Quacks

^{review by Taylor}

“Pull ingredients from your bag to make your pot bubble, but hopefully not explode!”

Originally released as Quacks of Quedlinburg, this revamped and updated version is cute, fun and witchy, making it a perfect modern push your luck game. The premise leans heavily on each player being a “quack” or a witch doctor competing to make the best and most powerful potions.

Each player starts with the same batch of ingredients in their potion bag but can choose to purchase more ingredients each round to add and grow their supply. Throughout the game all players act simultaneously, pulling random ingredients out of their bags one by one and placing them in their cauldron. You want to use your ingredients and move furthest along the potion track, but don’t add too many that will cause an explosion! Once you surpass seven “boomberries”, your cauldron will explode and you are forced to stop, forgoing some rewards in the process.

To further spice up gameplay, each player possesses a rat token, giving benefits to the players falling behind on the point track and ensuring even the leading player is always kept on their toes. There are also omen cards pulled from a deck every round which can influence strategies or grant exciting bonuses to players.

The game ends after 9 rounds, throughout which additional ingredients are unlocked and more boomberries are added. Players gain additional victory points for excess rubies and money that they have when scoring at the end of the game. The winner is decided by the player with the most points at the end of the game.

Quacks has the cutest little tokens that all go into your potion bag, making this an ideal game for token hoarders. The revamped artstyle is playful and on theme with little witchy cartoon critters and plants. Another highlight is the fact that even if you do explode your potion, it will not spell the end for you. It can be hard to really know who will take the victory until the final points are tallied. The bowl of rats mechanic can level the playing field in a game where it would otherwise be easy to fall behind, adding to the fun and desire of just adding “one more token” and pushing for greater rewards before the game comes to an end.

Quacks is available now from our webstore.