I make no secrets that I am a fan of Out of The Box and have been for a long time. I always love dropping by their booth at Origins and trying out some of their new stuff. I did that last year with Shake’n'Take. I loved it then. Why has it taken me almost a year to give it a review? I don’t know. That’s an error on my part. As I look forward to seeing what’s new from Out Of The Box at Origins this year, I wanted to fix that error.

I love bringing Shake’n'Take out every now and again. Generally it’s something I get to play at my FLGS with a bunch of hardcore gamers who have no idea what’s about to happen. The laughter that follows is always boisterous and indicative of the fact that even hardcore gamers need a good capital f-u-n FUN game from time to time.  

The basic concept behind the game is that everyone gets a play mat with a series of whimsically drawn shapes: stars, hearts, squares, circles, and triangles. These shapes are drawn to look like aliens, space ships, planets, and washing machines. Your job is to circle every one of the shapes on your mat with a special dry erase marker (which has the head of an alien on it.)

It’s how you get to do this that’s the fun part. You roll a die. It’s a special die with all the symbols on it and a question mark wild. Each time you get the die, you roll it and start circling that symbol shape as fast as you can. You keep circling until…

The game also comes with a nifty egg inside of which is another die. This alien green die has 5 blank sides and one side with an alien face. The player to the left (or to the right if you want to shake things up a little) of the player with the pen shakes the egg until the alien face appears on top. Once the alien face appears on top, they set the egg down and take the pen from the player who was feverishly circling.

The player who now has the pen rolls the die and the player to their left takes the egg and starts shaking. This shaking and taking and circling continues until someone has circled all of the shapes on their mat.

Sounds silly, but it’s a lot of fun. There’s drama! Action! Laughter! Aliens! What more could you ask?

I know Shake’n'Take rubs a lot of people the wrong way due to the “take” part of the game. While the game is written to “steal” the pen from the player circling things, it doesn’t have to be that. When a player shakes and gets the alien face, they should be instructed to call “STOP.” At this point all the devices can be passed safely and no one’s feelings should be hurt. It does slow the game down, but it doesn’t decrease the drama or excitement. It’s a very adrenaline fueled game. 

If your players are of an appropriate age to know right from wrong and understand it’s just a game, I do recommend the supercharged “Take” version. It’s a lot of fun.

I have loved and enjoyed the game every time I’ve played it. I haven’t had the opportunity to play it with the same group more than once, but that day will come.

This is not a heavy game. It’s not a real brain burner. It deals with a lot of randomness and can end abruptly. On the surface there is very little about this game that I should like. There’s no choice or strategy… but there’s a lot of fun for me. I just can’t put my finger on it, but this game just works for me. That’s not surprising. I still love My Word, Word on the Street, Ninja Versus Ninja, Wheedle, Blink, Qwitch, Apples to Apples, Gold Digger, Wild Side, Tutankhamen and many others from the Out of the Box Publishing line. They’re just great little games that work. Shake’n'Take is part of a justifiably proud family of fun family games!

Shake’N'Take was designed by Keith Meyers and is published by Out of the Box.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I’d heard of Frag and that’s about all I knew. Paul, who was about to teach us the game was very adamant that this was a game that everyone thought was impossible, it’s a first person shooter video game in convenient board game form. I knew it wasn’t impossible, but I also wasn’t sure if it was something I was going to be interested in. I am not a video game player by nature. This was going to be new experience all around then. …and by the handful of dice that came out of the box during set-up, I knew it was going to be far more random that I wanted it to be. 

FRAG is easy to learn and fairly easy to play. On your turn you will roll for movement (the number of dice you will roll depends on your individual skill set and any modifying cards you may have played.) You will then move and shoot people and pick things up. You can do all of that in any order until you run out of ammo and movement points.

Then, it’s someone else’s turn.

When you kill and opponent they are considered “Fragged” and die. They will re-spawn and come back again, so it might be a good idea to show a little mercy and diplomacy while cutting down your opponents with reckless abandon.

The version we played ended with three kills by one person, but our game was cut short because the store was closing for the night. The win went to Mike who had two kills when we stopped.

I was killed once in the game and it was a fairly devastating experience.

There was a lot of dice rolling. Dice to move, dice to collect stuff, dice to see if you shoot, dice to shoot… and sometimes you had to make multiple versions of those rolls. If the dice were on your side, then congratulations. If the dice decided to not be on your side…well, that’s why they invented psychiatrists.

Equipment and weapons are collected by getting on the squares with those symbols and then rolling. If you 4 or higher you get one of those cards, by drawing from the top of random deck. New equipment and weapons are not guaranteed.

If you kill someone you get one of the special “Cheat” cards which improves your game. That’s a concept I absolutely don’t care for. You’re already doing well (since you just killed someone) the game gives you something to help you do better. It makes more sense as a player to give the guy who just lost everything the special card to help them out, but that’s just me. In the future I’ll probably skip the cheat deck.

For me the game is too much random…followed by too much wait time. One player spent several turns just trying to get a weapon other than his standard gun. It didn’t matter how many times he stepped on a weapons square, he still had to roll and the dice were not on his side. This took several turns, and it was a speed-bump as we all had to wait for him to roll and then do nothing.

If a player decided they didn’t want to fight and just ran away we had a different problem. I suppose that’s an acceptable strategy, two players kept trying to run after the retreating player, but couldn’t catch up and wound up shooting each other.

Basically, if it’s not my turn unless I’m getting shot at or have certain cards there isn’t anything I can do. I found myself waiting around a bit…particularly if other players had supercharged weapons with multiple rolls of multiple dice. Turns could take a few minutes. The game doesn’t move as fast as I think it wants to.

Once I was finally able to shoot someone, they started taking notice and shot at me. There is no unmotivated interaction and no positive interaction, but that’s what the game is built on. I think that’s pretty much how Munchkin is built as well.

Did I have fun? To a certain degree. There was drama in the game and laughter. Most of the laughter centered around an almost exclusive use of chainsaws in the game….but the rest of it pretty much came from people’s comments and misfortune (bad dice rolls.)

Would I play it again. Yes. I have a few friends that will absolutely love this game and I can’t wait to get it on the table with them, but it’s not one I’m going to pick up off the shelf and put on the table by general choice. It’s certainly not my kind of game. Too much random for this gamer.

With all that said, I do recommend this game if it sounds like it will appeal to you. If sounds like it will, it probably will. Give it shot…or should I say: “go Frag yourself?”

Frag was designed by Russell Godwin and Philip Reed and is published by Steve Jackson Games.

It’s a simple abstract game, lightly themed, about getting 5 of your ten tiles to connect to each other.

Your ten tiles come in five varieties: Ninja, Zombie, Alien, Pirate, and Monkey. You get two of each and the tiles are two sided (one side is activated and the other side is deactivated.) Each type of tile has a different ability which you will use during the game.

I played it a few times back then, and now I’ve had two more plays under my belt. I keep looking for a tile that comes out more useful than any other. I haven’t found it yet. I’m happy about that. Balance is important and each effect seems to be as useful as each other effect at any give moment. I won’t say they’re all as useful on every turn, but throughout the course of the game you will find yourself wanting to play each tile and each ability. 

The games I’ve played have all been two player. This is the game’s basic format, as a two player, but it will come with enough tiles for four players (or maybe that’s just a kickstarter bonus, I’m not sure I remember…) I honestly can’t picture the game as a 4 player, though I will try it that way. The thing is…it’s a really tight contest as a two player game. I feel like it’s anybody’s game up until the final two turns. There seems to always be that realization about a turn or so before it’s over when a player realizes they’ve been had and are going to lose and there’s very little than can do about it. I don’t see this as a bad thing. As long as both players are engaged the game is really fun and clever.

One of my other favorite things about the game is the turn structure. You can play up to 2 actions on your turn, but you must play 5 actions in a round. First play will rotate every round, so if you play your game right, every few turns you can end up with four actions in a row. That’s a big swing for one player, but I rarely see a win during one of these “super-turns.” I just love the fact that they exist.

The absolute best part of the game for me will always be the level of choice. You know exactly what tiles are available to be played. You know exactly what each tile does. You know how many actions are available to all players. You just don’t know what each player is going to do on their turn, but you can guess. It’s all about player choice and nothing is random. It’s a breath of fresh air. This is, of course, what makes each game rewarding and tight. It’s choice. You’re playing against your opponent and it’s absolutely thrilling.

I’m not exactly positive what the street date is for this one, I remember reading something that said June or July, so I’m hopeful it’s sooner than later. When it hits your store, you should consider adding this one to your collection. Great two player game with multi-player possibility. Looking forward to the eventual IOS app as well!

For The Win was designed by Michael Eskue with art by Eric J. Carter.

Not at my local store.

My local store has a demo board, which has gotten a lot of play from customers recently. The store feels there has been enough action to warrant a tournament this weekend. Let’s gloss over the fact that a tournament with one board seems kind of silly, and consider this for a moment: They have had the board for one month, continue to allow people to play, and haven’t sold a single copy. They don’t expect too. They know it’s too expensive a proposition for their general audience. …But they still allow it to take up table space. Interesting. I have a little more respect for them.

I was in the store on Monday night for our New Game Smell program. No one participated this week, but my girlfriend and I played the chosen game for a while surrounded by people buying and playing Magic: The Gathering (the new set was just released or something.) We figured playing the game might gain some interest. It did not.

When we finished playing the soon to be published game by an real publisher, we decided to end our night with a game of Crokinole. I have played many times since learning it at the Buckeye Leadership Workshop a few years ago. I even bought the IOS App and I’ve played that many times. That’s how my girlfriend knows the game, as an App. She had never played it in real life. She has now… and she had a great time. 

For a first time player she was doing very well. Very well indeed. After the first several rounds she had doubled my score. She was making some amazing plays…all lucky I’m sure. I have faith that she can make amazing plays on her own someday soon, but I think the one shot that knocked 2 of my pieces off the board was just a lucky shot (or at least I did until she did it again.) She just played really great for a first time. Crokinole is a game of skill. It’s a game you need to get used too. I liken it to a billiards game and I don’t think that’s an unfair comparison. The more you play the better you get. So how was she beating me in her first game?

Well, the answer to that question is “because I actually suck.” I can’t say that too loudly since there was a late game turnaround and I did win by about 20 points. If I suck and she lost that must mean she really sucks and I don’t think that’s true at all. I think she really held me at bay most of the game but her fingers got tired as we neared the later rounds. She wasn’t used to the intensity. She’ll get there though. I think she’s ready to play again. We laughed a lot and had a good time.

That’s the number one thing I can say about Crokinole, you’ll have a good time. Don’t get caught up in the competitiveness just laugh and have a good time. There’s drama to be sure, but it’s fun drama because in the end it’s just a game. …unless you’re playing in a big Canadian tournament… in which case, there’s money on the line. There isn’t any money on the line in our little store, just some bragging rights. None of us are bragging, but she has reminded me about her awesome shots a few time.

You’ve probably noticed the sporadic content (or lack thereof) over the past three weeks. I want to apologize for that and put it in a little perspective.

These are similar to the voting machines I work with. Image borrowed from a Time magazine article.

There are two segments of people out there, those that feel a site like this shouldn’t deal with personal information and those that think it needs to. From time to time I feel I need to let you behind the curtain.

Cartrunk Entertainment is still a hobby more than a business. We continue to work to change that, to grow and evolve. In the meantime I still have other jobs. As with everything in my life I’m a little on the different side. I do not hold a regular 8-5 job. I hold several as needed jobs, freelance work, and an occasional 8-5 job. I can generally handle all of them in their own time, but it’s been a particularly busy two months due to the fact that one of my jobs is with my county department of elections. As my followers in the United States are aware, it’s an election year. It also happens to be the first election year after the recent census. We have also experienced a high number of municipal elections this year. Complicating matters, we’re a man down due to an injury. So, my workload increased a great deal in expected and unexpected ways.

…And I’ve continued running all my other side jobs (specifically as a theatrical lighting technician with several employers and freelancing.)

Oh, do you remember my long distance road trip about two months ago? The reason for that is I was moving my girlfriend across country and into my home. So, in this period of extreme busy-ness, I was also experiencing one of the greatest changes in my personal life that I’ve ever experienced.

And… of course we also started Unpub.net.  That’s slid a little over the last few weeks as well, but I’ve given that more attention than Cartrunk.net. I’m sorry about that.

We were somewhere in Texas.

None of this is an excuse. I should have taken more time to keep things moving on this site. I didn’t manage my time well enough. That’s my failing. I can only hope you’ll understand my explanation, accept my apology and continue to follow me into the future.

So… What’s next? What changes have I made to keep this from happening again?

I really wanted to keep up the daily posts. That may be an unrealistic goal for the long run. I’m going to dial back to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for Original Cartrunk Content. I may provide Guest Reviews, or Archive posts on the other days.

That’s all I’m going to commit too. I have other plans I want to set in motion, but until I do them, I’m not going to announce anything. I’m getting in trouble making those kinds of claims.

We have plans. We will do better. I appreciate you sticking with me through this all.

~John

The Manhattan Project

or

How I stopped caring and bomb others.

A guest review by Benny Sperling (@benny275 on Twitter.)

What’s in the box:

In The Manhattan Project you get a good pile of card board, cards and yellow wooden blocks for your money.  The yellow blocks are Yellow Cake, which can be enriched into Plutonium or Uranium.  You get 3 types of cards as well, bombs, buildings and start buildings (note the 2 start Universities have the wrong backs).  You also get some discs to keep track of your Plutonium production, Uranium production, and your espionage.  TMP has a main board 5 player boards.  A rule book.  Various tokens. Bomb Test cards.  Lots of workers.

What’s it about:

The Manhattan Project (TMP) is a Ameri/Euro worker placement with lots of chances for player interaction and passive blocking.  We’ll call it an A.E.W.P. It plays 2-5 players in about 2 hours.  TMP is named for The Manhattan Project where scientists were working to build atomic bombs during World War II.  The players represent countries, I recommend picking up the Nations expansion, which adds more to the theme and helps player banter.  “I’m so bombing your Reactor, Germany!” sounds much better than, “Michael, I drop bombs on your University.”  Goofy accents are not required.

TMP has a lot of familiar stuff, placing workers, generating actions, blocking other players, scoring points, pushing cubes around.  It’s different in that you have three types of workers: Laborers, Scientists, and Engineers.  You start with 4 Laborers who have no abilities.  You can hire Scientists and Engineers for building bombs or doing actions that require their abilities.  The trick of placing workers is that you place 1(!) worker on the main board.  What?!  Yep, one, uno, un, singular.  The other workers you own can be placed on your buildings, as many as you want.  If you use Espionage you get to place your workers in other players’ buildings in addition to your own.  The rub here is that you do not return your workers to your supply at the end of the round.  They are stuck until you spend a turn to retrieve all of them.  This is not very intuitive at the beginning, but you’ll get used to it.  This can make the board incredibly tight after a few rounds.

Did I mention player interaction?  Yep, you can attack your opponents directly by shooting down their fighters and using your bombers to blow up their buildings, which can be repaired, but at a cost.

In order to win the game, you have to build bombs, its the only way to score points.  You can also complete a bomb test and blow up one of your Plutonium bombs in order to get the higher value on all Plutonium bombs.  You can score 5 points for each bomb you load on a bomber.  The game will end when a required number of points is met by a player.  It ends immediately, the round is not finished.

What’s good:

TMP has amazing graphic design work, the main board is outstandingly well done and oozes theme.  The rule book looks like a period news paper.  It’s a really good looking game.  The workers with varied abilities is good as well.  The game is fun, mostly.

What’s not good:

AP!  TMP  has a crazy amount of AP once you are able to place 8+ workers per turn.  It goes from laughs and jokes with terrible accents to players hunched over the board pondering what they can actually do for the biggest benefit. It can be very frustrating, especially when the other players gang up on your and blow your Reactors to smithereens.  Espionage is also frustrating as there will be opponent workers on your buildings.  These frustrations are common in AmeriTrash games and rarely seen in Euros.  Having only 1 path to victory was annoying, granted you can build either Plutonium or Uranium, building both is difficult, especially when your opponents are focusing on the same type of bomb as you.  The printing error of the two start cards isn’t good (it’s a printing issue), the yellow cubes are a variety of shades of yellow (I’m nit-picking), and the player boards aren’t all that fun to look at without building cards on them (considering how good the rules and main board look they could have been prettier).  It does not include Nations in the box!  This is a must buy for you to fully enjoy the game and have fun with the strategic depth.

Thoughts:

I’ve played TMP half a dozen times.  My first play of TMP left me wanting to try again, because I had a hard time deciding if I liked it.  My 2^nd and 3^rd were games I enjoyed and my 1^st of 2 wins.  I was really digging TMP! I played it 3 more times and each play since the 4^th my opinion has declined.  The randomness of the deck is painful.  It’s like London where experienced players take specific buildings.  I’ve noticed that you have to have a big mine, a good reactor and access to a university that churns out 2 or more new workers each time you place a worker there.  Espionage can help this, but you will often find yourself being blocked.  It does have a nice amount of brain burn while you’re getting used to the game, but when you’ve played it several times, the brain burn goes away and your moves become more scripted and predictable.  I encourage everyone to try it and even buy it.  I don’t regret owning it, but now that I feel I’ve got the game down, I don’t see it hitting the table much more this year.

Benny Sperling is a contributor to cartrunk.net with several reviews under this belt. He loves playing games and lives in Texas where things are supposedly bigger.

Thanks for your patience and understanding everyone! We’ve been a little slight with new posts recently, which I’m sure you’ve noticed, but it’s all been for a good reason! As we develop our corporate entity and solidify our brand, we’ve taken a lot of different opportunities. It’s all starting to pay off and we’re extremely happy.

The Live Events will continue. We’ve done two and we’re already in discussions for two more. That’s really exciting for us. We’re still developing that and have some new plans for the future which will streamline what you see. Despite preparations, we still flew a little more by the seat of our pants than I wanted to on this last one. We’ve got ideas on how to fix that to make the event more helpful and entertaining! Stay tuned for a our next Live Event! The Cartrunk Entertainment Stream Team will be coming back!

We’ve had three Unpub Minis at this point. An outsider hears numbers like 25 or 30 people at these events and says “How can that be a success?” The truth is those numbers are really impressive for something so small and modest. When I consider a normal store visit by an unpublished designer may get just a handful of people (if they’re lucky,) having the chance to play the game with 25-30 people over the course of a day is great! I played my game Flummox more times yesterday than I did over the entire 5 day span of Origins last year. Truth is, we’re not Magic: The Gathering. We’re not going to pull huge numbers. We’re not established. We’re growing. The best part? 25-30 people went home smiling and talking about brand new games, playing games with the designers, having a chance to give feedback, and having an experience that most people haven’t had. We offer something great for players and designers. That’s what it’s all about and we are achieving that in spades at each event! Positive comments from each store we’ve been in lead us to the conclusion we are in the right direction. This is awesome.  Thanks to everyone who has come out to support these events.

Now, even as those events take hold and grow, I continue to think what’s next. Great news: There is a plan. Through the Unpub Network, I’ve been communicating with several companies and developing ways we can be of service to them. One of the concepts we’ve had is not something entirely unheard of. We are starting a program called “That New Game Smell.” This program is about playing a soon to be published game from an established publisher. We’re going to bring a game, secret to all participants, to our local store and play it for feedback. Players will get a chance to play a game weeks or months before it hits the stores, but these games are going to hit the stores. They already have publishers, they’ve very often going to be in the final stages of publication. The companies are just seeking more player information. You can never have enough play-testing. This is true. So, we’re offering more play-testing. Of course, what we’re offering you is a chance to try something ultra new! Players will have to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements to play.

So those are the three main things that Cartrunk Entertainment has been working on. We’ve been spending a lot of time, particularly with Unpub.net and the Unpub events, but also with the two Cartrunk Events and some other things we have up our sleeves.

Again, I appreciate all the patience and understanding. I can’t promise that things will be back up to speed this week, but I’m going to try.

Thanks again and Welcome Back!

~John

We had a lot of fun with the game. It had a fairly dramatic ending (and yes, it’s okay to laugh at the collective inactivity/inability of four seasoned players that allowed TC Petty III to achieve victory.)

I’ll be doing a more full session report soon, but in the meantime you can watch the recording of last night’s game here.

Video streaming by Ustream

You are also free to watch it over on Ustream.

And you can now see it on Youtube as well.

I want to give a shout out to my entire Cartrunk Entertainment Stream Team: TC Petty III, Brian Elligson, Patrick Thunstrom and Darrell Louder for playing the game. Darrell and Lesley Louder for providing the venue. Darrell and Katherine Cole for providing technical services for the event. Matthew Duhan (of Gozer Games) and Brian Lewis (designer of Titans of Industry) for participating in the chat.

Alright folks, that’s what I have for now. More recap material will be posted as soon as I have it including the chat transcript!

Enjoy!

While you wait to view the game tonight, I thought I’d tell you a little about the members of the Stream Team being assembled to play the Titans of Industry tonight!

Darrell Louder “The Chemist”

Apart from being a budding young game designer, Darrell Louder is a graphic designer with two games under his belt and two more on the way. He’s Cartrunk Entertainment’s Technical Administrator and one of the top play testers. Some of his favorite games include VivaJava, Puerto Rico, Agricola, Small World, Ticket to Ride and Elder Sign. Husband and father of one, his chemistry themed game Compounded is making the rounds of the Unpub Network. Look for him at Origins this year or at any one of a number of upcoming Unpub Minis.

TC Petty III “The Brewmaster”

A soon to be published designer, TC Petty III is the man behind VivaJava: The Coffee Game. His flavorful re-invention of the Euro-game has struck a chord with thousands already and he’s already working on his next great game. You may get a chance to see it this weekend. An avid game player for longer than I’ve known him (and potentially longer than he’s known himself) TC can’t say no to a great game even if it means driving 3 or 4 hours to play it us. Some of his favorite games are Yspahan, Letters From White Chapel, The Road To Canterbury and Igloo Pop!

Brian Elligson “The Breaker”

Another graphic designer in our midst is Brian Elligson. A successful visual artist who has worked in theater for many years, he’s turning his attentions to new and exciting projects. He’s got two games under his belt and through merely attending and networking at our Unpub events he has been creating new opportunities for himself in the board gaming industry. Some of Brian’s favorite games are Bohnanza, Rook, Pandemic, and Last Night on Earth!

Patrick Thunstrom “The Contraption”

Patrick is new to our team, but not games. He’s a writer and father and an all around great guy. I’ve played several games with him since meeting him at Unpub2 and welcome his presence. Patrick has been a guest reviewer on Cartrunk.net and it seems he’s starting to design his own game! I know he likes Bodgers games from Privateer Press. Apart from that he’s still new to me. He’ll be serving as the audience tonight, since he’ll be new to Titans of Industry.

John Moller “The Boss”

The founder of Cartrunk.net and it’s offshoot Unpub.net. John is a soon to be published designer (Flummox will be coming soon from Clever Mojo Games,) with low self confidence and a hero complex (I know, right?) He has problems adequately writing in the third person, second person, and first person omniscent, but he’s seeking treatment for that. His favorite games include Patrician, Agricola, Alien Frontiers, Tammany Hall, and Lord of the Rings.

Titans of Industry “The Game”

Titans of Industry was designed by Brian Lewis and is being published by Gozer Games! It’s currently on Kickstarter and we totally think you should support it or we wouldn’t be doing this. Titans is “ a rich worker placement/resource management Euro-style game. It plays 3 to 5 players, and plays approximately 20-25 minutes per player.” We’ve likened it to Agricola with more interaction (and after several plays, I still find this to be true,) but it’s so much more than that. Tune in tonight to see the game in action!

We’ll be posting a lot more details tomorrow and Thursday (ahead of the big game) as we prepare to play Titans of Industry LIVE! That’s right a live telecast of the new release by Gozer Games! Titans of Industry, designed by Brian Lewis, is now on Kickstarter and will soon be on our table!

We had a great time running VivaJava LIVE back in February and most of the old crew is back, with a few new faces! We’ve preparing a bigger and better show for you, since we learned from our mistakes (NO Cellphones at the table this time…)

We’ve got the publisher and the designer lining up on chat and the best game players pizza and soda can buy sitting on this awesome game! 

As you wait for more news, you might want to check out Titans of Industry on Kickstarter!

OR go to the Titans of Industry BGG Page! Thumb things and respond to stuff!

OR go to Gozer Games website for other information.

And don’t forget to bookmark the link to the live event!

Plus! You can still read up about the game with our Cartrunk Preview!

We’ll see you seeing us on Thursday April 19th at 8:30pm EST/5:30pm PST!

Join the fun and see what Titans of Industry is all about!