Tag Archives: simple game

Morgan’s Revenge Game – In the Collection

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As a person who grew up around dreidels, I know a thing or two about poorly designed top games to keep kids quiet (I think two is the max though). And that’s exactly what Morgan’s Revenge is, a “game” where one spins a top and sees what happens. Gambling at its most basic and silly.

The package comes in a nice canvas, drawstring bag, with the name printed on. Apparently, they’ve trademarked Captain Morgan’s face though. On the back mine says “Fort Worth Zoo”, I don’t know what the relation is there since I’ve never been. As might be inferred from that I did indeed get this second-hand, and unfortunately, I have no instructions. Fortunately, the game is as simple as can be and if you know what the letters/numbers on the side of the top mean you’ll never forget how to play.

To play each player gets a number of coins (there are 12 included, half of which are silver and say “2” but should probably just be used as singles for the purposes of the game {and you’ll probably want more coins anyway if you’re playing with more than 2 players}) and then everyone places one coin in the middle. Each player then takes a turn spinning the top and doing whatever action it lands on. The six action are: take a coin from the middle, take 2 coins from the middle, take all the coins from the middle (and I think, wonderfully enough, everyone has to put one coin out at this point), put a coin in the middle, put 2 coins in the middle, and everyone puts a coin into the middle. So as you can tell it’s super fun and interesting… for children… for a few minutes. At least the top can be persuaded to spin well enough to be entertaining for a little while.

Actually, the production’s quite nice, and the coins are very realistic (besides having “copy” stamped in them) and weighty, being made out of real metal. And the nice heavy metal top is fun to fondle and spin a bit. It goes together well and fits nicely in the bag, but I suspect that, like me, people are really buying this for the coins, and not for any entertainment factor that may come from randomly taking coins out of and putting them back into a pile in a manner that is very similar to one many Jewish people know but never had any interest in actually doing. It’s a nice little souvenir if you don’t think much about it (like most souvenirs).

Lessons From Board Games – Love Letter and Letting Go

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Love Letter is a giant of a game, quite disproportionately to its components. I carry a copy around in my backpack every day with a deck of cards. It is that universally appealing and easy to teach. Its popularity is a testament to how many other people feel the same. The game has reached such a wide audience and is such a runaway hit that I’d be surprised if we didn’t have it in print for years to come.

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But still, the game is pretty luck based, even though it might seem like it’s not, with its layer of theme and modern game design. But that can really be attributed to the fact that it’s a modern game. It’s designed in such a way that it makes you feel like you’re much more in control than you are. In the end you’re just at the whim of the deck and it’s quite possible to draw a hand with which it is impossible to win.

But that doesn’t make the game not fun, just light. People have enjoyed games in which there is only luck and no strategy for centuries, and this game does have elements of strategy and theme, which make it more fun to play. But neither of these are at their most prevalent. With Love Letter one just has to let go of the idea that they can control the outcome of the game by having the absolute best strategy and outplaying the other players (which still isn’t possible in most games) and also the idea of having a theme that is so immersive that one can’t separate it from the mechanics (A Princess and Batman being the themes of versions of Love Letter make that point).

It’s a great game, and a lot (a Lot) of people really enjoy it. It has a balance of theme, strategy and luck that draws a lot of people to it and keep them coming back for games (and its length helps with that). But one does have to let go of some strategic and thematic preferences to embrace the luck and enjoy it at times.