Quick Overview #
In Spots, each player will receive a yard, a treat token, and some dog cards. Play will go clockwise, with each turn usually consisting of doing one of the six available tricks, each with its own set of instructions that usually involve either rolling dice, gathering dog treats, or getting new cards. If you can't place a die (because the right spot isn't available), then you must bury it in your yard. If your yard ever exceeds seven pips, you bust, and must discard all of the dice on your dogs and yard... unless you are able to perform a reroll with a dog treat! When you choose a trick, it will become unavailable until there is only one trick available, after which they will all become available again.
Instead of doing a trick, you can instead score all of your completed dogs, turning them facedown and drawing a new card. This banks the progress on those dogs, making them immune to busting. If all of your dogs are filled, then this action is free and doesn't take a turn!
What I Love About Spots #
Just like every game by CMYK, Spots has an amazing production. The game could have easily, and I'm sure for cheaper, have included regular, boring D6 dice. Instead, the pips are made just slightly irregular to match the spots on the dogs. Each dog is named and beautifully illustrated: my personal favorite is "Lil Beth." The provided pieces for the yards and tricks are a nice, thick cardboard - and they're each uniquely illustrated, even though they didn't really need to be for anything beyond style points.
Another thing that I really liked it how well thought out the variable setup is. A suggested set of starting tricks are provided, along with sixteen additional tricks that you can use. The rulebook covers a few recommended sets as well as giving a framework for players to make their own.
Lastly, I love how straightforward it is to teach this game. You can explain how to play in just a few minutes of getting everybody to the table, and get straight to the dice-chuckin'.
Does Spots Belong in Your Collection? #
I think that Spots is a sheep in wolf's clothing. It acts as a push-your-luck game, but in reality the strategy and resource management make up a much larger portion of the game. In other words, I believe it's a push-your-luck game for players that don't like push-your-luck games.
Let me explain: many games of the "push-your-luck" genre, such as The Quacks of Quedlinburg, Incan Gold, and Can't Stop, have a binary "hit" or "stand" choice. By contrast, Spots offer a platter of options, giving different ways to be more strategic about your choices. The available tricks on your turn may have a push-your-luck element, but they often won't. And if they do, your wiggle room is so tight, it is obvious that you shouldn't. Lastly, having the power to avoid a catastrophic bust with a dog treat means that you'll lose the excitement a bad roll can cause. That's not to say that the strategy of Spots completely undermines the push-your-luck element. The ability to avoid losing a turn by filling up all of your cards does mean there can be moments of high tension, especially if you are playing from behind and are willing to put yourself at risk to catch up. On the whole, though, Spots doesn't have the teeth that a purebred push-your-luck game has.
That isn't to say that Spots is a bad game! There are fun, interesting decisions to be made. But if the thing that attracts you to push-your-luck games is the constant struggle against hubris and just-one-more-rollitis, this might not be the game for you.
- Previous: Marabunta
- Next: Exact Change