For $ale
Posted by Rob Herman at July 21st, 2007
That’s not spam–that’s the name of the game. A cheap one I picked up at Origins.
Unfortunately, I am here to report that the game is… not bad. But too dry, like a wine that everyone agrees would be really great for someone else to drink. Nobody actually likes it enough to want to play it. Which is a shame, because it’s not bad. But I think it’s gonna stay on my shelf.
The game itself is like a mini-biathalon–a dry, inoffensive bidding game followed by a slightly less dry bluffing game. The bidding game seems gratuitous and uninteresting, and doesn’t seem to have a huge impact on the game. (I think the bidding falls particularly flat because all the cards have essentially the same value to all players.) The bluffing game is marginally more interesting, but every step feels anticlimactic. “Oh YEAH! I got… what appears to be… a slightly better value …on my goods… than you did there. Chew on THAT.”
Not bad. Just not good enough for anyone to want to pull it out. Sorry.
I like For $ale. It is simple, but it also takes only 15 minutes to play. And in that time, it manages to use two different types of auctions.
It’s also a great game to teach to new gamers.
The 15-minute time is a plus. But it’s so dry that I wouldn’t bring it out for people who didn’t seem inclined to like the dryish calculations–good for new gamers but not potential converts, as it were.