It’s 1985 and new wave is in, neon is the color of choice and you can’t get enough of all the new music hitting the Canadian airwaves. You are of course a polar bear and the keytar is your dream, but with the realization that your paws are a little too big to play one, what if we instead move to a xylophone driven dream of the same? Let’s take a look at what that dream could look like in reality when we look at Xylotar!
Xylotar is a card game designed by Chris Way with art by Davi Comodo. The game is published by Bezier Games. It plays 2-5 players in 30 mins.
Overview:
In Xylotar, players have found the schematics of the elusive xylotar. Without a working knowledge we must play until we get the right sounds to happen. Find the perfect balance, score the most points and be the one who will manufacture this amazing instrument to the masses!
Gameplay:
To begin, all players take a high note and the cards are shuffled together based on the number of players. All cards are dealt out to the players and each player sorts their cards from highest value to lowest. They then place the high note on the far side, place it face down and pass it to their neighbor to the left.
Each player spreads out their cards face down creating a xylotar from high note to lowest face down card. The trick is you cannot look at your own cards.
To start the player left of the dealer picks any card but their highest and reveals it face up in front of them. Each player follows, playing one of their cards face up following suit if they can. The winner of the trick is the highest showing trump card. The winner of the trick stacks their pile and leads the next trick. Play continues in this fashion until all cards are played.
Players may also announce a bid after playing a card into a trick. First they view two adjacent cards of their own then chose one to bid. This card cannot be played into a trick and stays face up.
At the end of the game players score one point per trick. If their bid matches the number of taken tricks they score an additional 5 points. The game continues like this for 3 rounds and the winner has the most points at the end of those three.
Impressions:
Xylotar uses one of my all-time favorite mechanisms in card games, trick-taking. Although there are many games that use this style of play I found Xylotar to be unique in the hidden information aspects of the game. Although you have a general idea of value based on order and color, you never really knew until your card was flipped.
The game plays well as everyone is revealing cards and trying to maneuver to the win the match throughout. You will find that the more you reveal in areas of your board the more information you have potentially to make your next card play.
The ease of teaching and jumping in to this game has made it a must bring game for me to most of the game nights I attend. It is a quick and easy teach so players don’t feel overwhelmed with learning something new. I was able to teach it to a wide variety of players in our family and gaming groups and all of them caught on well.
Overall Xylotar is a game that is well worth picking up to try and get to your next game night table. It is made for a short play but you will find yourself playing multiple rounds of this over and over at your next meetup. We have enjoyed and I am sure you will as well-so give this one a chance for your next rocking party!
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