The Magic Bag

Description

Make the most gold from the Magic Bag

Rules

• https://ludism.org/piecepack/org/rules/TheMagicBag.pdf (local copy)
• https://web.archive.org/web/2016/http://www.piecepack.org/rules/TheMagicBag.pdf (original copy)
• The Magic BagTextVersion

Reviews & Comments

Entry in the SolitaryConfinement contest

Short, light and ingenious take on category dice games (i.e. Yatzy), in which one player rolls several dice once or more to obtain values that fulfil certain criteria: in this case the "categories" are rows of Piecepack tiles whose numbers must match the values of the dice, and that are removed from play when the throw brings a match. After this, the player draws one coin or more depending on the dice that matched tiles in the row both in value and suit. The goal, as usual in games of this genre, is to finish with the highest score possible by means of the drawn coins. A small reservoir of coins given to the player at the beginning of the game allows to keep playing after having a dud turn.

The Magic Bag makes generally for pleasant 15 minutes of play and can be played several times in a row without becoming tiring: random setups using the tiles give the game welcome variety, and the amount of dice and allowed re-rolls per turn feels right. There is scope for tactics, with shorter rows being available to use after poor throws and longer rows bringing potentially more yield: the reward for them seems small considering the probability of making exact matches is considerably lower than the probability of simply matching in value. Nevertheless, it is capital to match long rows whenever possible to keep the game going.

There is one possible caveat in this otherwise smooth and lively game: coins are drawn fully randomly after each success (instead of for example drawing two coins, keeping one and returning another). Following a scoring system based on easy tables, only luck decides if coins bring big bonuses or not by being together in these tables. This might seem unelegant at first, but it doesn't alter the flow of the game once you're used to it: simply try to score as many coins as possible and hope for the best.

-- Antonio Recuenco Muñoz

CategoryGame SolitaireThemedGamesCategory