Straw

Straw is a card game for 2-6 players, 8 and older, and it is Major FUN.

Easy to understand, with all the rules you need written on one side of a playing card, and some useful clarifications, that you might also need, on the other.

A close relative of the children's card game 99 (or 98 or even 100), Straw adds both fantasy and depth. As in 99, players take turns adding cards to a pile. Quite literally adding, because as each card is placed on the pile its point value is added to the sum of all the cards in the pile. In Straw, each card adds weight to the load on a camel's back. A light object, like, for example, a backgammon board, only weighs 2. A heavier object, like a bag of bricks, weighs 10. In 99, the goal is not to allow the point count to exceed 99. In Straw, the critical point is reached at 50.

There are a few very significant differences - significant enough to make Straw a unique game - one complex enough to interest adults while remaining clear enough to invite children. The big difference is that, when the camel's back is broken, the remaining players score by adding the value of all 4 cards in their hand. Those wonderfully special, beautifully illustrated cards (e.g.: the card that reverses direction, the flying carpet card that actually remove weight from the camel's back, the Alladin's lamp card that can weigh any number you pick, from 1 to 10) each and all have a score value of zero. So holding on to them for their strategic value only makes your hand worth less.

It doesn't take long before the camel's back gets broken, so rounds are brief, and the possibility that you might actually win the game, even though your score is low, keeps you involved until the last card is played. Mostly luck, there are just enough strategic implications to keep the whole family in play.

The next edition of the game will soon be available. In the mean time, if you hurry, a mere $20 will get a signed and individually numbered first editions, like the works of art they are.

Paradice

"Paradice is interactive art, a game of give and take. Players explore decisions made in response to changing circumstances and engage with the contradictions of competing needs."

Interactive art? At almost $200, it better be art! And fun, too.

It is my honor to be able to inform you that Paradice is both.

The pieces. You have to see them in the light to really appreciate how the hand-poured resin seems to shine with its own internal brilliance.

The game. You have to play it. Because playing it completes the artwork. Which means you have to read the rules. And learn about the pieces. Pieces that have names like: Opportunity, Circumstance Changer, Human Being, Forest Spirit, the Rainforest, Palm, Coniferous and Deciduous trees. Yes, that's correct, Forest Spirit. It's clearly a strategic game, with some element of chance (Opportunity looks and acts exactly like a round die). But then there's the thing about being either the Giver or the Taker. And only the Giver can win. So if you're the Taker you might think that your only purpose in life is to keep the Giver from winning. Until you are able to internalize the strategic implications of the rule that at any moment, depending on the roll of Opportunity, you might have to change roles entirely.

As you continue playing, the whole game seems filled with light and delight. You finally see through the game (Paradice being only the first product of a company called "See-Through Games"), and begin to perceive the artist himself, John O'Neill. "John O'Neill," begins his artist's statement page, "is an artist committed to the realignment of art with society in forms that people can appreciate and afford. He pursues the synthesis of artistic inspiration with insight into the human situation."

He is also a friend of mine. Which, in the case of this review, is a mixed blessing. I am not as impartial as I should be - not enough to actually give this game a Major Fun Award. And because I have the honor to know him personally, when I see through Paradice to the artist, I see someone of vision and integrity and an abiding love of life.