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This review was originally posted to the Boardgame Geek here.

Bizarrely, this is my first review on the ‘Geek. I’m approaching 75 games in my collection and for whatever reason, Combo King has inspired me to write a review.

My reviews all (will) cover several things: an overview of the game, the components and their quality, the ruleset and its clarity, the fun factor, value for the buck, and the lowdown.

Overview

Combo King is a dice-rolling game where all players try to get rid of the cards in their hand (4-5 per player, depending on # of players) by successfully completing the required roll as described on each card. Players get chips when successfully completing a combo. Players may use the chips to roll again during a turn, take extra turns, force other players to draw cards, or discard a card. It is simple, fun, and fast-paced.

(more…)

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So… roles in the hotel. I must say, even after only one playing, I quite like the roles. I played a 2 player game with Morgan, both of us playing 2 hands. Some thoughts:

• Some of the roles weren’t powerful enough. The Chambermaid was all but useless and wasn’t even played.
  • The Chambermaid allows a player to move guests up on an elevator. This is a good plan in theory but in practice, it doesn’t really do all that much for you. This has been changed completely. Now, the Chambermaid allows you to increase the Concierge by up to 2 points and use up to 3 points from the Concierge with no action cost.
  • The Hotel Owner allowed you to play a card twice that isn’t higher than a 3. This has been amended to a 4. Although this breaks the whole ‘no sum higher than 7′ rule, it just wasn’t that great as it isn’t even worth the same as a good draw of a 7. But by making it an 8…
    
  • I added a new role called the Doorman, which allows you to draw 3 guests out of the bag and immediately place them on an elevator of your choice.
• I liked that the roles aren’t really exceptionally powerful. They aren’t intended to be; they shouldn’t make nor break the game. The meat and potatoes is still in your hand management and choices with respect to where you place your bellhops. In fact, using the roles is costly, which is exactly what I wanted. By making them slightly costly, it balances out their potential use as a constant ‘take-that’ style of play.
• I really liked having guests start in the lobby. This adds some interest to which elevator you leave there, as the cheapest elevator can certainly bring guests to almost any of the floors quickly. It also give another way for people to get slightly easier/quicker points, enabling them to come back from a deficit easier. I’m going to change one rule due to this addition; 24 guests always must be in play on the floors or on the elevators; more is allowed, due to the Doorman. The guests waiting in the lobby are not counted toward this total.

All in all, I’m quite happy about these modifications. I’m looking forward to playing it again this weekend.

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Bellhop is the second game I designed, shortly after Supernova.

It has not yet been published but I am persistently searching for a publisher. In some ways, it is (imo) possibly a better game than Supernova for a variety of reasons:

• It is reasonably short; around 45-60 minutes
• It has simple mechanics that provide tense gameplay and difficult decisions throughout
• It is a bit backstabby (evil grin)
• It can be played with as few as 2 people

Bellhop is set in New York, 1939. The players play managers of a team of bellhops, whose task it is to assist customers on their way out of the hotel, most of whom are off to visit the World’s Fair. A player’s team of bellhops is small and gets smaller as the game progresses; your bellhops are not reused. The gameplay is quite simple; on a player’s turn, they may choose 2 of 3 available actions.

1. Play a card
2. Draw a card
3. Place a Bellhop

The trick to this is that the player must take their actions in the above order. So, for instance, I may play a card THEN place a bellhop, but not the other way around. Or, I may play two cards in a row… provided their sum is not greater than 7. Playing a card allows a player to load guests onto elevators or move/stop elevators. The crux of the game is basically that a player is likely to never be able to move the elevator to the lobby to drop off a bunch of guests AND have their Bellhops waiting for said guests… at least not all on their own. Collaboratively, they very well may do that. So there is a bit of working together and a lot of backstabbiness, which makes the working together part interesting.. and tricky. You’re never able to do quite as much as you’d like, which in my opinion, is the hallmark of a good game.

So, this last week, I’ve been thinking lots about Bellhop and how I could possibly make it even MORE interesting without adding unneeded complexity and playtime. Changes to Bellhop may or may not be necessary, depending on your perspective, but as it is still unpublished, I’m wondering if it is slightly too dry/analytical for people’s tastes. Hence my ruminations on a minor update.

What I’ve done is a couple things; I added guests in the lobby which need to be taken UP to a floor (all guests previously started on a floor and go to the lobby) and I added roles. It’s the roles which I think might make this game even better. I realize that roles in a board game are somewhat de rigueur and possibly passé but oh well. I like the idea of having the ability to do a little something extra to help yourself out on a turn that isn’t a ‘take that’ mechanism. Roles in this game are slightly different than how I’ve seen them implemented before, which is not to say they haven’t been done this way. Just that I haven’t seen them done this way.

Each player is dealt a role at the beginning of the game, placed face-up in front of them. On a player’s turn, they may play their role, for the cost of 1 point on the scoring track. It does not cost them a ‘play a card’ action. They must then trade their role either with an opponent’s role or with one of the extras. To trade with one of the spare roles does not cost them anything, but to exchange it with an opponent costs them an additional point on the scoring track. Some examples of the roles are:

• Elevator operator – The cost to move your choice of elevators is 2 less than normal (total) this turn.

• Chambermaid – Move one column of guests to the top of one elevator.

• Shift supervisor - Exchange one of your cards with the card on the top of the discard pile. It may not be more than 3 points higher than the card you exchange.

There are more roles, but these are just to pique your curiosity…

I’ll be trying this new implementation today; I’ll post my impressions later.

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This isn’t boardgame-related in the least, but it must be posted just because it made me laugh so hard.

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At least of late, I have been. For some reason, I can’t get the use of dice in a board game out of my head. And when I say ‘use’, I don’t mean in a Monopoly/Risk/Settlers way. In a way they haven’t been used before. But what is a way in which dice have never been used? When you’re coming up on many thousand games listed on the Geek, I’m pretty sure there’s been more than a few permutations of dice usage, beyond rolling 2 and divising their sum.

Making their use intriguing, strategic and interesting is what I’m still working on…. but I’ve got some ideas. It’s the rest of the game that might be formulaic and boring. Ah well, you can’t win at everything.

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Every now and then, you come across some simply fantastic graphic design. And since today is that day for me, I must share it. Go, one and all, to view Peter Gifford’s various sites: www.universalhead.com (his company), www.headlesshollow.com (his blog), and www.petergifford.com (his photoblog). Especially download some of his fantastic player aids.

That just made my day.