
Quick Look: Rucksack Preview
Designer: David and Joel
Publisher: Self published
Year Published: 2019
No. of Players: Up to 20
Ages: 12+
Playing Time: Not Listed
Publisher: Self published
Year Published: 2019
No. of Players: Up to 20
Ages: 12+
Playing Time: Not Listed
Find
more info on BoardGameGeek.com
Review
Strange things seem to happen to me! Caught in a
giant spider’s web and I need to get free before the spider comes and considers
me dinner. I look in my bag to find I have 5 things—so here’s what I did...
Rucksack is a storytelling game where you are
placed in a scenario with five items. It is your task to create a plan the rest
of the players will vote as being the best. But, they get to tell their plans
also. And, they have different items in their Rucksack.
Rucksack is designed to get your creative juices
flowing, and the storyteller has a captive audience. After hearing the plans,
the group votes on which one was the best.
Some Scenarios. |
I pulled together a group of writers and players of
role-playing games to see what they would come up with in this game of creative
planning designs. Some of those plans were quite outrageous and everyone
enjoyed what came out of the challenges.
More Scenarios. |
The
Scenario deck we used contained 50 cards. Some of the scenarios are duplicated,
but we didn’t run into any duplicates while we were playing.
The
item cards in the Rucksack deck totaled 100. There are items that are very
useful for the scenario.
Decide
who the starting player (head player) is. They draw a Scenario card, read it
out loud and place it where everyone knows what it is. The scenarios vary
widely. Some are of survival, others are exploration, and some started us out
with, “How did I get here?”
Time
to start building your plan.
Gameplay
Each
player draws items out of their Rucksack. The head player draws a card from the
Items. They decide if they want to keep it, or keep the next card. It’s one or
the other and you have to decide without knowing what the next one is. Once
they make their decision they place the card face down in front of them and the
next player is up.
More items used. |
Continue
drawing till everyone has 5 cards.
The
head player turns over their items and describes their plan how all five items
are used in the scenario. Go around until all plans are presented and then vote
on which one is the best.
The
winner of the best plan wins a point. The Item cards are gathered and shuffled
up. The next player is now the Head Player and a new round begins.
Theme and Mechanics
Story
building and voting on the plan you like best. This did lead to some attempted
bribery and favoritism, but it was all in good fun.
Artwork and Components
Basic
art; this is about the telling of the plan, not about looking at the cards. I like
the fact that the art was minimalistic. It allowed players to focus in on the plans
instead of the artwork on the cards.
The Good
- The range of the number of players
- You can also vary the number of items
Final Thoughts
Rucksack
provided a good jumping off point for the creative personalities involved. Our
group of writers jumped in from the beginning and enjoyed the evening of
gameplay, gamesmanship, and creative one-upmanship.
Players Who Like
- Storytelling
- Voting for the best
Check out Rucksack on
Coming to KICKSTARTER soon.

Daniel Yocom - Reviewer
Daniel Yocom does geeky things by night because his day job won’t let him. This dates back to the 1960s through games, books, movies, and stranger things better shared in small groups. He’s written hundreds of articles about these topics for his own blog, other websites, and magazines along with stories, after extensive research. His research includes attending conventions, sharing on panels and presentations, and road-tripping with his wife. Join in the geeky fun at guildmastergaming@blogspot.com.
See Daniel's reviews HERE.
Rucksack Kickstarter Preview
Reviewed by Guild Master Gaming
on
August 09, 2019
Rating:

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