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-matt s.
United States
Eugene
Oregon
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blog/22
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Hello, good to see you here today. It's been a busy week since my last post. A garage sale, selling a bunch of stuff on ebay (mostly non-game stuff), first day of school for my 2 kids, and a game night squeezed in. Oh, and a trip to Portland for a Taylor Swift concert for my daughter's birthday present. And it's been in the 90's all week including during the garage sale...I just haven't felt much like writing otherwise.
My recent plan has been to do a writeup on my favorite abstracts. Well, my friend Lorna (unknowingly) beat me to the punch, although I have different games I'm profiling so I'll probably still finish it sometime but just haven't been motivated to do it. Perhaps the copy of Black Box I thrifted will help me get back on track.
Well, I got some inspiration in the mail for something ELSE to write about. I have been reading the blog Board games of Russia since the beginning of August looking at some of the interesting games they've been publishing in Russia. Well, last month I saw they had started posting listings on ebay selling English versions of games by the publisher RightGames LLC.
One of particular interest was Potion-Making: Practice. Yes, a bit of a strange name in English but that didn't deter me from wanting to try it. Interesting graphics coupled with the 'best game in Russia for the past 5 years' certainly piques one's interest. AND it was a fairly reasonable price even when factoring shipping from Russia. Ok, maybe a bit higher than you'd expect to pay for a card game, but as there are no other sources there weren't many options.
Well, it arrived and I was very excited to get it opened, but wanted to give it the HOT BOX treatment. To my surprise I ALSO received a shipment late in the afternoon containing a tabletop 'photo studio' I had ordered which comes with lights, a light box, mini-tripod, and 4 velvet backdrops all in a nice case. Of course I had to pull it out and set it up so that I could try some photography with it instead of my usually 'flash' methods with the hopes of getting something a little more professional looking.
The photo 'studio' in the case and in-use
Needless to say I had a lot of fun playing around with the setup and lighting and such. I hope it shows in some of my pictures, although I still need to work on some techniques. Also, the size of the 'studio' is a little small for large games so I might still need to figure out something in that regards.
Anyhow, let's take a closer look at the game!
The package that arrived from Russia
The package that arrived concerned me a bit as I could feel a box inside a simple plastic envelope....man, I could only imagine the possible damage to the box.
But once I opened it I understood....
Ah! The game must be inside this simple shipping box!
Opening the box
Inside was the game and a bit of protective bubblewrap. It appeared to have arrived intact just fine! It had even arrived a couple of weeks ahead of what the estimate was (mid-September)
Well, the box is fairly small, but that's expected as it IS just a card game.
So, it's time to cut into it and get it unwrapped:
Cutting the shrink and ripping it off...
Freshly unwrapped box
The box itself looks really nice and I'm loving the artwork so far!
However, one thing I'm noticing is that the insert seems to be of a lower quality cardboard and the slip cover just a medium weight card stock, but with very nice high-gloss printed artwork that makes it looks like a book of magic.
Sliding the insert out confirms that it is just thin corrugated cardboard folded into shape and a medium weight cardstock folded insert inside of it to create the divided sections and give it a bit more structure.
Sliding out the insert
Full view of the insert
It's reminiscent of a cheaper game box, more like a simple card game box rather than a more solid mid- to higher-end cardboard box such as you might get from Z-Man. You won't want to stack too many games on top of this box.
Inside we find...
The single sheet of double-sided, semi-gloss printed rules (and extra smaller sheet with a partial game example) as well as the thin card stock score tracks (also semi-gloss)
There is also a baggie with 12 player pawns (2 each per color) and another baggie with all 75 cards in it.
The pawns and cards
The cards are of a mid-range quality with a smooth finish on both sides - some might say the cards are perhaps a bit thin. Luckily there doesn't appear to be a lot of shuffling in this game. I do like the artwork and overall they look very nice.
Here are some example cards:
Elixir of Fire, Love Potion, Elixir of Wisdom
As mentioned before, the score tracks are of thin card stock so they'll need to be handled somewhat carefully.
Score tracks in play
The colors don't seem to mean anything and the artwork is pretty basic. And, I can't say that I'm a fan of this method of scoring points having two markers per person...it's a touch more difficult to tell who is ahead and who isn't, but I think it's certainly serviceable. We'll see how it works during gameplay.
One issue I have here though is that on the reverse side of the larger scoretrack is a 'map' of how all the formulas relate to each other....
But since you need to score during the game and ALSO likely want to refer to the map, it seems a little awkward. Plus, there is only one map - it seems there should be at least 2 or 3 that could be shared among the players and without having to turn over the score track.
I will admit the map is really nice, although a bit tiny to read - it's a great idea but I'm not sure about the execution of it here. That being said, I'm suspecting that having the map may or may not actually be that useful during a game - just read the cards and react to what's available on the table as it's all there implicit in the game. Playing it will certainly bear this out. If it's important I'll be scanning it and printing enlarged copies.
A note about the pawns here:
They are small plastic pawns - somewhat 'wizard hat' shaped. They are a bit slick but seem to be fine for the game.
And finally, here's everything in one shot:
All of the components
I'm excited to give this game a go. After reading through the rules it appears to not be an overly complicated game - it seems to be more tactical than strategic, which is expected for a shorter game. I'm interested to see how the whole practice of creating formulas works with the cascading effect of having to make more and more complex potions. The aspect of a shared set of cards on the table that are used to create the potions is an interesting concept.
The theme seems fun and I think fits this, although it seems like it mostly is there for flavor as all you are doing is mixing ingredients to make formulas, but then you don't actually DO anything with them after they are mixed except to mix them further to make more potions and such.
Now that I've stated that, it's exactly what the game title says: Potion-Making: Practice - you're making potions! I'll have to look into the expansions to see if maybe you get to DO something with the potions after you've made them.
Well, that's a quick look into the box of this game that seems to be a hit in Russia and is just now making its way out of the country.
I'm looking forward to maybe playing it this evening so hope to have a review put together in the near future if we do get it to the table.
Thanks for stopping by! Now go play a magical game with your family or friends....
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