is about 35 years old I’d say we can confidently score that highly. Fun and socialising is often about banter and lively interactions with friends. Downfall is perfect for this.

We spent many happy minutes shouting at each other and reading the same paragraph of the rules to each other whilst emphasising different words. It all ended happily. Well, I went home so I’m assuming it did. Yet another game I had to abandon at the pub.

On reflection, I should add that to my criteria: leavability?
 
Anyway – just for you. I done a graph.

I can help you be more ‘hip’.

(Or do the kids still say ‘peng’? Either way I can definitely be your guide on the route to hip living.)
 
‘But how can I be cooler?’ ‘Please, help me be more ‘with it” I hear you clamour. Here’s how: play more games. Simple. At the moment board and card games are where it’s at: just check out the number of amazing board game cafes springing up. I’ve accidentally become in vogue! This places me in a unique position to help you. You too can be debonair like me.*
 
*any photographic evidence you may stumble upon that suggests I am uncool is ironic and therefore uber cool.
 
If, like some poor unfortunate souls I have met recently, you don’t like games I have a simple solution – a flow chart (what could be cooler than that? I ask you. Again, if you feel flowcharts are deeply uncool I call irony.)
 
Simply identify the reason you hate/ mildly dislike games from the list then read on to find out which game you definitely will enjoy. 
 
Next, play the game. Easy. You’re well on your way to achieving ultimate hipness without having to resort to a hipster hair bun.

Finally, take pictures of your game and tweet them to @cardsordie where we will validate your cool status. You’re there: you are the coolest kid on the block. You’re welcome.

Launch Party Update

I was going to write a long detailed blog with delicious recipes, life hacks and insights into life, the universe… you get the idea. Then I thought I’ll ‘just’ do my flyer for the launch first. Hahaha ‘just’. Hours later, and with a partner who now regrets asking me ‘would it be better if you tilted that line up slightly?’ it is done. And this is the blog. There are no insights. No recipes. No surprising revelation or amazing thing I did every day for a month and it changed my life. Just this: drawing with a chalk pen isn’t as fun as it sounds. 
Feel free to offer constructive criticism or suggestions about this week’s blog- my partner did and he’s just dandy.

A big pile of frustration:

I got there in the end and the flyers are now ordered, thanks to my fearless partner, paint and Vistaprint. Next I need to go on a smarm offensive and convince people to wander the streets of Horsforth flyering. (Yes that’s still a verb).

And then we’re onto the fun bit which is where you come in – choosing which games to bring.

http://www.cardsordie.com/games-menu

Have a look on my menu and tweet me or comment here about the games you would like to play. If there’s one you want that isn’t there, let me know and I’ll look out for a copy.

Robert Redford asked me to remind you to like, share and subscribe… 

All posts by : admin