This game was taught to me years ago, using a regular deck of cards.
Setup:
Play:
Hello, and welcome to The Treehouse’s new agony aunt column!
I’m Chella, whom you may have met if you’ve visited The Treehouse before. It’s possible I taught you a party game, let you know that we had some corner brownies available in the cake display rack, or served you a Birdhouse Tea.
Now you can get to know another side of me as the arbiter of both real and theoretical board game conundrums (including whether or not there exists a board game called Conundrum – there are two!) and you can send in questions from the comfort of your own home.
More on that later. For now, I will share with you my credentials… OK, I have no ‘official’ agony aunt credentials but I have worked at The Treehouse since our opening day, witnessed a lot of gaming and played plenty of board games myself (and with others!) and in that time I have helped solve many a game-related query.
Those questions were answered in person though, and the answers drifted into the board game aether. Now, in these uncertain days as we get back to board gaming in person, we felt it worthwhile to archive future answers in the annals of gaming history as a community resource, talking point, and a bit of fun. Lofty ambitions? Probably. Over-egging the importance of this column? Almost definitely!
But that’s sort of the theme of today’s column as I present to you our first question:
Dear Treehouse team,
Please help! I’ve started dating a perfectly decent guy. My family loves him, he is an upstanding citizen, and he is very cute. But, there is a problem. Whenever we play board games together, he has a habit of doing this thing where he goes into what I can only call “gamesplainer mode”. I am calling it this because it is quite different to the way a human person would naturally and casually explain the rules to a game.
Instead, his normally jocular and mild-mannered tone morphs into something between a gameshow host, home shopping channel salesperson, and gladiator. Suddenly, winning and losing becomes a life-and-death struggle but, crucially, not understanding the rules or making a mistake when it is my turn suddenly feels like a crime.
I love playing board games with him but I dread unboxing a new game or playing one he’s played before and I haven’t. He even does it at other people’s houses and I cringe inside when I see ‘the fear’ spreading to them. How can I tell him that he can just be himself while explaining again and we will still listen and learn the rules?
Yours sincerely,
Gamesplained in Greystones
Thank you for your excellent question.
Firstly, I very much appreciate how you have differentiated between “game explainers” and “gamesplainers”. I think we can agree (and not just because it’s my favourite part of the job) that game explainers provide a valuable service in helping people get started on a new game quickly. Some folks are delighted by a twenty-eight-page rulebook, but others will take one look at that alongside the pile of stuff that came out of the box and be grateful that someone is willing to act as their lifeline. So just to be clear, we love a game explainer.
But then there are the gamesplainers. Those who let the power of superior knowledge go to their heads. Those who enjoy explaining the game more than the players may ever enjoy eventually playing it, who dive in without checking whether people already know the rules, and may even carry on explaining what other players should do on their turns even once the game has begun, and, potentially, long after all of the guests have gone home.
It’s easy enough to dismiss this as bombast, pomposity, or desperation to remain the focal point of the game night even at the expense of irritating or belittling fellow players. If that is what’s going on though, maybe gaming together should not be in your future. And if that’s a game changer (sorry), maybe it’s the relationship that’s not right.
But if you simply find yourself rolling your eyes or sighing as your partner shifts gears into gamesplainer mode, I invite you to see this from another perspective…
From what I’ve witnessed, gamesplainers are most often simply game enthusiasts who allow their joy to spill over a little too freely (OK, sometimes freely enough to make me wish I were a gelatinous cube who could seep into the floor while hearing all about worker placement vs. tile placement, or fantasise about what I’d do if I really were Ursula or the Red Queen as an asymmetrical game is explained to me for the umpteenth time). But, for now, let’s assume your partner loves gaming so much that he nerds out, takes to an imagined game podium and gives the fantasy “Board Games Are Amazing And This One In Particular” lecture for the ages right there at the dining-room-table-turned-lecture-hall of his mind.
It’s summer! And it’s actually been warm! Ridiculously warm! And sunny! Ridiculously sunny! You may have decided to venture outdoors, or even outside of Sheffield for holiday-related fun times over the coming weeks. But if you, dear readers, are anything like us here at the Treehouse, you will be incorporating games into your travel plans.
Yes, I know this summer is different than most, and we can lament not being able to play Carcassonne in Carcassonne, play Santorini in Santorini, or the dream: play Jaipur in Jaipur while drinking a bottle of Thornbridge Jaipur IPA (this may just be my dream). But we are big fans of making our own fun, and so here is a roundup of games for holidays and it goes out to our tribe whom we know will play them rain or shine, Near and Far (available in our library). Read on for a round up of travel games for everyone.
We are an island nation, and although Sheffield may not have a coastline, we’re surrounded by water (sometimes more than we would like!). I am a beach girl and wild swimmer at heart, so this first group of games is for anyone who’ll be out on the water, or relaxing in the sand, games in tow. Some of these games fit into other categories below, but I wanted to give a special mention to games that are easy to clean and conveniently play well near sand, water and even ice lollies.
Blokus: This colourful abstract strategy game looks like a very cool analogue version of Tetris but the goal is to fill up the board, not empty it. It can be played by up to four players but works well as a two player game and even has a variation that allows for solitaire mode. Without any text it is easy for kids to pick up and for multilingual groups to play. It’s not necessarily travel sized in the traditional sense but the box is flat and very easy to slip into a suitcase or car boot. I should mention there are some small bits involved, but nothing that a picnic blanket couldn’t contain, and the plastic pieces and board are easy to clean.
Bananagrams: This Scrabble free-for-all only requires a flat surface to play and each player races to complete their own crossword-style grid in front of them using only the letters they’ve picked up. You can play it alone or up to a group of eight, but eight can get kind of frantic. It’s most enjoyable for two to five players in my experience. And it comes in a cute little fabric banana bag. The whole thing is sand-proof and washable.
Cobra Paw: Cobra Paw has a cardboard box, which will admittedly get a bit battered the further it strays from your admirably arranged board game shelf. You can accept this hazard, or store the components in a travel bag… or even do as some friends of mine have done and create a special travel box that helps you both store the pieces more compactly, and immediately see if one is missing so that you don’t leave the campsite without it. Cobra Paw is a very speedy matching game for two to six players requiring quick reflexes and good observational skills. It relies on rolling dice and matching symbols on domino shapes and has the extra competitive mechanic of stealing pieces from other players if they are not quick enough to defend them. It is suitable for both adults and kids to enjoy, as long as neither are tantrum-prone when they’re not winning!
Qwirkle: This one comes in a big-ish box, but don’t be discouraged. Inside the box is a bag of tiles and you can easily take it on holiday with you in the bag and leave the box on your aforementioned beautiful game shelf. You’ll need a large, stable playing surface because these tiles get layed out sort of like dominos and there is no limit to how far you can place them other than the table’s edge. This is a pattern- and colour-matching strategy game for two to four players and is also family friendly and requires no reading. It can be difficult to master for younger players but they may just enjoy making patterns with some of the shapes. You may need pen and paper or a phone to keep score as you and your opponents aim to use up all of the tiles by placing them in sets of matching or contrasting shapes and colours. The design is simple and bright and would suit an outdoor playing table.
Dear Mortified,
Not everyone is as honest as you, so I don’t know for sure, but I have a suspicion that if I had a fiver for everyone who read my last column and developed that sinking feeling of recognition just like you did, I’d… be at least a little bit richer. I appreciate your candour but, for better or worse, you’re not alone. In other words, it might simply be vanity that made you think the post was about you. And… perhaps it was about you, but it was about quite a few other folks as well.
Identifying the problem is half the battle though, right? Which means the chances are, if you’ve got enough self awareness to be asking this question, you’ve got enough to keep any gamesplainer tendencies in check. So take my reply as both a reassurance and… also a bit of an intervention:
For the benefit of you and any other worried potential gamesplainers reading this, here are a few tips for all of those who found that last post hitting a little close to home:
When you’re choosing a new game to play, make sure everyone else in the group is also up for playing it and you are not pushing them to. Consent is important. They may say this out loud, or through body language, reluctance to play or a cancellation. But you know, as with all situations involving good consent, it’s great to just ask them.
If you get past that stage but your friends tell you they’re worried about not understanding a more complex game, or recoil as you reveal the fifty-six-page rulebook, it is great that you want to reassure them, and often a practice round or a first time play-through really does help. That’s more of a seasoned gamer strategy though, rather than some folks’ idea of a fun night. While we may be used to committing a whole evening to set up, or accepting that our first play through of a complex game may be a bit of a necessary evil, not everyone sees that as required training for the Olympic sport of board gaming (maybe Paris 2024?). In case your guests (or hosts) feel like memorising a rule book is a waste of time rather than a perfect evening, always have a backup game that has a familiar theme, brand, or mechanic in case they are really not up for the challenge.
To help with point 2, and also just in general, it may help to watch a quickstart video before teaching the game so that you can practice in advance and cut down your talking time to maximise playing time. Focus on making sure other players know the style of game and the object of the game – summarise what it takes to win, and then dive in. People can ask questions or consult the rules as they go (whch means you may need to let go of the rulebook for a little while…).
Mix it up a bit. Let someone else explain the game first as often as possible, and only take the reins on the ones no one else is familiar with. You may be assuming some folks are not seasoned gamers because they’re not in your usual gaming circle, but they may have a Kallax full of Catan expansions at home that you just don’t know about. And you never know – other friends may be newer to games, but have a hidden aptitude and the right introduction could mean their delighted entry into a fun and satisfying board game universe. If you’re having a long session of several games, try to ensure that some games are familiar to most of the players.
Finally, try to be aware of whether your voice, vocabulary, and posture change as you start explaining. Do you find yourself becoming louder, using extra-long words or leaning over other players? Are you imagining your Gold Play Button from YouTube hanging on the wall behind you, an array of ring lights in front of you, and about to ask people to like and subscribe right there at the table? This is a sure sign you are launching into a full-on gamesplainer performance. Remember that no matter how much you love games, your friends and family love you and love spending time with you. They will more likely develop enthusiasm for the games you love by watching you enjoy them while just being yourself.
And so, Mortified in Meersbrook, I wish I could conclude with ‘and there you have it’ but game explaining is an art form that we are all constantly improving at, even here at the Treehouse. Keep working at it and listening to your guests and your gut, and I’m sure you’ll soon settle into a new style that helps everyone to at least feel comfortable and, hopefully, excited to join you for the next game night.
Good luck,
Chella on behalf of Team Treehouse xx
So that’s our second advice column! If you have a burning board game-related question you want answering, please email The Treehouse at contact@treehousesheffield.com with the subject heading “Agony Aunt”. All letters will be anonymised.
Chella Quint is a Treehouse staffer, board gamer, and author of the books Be Period Positive and Own Your Period.
The rules for activating raiders say:
When activated, each Cylon raider carries out only one of the
actions listed below, taking only the first action that it is able
to perform (in numerical priority, with “Attack a Viper” taking
the highest priority and “Attack Galactica” taking the lowest)
- Attack a Viper:
area. It attacks an unmanned viper if able; otherwise it attacks a piloted viper.- If there are no vipers in its area, the Destroy Civilian Ship:
raider destroys one civilian ship in its area. The current
player chooses a civilian ship in the area and flips it over.
The resources listed on its face are lost, and the token is
removed from the game.
…
These rules leave ambiguous which ship is targeted within these categories. Which ship do raiders attack when there are multiple ships that can be targeted that are different? This can happen in two cases I’m aware of:
Animal Upon Animal is fun for all ages including adults but is particularly popular with the four- to six-year-old crowd. In this game from Haba for 2-4 players, you compete to see who can stack all of your animals first. The stack you are building is shared (the French name of this game, ‘Pyramids Des Animaux’ may offer a better visual of what happens as the game progresses), which means you don’t have the luxury of setting up sturdy balancing positions for yourself. Everyone is dealt a hand of adorable wooden animal-shaped blocks. A crocodile block is placed in the center of the table and players take turns rolling the die and following the instructions.
The instructions on the die are really quite ingenious for moving the game along in clever ways. You may be instructed to place one animal on top of the crocodile’s back, or you might see two animals on the die, meaning you have to place one after another. You can also be asked to give one of your pieces to someone else to place or have the other players choose which of your animals to place next (and they will invariably select one that is harder to balance). The final option is a picture of a crocodile, which means you can extend the base block to have a larger area to balance animals upon.
The reason I think this game is particularly enjoyable for younger children starting school especially is because even if you make the tower fall, you don’t lose and the game doesn’t end. The maximum penalty if more than two fall off the pile is that you take two animals back into your hand and continue playing. This keeps the focus on dexterity, strategy, and making stacks of cute animals, and nicely swerves siblings blaming each other for quote ‘ruining the game’ or a fear of failure at a time when there are a lot of new expectations. (OK, I clearly have some some childhood Jenga tower collapse issues to explore but never mind that now). Haba games are great generally for this age group. Dragon’s Breath is another lovely Haba game that fans of Animal Upon Animal may enjoy.
And finally, even if they’re not ready for big school yet, that doesn’t mean they aren’t ready for gaming (some of my friends’ toddlers have attempted to prove this by taking out every game on the lowest shelf ready to play…).
At this age, the focus for parents choosing games is about two things, really – replayability, and doing something that looks like what the big kids are doing, so the big kids’ game doesn’t get wrecked (for example, my three-year-old niece recently ripped the Candyland board clean in half, in the most impressive WWE style rage quit I’ve heard about in years. It would have been more impressive, I suppose, if I hadn’t been the one who bought it for her and if it hadn’t been my favourite game when I was her age. I hope she is not still doing that when she’s 30, but it was epic nonetheless).
I know, you wouldn’t think there could be a game that would keep a two-and-a-half-year-old entertained, but there is actually an entire series of them by a lovely French toy and game company called Djeco. They have a whole host of adorable games that are both beautifully designed and suitable for toddlers, which is incredibly rare in the world of board games. These games look like a game and feel like a game, but are more about gamifying toddler skills like matching and sequencing and recognising colours. It’s really very clever and the history of this company originally had a child development focus. Add in materials and designs that appeal to a grown up aesthetic and these games are pretty great for everyone. We have several of their games in the shop and our games library but I will focus on Little Collect (in the first of the photos below).
Little Collect is for ages 2.5 to 5. It’s a cooperative game for two players and takes about ten minutes… or as long as attention spans allow. The object of the game ostensibly is to follow picture instructions on the cards you draw until you have completed a scene on the game board. But beware! There is mild peril! The pastoral tableau of adorable bunnies eating peas and carrots can be disrupted. If you are unlucky enough to draw a fox card, one bunny must be ominously removed from your board. It can be returned on a later turn to complete the game, but still. Hey ho, circle of life. Sun rise, sun set. As sure as autumn follows summer, soon enough, even your littlest Little Connect player will be starting school too.
And you know what that means: more time for gaming for you.
I am interested in the interaction between Thalia, Heretic Cathar which is already on the battlefield and Castle Embereth, a non-basic land that is being played by an opponent and now enters the battlefield.
The two cards conflict with each other on what will happen. There is a ruling from 2016 which states that the effect of Thalia "wins", so that Castle Embereth enters the battlefield tapped.
I would like to know which rules in the Comprehensive Rules explain this result. Both cards create continuous effects that are also replacement effects. If one applies rule 613.9, the timestamp criterion determines that Castle Embereth would "win", which is obviously not the case.
Does it perhaps have something to do with the fact Castle Embereth says: "This land enters tapped unless you control a mountain." The word "unless" is perhaps less specific in its consequences then if it had said "except if" or "but not if".
With our roleplaying programme getting fully back up to speed later this month (more details here), we thought we would take the opportunity to introduce you to our team of professional Game Moderators. The brave souls you see below will be running various Seasons and one-shots for you over this year. If you’ve ever been involved with roleplaying sessions at the Treehouse, there’s a good chance you’ll recognise at least one of these faces, but consider this an opportunity to properly get acquainted. We’ve asked each of them to describe themselves in their own words – enjoy!
Riley (they/them) is one of the original GMs here at the Treehouse, co-creating the Solken project that kicked off our RPG work back in 2017. Since then they’ve run games in a huge variety of systems, including Apocalypse World, Lady Blackbird, Call of Cthulhu and Cortex Prime. They are always looking for a new challenge and love learning new systems. As well as running games, Riley is responsible for organising the motley crew below into something resembling a coherent schedule of games. Right now, they’re kicking off a home game of Pathfinder 2nd Edition and cooking up a hell of an apocalypse…
Ashley (she/her) is another of our 2017 veteran GMs, having helped to run our Solkien project when it first launched, as well as a number of subsequent games using D&D 5e, Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood. As our resident teenage mystery adventure pro, Ashley is always looking to dive into new short-form and one-shot adventures, particularly in Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood. Right now, Ashley is cooking up some new mysteries for you to solve, whenever she’s not too busy dishing up food in the kitchen.
James (he/him) has been part of the roleplaying team since 2019. He joined us to close out the final Season of Solken in style, jumping into the part of Lord Torgan with about thirty minutes of prep! He’s since run several one-shots and CSI-style D&D game called On The Case. His planned follow-up, a Monster Hunter riff called Into the Reach, was cruelly cancelled by the first lockdown last year – at least, for now. Recently James has had his head buried in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying 4th Edition book, though the sheer number of tables involved means he’s unlikely to get it to the Treehouse without some serious persuading!
Matt (they/he) was a big part of establishing the Treehouse tabletop roleplaying initiative, and was responsible for keeping track of the extensive and constantly expanding lore of our Solken multi-table D&D world. With an eye for worldbuilding and detail, they take pride in trying to adapt every campaign to the individual players’ characters. As such they can be usually found staring into the middle distance in a futile attempt to anticipate every unlikely and chaotic decision the players will take. Matt’s next project is the highly anticipated Summits of Steam and Steel Season 2, a game whose players enjoyed it so much, they petitioned for a sequel!
Henry is the Treehouse’s self-proclaimed bad boy of roleplaying. If you’re not happy with your character having a fluctuating number of limbs/tentacles then maybe don’t let them wander into one of Henry’s games! Venturing forth from the sleepy town of Ashbourne in search of new players to torment, he’s perched and nestled at The Treehouse. The first delve into Henry’s imagination, the Level One Encounters one-shot, twisted players’ happy fairy tale memories into a Cronenbergian nightmare. The coming-soon sequel promises to be a walk into some very old, very dark woods. And then, just when you begin to feel safe again… the monsters appear!
Hello and welcome to another instalment of the Treehouse’s agony aunt column! This one is slightly unusual because instead of a ‘Dear Auntie Chella’ letter, today I have a conversation for you which I had with a friend who approached me about her issue in person.
I will now relay this conversation to you, dear readers, in case it helps someone else.
BGB: You’re writing an advice column for the Treehouse now?! Can you help me out with something?
Chella: Sure – go for it.
BGB: Help! I’m a board game bitch!
Readers, I blinked a few times. We took the rest of the conversation to text messages later that day, in a conversation that the aforementioned ‘BGB’ has happily agreed that I can share.
Chella: So you say you’re a what now?
BGB: A board game bitch.
Chella: And you are happy for me to call you this in print?
BGB: Yes, I own it.
Chella: And let me just check, can anyone of any gender be one of these?
BGB: Oh definitely, but I claim the crown.
Chella: What are your worst symptoms of board game bitchiness? Bitchery? Bitchdom? Bitchhood? I am not used to saying this word. Please stop me.
BGB: My worst symptoms? Irrational squeakiness, incandescent fury, and lengthy sulking. I get far too mean and loud and competitive and make my husband hate me. We are only able to play Monopoly once a year. I just lose my temper and can’t control myself.
Chella: Okay… which games are your worst culprits?
BGB: Monopoly, of course, and Dobble and Snap I get far too into.
Chella: Well are there any games that I don’t know… soothe you?
BGB: Any that soothe me? Not sure I’ve really found any yet 😂 I do like Fungi though. Who can get angry about pans of butter?
Chella: That is an excellent point. OK, I think I can help you. Usually the letter is anonymised by me naming the person after an alliterative part of Sheffield, in traditional agony aunt style. Are you happy to be The Board Game Bitch of Broomhill?
BGB: Sure… close enough.
Chella: Very well, check the Treehouse blog for my reply.
Pick-a-Dog (1-5 players) (and its virtually identical sibling games, Pick-a-Pig, Pick-a-Seal and Pick-a-Polar-Bear) rely on high-speed matching, but with storytelling added in. You start by laying out a grid of cards that may match, but mostly don’t quite match exactly. Each player turns over their own starting card, which sets off a round of looking for matches in the grid. Though there are some exact matches, all the pictures are similar – they feature a dog who can be depicted with a number of binary qualities: looking pale or having a tan, holding popcorn or not, wearing sunglasses or not, standing near to you or far away, and using one hand or two hands.
The twist in the matching portion of the game is that you can only match cards that are either exact, or follow a sequence where there is only ONE change per card (you can go from sunglasses to no sunglasses, for example, but not from far to near at the same time). The free-for-all ends when there are no more matches to make (but watch out – if you call it and there are still more matches available, you forfeit your hand and can’t score any points that round, while the other players can resume).
Scoring is fun and unusual (or at least it is the way we teach it at The Treehouse!): to prove you’ve made a true sequence with only one difference on each card, you have to tell a story about your buddy the dog that reflects the pictures as you reveal them. It’s very cute indeed. If you discover mistakes in anyone’s sequence, those cards go straight into the discard pile. The players earn the cards they’ve proven are in a sequence each round, and at the end of the game, the winner is the one who has the most cards.