Game: Barbarossa

Thread: Re: Woah....thats a tiny bit of clay?

gilby123 — 2008-03-25T21:16:46+00:00

apotheos wrote:
We've got a rule in the family: when my wife gets to blow thousands of dollars at Ikea, I get a trip to the local game store. On the last trip I noticed Barbarossa just before checkout (the new Mayfair release) and snatched it up.

I was a bit dissapointed to see they'd truncated it from 6 players - 5 and 6 seem to be almost a better number after reading the rules - but I was more chagrined to see that you're supposed to take this teeny bit of clay and make 2 or 3 models.

Are they serious? What I thought was a game involving some crafty sculpting now seems an exercise in a desparate degree of clay conservation. Could people perhaps discuss their experiences with Barbarossa to allay my immediate impressions?

My solution to this is the way I replaced the clay when mine got dried up. Either go to a local toystore and buy a variety pack of the tiny playdoh (Party favor size works well) or go to a local craft store and pay a little more for the good stuff.

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Toynan — 2008-03-16T22:33:27+00:00

Beginning of the game

Thread: Re: The Power Cube & turn order

shadowu — 2007-12-28T21:29:45+00:00

Is this stated somwhere in the rules more clearly?

Thread: Re: The Power Cube & turn order

Jeff Paull — 2007-12-27T21:22:56+00:00

the turn picks up where it was interrupted - in the situation you stated - the game wold return to player 1

--JP

Thread: The Power Cube & turn order

shadowu — 2007-12-27T18:09:55+00:00

When a power cube is played by Player 3 during Player 1's turn would the turn order resume to Player 4, therefore causing Player 2 to lose a turn or does the turn resume from where Player 1 left off?

Thread: Editions?

them — 2007-11-15T20:40:53+00:00

Can anyone explain any differences between the different editions? Rules? Aesthetics?

TIA!

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Rileywiebe — 2007-09-22T01:40:42+00:00

Turkey and Happy Meal by Anna, using clay from 2005 Mayfair edition

Thread: Re: Barbarossa, TSR Game booklet needed badly

pajlb77 — 2007-07-30T17:15:07+00:00

Will you settle for an actual mailed copy ?
I bought a second copy of the game years ago as my original
counter set was lost.

Where do you live ?

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Terry Egan — 2007-07-22T16:18:48+00:00

Barbarossa und die Rätselmeister: The Box Cover

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Terry Egan — 2007-07-22T16:17:26+00:00

Barbarossa und die Rätselmeister: Back of Box

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Terry Egan — 2007-07-22T16:16:03+00:00

Barbarossa und die Rätselmeister: The Game Board

Thread: Barbarossa, TSR Game booklet needed badly

Andrew PL — 2007-07-19T15:34:40+00:00

Ki. I've just bought a copy of Barbarossa TSR board game from a strange seller thru internet. Unfortunately the copy has no booklet. Does anyone have one and may provide me with a file or link?
Please help!

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ScottH — 2007-06-17T17:30:33+00:00

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ZiggyZambo — 2007-05-16T22:49:19+00:00

Thread: Re: Curse and its application

spmcandrews — 2007-04-20T20:17:01+00:00

I would say no, the player has to let the interruption finish.

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samoan_jo — 2007-03-25T15:51:00+00:00

Barbarossa - Catan GmbH - the board consists of seven tiles

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samoan_jo — 2007-03-25T15:27:24+00:00

Barbarossa - Catan GmbH - crystal and scoring board

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samoan_jo — 2007-03-23T09:58:35+00:00

Barbarossa - 'Spiel des Jahres 1988' - Catan GmbH (2004) - German box back [higher quality]

Thread: Curse and its application

Mr_Six — 2007-03-16T05:25:27+00:00

Pretty simple rules question really:

Can a player who has had his turn interupted by a curse immediately throw his own curse?

Since the rules don't seem to state one way or the other (Mayfair version) we dealt with it by dice roll.

Thread: Re: Rules question

Mr Lookback — 2006-09-08T22:40:09+00:00

Jeff Paull wrote:
each player forms 2 riddles.

in a 3 player game... each forms 3

--JP

Thanks for the clarification, Jeff! That certainly would make a big difference.

Thread: Re: Rules question

Jeff Paull — 2006-09-05T01:31:29+00:00

each player forms 2 riddles.

in a 3 player game... each forms 3

--JP

Thread: Rules question

Mr Lookback — 2006-09-02T20:37:33+00:00

Hello all! I recently purchased this game and seem to have run into a bit of rule confusion. The rules state that if a player correctly guesses another player’s riddle an arrow is stuck into the solved riddle. It continues to say that “no riddle can be solved more than twice, so each riddle can only have at most 2 arrows.” Since the maximum number of players is 4 the maximum number of arrows that can be played in the game is 8, which leads to our point of confusion. The chart to which the Riddle Maker references his/her score goes up to 13 arrows. It seems like it would be impossible to achieve 13 arrows in the game (or even 9) since the maximum number of arrows that can be stuck to the riddles is 8?

Any clarification from ye’ geeks would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, everyone!

Thread: Re: Impossible Sculpture Advantage?

Blackberry — 2006-03-14T16:08:36+00:00

They took that rule out in the new edition? That's insane. That rule makes the whole game.

Thread: Re: Impossible Sculpture Advantage?

philafan2000 — 2006-03-14T13:30:20+00:00

There is a rule out there that says you take a -5 point penalty if at the end of the game, your sculpture has no arrows in it and a -3 point penalty if it has 1 arrow.

I just played this game this weekend with the above rule and it worked out well. Me and another guy were neck and neck, but one of his sculptures was impossible to determine. I won because both my sculptures were guessed in the middle of the game and I had no penalty - he had the -5 penalty and lost.

Thread: Impossible Sculpture Advantage?

mnovitzki — 2006-03-14T11:58:48+00:00

I have recently purchased the “Klaus Teuber Classics” version of Barbarossa. I have been able to play it five times with much enjoyment. However, I was wondering if there is a slight problem to the new version as a result of streamlining the original rules.

It seems to be in your advantage to make your sculptures as difficult as possible, since there is no penalty at the end of the game for no-one guessing your work. In the few games I played, it seems the person with the least guessed works did very well. Also, since the last works were very hard to get, the winner stumbled across the finish line with the help of a bunch of “Dragons.”

Does anyone else have thoughts on this matter? Am I missing something?

Thread: Re: Woah....thats a tiny bit of clay?

Mecoides — 2006-03-13T13:51:30+00:00

Yo Funky Monkey

I have the new version of Barbarossa and my group find it quite fun. I think if you played with 5 or 6, the game would go over that hour mark and it would lose its fun, party game appeal.

As for the amount of clay, never fear, it is hard to fit all of those little models on the diamond as it is. I usually find that I have excess clay. Remember that the models are supposed to be slightly cryptic.

Thread: Woah....thats a tiny bit of clay?

apotheos — 2006-03-12T21:41:23+00:00

We've got a rule in the family: when my wife gets to blow thousands of dollars at Ikea, I get a trip to the local game store. On the last trip I noticed Barbarossa just before checkout (the new Mayfair release) and snatched it up.

I was a bit dissapointed to see they'd truncated it from 6 players - 5 and 6 seem to be almost a better number after reading the rules - but I was more chagrined to see that you're supposed to take this teeny bit of clay and make 2 or 3 models.

Are they serious? What I thought was a game involving some crafty sculpting now seems an exercise in a desparate degree of clay conservation. Could people perhaps discuss their experiences with Barbarossa to allay my immediate impressions?

Thread: Re: Where to get new clay?

flieger — 2006-01-22T00:13:42+00:00

You should be able to pick up some kids modelling clay at any toy store. There is really nothing special about the Barbarossa clay.
You can also microwave it, that makes it soft (and hot) and try to fold in some water until it is soft again.
That's a lot of work, though.
Just buy some kids modelling clay and you're ready to go.

Thread: Where to get new clay?

chiesi — 2006-01-21T20:10:07+00:00

I've recently purchased an old copy of this game, and the coloured pieces of clay inside the box were totally dry and very hard, so that it's not possible to model them.
Does someone know where to get new pieces of clay for this game?

Thread: Review of Barbarossa

SusanRoz — 2006-01-11T01:25:40+00:00

Barbarossa is a reworking of Klaus Teuber’s classic riddle game, Barbarossa und die Rätselmeister, which won the coveted “Spiel des Jahres” or German “Game of the Year” award in 1988. It has been streamlined a bit with a few minor rules changes and transformed into a smaller physical package, but the game play remains essentially the same.

Despite the name, Barbarossa is not about the famous WWII campaign, but instead has a superficial fantasy theme and is a riddle game of guessing clay sculptures. Being more of a party game, Barbarossa is definitely a wide departure from the strategy games, such as Settlers of Catan, that Teuber is best known for. However, like most of his games, it is centered on a very clever mechanism.

Components:
Barbarossa comes in the same small-sized box as Oceania and contains the following:

-A four-page color rulebook and an insert with examples. The rules are very clearly written and we didn’t find any ambiguities.
-A small game board depicting a Scoring Track and a Jewel Track
-4 sets of wooden playing pieces in 4 different colors, each containing a pawn, a Scoring Disk and a Jewel Cube
-1 wooden die
-1 pad of paper
-1 Riddle Gem tile upon which the clay sculptures will be placed
-4 Event Tiles
-4 bars of clay, one in each of the player colors – the clay is very bright and is not greasy at all. So far, it has held up to use and shown no signs of drying out.
-13 arrows. These are stuck into the clay sculptures during the game and despite being heavy cardstock they have held up well.
-12 Curse Tokens

Game Play

To set up the game, the Riddle Gem tile is placed on the table with the six Event Tiles arranged around it in a circular fashion in numerical order. Player pawns are placed on the Event Tile depicting a question mark. The game board is placed nearby. The players’ Scoring Disks are placed on the starting space of the Scoring Track and the players’ Gem Cubes are placed on the “12” space of the Jewel Track. Each player gets three Curse Tokens and the clay in his player color. The die, arrows and the pad of paper are set off to the side.

Each player now molds items out of his clay, 3 items for a 3-player game, or 2 items for a 4-player game. A long list of possible items is provided on the insert, but players may choose anything as long as it is listed in the dictionary and it isn’t an abstract idea. The goal is for players to sculpt their items so that they are somewhat difficult to guess but not too difficult. Examples of good and bad sculptures are provided on the insert. To keep everyone honest, players write down their items on a piece of paper, keeping it secret from the others until the end of the game.

The finished items or “riddles” are all placed on the Riddle Gem for players to examine. The game is now ready to start. The first player to finish sculpting his riddles begins.

On a player’s turn, he rolls the die and moves his pawn that many Event Tiles clockwise and then takes the action depicted on the Event Tile. Alternatively, he may spend jewels to move to the desired Event Tile instead of rolling the die. He must decide to do this before he rolls, however. Each space moved costs one jewel and he moves his Jewel Cube on the Jewel Track accordingly to indicate how many he has spent. He now takes the action on the Event Tile. Play then passes to the player on his left.

Event Tiles and their actions

Dragon: There are two of these tiles. When a player lands on one all other players advance their Scoring Disks one space forward on the Scoring Track.

Note: The Ghost Tiles from the older version of the game that works similar to the Dragon except that it moves players’ disks two spaces forward has been eliminated from this new edition.

Jewel: There are also two of these tiles. When a player lands on one he moves his Jewel Cube up one space on the Jewel Track. He can only have a maximum of 13 jewels, however.

Letter Dwarf:

When a player lands on this tile, he can choose a riddle and ask its owner for a particular letter in the riddle’s name. The owner writes it on a piece of paper and gives it to the player so that the information remains hidden from the other players. I found this option to be a lifesaver for me to get me started on a guess and often spent my jewels to move my pawn to this particular Event Tile.

Question Mark
This Event Tile is the heart of the game because it is where players can discover a lot of clues about the riddles and can make guesses. The action for this tile has two phases. The first is the Question Phase. The player points to a riddle and asks a question about it but without directly asking about the answer. The owner of the riddle must answer aloud in one of the following ways:

-Yes
-Maybe
-No apparent right answer
-No

As long as the active player does not get a “no” answer he can keep asking questions about any of the riddles. Once he gets a “no” answer he moves to the Solution Phase. The player may continue ask questions but now he can also try to solve a riddle at any time. However, once he gets another “no” answer, his turn ends immediately.

To try solving a riddle during the Solution Phase, the player writes down his guess on a piece of paper and gives it to the riddle’s owner. If the guess is wrong, nothing happens but if it is correct, the owner of the riddle states that it is correct without revealing the answer to the other players and an arrow is stuck in the riddle. The player that guessed correctly then gets points, 5 if he is the first to solve the riddle or 3 if he is the second. The owner of the riddle may now lose or earn points and this is the clever part of the game. The number of arrows stuck in ALL the riddles is counted and compared to a chart. Without regurgitating the actual chart, with only a few arrows he loses 1 or 2 points, between 5-9 arrows he gains 1 or 2 points and after that he starts to lose them again. Four and ten arrows are the turning points where there is no effect, which is a slight tweak from the original edition. So to do well you need to try to make your riddles with just the right amount of details so that it is not guessed too early or too late.

Once a riddle has been guessed correctly twice, it is considered solved and thus can never have more than two arrows.

Curse Tokens: Players have three of these to use during the game and they are discarded once used. They can be used at any time except another player’s Solution Phase to interrupt the game and allow the player to either ask for a letter as with the Letter Dwarf or to guess a riddle.

The games ends when a player reaches the finish space on the Scoring Track, or when there are 13 arrows stuck in riddles in which case the player with the most points wins.

Comments

I must say up front that I’m not generally a fan of most party games. I prefer games that favor analytical skills rather than those that require creativity. My knowledge of trivia and pop culture is not that great, I’m poor at drawing and I don’t like to perform charades-style in front of a group. Fortunately, Barbarossa forces me to do none of those and so belongs to a small group of party games that I am willing to play on occasion. I enjoyed the sculpting part of Barbarossa given that one does not have to be skilled at sculpting details to do well. Unfortunately, I am not as skilled at guessing sculptures, but having the option of asking for particular letters in the solution helps greatly. Some of the others that I played with were quite good at the guessing part and really enjoyed the challenge. All of my games were quite lively and fun, even if I did get a little frustrated at times.

I’m not entirely enamored with the roll-and-move mechanism for determining turn actions and the jewel system seems bit fussy. I also didn’t care for the Dragon Event Tiles although I suppose their possibility creates a bit of angst over whether or not to spend jewels. This all seems to just be a distraction from the really enjoyable part of figuring out the riddles although the kids who played seemed to like it. I also wish the game handled more than four players. I believe the old edition could be played with up to six.

Fans of party games requiring creativity will probably really enjoy Barbarossa. The idea of rewarding sculptures that are ambiguous but not overly so is a very clever twist and makes the game quite fun, even for players like me. Although due to my personal preferences it will never be a favorite of mine, Barbarossa is definitely one of the better games of this type that I’ve played.

Thread: [Review] Barbarossa

TomVasel — 2005-10-08T10:51:03+00:00

Barbarossa was on of the first "German" games that I have had the privilege to play. The concept of the game, mixed with some neat game mechanics, really grasped me, and it almost became a slight "thinking" party game. Then Cluzzle came along - and the simplicity of Cluzzle caused it to replace Barbarossa on my play list, simply because it was so simple. But then the other day, I received the new version of Barbarossa (Mayfair Games, 2005 - Klaus Teuber), which is a change to the 1988 game, adding it to the "Klaus Teuber's Classics" line. There are several changes to the new version - mostly streamlining, but the basic mechanics don't change much.

I like the new version for its size, if nothing else. The original Barbarossa was a large square box, while the new one is small and unassuming. Yes, the components are slightly less impressive, and the game now only plays with a maximum of four players, but these are issues that are ignored in favor of portability. Barbarossa is a quick, fun little game that plays well. Sometimes part of the game feels a little odd; but the nature of the game itself, the molding of the clay objects, is much more fun than any other of its type (except Cluzzle).

A score board is placed on the table with two tracks: the Jewel Track (which goes from 0 to 13; with players placing a jewel cube of their color on the "12" space), and the scoring track (which isn't numbered, but players place a scoring disc of their color on the sixth space of a thirty-two space track). A hexagonal Riddle Gem board is placed on the table with six event tiles placed in numerical order around it. Each player places a pawn of their color on the number one space and takes three "Curse" tokens and the modeling clay of their color. The game is ready to begin with each player molding their clay into two shapes.

The point of the game, however, is not to make the clay objects too obvious, not too vague. Players are striving to make objects (a list of suggestions is provided) that somewhat resemble their object but don't give it away quickly. Players place their two (three in case of three players) creations ("riddles") on the riddle gem; one player is chosen to go first; and play passes clockwise around the table.

On a turn, a player can either roll a six-sided die and move their pawn that many spaces around the circle, or they pay gems by moving their jewel counter down for as many spaces as they wish to move. The player then takes an action depending on what space they've landed on:
- Jewel (2 spaces): The player adds one jewel, by moving their jewel cube one space higher on the track (maximum of 13).
- Dragon (2 spaces): Every other player gets to move their scoring token up by one space.
- Letter Dwarf (1 space): The player asks another player for a particular letter of a riddle - like the first letter, etc. The player who has made the riddle writes the letter secretly down on paper, and shows it to the asking player.
- Question Mark (1 space): The player asks yes or no questions about the riddles on the table, which other players must answer truthfully. The player can continue to ask questions until they get a "no" response. At this point, the player has two options. They can either ask another round of questions, until they get another "no", or they can guess one of the riddles on the table - writing their guess down secretly and showing the player whose riddle it is.

Players can also use a "curse" token at any time to interrupt the proceedings and guess one of the riddles on the table (or ask a letter). If a riddle is guessed correctly, the player gets five points; and an arrow is stuck into the riddle. If a riddle is guessed the second time, the guesser gets three points, another arrow is stuck in it, and the riddle can no longer be solved. After the arrow has been put into a riddle, all the arrows in riddles are counted, and the player whose riddle it is either loses or gains points. The players whose riddles are guessed first and last lose the most points (2); the players whose riddles are guessed in the middle get the most points. (2)

The game continues until either one player reaches the final space on the scoring track, or when all thirteen arrows have been stuck into riddles. Either way, the player who has advanced the farthest on the track is the winner!

Some comments on the game…

1.) Components: Since the "board" is broken down into smaller parts, it makes it a lot easier to store and put into the small, sturdy box. The tiles themselves are of good quality, with nice artwork on them, portraying the fantasy theme. The curse tokens are small cardboard tokens with lightning bolts on them and are easy to handle and use. The centerpiece of the game, of course, is the clay which is good quality and molds well. It also holds well over time - it's the same stuff as from the original game, which hasn't lost any of its malleability yet (three years later). Bags are provided for the clay and pieces, as well as a small pad of paper for writing the clues. The game comes in a small, impressive package; and I was impressed at how much they managed to put in the box.

2.) Rules: The rules are fairly short and simple, on only four pages. The rules were almost too short - they didn't cover every instance - such as when a player has no clues to guess. This can happen when a player has guessed all the remaining clues and/or only their riddles are left. Other than this, however, everything was fairly clear, and I didn't have much problem explaining the game. A helpful insert is included, showing three examples of riddles that are too easy, too difficult, and just right. Most people usually take a game to get their clues to where they want them, and even experienced players often make their clues too difficult or too easy.

3.) Molding: Because the clues are only supposed to be rough interpretations of the objects, the game has appeal. Most people complain about their modeling skills, and perhaps for good reason. Yet this game doesn't reward people with artistic skill - it rewards those who are able to deduce the modern-art like designs of their opponents. I'm a horrible sculptor, but I enjoy this game.

4.) Theme and Mechanics: The game has a magic theme, with players who are trying to compete in an ancient duel of riddles. Frankly, I'm not sure that the theme does anything for the game, except to provide a reason for the mechanics. The dragon is there to simply make sure that the game moves at a reasonable pace, to keep players from not guessing and prolonging the game. I'm not sure a theme was needed, but it doesn't hurt the game as far as I can tell. The mechanics, especially the choice between rolling the dice or using gems, are a little odd; and I think that I would give the edge to Cluzzle in this regard, as Cluzzle is much simpler. However, Barbarossa does add in a small bit of strategy of when players should use their jewels, what clue a player should guess at next, and the "letter dwarf"; so perhaps it will appeal more to gamers.

5.) New vs. Old: The old version of Barbarossa had a much larger board, larger and cooler tokens, and supported up to six players. In fact, after playing both, I think that I enjoy the older version a little bit better. However, the draw of the new copy is that it is smaller, more portable, and a bit simpler to explain to newcomers. I think the choice in deciding which to buy would be availability, and the expected number of people to play the game. I also miss the plastic black arrows of the old game (they were replaced by cardboard counters), but I do realize that they broke fairly easily. Either way, I love skewering a riddle.

6.) Fun Factor: The game is fun, because players sit there and simply try to guess the riddles of the opponents. It's almost a visual form of "Twenty Questions", except that you are trying to guess the answer before your opponents do. Laughing at the answers once they are revealed is part of the fun, but fooling around and making your own creation out of clay is another appeal. Either way, it's a game that has worked well in every situation I have pulled it out.

The wonky mechanics sometimes are a little odd to newcomers when I teach the game; but as I said, it has had great appeal to those who've played it. It's a great party game for when you only have four people (most party games aren't good with that number), and there is a lot of punch in the smaller box. The new incarnation of Barbarossa isn't as nice as the older edition, but it's much smaller, simpler, and cheaper. And that will be a drawing factor for a lot of people.

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.tomvasel.com

Thread: Barbarossa Review

marshalljansen — 2005-10-05T18:18:13+00:00

Overview
Barbarossa is ‘Pictionary with clay’. You come up with two single-word nouns, and sculpt somewhat abstract representations of them, in the hopes that you make them ‘just hard enough’ to score the most points and win.

Components
The large box contains the circular game board, large wooden ‘wizard hats’ as score markers, wooden men to track your place on the board, wooden discs to keep track of your ‘elf stones’, plastic arrows, small wooden ‘interrupt cubes’, a die, and 6 colors of plasticene for sculpting. All of the components are high quality. The only complaint is that the brown and purple plasticene in my set were very close in color.

Gameplay
Each player takes a matching set of Wizard Hat, wodden Man, elf stone disc, and a lump of plasticene. You then come up with two single-word nouns to sculp, and sculpt them in your color of plasticene. After all the players are done, you begin the game by placing your piece on the start spot, your Wizard hat on the score track, and your elf stone marker on the elfstone track.

In each turn you roll the die and move your piece. There are only a few different spaces on the board: ghosts/dragons give all of the other players points. Another space gives an additional elf stone. One space allows you to ask any letter of the word from one of the sculptures (allowing you to ask ‘what is the first letter/last letter/second letter’ etc). Finally, there is a space that allows you to ask yes/no questions about a sculpture, allowing you to ask until you get a ‘no’ answer. Once you’ve gotten a ‘no’ you can ask a second set of questions (until you get a ‘no’ again) or guess the sculpture secretly.

One thing to mention here… when you ask for a letter, or guess, that is done in secret and no one else gets to see the guess, or the letter revealed. However, the yes/no questions are asked out loud, and all players get the benefit of the information!

If you guess correctly, you get points (and get to stab the sculpture with a plastic arrow!). The player who’s sculpture was guessed may lose points (if it is early or late in the game) or gain points (if it is the middle of the game).

This brings out the primary strategy in Barbarossa… you want sculptures that aren’t so easy they are instantly guessed, but you also don’t want them so difficult no one will even try.

Finally, there are two other factors to consider… first, you may spend elf stones on your turn to move to exactly the space you want, rather than rolling. Secondly, at any time you can spend an interrupt cube to guess a sculpture, even on another player’s turn. These two mechanics allow you to get where you need to be, and to uyse the information gained by another player to answer.

Winning the game
The player who reaches the top of the stair with his Wizard Hat is the winner of the game. Generally, this is the player who had the most correct guesses, but in a close game it will also require that they earned points (or at least didn’t lose points) from the sculptures being guessed. If no one reaches the top of the Stair before all of the plastic arrows (that represent correct guesses) are exhausted, then the player highest up the stair wins.

Thoughts
This is an excellent social game, much like Pictionary or Cranium, in that there tends to be a lot of laughter and joking going on around the table from ridiculous sculptures (which are generally misleading or a bit racy) to the questions being asked. If your group isn’t the type to joke around like this, then the game will likely fall very flat. However, the game is relatively quick to play, and is a very nice lighthearted break from the more dry games that get played in a game session.

Value
The game is a reasonable value, with high quality components. I’ve owned my set for over a year, and the plasticene is still pliable. If you’ve got a group that enjoys the occasional ‘laugh out loud’ party game to go along with the more standard games, then I think this is a good addition to your collection.

Accessibility
Teaching the game is trivial. There are only a couple of rules, and as long as one player knows what each of the spaces means on the board, you can get to sculpting in minutes.

Final Rating
I give Barbarossa a out of overall. This is an excellent ‘party game’ that manages to feel euro. Sculpting simple things is fun, and the game supports team play quite well. If you have a big group (8 or more) then I recommend playing in teams. For smaller groups (4 or fewer) this game breaks down a bit. Also, of your group has excessively competitive people, then they can damage the experience by meta-gaming the scoring.

Thread: It's not Age of Steam, but at least I didn't spill my diet pepsi on it!

snoozefest — 2005-08-28T17:55:27+00:00

The wife (and kids) were away, so Justin had play day. Most people had arrived around noon, and some had already left; we got there about 7pm. After an aborted game of Age of Steam (for the 2nd time in a row - the last time being sometime last year - someone spilled soda on Justin's AoS game. Both times, we had just gotten started, and were around turn 3! This time, I was the clumsy dolt! J was fine with it both times, but I may just have to buy him a new copy. Fortunately, the board is undamaged, the cubes are washable, and the few tokens that got wet will likely dry just fine (the did last year). I ruined one of the tracking sheets, but we should be able to get a copy somewhere or other.

Anyway, the 4 of us (me, Justin, Brian and Luann) abandoned AoS, and Mary and Sarah finished up their game of Gulo Gulo. M loves Barbarossa, and it plays 6 so we decided to play this next. Several hadn't played before, so we went through a quick explanation then began.

Brief rules:
-everyone picks 2 words, and sculpts each of them
-players move tokens around the board; different spots do different things. For example
... ask for a single letter of someone's word
... ask questions about a riddle; guess the answer
... get a magic jewel (allows you to move without rolling die)
... give everyone else 1 or 2 points
-when you guess, you get 5 pts if you're the first to solve that riddle; 3 if the 2nd (only 2 may solve each riddle)
-when guessed, riddle-maker LOSES points if riddle was too easy (one of the first riddles solved) or too difficult (one of the last riddles solved); you gain point(s) if it was just the right difficulty
-play until 17 correct guesses have been made (5er game), or someone gets to end of scoretrack
-a TWIST: everyone has 3 interrupt cubes which can be used at ANY TIME (almost; not when active player is about to guess) to interrupt current turn and allow interrupter to ask a letter OR guess the riddle

The riddles were:
L: rifle & bandage
J: kayak & gerbil
M: flamingo & _____
S: syringe & tulip
B: saddle & coins
me: pillow & shrimp

The rifle and kayak looked exactly like a rifle/kayak. Unfortunatley, despite J reminding me about the interrupt cubes, I forgot to use them - they were both quickly solved by B (2nd player, using interrupt in addition to freebie from board position). I guessed B's saddle right away (on my notesheet) but never actually made the official guess - instead, I wasted time on J's gerbil: it looked like a rat/mouse; despite getting the "g" letter clue, I didn't solve it until I used my last interrupt cube! I eventually guessed B's coins, but that was near the end and I couldn't land on the riddle-guessing space. M placed her flamingo on it's side; from my angle, it looked like a uterus (including fallopian tubes and ovaries), so I never did figure that one out. Both of B's and mine, and L's bandage were all apparently too difficult - they were the last to be attempted. B took an early lead, but M came on strong by solving several riddles. There were a few dragon landings, moving everyone up some spaces; I ended the game by rolling the die and landing on a dragon, moving everyone up one space - including moving M up to the final space on the score track.

M won, B was a close second; L was a distant last (had negative points initially because of her easy rifle, and spent time trying to guess my shrimp - which looked like a banana and a smile, but not like a shrimp!). I was either 4th or 5th, close to S.

--------
This is an OK game, although you have to play it with the right group. Previously it had seemed to go on forever. This time, it was over too quickly - too many riddles were too easy. I'll eventually play it again, but not likely to be very soon; I'd like to give Cluzzle a try.

Thread: Re:end game question

Blackberry — 2005-03-27T15:34:41+00:00

iohonnes (#24658),

I'd think because it's too easy to just pick out a player that you don't like and never guess their objects.

Thread: Re:end game question

crazygames — 2005-03-27T10:44:57+00:00

4Corners (#73334),

the end-game penalty rule is documented in the original german game rules from the 1988 edition!

Thread: Barbarossa vs. Cluzzle Question

wolper — 2005-02-07T19:27:23+00:00

I'm busy trying to find German party game to move a group of friends away from Cranium and toward Carcassone (and the like). Barbarossa seems to have potential. Cluzzle seems very similar and maybe a bit more interactive. Any opinions about the two games? Also, are the two versions of Barbarossa shown in the pictures the same? Thanks!

Thread: Re:end game question

4Corners — 2004-12-28T18:42:53+00:00

iohonnes (#24658),

I've also wondered about what the exact penalty should be for unguessed objects at the end of the game. This was obtained straight from a review of the game from the Games Journal website:

"At the end of the game, though, the score is adjusted by players losing 2 points if their sculpture was only identified by one opponent and five if it baffled everyone."

Not sure how they came up with the ruling, as it's not in my copy of the English rules that came with the game, but it sounds reasonable to me.

Thread: Re:end game question

4Corners — 2004-12-28T18:40:48+00:00

Thread: New word lists

garyjames — 2004-10-09T15:12:26+00:00

Barbarossa is a popular game with my family and gaming group, but after playing it for a while experienced players can become familiar with the word list - especially the words likely to be chosen by beginners.

In a search for replacement word lists or word list generators I discovered the Word List Generator by Paivio et al (link added to the links section, but yet to be added at time of writing).

This great utility will generate word lists based on parameters entered by the user. I found that restricting the 'concreteness rating' to 6 or 7 produced the most immediatley usable words, but experienced players may enjoy using less concrete words too.

As an example, below is a list of 100 words generated with a concreteness rating of 6 to 7. I think I may generate a few longer lists and add them to the files section, just in case this great little utility disappears.

-------- 100 random words concreteness 6 to 7 ------------

moisture, footwear, cerebrum, mosquito, machine, weapon, vegetable, peach, swamp, sultan, daffodil, ambulance, cradle, policeman, wine, woods, stain, opium, corner, barrel, valley, furniture, piano, temple, admiral, garret, tripod, timepiece, cane, lip, thistledown, student, skillet, flesh, shore, gem, refrigerator, cranium, cabin, vest, fire, hillside, bronze, ambassador, habitation, hurdle, instructor, tomb, scorpion, coast, child, fox, dollar, vestibule, nursery, meat, coin, slave, kerchief, chloride, lad, periodical, banner, rubble, python, dress, islander, picture, glacier, whalebone, iron, harp, gold, moss, star, hairpin, photograph, toast, apple, insect, hospital, dummy, car, tobacco, breast, vehicle, forehead, cell, table, tree, engine, metal, soil, hall, village, thief, thicket, vessel, college, clock
-------------------------------------------------------
Produced by the Word List Generator, Paivio et al, http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Online/paivio/

Thread: Known as Vernissage in Sweden

Johan — 2004-08-28T11:44:09+00:00

Be warned that this is known as Vernissage in Sweden, but with a different looking board. Confusingly enough the Swedish Vernissage is not the same as the other Vernissage also by Klaus Teuber.

Thread: Session Report

kasreb — 2004-08-18T21:12:10+00:00

The Cast:Brian, Michele, Gil, Heather

Gil and Heather bought this game in the afternoon and were eager to play it(so eager that the shrinkwrap did not make it out of the car). The game was set up and colors wer chosen.
Gil took Red(naturally)
Heather took Blue
Michele took Purple(naturally)
Brian took green because it was remaining and matched one of the colors in his shirt.

Brian made a cute little alligator head and a pepper
Gil made a ferrett and a truck-esque car.
Heather made a canoe and somethg that looked like "pigs in a blanket" which turned out to be a battery.
Michele madee an awesome pineapple and then made a super obvious pretzel. Ideas failed her.

The pretzel was first to get "arrowed" by Gil to the tune of Teen Girl Squad. The first of many. Brian gave misinformation becasue a pepper is indeed a fruit. The ferrett was next to get stuck because Heather is a fellow ferett owner and..well..Gil has Feretts on the mind. The canoe was incorrectly guessed (by Gil via a power cube) as "boat" and then was correctly guesed by Brian. The pretzel got its final blow next. Canoe was sunk next. The Car had its tire punctured as did the pinapple and then the pepper. The Ferrett suffered it's final blow and tha battery was only guessed after Michele was given the first letter of the riddle. The alligator was incorrectly guessed as crocidile and then properly identified(mounted)

When the dust cleared Heather had the most points claiming the victory. It was fun and we all got to play with clay like 1st graders. Very cool.

Thread: User Review

Richard_Huzzey — 2004-07-09T20:22:18+00:00

This review previously appeared in The Games Journal.

When is a party game not a party game? When it's designed by the daddy of the whole Catan family, the original Settlers game being, arguably, the title that made German games famous in the US and UK. Klaus Teuber's game of shaping clay, Barbarossa, was released in 1997 and nominated for a Spiel De Jahre award, yet seems to have made relatively little impact within the hobby. As Kosmos kindly donated a copy to my local games club (the Oxford University Diplomacy Society) and we have had much amusement from it, I decided to write this review in a bid to get some more attention for what seems to me an overlooked gem.

While Barbarossa is certainly not Age of Renaissance or Tigris und Euphrates, it's a very fun game that manages to combine the entertaining party game elements of Rapidough with some clever strategic play mechanics. Using Rapidough as an example of a party game was intentional as Barbarossa's most unusual components are the strips of clay in six colours (one for each player). Otherwise, the box includes three player markers for each colour, some plastic arrows and a circular board.

Before the game begins, each player makes two models out of their clay. Their aim is to depict, in clay, one word, which they write down and hide beneath the board. Opponents will then ask for clues or guess at the word, as allowed by the board. The twist is that you will lose points if your depiction is too easy or too difficult, and only earn maximum reward from it being just the right complexity.

Players move their "wizards" (pawns) around a small circular track, taking actions depending on the spaces they encounter. Separate scales along the board's rim track players' points and gold. Each turn your pawn will move either according to a D6 roll or your choice. But, if you choose the number of spaces, you must pay that much gold (tracked by a money marker). This is a neat little mechanic - with players constantly trying to temper their luck and engineer their pawn onto the desired space.

The spaces include the dragon and ghost, both of which give all other players one or two points respectively. As the game ends when a player reaches the end of the points track, it has an inbuilt climax. You also score points when you guess what other players models are, by tossing one of your limited "charms" in, or landing on the appropriate space which allows the relevant player to interrogate the creator of one model with Yes/No questions (although "I don't know" is a valid reply). There is also the Gnome space, which permits you to ask for a certain letter of the word represented by a model. In this last case, the creator will write down the letter and show it only to the active player. Finally, gold spaces allow you to pick up the valuable money, which is so vital in controlling your movement.

When you correctly guess a model, an arrow is placed in it and you'll get a point reward. Once two arrows are placed in a model, it is fully guessed and any further players cannot guess at it. And, at the end of the game, those models that have not been identified by at least two players will cost their misguided makers points...

While the presence of clay makes this look like a silly party game, Barbarossa deserves more attention from serious gamers. It's certainly not a heavy game, but it does have some clever little mechanics, as I've mentioned, and hilarious consequences as the Yes/No questions spin wildly away from the object in question.

"Is it bigger than a dog?"

"I don't know, depends on the size of the dog."

"Smaller than an Alsatian?"

"Yes."

"Smaller than a Labrador?"

"Yes."

"Smaller than a Chihuahua?"

"No."

"Oh."

The fact that the Yes/No questions are heard by all means that some players may "think" to the solution before the actual interrogator. There is a true art in making the clay model and deciding on your "word" that is not so much about modeling skill as lateral thinking. For example, I made a very obvious "snake" shape, but chose the word "serpent". If it had been snake, they'd have all guessed straight away and I'd have lost many, many points. But serpent was sufficiently subtle to use up the other players' guesses but obvious enough to be guessed by mid-game when you get lots of points for having your model correctly identified. As only two players can ever correctly guess a model and get points from doing so, a tactical use of one's "charms" to interrupt play is rather important.

The game ends when either one player reaches the end of the points track or the thirteenth arrow is stuck in a model (i.e. a thirteenth correct guess has been made). At the end of the game, though, the score is adjusted by players losing 2 points if their sculpture was only identified by one opponent and five if it baffled everyone.

The very nature of the game would make it seem happier on the shelves of "party games" in British or American shops. Yet the German game element really shines through and helps make it something other than a Rapidough clone with a board. The movement mechanism is particularly novel, allowing much control over your pawn's fate. In short, whilst the most serious of gamers might not appreciate Barbarossa, I would recommend it as an over-looked title to social gamers or those looking for something fun without being chaotic.

Thread: Session Report

marshalljansen — 2004-04-09T22:40:27+00:00

We closed out the night with Barbarossa.

Sculptures:

Mike: a flat triangle made of yellow clay (YELLOW) and
a flat man-shape GHOST
Kelly: an OBOE and a STOVE
Christy: a QUEEN and a HAMMER
Marshall: a pair of skis for SKIING and a TUNNEL

Mike jumped out to an early lead, getting both of Kelly's sculptures. He also was the first to get Hammer and Tunnel.

I was able to get Queen and 2nd-place on oboe, and was the first to get yellow (getting a letter and guessing yield, then getting Yellow next guess)

We finished this game by running out of arrows... after scores were adjusted for unguessed scultps, Mike won by one point ahead of Christy, 2 points ahead of Kelly, and 4 points ahead of me.

Thread: Session Report

marshalljansen — 2004-03-16T00:02:49+00:00

We explained the rules of the game to Scott and Eric, and began making our sculptures.

Eric: screw, windmill
Christy: egg, joint
Scott: cockroach, apron
Marshall: bison, spatula

Eric missed the part where sculptures needed to be vague, and had both of his sculptures guessed on the first turn, twice each. I failed to get in with my interrupt cubes, so Eric got sent back about 5-6 points, while Cristy and Scott both went up 8. After that, we had a fairly normal game, but Scott came through in the end to win the game, as Christy lost 5 points for not having anyone guess her joint. We decided that we’d try Pueblo next. Eric had explained it to us once before while we were visiting in Auburn, but we hadn’t had time to play it then.

Thread: Session Report

marshalljansen — 2004-03-09T22:59:15+00:00

We set up Barbarossa, and handed out player packs... Blue for Kelly, Yellow for Mike, and Purple for Christy. I generally take Black or Brown, but wasn't happy with the color differences between brown/purple clay so went for Green. This immediately screwed up Mike's balance as I was 'the wrong color'.

I sculpted a nice coiled WHIP, and a GONDOLA.
Mike sculpted a FRAME and a football shaped clue for SPORT.
Kelly sculpted an EYEBROW and a HANGER.
Christy sculpted a DRUM and a WHIP.

I knew Kelly's hanger as soon as I saw it, and guessed it by asking first letter, then throwing an interrupt cube. My whip was guessed quickly by Christy, then by Mike. Christy guessed Mike's frame, and Mike got Christy's drum.

As we were hitting mid-game, Kelly was trailing, Mike and I were just behind Christy. It was this time when I got Christy's whip, and Kelly beat me out on interrupt-cubing to get the second guess on the drum. I finally figured out Mike's frame, and we were very close to the end, Christy just needed one more correct guess.

Kelly got my Gondola, and I *knew* her eyebrow was an inchworm. Unfortunately, I had no letters so my guess was no good, and Christy guessed it off my questions (and she had the EY as well). Christy moved her pawn to the final score track, and then we adjusted our scores based on not-guessed sculptures.

The more we play this game, the more we move away from asking pointed questions... we're trying to get more and more information from intuition and asking for letters, then guessing with interrupt cubes. This is the best way to keep information private, but it does lower the interaction some.

Final Score:
Christy: 2 away from the key
Marshall: 9 away from the key
Mike: 15 away from the key
Kelly: 18 away from the key

Christy won, and picked Elfenland.

Thread: Session Report

marshalljansen — 2004-02-24T02:42:39+00:00

We set up the Barbarossa board and started on our sculptures...

Mike: NAIL (the longest nail I've ever seen) and a stonehenge-shaped TABLE

Christy: A perfect sphere of a PEARL, and rather well done CUCUMBER

Kelly: A very nice shovel-shaped SPOON, and a tootsie-roll looking CIGAR

Marshall: an odd steeple-representation of a CATHEDRAL, as well as a nice tassel-free MORTARBOARD

We began the game, and again Kelly amazed us all by immediately scoring sculptures with almost no information whatsoever. Christy and I quickly got on the scoring track though, and it was a very tight race for the three of us... Mike, however, was only seeing lumps of clay and not getting the guesses.

We got to the end game, and it was slightly unsatisfying... at one point, Christy could have chosen to elf stone onto the Ghost space, which would have sent Kelly to the Key, but then Kelly would have lost enough points on her sculptures not having been guessed that Christy would have taken the win... that was bad, but then Kelly ended the game by successfully guessing a sculpture, which caused her to move *1* space to the key, and then she went back 5 for no one having guessed her cigar, which let Christy and I tie as Kelly ended up just behind us.

I'm not terribly happy with the scoring mechanisms in the game, as they appear to be very prone to kingmaking and 'gaming' the system. However, playing the game without particularly caring who wins is a blast.

We went to grab Subway for dinner, and Christy and I decided (as co-winners) that we would play New England.

Thread: Session Report

marshalljansen — 2004-02-18T12:19:03+00:00

Mike came over to play Warhammer 40K, and after we'd gotten a 500-point game in, Christy wanted to try our new acquisition, Barbarossa.

We sat down, cracked the box, and started kneading the pristine plasticene, while looking at the item list.

We each sculpted our three items and started playing... it was clearly a learning game, though, as all of our sculptures were actually far too easy or far to difficult. However, it didn't matter as we had a blast playing... so much so that details of the game (such as who won) have slipped my mind.

This won't be an 'every game night' game, but it is a very nice change of pace to have in the game cabinet.

Thread: Session Report

marshalljansen — 2004-02-18T12:19:03+00:00

Mike, Kelly, Christy, and I got back to the house and explained Barbarossa to Kelly (the rest of us having played our inaugural game the night before).

I picked my scupltures... a thermometer, and a cabbage.

Kelly sculpted a gorgeous mushroom, and some strange amoeba.

Christy sculpted a blob and a lopsided volcano.

Mike sculpted a right angle and a fat snake.

My cabbage (which I made as a roughly spherical blob, using the pencil point to add 'leaves') was the front-ronner for attention... after guesses of flower, rose, stump, pepper, and tree, the others decided to just leave it alone.

Everyone wanted Kelly's mushroom to be a mushroom 'is it edible? yes! is it a pizza topping? 'NO!'...

Finally we found out it wasn't a pizza topping, nor was it meat, nor did you eat it raw, and you could buy it at Wal-Mart... I had the first letter (M), and realized... MUFFIN!

Christy's blob turned out to be a raisin, which Kelly guessed after asking 'is it a fruit?' and nothing else, and her volcano was a lampshade.

Kelly's blob was a mask, and Mike's right angle was a roof. His snake was a slug, which I got by knowing that Kelly had found out it was an animal and we both knew the first letter was S... when her guess was wrong (of course she guessed snake), I threw an interrupt cube for slug and got it.

All in all, very fun, and much better the second play!

Thread: end game question

iohonnes — 2003-12-31T14:55:58+00:00

We've just got Barbarossa for Christmas and I have a end-game question. In the online translations of the instructions, it states that if the game ends by using the 13th or 17th arrow, players who's objects have not been guessed should be penalized.

The Rio Grande english language instructions that came with the game don't seem to mention that rule. Am I just missing something in the Rio Grande instructions?

Our group thought that some sort of penalty should be in order.

Any ideas on why the Rio Grande edition does have this rule?

John

Thread: User Review

familygaming — 2003-09-15T20:29:29+00:00

This game is sort of a clay-sculpting game. That would normally scare a lot of people away, but bear with me here, because it's better than what you think. Normally, you might bring this to the table and your Aunt Suzie would say 'Oh, I am no good at those kind of games! I can't make clay look like anything!' Well, you can tell her she'll probably win. ('What?!' Read on...)

At the beginning, players secretly pick two objects from a list and make clay models of both (called "Riddles".) All Riddles are placed in the centre of the board and the game begins. The player rolls the die and moves his pawn on the board (which is a circle, which I think is a neat touch.) The space you land on determines what sort of clue you get: ask for a letter in the Riddle, ask a yes/no question, lose a turn, roll again, etc. Players can, of course, make guesses too, and here is where the game gets good. Players get points for being one of the first two people to solve a Riddle; players also get point for having their Riddles guessed -- sort of.

What makes it the PERFECT game for people like Aunt Suzie is the scoring. Why? Because this is a 'Goldilocks & the 3 Bears' kind of sculpting game. People who aren't very good are probably going to do quite well! You see, you don't want to make your Riddles too bad, or too good, because players lose points for riddles that are guessed too early or too late. The way to get lots of points is to create models that just bear a slight resemblance to the object. People will end up in stitches trying to figure out what on earth that half-spherical orange blob with a line on it is. (Clock? Grapefruit? Compass?) It's funny to watch one or two people get an answer right away while the others are dumbfounded.

This game is unique and fun, with great graphics, some fun deduction, and 6 colors of model clay inside. Much fun, and the deduction adds a bit of brain to the game

Thread: Session Report

Jvsquare — 2002-11-24T17:31:17+00:00

I got this for my wife for her birthday, and we finally got around to playing it last month. We played with 6 players: Jim, Mur, Garner, Kathryn, Luc and Julie.

It took a bit to figure out the rules, probably because we were having more fun socializing and playing with the clay. The elfstones and jewel scale were probably the most confusing part of the whole thing -- while they do make it a little less random than just rolling dice and moving, the mechanic still feels a little tacked on. The theme is also a little, uh, thin. It's not clear what making little sculptured riddles has to do with wizards (without having read the books that inspired Teuber). Since we were new to it, we all chose items off of the given list, although in some cases it would have been just as easy to pick almost anything else.

It's clear the key to the game is making your riddles *just* hard enough to figure out. Most people either had really easy items to guess or really hard ones. There weren't too many in between. So initially Garner did well because he was good at guessing, but his riddles were probably the hardest to guess -- he had "net" and "spade" -- Luc and I kept guessing "spear" and "spike" for the last one. Kathryn finally won by using the last arrow to guess one of Garner's riddles late in the game, driving him back -3 points and thus herself into the lead.

All in all, an enjoyable party game that we'll probably play again. It's always fun to play with clay...

Thread: Session Report

Deleted User 1 — 2002-04-04T17:41:36+00:00

While the rest of us were immersed in Intrige and Medici, Wendy, Dave, Chris and their friend Claire showed up and started a third table – this time playing Barbarossa.

From the vantage point of the Intrige table, it looked like quite a good game of Barbarossa. The riddles were very well sculpted – not too easy, not too hard. In the end, Wendy was able to capture first place.

Score:

1st – Wendy
2nd – Chris
3rd – Dave and Claire (tie)

Ratings:

Wendy – 9
Chris – 8
Dave – 8

Sculptures:

Wendy – Contact Lens (no guesses), Italy
Chris – Pool, Chain Link
Dave – Scepter (one guess), Piñata (one guess)
Claire – Gum, Highway (guessed first)

No one got the contact lens – Wendy had said during one question that it was part of the face - apparently this threw everyone off. I took a peek at their sculptures after the game and they were all great, but I gotta tell ya, I can’t imagine how Dave’s scepter only got one guess – it looked exactly like a scepter!

Thread: Session Report

Deleted User 1 — 2002-03-21T18:47:36+00:00

The groups then recombined and split into a group for Barbarossa and another group for Tigris and Euphrates.

The Barbarossa group consisted of Dan, Diane, Rick, Wendy, Dave and Chris. Wendy, Dave and Chris were the newbies and after being taught the rules we got started.

This game of Barbarossa turned out to be a ton of fun. Our last few games had been marred by players making their sculptures too easy, but this time they were just right.

I jumped into the lead early on. Diane began to catch up with the rest of the group close behind her. The questions and the guesses were very good, very few of the sculptures were guessed too quickly.

At the end of the game I lost big points for having no one guessed one of my sculptures (c’mon, it was a pacifier – how easy can you get? I think Dan guessed two or three times it was a mushroom. You gotta be kidding! Chris’s thing looked more like a mushroom than mine! Not to mention his tapeworm looked like a nail file! But I digress.) and Diane beat me by only one point. Good on you Diane!

Score:

*Diane* - Winner
Rick – 1 Point Back
Dan – 3 Points Back
Wendy – 5 Points Back
Dave – 5 Points Back
Chris – 9 Points Back

Ratings:

Diane – 9
Rick – 8
Dan – 8
Wendy – 9
Dave – 8
Chris – 9

Sculptures:

Diane – Skull, Hammock
Rick – Pacifier (not a Mushroom), Paintbrush
Dan – Axle, Profile
Wendy – Eyebrow, Tooth
Dave – Calculator, Scarf
Chris – Tapeworm, Button (that looked more like a Mushroom)

A really fun game. Chris liked especially, he felt that if he came in last in a game and still really liked it, it must be good!

Thread: Session Report

Deleted User 1 — 2002-02-06T21:58:13+00:00

With Joe back, and Shari and Wes with him, we sit down to a game of Barbarossa. I thought I’d bring this along as William is out of town (he detests the game) and we had such a good time with it the last time, I thought we’d try it again.

Dan, Joe, Corwin and I had played it before so we taught it to newcomers Shari and Wes. After making our two sculptures each, we dove in. Immediately the curse stones started to fly as people started guessing sculptures right away. Newcomer Wes had made his sculptures way too easy, and one of Corwin’s was guessed right away. Knowing that this would wreck the game, we decided to start again with some (hopefully) harder sculptures.

Unfortunately, our second attempt didn’t go much better. The game ended quickly as most of the sculptures were guessed in short order. One thing about Barbarossa, if the sculptures are guessed too quickly, the game just doesn’t work at all. We forged ahead, though. Joe came out with the victory.

Score:

1st - *Joe*
2nd - Dan
3rd – Wes (tied)
4th – Shari (tied)
5th - Rick
6th – Corwin

Ratings:

Joe – 6
Dan – 7
Wes – 4
Shari – 4
Rick – 4
Corwin – 6

I suspect Dan, Joe and Corwin’s higher ratings were because of their previous experience with the game, they know it can be a lot of fun. This time though, in my opinion (and Shari’s and Wes’s), it just didn’t work.

Thread: Session Report

ssmooth — 2002-01-01T18:42:58+00:00

Next on the table was Barbarossa, the game of making sculptures in clay and having the subject of your sculpture guessed by the other players. Ward, Maria, Jim and I had played Barbarossa earlier this month and had a hilarious time of it! We wanted to see if there'd be that much laughter in an all-guys running of the game... and of course there wasn't. But there was plenty enough for the game to be enjoyed!

We did some things differently this time. There'd been some discussion of Barbarossa in the newsgroups, so we decided to add the rule that a sculpture which is unguessed at the end of the game scores negative 4 for its creator. We also decided to require that all sculptures be objects from the list in the rules. We didn't do this in our first game and wound up with some stuff that was almost unguessable. With more familiarity with the game (and people getting an idea approximately how difficult they want it to be to guess their sculptures) I expect we'll eventually drop this requirement, but we felt it was a good idea now, being this new to the game -- and at the end of the game, we were glad we'd done it this way. So we recommend sticking to the list any time you've got a newbie or two in the game.

We had to make up rules on the fly when Leon was asking yes-and-no questions about one of Jim's sculptures and accidentally nailed it: "Is it a game?" "Yes -- that's it -- it's a game!" After discussion, we wound up giving Leon the 5 points for guessing it first, giving everybody else 2 points as tied for guessing it second (instead of the 3 points that guessing it second would normally score), and subtracting 3 from Jim's score for having it guessed so early in the game (as a compromise between the 2 it would have cost him for having it guessed once and the 4 it would have cost him for having it guessed twice). Whew! Lucky we had some good rules lawyers in the game or we might never have made it past that point!

After my experience in the previous game, I tried hard to make my sculptures easier to guess. I succeeded with my life-size model of a cigarette, which got guessed nice and early, but somehow failed with what I thought was unmistakably a seahorse. Leon guessed the seahorse right away, but the rest of the table was mystified until nearly the end of the game. But the most mystifying of all was Ward's little sculpture of what a couple of us thought was a phone booth but was actually (according to Ward) an elevator. Ward took the minus 4 and Jim won the game by a point with the rest of us close behind.

Barbarossa is not what I would call a serious game of strategy -- but it's fun, and I'll enjoy playing it again. It sort of creates its own sense of gaming space, and you just play in there for a while. I can easily understand why it won SdJ back in 1988.

Thread: General Comment

BoardGameGeek — 2002-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

i think this game works best if the objects chosen are not from the list of suggestions but are somehow related to one another. it forces you to strain and think flexibly. examples: "a ballot" and "mt. rushmore", a "sickle" and a "pickle" (they rhyme),
"helium" and "olive oil"(from popeye).

also, i've never been entirely satisfied with the mechanism that determines who gets to use their power cube when more than one person wants to.
in our game the cubes play a pretty major role and people who roll poorly get stuck. next time we play i'm considering making one of the dragon caves or one of the gem caves a "die boost" cave. when you visit this cave you receive a chit which can be saved and used to add to your die roll sometime in the future. not at all confident that this is THE answer but i think it may be an improvement.

Thread: General Comment

BoardGameGeek — 2002-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

I played once, enjoyed the game immensely. However, we made pretty hard objects, so the game took 2 hours to play! I like the first set of suggestions to get more power cubes. I like the idea of being able to "buy" information from other players. Say you want the 2nd letter of something and someone knows it- if a simple majority of the players agree to a barter arranged by the 2 players, then the information can be exchanged. I was thinking, bartering could be: (1) move your score piece 1, 2, or even 3 places backwards; (2) give up a roll of the dice to the other player; (3) give up a power cube! It's all negotiable. Maybe allow for only 3 barters per player per game. Anyhow, this would get more information out there and make the game move more quickly.

Thread: Session Report

ssmooth — 2001-12-09T21:00:08+00:00

After Siesta we tried Oodles for a few minutes but decided we weren't in the mood for it. We discussed the possibilities and came up with the idea of Union Pacific, but with the trip down to Jim's game shelves came back with a few other ideas, and Barbarossa is the one we settled on. Jim had had the game for a while without ever having played it. In fact, Ward was the only one of us who had ever played it, and he didn't really know all the rules. "How do you know how much you score when your sculpture is guessed?" "Well, you ask Frank, and Frank looks something up in the rules and he tells you how much you score." (That's Frank Branham, who had been the game Ward had played.) Frank not being present tonight, I took custody of the rules and before long had found the chart where you look to see what scores. Basically you want to be neither among the first nor among the last to have your sculptures identified.

After the game, we felt we'd have been better off in our first game if we'd had to pick items to sculpt from the long list on the last page of the rules. Instead we left it wide open, and this left us wide open to some beginners' mistakes. For example, while I was manipulating my piece of clay, I got a kind of dog-like shape that reminded me of Lady from Lady and the Tramp. I thought this might be hard to guess but not TOO hard to guess, so that was my first sculpture: Lady. Unfortunately this turned out to be not easy at all. In fact it turned out that even after Ward had asked me for the first four letters, one turn at a time, he still didn't know what it was. Finally he asked me, "Are there any more letters in the name?" and when I said no, he submitted the first successful guess.

I didn't know what to expect, but Barbarossa turned out to generate a WHOLE lot of laughter! It seems there were always jokes to be made about everybody's sculptures, both before and after they were identified. There was a scoring track and a game in there to be "won," but that really didn't seem to be the point. So when I'm in the mood for a strategy game, this won't hit the table, but when I'm ready to spend an hour at silliness and hilarity, Barbarossa will do fine.

Jim's and my sculptures turned out to be the last ones guessed, but there are more points for successfully guessing than for successfully being guessed, so we were neck and neck heading for the finish line, having knocked off hookah (Ward's), fireplace (Maria's), sphinx (Maria's), zipper (Jim's), and taco (Ward's) in that order. Finally they got Lady (mine), and I was the first to guess Band-Aid (Jim's). This left me with no sculptures to guess, and in the after-game discussion we seemed to agree that this should have been a game-ending condition in itself, because it left me with nothing to do on my turns except try to avoid giving somebody else points. I did wonder whether I could use my turn in the question cave to ask questions about Jim's sculptures that I'd already guessed so as to give Ward and Maria hints about what they were, but Jim wouldn't permit this!

Finally we agreed to end the game in a tie between Jim and me if I would just tell everybody what my other sculpture was, which nobody had been able to guess. It was a croquet wicket. Furthermore, it LOOKED like a croquet wicket. I'm still amazed that nobody guessed it.

What we learned from this playing is that Barbarossa is essentially a GUESSING game where you home in on your object with smart questions, as in Botticelli. To be more successful, we'll have to learn to use the game's particular constraints on questioning better. Not forgetting that the whole point is: We laughed and laughed and laughed.

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-08-20T16:03:30+00:00

And we ended with Barbarossa which has come out a lot lately! I got absolutely hammered in a game I usually do quite well in! As usualy Joe did very well and this game came on top. The most maddeing riddle of the night had to be Dan's long cylider blob with a hole on top. I guess lampstand, carpet, pillar -- answer: CHIMNEY! DOh! Add to that the fact that one of my riddles was guess before the game even started and I was doomed! A fun game tho, which Joe seems born for.

WINNER: Joe

Ratings: Joe 7, Rick 7, Dan 7, William 5, Jy 6, Chester 7
Group avg: 6.50

I admit I rated it low because I got hammered. Unfortunately, William just doesn't like this game as it just doesn't fit his matrix I guess. Still a good game, but not universally lauded.

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-08-20T16:03:05+00:00

Exhausted, we stumbled to teh end of our long game sess with Barbarossa. Jeff and Corwin has missed the first playing of it last week, but had read the session report and were game to try it. I really like this one, and was all for playing it. The only problem we ran into were that two of the riddles that Jeff and Corwin chose, Rick and I had seen last week! So it meant that I guessed a correct sculpture before anyone has even rolled a die to move! It was a fun game that had its share of laughs. I took no notes because I completely forgot, but overall, it proved to be the highest rated game of the night!

Scores:
Jy Winner
Jeff -7
Corwin -13
Rick -17 (?)

Ratings: Jy 8, Corwin 7, Jeff 8, Rick 8
Group avg: 7.75