New Games For Old: Modern Alternatives To... Pictionary

Last week, we considered a number of board games which I would recommend for the enjoyment of art lovers. As a sister post, this week we shall turn our attention to the other side of that coin - games for art producers. This particular market has long been dominated by one ubiquitous family game- Pictionary. Consequently I shall be proposing three games which supersede that hoary chestnut, improving on its (fairly evident) shortcomings.

1. Pictomania

Easily the most obvious problem with Pictionary is that, at any given time, only a very small number of people are having fun. Unless an "All Play" is in effect, everyone else sits around getting bored - and getting more bored the longer the playing team continues to win. Pictomania solves this problem with a simple twist - everyone is drawing and guessing, all the time.
Cards are drawn each round with related words on them; players then receive a symbol and a number,

telling them what they must draw. When play begins, everyone starts drawing their target word; but they are also keeping an eye out for what the other players are drawing, guessing the meaning of their drawings at the same time. This allows players to play to their strengths - if, like me, you excel at guessing but can't draw a straight line, you can adjust your priorities appropriately. Pressure is on to do both, as fast as possible; you get more points for finishing earlier, and also more points for guessing earlier. Lose points for bad guessing, and also for those failing to guess your own drawing. Put it all together, and you have a frantic family game, which elegantly solves Pictionary's biggest flaw in a single stroke.

2. Telestrations/Cranium Scribblish/Eat Poop You Cat

cc: daveoratox

While Pictomania unquestionably improves on the basic mechanism of Pictionary, it doesn't really venture outside the basic concept. The public domain game generally known as Eat Poop You Cat (commercialised in such games as Telestrations and Cranium Scribblish) steps outside that framework to provide a different experience.
I'm sure most people are familiar with the basics - each player writes a sentence at the top of the page. These are then passed, and players must try to draw the sentence they have received. They fold the page to conceal the original sentence, and pass again - now players must try to guess what the original sentence was from the drawing. This sentence is then represented artistically by the next player, and so on.
The concept is simple to grasp, and almost guarantees a good time - being worse at drawing can actually work in a player's favour, as hilarity ensues as guesses become increasingly bizzare and inappropriate. For a straightforward fun time, more likely to produce laughs and anecdotes than either Pictionary or Pictomania, EPYC and its commercial derivations are fine choices.

3. Identik

Then again, maybe you would prefer something that adds at least a little bit of intellectual challenge

to your artistic escapades. Identik's clever twist on the formula is to reverse the role of the guesser. In Identik, aach round's Art Director is given a picture which only they are allowed to see. They must describe it in as much detail as they can, while the other players attempt to draw it. The onus is on the director to be specific, and explain things in a way the players can understand. After the drawing phase, ten hidden criteria are revealed, and drawings scored on whether they fulfill these criteria.
Identik doesn't have the frantic, all-drawing-all-guessing fun of Pictomania, but it does capture the essence of having everyone focused on the same activity at once. EPYC is probably going to produce more laughs, but Identik has an even stronger pressure to get into players' heads and explain things such that they will understand. Identik is definitely a strong all-rounder in the Pictionary-beater competition.

Board Games For... Art Lovers

With the festive season upon us, the stores are filled with hosts of well-meaning friends and parents, completing the annual ritual of purchasing gifts which are intended to be, in some way, personal to the recipient.
When selecting a board game as a gift, I humbly suggest you follow the same principle. Rather than pulling yet another painfully predictable copy of Monopoly or Scene It from the shelves, consider the individual's tastes and interests - I promise you, there are excellent games out there to suit every psyche. For this article, we shall consider games likely to be enjoyed by art lovers.

Dixit

Dixit is often proposed as a "gateway" game; that is, one which is well-suited to convincing

Picture by Olka Kobylecka

newcomers of the value of modern board games. The rules are simple, and the mechanism is immediately understandable. It is a game about the meaning and effect of art.
The game itself consists of little more than a means of keeping score, tokens representing votes (more on this in a moment), and a number of cards. These card are, in reality, the whole of the game.
Each is lavishly illustrated with some surreal, dreamlike-scene. The artworks are evocative and ambiguous - the latter being a key quality. Each round, one person chooses one of their cards, and then gives some sort of general clue to a meaning they find in it - it could be a short phrase, a single word, an interpretive dance, a noise, a meandering anecdote, whatever. Everyone else chooses a card from their own hand which they believe reflects that clue, and all are shuffled together. Then all players (except the one giving the clue) vote on which is the true artwork. The clue-giver only wins points if some, but not all, players choose their card - they must try to walk a line between precision and enigma.
Thus the game is all about interpreting art, while trying to get inside the heads of other players and guess the interpretations they would make. It's a wonderful ice-breaker for new acquaintances, as well as a game of deep psychology for those who know each other well. Simple, beautiful, and highly recommended for every audience.

Pastiche

From the interpretation of art to its creation, at a level of fine detail. Pastiche is a game of mixing the paints necessary to produce history's greatest art works. The game is played on three levels. The

Picture by Chris Miller

first act of each player's turn is to add a tile to a shared mixing board - the primary colours so combined where the new tile meets its fellows mix, providing the player with cards representing the secondary colours produced (or, sub-optimally, a single primary colour is obtained from the tile). Secondary colour cards can then be mixed to produce other colours. Beyond this, the players are also jockeying for control of masterpieces - when they have acquired the necessary colours to produce them, they can then turn in these masterpieces for points.
This game is great for those who love the technical side of art, and comes with lovely, giant tiles representing the artworks. Definitely a fun choice for practical artists. Nonetheless, when it comes to a games about art production, my favourite is still...

Fresco

This game considers the process of art creation from a step back. Players act as the master painter of a studio, delegating the actual work to their assistants. "Fresco" falls broadly within the "worker placement" genre; players have a number of workers, and must decide where to send them all before anyone's actions are processed. Sending assistants to the market allows you to buy the paints on sale there - and, crucially, prevent others buying them. Workers can also be sent to the cathedral to use those same paints in the painting of the eponymous fresco, converting paints to points. Other tasks include painting portraits (for money to buy more paints), mixing colours to get the ones you need, and finally, just sending assistants to the theatre for the night, cheering them up.
Morale is crucial - high morale provides you with an extra assistant, while low happiness causes one

Picture by Raiko Puust

of your assistants to go AWOL for a while.
However, the most important decision a player makes every turn is what time to get up in the morning. Get up early and you suffer morale loss, while having to pay premium prices at the market - but you get first pick. Get up late and everyone is happier, plus you can buy paints cheap - if there's anything worthwhile left, of course. In no time flat, players will be stabbing themselves in the foot by getting up early just to stop their opponents grabbing the good stuff.
Ultimately, Fresco is a satisfying and surprisingly accessible game - but more than that, the fact that it revolves around getting up in the morning makes it my personal choice for most appropriate game for art lovers.