Krakel-Orakel

• Designer: Die 7 Bazis
• Publisher: frechverlag
• Players:2-8
• Age: 10+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Krakel-Orakel is a co-operative drawing game for people who can’t draw.   The game in entirely in German, so below is the loose translation of the rules that we play by.    Each player gets a dry-erase pen and a board that has many random lines on it. At the start of each round, each player gets a card with a word on it and has to draw it on their board — but by drawing only on the lines. In effect, they have to find the image in the lines.  The cards feature words of two difficulty levels, and the group decides together which level to play at the start of the game.

Players are encouraged to rotate their boards or flip them and use the back, as they please.  After everyone has finished their drawing, the boards are simultaneously revealed and placed on the table.  Side note from the publisher: “We encourage a time limit of 2 minutes per drawing phase, because sometimes people tend to overdo it and try to find the perfect dot to place, which bogs it down.”

For the “guessing phase” you can use your pen to indicate the bottom of your drawn masterpiece, so it is obvious to the rest what orientation it is meant to be. After each round you should pass your board to the next player. This way you get a new canvas each round and no one can complain “my board is so bad… etc”.

When everyone is done, as many cards as there are players are shuffled in with the cards originally dealt. All of the cards are then spread openly on the table, and each player in turn picks a card with a word they think nobody drew on their board. 

Once everyone has had a turn, only the words that were originally dealt should remain on the table, so any face-up card that was not drawn by anyone is a mistake. After four rounds, the group wins if they have made fewer mistakes than there are players.

My thoughts on the game

Frechverlag is becoming one of the companies I seek out each Spiel fair because they have now provided two consecutive years of interestingly themed (and well done) games.  Last year, their interior design-themed flip and write was a surprise hit (Verplant & Zugestellt).  This year, I hadn’t heard anything about their game until the press conference, and it definitely was something that I was immediately interested in.

This version of the game is only in German, and we had no problems playing it using Google Translate for the cards.  After the first game, I took a bunch of cards and simply wrote the words in Sharpie to make it a little easier, and to ensure that the words were translated the same.  I suppose you could just find any other word game (So Clover, etc) and pull out the nouns to use for the game.

There is no English version at this time, and the publisher is definitely looking for partners to bring this to as many people as possible.  I’m hoping that a partner can be found, as this is a fascinatingly fun game, and one that I’d love to have in my native language.  As with any word game, there are probably some clever wordplay things that are language dependent.  For instance, a card that says “ESSEN” in German could be translated as the verb “to eat” or the noun “food”.  But also it could be referring to the city Essen?  So, a meeple-ish shaped object might be a clever way to clue to the card.  This double meaning would be lost if I translated it to “To Eat” or “Food” on the card.

I’ve enjoyed my games so far – even though I’m an awful artist – having to follow the lines on the board both gives me an excuse for sucky art as well as giving me at least something to follow.  Some of our pictures have been great while other have definitely been more cubist in appearance.  It’s always lots of fun watching everyone rotate and flip their board around as they try to find a portion of the lines that fits their word; and then trying to get the rest of the image to work out.

The one thing I wish the game had more of is… talking.  I would like the resolution phase to have more discussion; more talking amongst the players as to what the different drawings might be.  That’s a big part of the fun for me, trying to figure out what all these sketchy sketches are trying to depict.  But, as each of us knows one of the words, there’s no way to do this. So, instead, everyone contemplates the meaning of life (oh, and these pictures) silently on their own.

The only solid strategy that I’ve been able to develop is to try to eliminate choices that might be mistaken for your own drawing (that is, if you can ascertain that it’s not one of the other player’s words!).  Sometimes though, interpreting the artwork is difficult enough and you just have to hope for the best.  As far as difficulty goes, we have been using the more abstract dark background words – and these really feel like the correct level of difficulty for us.

Definitely looking forward to playing this more in the holiday season, and I’ll likely continue to Sharpie up new cards each time until they are all translated.  It’s a really fun take on the drawing genre, and though a bit more quiet than I’d like, it’s still fun to play.  Will you like the game?  I think so, and I would definitely encourage you to try playing it so that you can draw your own conclusions.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Joe Huber (1 play): I’m not one for cooperative games – I don’t dislike them, I just have a general preference for a competitive game, so I keep very few cooperative games – and I’m not artistically inclined, so I wasn’t sure what to make of this game.  But – it charmed me.  It’s innovative, it has a good balance of difficulty, and it works for those with limited artistic abilities.  A game I’d happily play.

Rand (2 plays): I fully agree that the hard words are the better ones to play with. I would like…maybe even love this game if the arrangement of communication was in a different order. Perhaps a break between drawing and card reveal where players discuss what they see in others’ drawings. As written, the communication is not very engaging for the group and comes after everyone has tried to match drawings with cards, so there’s no mystery or tension in the discussion.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y, Joe H.
• Neutral. Rand
• Not for me…