Can a game with absolutely no theme be any good? Let’s find out with today’s game: No Thanks!
| No Thanks! (2005 edition) | Z-Man Games |
| 3-5 Players | 20 minutes |
| Ages 8+ | BGG Weight – 1.15 / 5 |
Usually in my intros I like throw a little flavor that matches the theme of the game. Well, I just couldn’t think of anything so you get the shortest intro I have done to date. No Thanks! is a great card game of push your luck. Period. I’ll tell you all the rules here since this mighty game may be bypassed in stores as it looks very unassuming and bland.
You are trying to get the least amount of points in a very nontraditional way. In the deck are cards numbered 3-35. You shuffle them all up and randomly eject from the game 9 cards. Nobody will know which 9. Why does that matter? Well, you score points (which is bad) equal to the lowest number of all your runs of cards. So a run of 3-4-5-6 scores 3 points because 3 is the lowest card. However, if 5 was one of the ejected cards and you had 3-4 and 6, you total would be 9 (3 from the first run and 6 from the next run since there wasn’t a 5 to connect them).
How do you get these cards? Well, on your turn you flip over a card from the face-down stack. Decide if you want to take that card into your tableau or if you would like to pass. If passing, you plop a red chip on it (of the 11 you were given at setup) and offer it to the next player. They can take the card along with the chip, or add a chip of their own. The offer now goes to the next player who does the same. Whomever ends up with the card also collects all the chips to be used on future cards.
This doesn’t really sound all that fun does it? Well it most certainly IS fun once you give it a go! Especially when you’re trying to decide if you should just take the 15 because you already have a run of 12-13-14 and it would be worth zero points, but you are also running low on chips. Let it ride around the table a couple times and get those chips! But beware of your opponents who will take the card out of spite and now you can’t connect your runs and you are low on chips. Uh oh Daddy-O!
This game is great with all player counts, and with all ages who can understand the math behind their choices. That’s why we at Purple Phoenix Games authorize a non-themed score of 8 / 12.
