Treat, Please!
- Designer: Courtney Shernan
- Publisher: Solis
- Players: 2-4
- Age: 10+
- Time: 30-60 minutes
- Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4cbRgAX
- Played with review copy provided by publisher
You live a cozy life with your fellow dogs and loving human. Each day brings new opportunities to receive attention from the human. Use your cute behavior cards to get belly rubs, treat, a trip to the park…there are so many things you want to accomplish! There are only so many days during the week and the other dogs will do everything they can to get more attention from the humans then you! On your turn, you can play two behavior cards from your hand to gain attention from the human. You can also learn a new behavior that is added to your hand by collecting and spending dog bones. At the end of your turn, your played behavior cards are discarded, until you choose to take a nap on a future turn to recover all of your behavior cards. Objectives like “Get Belly Rubs” or “Be Fed an Early Dinner” can be completed by spending the attention you’ve gained from the human. Each objective is worth affection points, and the most affection points at the end of the week wins!
To set up, each player gets a player board and a dog character card. The trackers for Energy and Attention are placed. Each player gets a “Take a Nap” and “Search for Loose Kibbles” card as well as two specific starting behavior cards unique to their doggo. The behavior deck is shuffled and a market of 4 cards is shown. The 5 objective decks are shuffled and the top card of each is revealed; place these below the behavior market. Make a round deck – shuffle the round cards, place two face down, cover with the Weekend Card, and then place 5 more round cards on top.
The game is played over 7 rounds, each is considered to be one day in the week. At the start of each round, flip over the top Round card and resolve it. Some have a one-time effect while others may have an ongoing effect through the whole round.
On a players turn, in any order, players may:
- Play 2 behaviors – play a card from your hand to a behavior slot on your player board, adjusting your attention and energy markers accordingly. You must be able to spend energy in order to play a card that requires it.
- Learn 1 new behavior – buy a behavior card from the market, paying a number of dog bones as shown in the upper right. This card can be played the turn it is bought
- Complete 1 objective – complete any of the 5 visible objectives by spending the needed energy and attention. At the end of the game, you will score points as shown in the heart at the top of the card. Some objectives also have immediate actions which must be resolved when you gain the objective
At the end of the turn, discard any active behaviors from your player mat (though you always take back your Take a Nap card) and then collect 2 dog bones.
After the first 5 rounds, you’ll now see the “It’s the Weekend” card on top of the round deck. The rules change a bit for the final two rounds. Now, players can play 3 behaviors a turn and can claim up to 2 objectives a turn.
At the end of the 7th round, players score their points:
- Points on behavior cards
- Complete set of all 5 objective types – score 4VP
- Multiples in a type: 2VP for 3 of a color, 3VP for 4+ of a color
- Leftovers – 1VP per 5 attention/dog bones left over
The doggo with the most points wins, ties broken in favor of the pup who bought the most behavior cards.
My thoughts on the game
Treat, Please! is a quick playing game that incorporates a little bit of deckbuilding strategy and appeals to the player’s love of the canine world. You will use your behavior cards to gain more attention and energy, and with some good fortune, you’ll be able to then score wanted objective cards from the market.
In our games, the player’s strategies have either been very broad (to get the set bonus) or very narrow (to get the repetition bonus). In the 7 rounds of the game, you have at most 9 chances to get objective cards – as you can get 2 each weekend day; but it would be quite rare, at least in our experience, to be able to get an objective every round. Thus, you will have to decide which way you want to try to focus.
You can sometimes chain some actions together for a more powerful turn; some of the objectives have special actions that are triggered when you gain them – and you can hopefully leverage these bonuses into a better turn.
There is a bit of a learning curve to the tempo of the game – you discard all the behaviors as you play them, and you need to spend one of your actions to “Take a Nap” in order to get them back in your hand. You’re obviously forced to Take a Nap when it is your last card, but you can also do it more frequently to cycle your desired cards faster. But, you’ll have to decide when it’s worth it to spend one of your card plays to do so.
Treat, Please! doesn’t really do much new – all of the game mechanisms are straightforward and work well together. It has definitely appealed to the animal lovers around here, and I suspect they might be playing it more for the theme than the serviceable game found within the box. It should be a good fit for families and dog lovers alike.
Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor
Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4cbRgAX
