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jdh681's Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot (Other)
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| [March 28, 2012 09:48:26 PM]
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Since I spent the entirety of my first entry for Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot on the actual rules of the game, I will use this entry to give a quick review of the game.
Like I said in the last entry, Quest is a game that relies heavily on an element of randomness. Depending on your perspective, this can be a positive or a negative. One thing it DOES do is level the playing field between all participants. While solid strategy is certainly rewarded, having the run as a buffer between cards being played and coming in to effect limits the chances and effectiveness of an "ideal" play. The dice roll involved in many cards is another equalizer between the experienced and the novice. This contrasts heavily with a game like Magic: The Gathering or Rook where making one wrong play can be the difference between a win and a loss.
The complexity of the game is fairly well front-loaded. Once a player knows the basic setup and turn structure of the game, the next step is to become familiar with individual cards. As this familiarity is developed, proper play strategy is formed fairly quickly. Past that, there isn't much of an underlying depth. A certain degree of a metagame might develop if the same group plays frequently, but this isn't a game that people could spend hours theorizing with. Ten expansions have been released to add new cards and game mechanics to increase strategy depth and keep the game fresh, but I have not had the opportunity to play past the base game and the first expansion.
The theme of the game is very lighthearted and fun, with a slight dark bent surrounding the murder of bunnies. The Play Immediately cards that instantly kill a bunny each have a unique and humorous death written and drawn on the card. The weapon cards range from the silly to the ridiculous, from an egg beater to a nuclear bomb. This adds even more laughter to the social scenario, which tends to be quite active as it is. Trading cards between players is encouraged, as are informal alliances and agreements, all doomed to betrayal and backstabbing.
Based on this assessment, it is clear that the intentions of this game are not to foster an extremely competitive environment. Instead, the objective is instead to simply provide a fun, social atmosphere where every player can enjoy themselves, whether the session is their first or their fortieth. Speaking from experience, Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot succeeds in this task.
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| [March 28, 2012 12:43:03 AM]
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When presented with the task of writing a GameLog for a non-video game, I knew exactly what I was going to do. Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot is a card-based game for around, ideally, 4 to 6 players. Published by Playroom Entertainment, the successful franchise has spawned 10 expansions and several other Killer Bunnies card games, thematically similar to Quest for the Magic Carrot (Quest for short) but with a variety of different cards and rulesets.
The ultimate objective of Quest is to accumulate as many carrot cards as possible. At the end of the game (when all carrot cards have been claimed,) one is chosen at random to be the Magic Carrot, and whoever owns it is the winner of the game. This goal sets a tone for the game. Though intelligent play is rewarded, there is a heavy element of randomness involved. The following are the card types that are used in Quest:
Large Carrot Cards
Small Carrot Cards
Water Cards
Cabbage Cards
Bunny Money Cards
Run, Special and Very Special Cards
Play Immediately Cards
One 'Starter' Market Card
and 6 different colored 12-sided dice
Small carrot cards are simply representations of the large carrot cards, and are used for the random drawing of the magic carrot at the end of the game. An important concept to understand at the beginning is that gameplay occurs within the 'Bunny Circle', an imaginary, continuous circle on whatever surface the game is taking place. Each player owns a section of the circle directly in front of them, and it is where all of their cards will be laid. All cabbage, water, and large carrot cards are laid face down in the middle of the bunny circle, along with a face up starter market card, and all other cards in a draw pile face down. Space is set aside for a discard pile.
To begin, each player draws seven cards. Any Play Immediately cards drawn are discarded and a new card is drawn to replace them. Any Bunny Money drawn may be placed in the drawing player's section of the bunny circle. After all players have seven cards in their hand, each player places two cards in their Run, a 'top run' and a 'bottom run'. The run is essentially a queue from which cards are put in to play, with the top run card being the one popped off every turn, and a new bottom run being pushed on every turn. Special and Very Special cards can be played straight from a hand without going through the run. If they ARE put through the run, they can be played as normal, or be stored for future use. Very Special cards can be played instantly on anyone's turn. Players roll to see who goes first, and play proceeds clockwise around the bunny circle.
The most important cards other than carrot cards are bunny cards. Bunny cards are Run cards and are physically placed in the bunny circle, and a player is required to control at least one bunny in order to play most other cards (indicated by a pink rectangle on the card to be played.) Also, in order to win, a player must have a living bunny at the end of the game. The Play Immediately cards kill a bunny owned by the player who draws it, and are then discarded.
Choose A Carrot cards are Run cards played in order to gain carrots from the central carrot stash. Weapon cards are Run cards played in order to kill a targeted bunny, or possibly more, determined by a roll of the dice. Feed The Bunny cards are similar to weapon cards, but the player controlling a targeted bunny has until the end of their next turn to spend cabbage and/or water cards to save his or her bunny.
The cabbage and water cards (along with carrot cards) can be obtained through certain cards, or bought from the Kaballa Market with Bunny Money (with prices set by the Starter Market card, or another market card played to replace it) on that player's turn. Every other Run, Special, and Very Special card has it's own unique rules, ranging from a Magic Spatula that eliminates a weapon card being played to a Terminator Bunny that rampages across the Bunny Circle until it's killed or runs out of bunnies to terminate.
Confused, yet?
This is by no means a game that can be learned in one session. The learning curve can certainly be seen as a negative to the game, but provides for quite a bit of replayability and variety in gameplay.
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jdh681's Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot (Other)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Saturday 24 March, 2012
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This is the only GameLog for Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot. |
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