Black Bones of Trick
Ok, for anyone who knows me, know one thing for sure, I usually despise trick taking games (Or climbing game for the pedantic). So when a new one comes around, I look it with an evil eye. Recently I had a chance to buy GemBlo from funagain, as they were the only vendor at the time to have it in stock. I also noticed at the same time, the company Dagoy had another title also available “Lexio” a tile-based trick taking game. My gaming bud mark digs trick taking games so I asked if he’d like to piggyback and order for it. When it came I must admit, such a pretty box. Slick black with fancy symbology. Of course being that it was Korean, I couldn’t read a lick of it.
Inside the box the first thing you notice is one of the best-made box inserts I had ever seen, but inside that a set of the most gorgeous black tiles, thick and heavy. They were numbered in four colors blue/yellow/green/red from 1 through 15 in fancy symbols and runes. The number “2” tiles were adorned even further that had identified them as special. Also in the box was a tightly bound set of chips of green red and yellow. I truly enjoyed the feel of the tiles, and they were stackable and had a mix between Mah Jongg and Dominoes.
Game play. Well let’s see. It is a straightforward Climbing Card Game where you had four suits numbered 1-15. The odd part was the 1 and 2 are the high cards, while the 3-15 followed. The suits were also ordered. Blue being lowest, then yellow, then green and the highest being red. For 5 players, each player got 12 tiles each. And the player with the “3” of blue, being the lowest would start the hand (Like Mah Jongg). The starting player would choose any set of tiles that follow the table below:
Single tile
Pair
Three of a kind
Then the special hands which ay be played in any order above the above hands. With the hand getting better down the list.
5-tile straight
5-tile flush
Full house
4 of a kind + 1 high tiles
5-tile straight flush
In the single/pair/three of a kind only a higher hand of the same kind may be played. The colors always matter. A pair of “3”’s blue/red beats a pair of “3”’s yellow/green, and so one.
The scoring goes as follows. When one player goes out, then each player with remaining tiles pays “every” player with less tiles the amount he deltas. So if I had 4 remaining tiles, I would pay the winning player 4 chips, and a player with 2 tiles two chips and so on. Here’s the trick. If you get stuck with a “2” tile in your hand, that number doubles. The pain in which I felt many times! The first player to go out ends the game, and then the remaining players count the chips they have left, highest wins.
I must admit, I enjoyed this game much more than I thought I would. We did find with the existing rules that it takes quite a long time to end the game because getting one player out takes a long time. We agreed in later games to make a time limit or a set number of rounds. So if you’re a fan of trick, and like games such as “Gang of Four” Then Lexio I believe you will enjoy to no end. It’s loud, painful, and loads of fun!
December 23, 2005 | Permalink
Comments
LOL
Were there any really poor korean/english translations in the box? I had one of my students translate the rules for extra credit when the game first came out for the publisher! I've wondered if they ever updated my translation.
Posted by: Joe Steadman | Sep 26, 2007 2:35:21 AM
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