How Dare You

• Designer: Rodrigo Rego
• Publisher: Alion Games
• Players: 1-10
• Age: 14+
• Time: 15 minutes
• Played with preview copy provided by publisher

How Dare You? Is a party game you can play anywhere. Guess the number – but don’t go too high!  Lighten up the mood at any game night, dinner party or couples therapy session. Play it during business meetings, datenight your uncle’s funeral – or all three at once!

—description from the box

This truly tiny party game made it onto my list for GenCon 2023 when the publisher contacted me the day before I was leaving for Indianapolis and said that an advance copy would be waiting there for me.  I’m a big fan of the other games from Dr Ø – through previous releases by Aporta Games.  While this one isn’t designed by Dr. Østby, he served as the developer of this title, and I was more than happy to give it a go.

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Woodcraft

• Designers: Vladimir Suchy and Ross Arnold
• Publisher: Delicious Games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 80-120 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Delicious Games at SPIEL 2022

“In Woodcraft, you play as forest people running competing workshops in the woods, with you gathering wood and crafting goods for your customers. Along the way, you hire helpers, improve your workshop, and buy different types of wood and other tools to create the best workshop you can. During the game, players complete their projects with wood (dice) that can be cut down to size, glued back together, and adjusted using dice manipulation to be as efficient as possible with their resources. Whoever builds the best, most successful workshop wins.”

The action wheel board is set up with 7 action tiles being placed in one quadrant. The arc tile is placed over the reward icons.  The circular saw points to the end of the next quadrant. Finally, 2 dice of each color are rolled and placed on the board.   The income board is set next to this, with the round marker on the first space of that track. Each player places a counter on the hazelnut track, the blueberry track and the reputation track.  Tiles are placed on the reputation track on the paler spaces.  There are bonuses that are achieved on each of the tracks as you pass them.  The scoreboard is somehow shoehorned onto the table, and players start at 0 on this track. 4 order cards are dealt above the board, and 4 helpers are below the board.  Finally, N+1 contracts are dealt and placed somewhere where everyone can see them.

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