Paper Tales

This afternoon, though it feels much like night with the sun set by 5:30, Amanda and I sat down for a couple of games of Paper Tales, a fast and fanciful card game. I first discovered Paper Tales from Zee’s constant pimping of the game and since my tastes often overlap with his, I snapped it up at the first opportunity at a “bring and buy” auction. I will note that there is an an expansion which changes gameplay significantly, but we did not play with it for this game.

There is not a whole lot to say about the components in this game. There are a bunch of cards, tokens for money and aging and a score track, that’s it. Everything is of decent quality and the graphic design on the cards is well done, even though there is a lot of symbology it is clear and simple to understand. One’s opinion of the components is largely going to depend on what one thinks of the aesthetic, which I would describe as “fantasy south park”. I find it quite enjoyable for this sort of game, where I would not want to play a 3 hour game with this style of art, it’s fine for a 15 minute one.

As far as gameplay goes, players draft units, choose which of those they want to play, have a war with players next to them, gain income, build buildings, age or kill their units and repeat for 4 rounds. Most points at the end is the winner and there are tons of different ways to earn points throughout the game. There is no interaction between players apart from attempting to score higher than the ones next to you in the war phase, so it largely comes down to engine building.

The main skill of the game is spotting combos, as Paper Tales makes very little attempt at overall balance, most cards are balanced appropriately in cost, but some just work way better with each other than others. Although I don’t generally play a whole lot of games in which you can play perfectly and still lose badly due to luck, I make an exception here since Paper Tales is only one step above a filler game.

As far as two player games go, there are things lost and things gained. Drafting with only two players allowed for more strategic options as you are guaranteed to see some of the cards you pass come back to you. On the other hand, there is less variety of cards to draft from, you get a pool of 10 each round and that is it, there is also less importance to the war phase, as you will only score against one opponent.

Overall this is one of my top filler games, and it lends itself very well multiple plays or best of three competitions, or using a single gameto pass the time while waiting to join a larger game. Very few games can deliver the satisfaction of a “full game” in less than ten minutes per player, but Paper Tales does the job well.

Note: This game is fun because it is different every time, even as a filler. That being said, we were able to play two in a very short amount of time, but I would not want to play it 20 times in a row .

The Teal Dear

Game: Paper Tales
Designer: Masato Uesugi
Price: $36
Players: 2-5
2 player Scaling: Excellent
Playtime: 10-20 Minutes
Estimated Lifespan: 100+ years
Average Play Frequency: Quarterly, but always for multiple games
Complexity: 1.5
Components: 4
Bang for Buck: 5
Value for Time: 5
Fun Factor: 4.5
Overall: 4.5