Fantasy Tavern Brawl
Designer: Adrao Publisher: Amuri Studio Players: 2-5 Ages: 14+ Time: 10-15 minutes
I played a prototype copy provided by the publisher.
summary:
Your adventuring group stumbles into a tavern during a tavern brawl. Lead your 11 dwarf, orc adventurers/patrons, etc. and try to keep everyone trapped inside the tavern for the duration of the brawl. You’ll need to place, flick, and throw cards and crafting moves to trap the cards and adventurers inside the tavern.
Fantasy Tavern Brawl is a high-energy dexterity game with strategic elements inspired by fantasy role-playing games. It was designed by indie designer Adrao, owner of Japanese indie studio Amuri Studios. This portable game is for 2-5 players. The game comes with seven fantasy character races, each with their own unique traits, and includes a variety of scenarios, but is flexible enough for players to create their own scenarios. It also comes with 75 meeples in five colors and a handy player reference guide.
setting:
Each player chooses a color and receives their set of meeples. Choose a game scenario. Each scenario lists a combination of fantasy race cards that will be dealt to each player and kept as their hand. For example, Scenario 1: Each player receives 2 Dwarf, 2 Halfling, and 2 Orc cards. Place the Tavern Floor card in the center of the table and place one of each player’s meeples on top of the Tavern Floor card.
Play proceeds clockwise.
Izakaya:
Any card that is touching a tavern floor card or is on a meeple that has a card connected to the tavern floor becomes part of the tavern. Any card or meeple that has been slid or thrown off and is no longer touching the tavern floor is not part of the tavern.
Gameplay:
On a player’s turn, they choose a card from their hand and perform its action as instructed by that fantasy race’s ability. Actions include placing a card, sliding a card, flicking a card, dropping a card, and placing/flicking/removing an adventure meeple. Example: For the Halfling ability – Place your Halfling card so that it’s in contact with the tavern, then stack 4 meeples on top of each other. Flick your 4 adventure meeples and try to get them into the tavern.
If a card touches a tavern, it becomes part of the tavern. Any adventurer meeples that land in the tavern can stay there. Any meeples that are removed or pushed out of the tavern during a player’s action are returned to their respective players. Any cards that are removed or pushed out of the tavern are removed from the game.
Card abilities have some conditions that happen if the card becomes part of the tavern. For example, the Minotaur card. If you throw the Minotaur at the tavern and it lands in the tavern, you can put one of your meeples on the Minotaur card currently in the tavern, plus move three other meeples from somewhere in the tavern to another place in the tavern.
Once a player has played their card, the turn passes to the player to their left.
The game ends when everyone has played all their cards.
Every adventuring meeple in the tavern scores points. The more scoring adventuring meeples you have in the tavern, the higher your score. A meeple on the first floor scores 1 point, a meeple on the second floor scores 2 points, a meeple on the third floor scores 3 points, and so on. Players tally up the totals of their meeples and whoever has the highest score wins. I’ve found that the best way to score is to count backwards.
impression:
This is a fun dexterity game that’s perfect for the party-loving adventurer. This game can be played quickly, making it a great starter game for game day, a filler game, an introductory game, or a fun game to end the night with. I also thought it was great that it can be played with up to five players.
Although the game requires dexterity in flicking, throwing and placing cards and meeples, players still need to strategize to move their meeples to the best position to avoid being knocked out or to get more points at the end of the game. Some cards require players to think about whether to move their meeples to a higher position on the floor where they are less stable, to the center of the tavern where they are less likely to be knocked out, or to move other players’ meeples.
The game has a ton of icons, but the great thing is that only a few are introduced at a time – for example, the first scenario only has three cards, so those are the only icons you need to refer to – and if you’re an adventurous group, you can even draft cards and use your imagination to choose which cards to play with.
The rulebook text is pretty short, so I missed some rules on my first playthrough. But this game is about using your imagination, so we made a few house rules to let your imagination go wild. The rules also state that house rules are allowed. The game comes in a portable-sized box, chock-full of colorful meeples. I usually sleeve most card games, but for this game I plan to leave the cards unsleeved.
I’ve played this game many times with different groups of gamers, and it’s especially popular with players who like dice games and RPG games. Also, if you like light-hearted or funny games, this game is perfect for you. I think this game would be a great addition to an RPG campaign, and I hope DMs incorporate this mechanic when their adventuring groups visit the tavern.
Reviews from opinionated gamers
I love it! I love it, Mandy. Neither. It just doesn’t suit me…
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