FAFNIR
Designer: Jun Sasaki | Publisher: Oink Games
Fafnir is a chicken that lays gems. For some reason, two brothers have decided that those who can display wealth by throwing away gems can have Fafnir’s gems. But the problem is, that as soon as the gems are thrown away, gems of the same type are worth less than they were.
Players take their cute dividing screens, which we feel would be ideal for very small RPGs, and keep their gems secret. Each turn a blind bid is made for the gems that Fafnir has laid, and the victory point that comes with it. The blind bid is made by clutching, secretly, the number of gems you want to bid in your fist, before revealing at the same time. The gems you throw away are added to the market, which will tell you what each is worth at the end of the round (less gems, more points). That end is also dictated by the number of gems in the market, a row that reaches seven (for a three player game) ends that round, and then the gems are scored based on what you kept behind the screen.
There’s bit of bluffing involved, and blind bidding is always fun with the right crowd – and it’s all designed as a very social game. Fafnir uses a number of gambling mechanics to create a kind of relaxed, jovial pub game. It calls out for a bag of pork scratchings, and a long afternoon with some equally tactically minded friends. Sparing that, it’s a game with replayability for a long evening indoors or a caravan buffeted by unpredicted rain.
CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT