Blog Archives
Ogling the Seers Catalog
Of the three recent trick-takers from Bézier Games — the others being Xylotar and Sandbag — far and away my favorite is Taylor Reiner’s Seers Catalog. Yes, the name is a strained riff on the Sears-Roebuck mail-order empire, one that proposes that oracles, augurs, and all manner of prognosticators also like to thumb through a heavy paper volume of mostly useless products. But that’s also part of what makes the game so effective. Scratch the surface of the pun and you’ll find a critique of American commercial identity.
Not that you need to care about that part, of course. But it’s nice all the same.
Xylophone Guitar Bear
Is Xylotar’s xylophone/guitar-playing polar bear based on the keytar bear busker of Boston fame? Eh, probably. Or maybe it’s an indication of how little the window dressing of any given trick-taking game matters.
Cold as I am on the setting, I must admit that Chris Wray has once again produced something special. The big surprise of Xylotar is that it’s a hidden information game as much as it is a trick-taker. This time around, though, the hidden information is your own hand of cards.
Not Swerewords
I’ll bet you a silver dollar that I can review Werewords in a single sentence. A sentence that, upon being read, will inform you with total accuracy whether Werewords is just one more social deduction gimmick or the long-awaited incarnation of the One True Deductor.
Deal? Deal.
