Kickstarter Prerelease Review: Paperback | Games Are Evil: The ...

Disclaimer: This is an unpaid review for a physical card game currently available for backing on Kickstarter.com.

Word games with wooden tiles are so 1938.

Paperback is a new game from Tim Fowers that?s seeking funding on Kickstarter ? right now. ?It?s a new take on the old word building theme, and a good one at that. A deck-builder at its core, Paperback is the story of fictional Paige Turner, an aspiring novelist who must work her way through the labors of writing predictable Mysteries, outrageous Sci-Fi, cliche Westerns, and cheesy Romances ? all in preparation for writing something amazing: a Best Seller. All pretty wrapping and literary theme aside, this game is a solid deck-builder that features a similar central market set up to Dominion, a single currency system like DC Deck-Building Game, and a breath of fresh air in the world of word-crafting games that?s all its own.

Paperback, as a game, is pretty straightforward: every turn you try and create a word with some ? if not all ? of the cards in your hand. Each card features either a letter, set of two letters, or a question mark which can be used as a wild letter. Every card you end up using to make your word adds its spending points to your score for that round. During your buy phase, you can only purchase one card for equal or lesser value than the score you?ve earned. Also, if you use enough letters in the word you?ve created, you automatically earn the common vowel that?s on top of the common vowel deck, in addition to your purchase. Some cards you buy may also have bonus effects that happen when you play them or have them in your hand during a turn, but those are all pretty straight forward. At the end of your turn, you discard all your cards, including whatever cards you?ve played, remain in your hand, or that you?ve gained; then draw five new cards. Pretty standard deck-builder stuff. When two of the novel-type stacks are bought out or all the common vowels claimed, the game ends and the person with the most victory points in their deck ? each card has a VP amount listed on it ? wins.

If you?ve played any of the popular deck-building games out on the market today, you?ve already got a good idea of how you?d go about playing a game of Paperback. You?d focus on getting cards that are versatile in word creation ? lots of wilds, ?s?s, and vowels. You?d trim out all the useless consonants that make your life difficult, like ?x?, ?y?, and ?t?. You?d make your deck a lean, mean, word-making machine. Except ? that?s going to totally screw you over.

It turns out that the letters which are the hardest to work into a word are worth the most points for buying other cards, specifically ones that give you victory points. And the cards that give you victory points generally don?t give you points for purchasing. What this means is that you want to pick up those cards that are a pain in the ass to use, like ?u? and ?st? and ?re?, and figure out some amazing freaking words. The last game I played, I came up with ?unitards? to get a bonus five score points and the top common vowel. I can?t even spell half the words in this article ? the autocorrect on my iPad is the smartest AI since Watson, and I hear next week the two of them are going to play chess.

I should also probably mention the art. Oh man, the art. It?s crisp and clean and honestly, I?d probably buy the game for it alone. The best thing is that I don?t have to settle, though. Paperback has brains, beauty, and my attention.

The moral of the story is that I can?t spell the word ?openable?, let alone ?stricture?, but Paperback makes me want to. The game forces you to get better at making interesting words so as to get better purchasing power. It encourages you to expand your vocabulary in a manner that I find more interesting than Scrabble, mainly because every turn you?re forced to get new letters from a deck that you built. There?s no holding onto that four point card until you can think of something to spell with it ? use it, or lose it. Every turn you?ll want to come up with something amazing that uses all of the cards in your hand, conforms to all the bonus effects, and earns you the most points. If you can snag the common vowel off the top of the deck, even better.

Tim?s got a wide selection of backer levels available, including a Print-and-Play version of the beta (without final art) for five bucks if you?re worried about shelve space. $25 snags US-based backers the final product, printed and boxed in all its glory, $38 for Canada, $48 for world-wide. There?s also a couple of tiers offering multiple-copies at a discount, for those who see a Paperback-full Christmas in their future. Whichever level you pick, just rest assured that you?ll have secured the game that is soon to be all the envy of your friends: Paperback.

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Tiffany is the writer for Board Stiff, ?GrE?s regular foray into the deep, dark,?cardboard-smelling realms of analog gaming. Boards, cards or dice, it doesn?t matter, our writer?Tiffany?will play them all. If you?ve got a game you?d be interested in having Tiffany review, contact her on?Twitter?or via Gmail at TheOneTAR.

Source: http://gamesareevil.com/2013/07/kickstarter-review-paperback/

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