Chez Dork Board Game

Name Of game: Chez Dork

Number of Players: 3

Time to play: 1 hour

Something I liked about the game was the humour in it. Most of the cards poked fun at geek and gaming culture. For example one card showed a video game called Final Adventure XVIII, which pokes fun of how many Final Fantasy games have been released. Another card made fun of how collectors never open or enjoy most of their collectable possessions. I also liked how you could sell cards to other players, which injected another layer of strategy into the game. For example you could attach a temporary obsession to a player then try to sell off items of that obsession to the player at a higher price. I also liked that the goal of the game was clear and straight forward.

Some of the different things I disliked about the game was that it was confusing to learn. My group had troubles trying to understand the difference between permanent and temporary obsessions. We also had trouble understanding what certain cards did. We found that the learning curve for the game was too large. It also did not help that we were only given an hour to play the game. Another thing I disliked about the game was at the fact that no fake money was provided. We had to use a separate piece of paper to keep track of each other’s money. This was somewhat annoying as player were constantly spending and receiving money throughout the entire game. Something as simple as Monopoly money is not expensive to manufacture, so I have no idea why it was not included. I also disliked that the amount of money you had in the end of the game did not matter, only the points counted. For example other board games might offer extra points if you had a lot of money left over.  

            Overall the game had a very solid design. One thing I would have made differently is the amount of money they player received at the beginning of their turn. I would have randomized it more than just having a set amount of 30 dollars. I might have included something like a dice or spinner that would either increase or decrease the amount of money each player receives at the beginning of their turn. There might be cards that do this, but we did not run into any. Another minor thing I would change would be for the temporary obsessions to have a time limit. After a set number of turns it would either be removed or switched to something else, to make the game feel more sporadic.

            There are not many rules in the game. The main objective is to gain money and to use it to purchase different card to earn points. The winner is the first to earn 25 points. The amount of points a card is worth can increase if it matches the players’ character’s obsession. For example a card with video games will be worth double if the characters obsession is video games. Each character starts with a permanent obsession, but is able to gain temporary ones. The temporary obsession can be added by the player or other players. You can also sell cards to other players that match their interests. Each turn the player received 30 dollars, they can use the money they accumulated to either buy cards from their hand or from other players. Each player has 5 cards in their hand, but must buy them to actually use them.