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Micro Reviews of Board Games From a Non-Competetive Perspective

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mouser:
It's been a while since I posted to this thread -- I'll try to do better.

Today's mini-review of a board game is for a card game called "Fabled Fruit":
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/203427/fabled-fruit


I've played this game with my serious board gamer friends, my 12 year old niece, and my mom, and they all loved it.

It plays from 2-5 and all player counts are good.  The basic rules are quite simple, you lay out 6 piles of cards and on each turn a player choose which card to visit, either performing the unique special action specified on the card, or paying the "cost" on the card in with different kinds of fruit mini-cards and claiming it.  First player to claim a certain number of cards wins.

What makes the game quite unique and special, is that the game comes with 70+ different cards, and as you play the game over the course of multiple sessions/days/weeks/month, old cards are removed from play and new ones are revealed.  So the game is introducing new elements each time you play it, but the rules only change a tiny bit each time.  It's wonderfully entertaining to adjust your gameplay to the new changes that come each time you play it.

Highly highly recommended for all variety of gaming personalities.

mouser:
It's been a long time since I've posted on this thread.

But I recently played a game that I feel compelled to talk about: Chronicles of Crime.



This is a cooperative deduction board game where you play as detectives trying to solve crime stories.
You don't replay this game over and over, you only play each scenario once (each lasting a few hours), which tells a story as you try to solve the crime.  More downloadable scenarios are coming soon.

The game makes excellent use of a phone/tablet app, where you can scan item cards in order to ask certain characters about certain evidence.  It's a brilliant design and it works.

This will probably be made into a pure computer game soon -- as the actual physical pieces are not essential -- but for those of us who appreciate the tactile element of board gaming in a group, it works.

I'm a huge fan of these deduction mystery games like Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, but where this one really shines is in scratching that open-ended itch that you find in classic computer adventure games, where you can basically ask anyone about anything and really have to sit and think and discuss clues while you try to figure things out.

Highly recommended.  :up: :up: :up:

Note: The crime stories are for mature players, not young children.

mouser:
We've been playing through Chronicles of Crime, and it continues to impress.
If you think you'd like being a detective and solving a real crime with a partner, I cannot more highly recommend you and a friend give this one a try.

holt:
a.k.a. Talicor
The Ungame - Wikipedia
Rhea Zakich, then a young mother from Garden Grove, California, was forced not to speak for months after her doctor found polyps on her vocal cords. Although the polyps were removed and she made a full recovery, the experience affected her: unable to speak for that long period, and afraid that the problem might return, she felt emotionally estranged from her family. This led her to the realization that, as she put it, "we all spend so much time talking... but we never really communicate."

As a remedy, she decided to write down on paper cards a number of questions that she wanted to ask her husband and children. Some were light-hearted ("What do you like to do in your spare time?"), some serious and intimate ("If you could live your life over, what would you change?"). Before long, with nearly 200 cards on her hands, she realized that she could turn them into a sort of board game.

She played it with her family, and the results were surprising: her husband revealed for the first time how frightened her illness made him; her son, a bright student, expressed how he hated the constant pressure to perform well in school; the other son talked about how his brother's constant teasing hurt him. At the end of the game session, her husband said: "I've learned more about all of you in these twenty minutes than in the past five years." It was the first time each family member really felt listened to and heard, since the game rules state that players can only talk on their turns.

Later, they let their neighbors borrow the game to play with their children; the oldest son took it to his school psychology class, and his teacher asked for copies. Soon, a company was founded by someone whose family was dramatically changed by playing The Ungame. The new Ungame Company began to produce and market it, and as their line expanded, it was renamed Talicor. In 2008, the sales topped 4 million in more than 14 languages. The Ungame was the first non-competitive learning/communication game on the market and has been used in schools, churches, businesses, counseling centers, hospitals, and prisons, as well as in families and party settings.

Board game version
Pocket Ungame kids version
Pocket Ungame teen version
Pocket Ungame all ages version

Full size board versions:
-The Ungame Board Version
-The Ungame Christian Board Version
-The Ungame Catholic Board Version

Pocket versions - These include cards only in a smaller travel sized box.
-All Ages
-Kids
-Families
-Teens
-Couples
-Christian
-Seniors
-20-Somethings

mouser:
Just a quick note, if you fancy yourself a detective, Chronicles of Crime has become my favorite board game of the last 12 months or so.  Absolutely outstanding.  The Noir expansion is great.

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