Tobold's Blog
Monday, December 15, 2025
 
Tend - An exaggeration

The roll & write or flip & write genre among board games is usually situated at the lighter end of the spectrum, and very frequently also at the cheaper end. There are a bunch of excellent roll & write games you can get for under $20. Sometimes somebody makes a far more heavy and complicated roll/flip & write game, which then is also more expensive, e.g. Hadrian's Wall at $60 MSRP. And then there is Tend. I just got the Deluxe version I backed on Kickstarter, and it was $99 plus shipping plus VAT. It is probably the most outrageously overproduced flip & write game ever.

It manages that by not only including 200 copies each of the two sheets you write on, but also 200 copies of scratch off cards, 36 colored pens that also can stamp, a neoprene mat, the cards you need to flip to play, and a huge box to contain it all. I'm not saying that I really need all that, I probably would have been served well enough by the $69 standard retail version. But the price difference to the deluxe version wasn't that big, and I was amused by the idea of having a game in this genre with that excessive production value. I just hope the gameplay it is as good as all the reviewers said.

Labels:


- posted by Tobold @ 1:41 PM Permanent Link
Comments:
I'd be interested to hear a description of this genre/style of game, as I am momentarily realizing that the description you gave tells me nothing of how this plays. I searched the game name and found even less useful information. Is this like a pick a path game or solo journaling (another subtype of game I am also a bit perplexed as to how it works) or something?
# posted by Blogger Doctor Futurity : 16/12/25 00:36
 
It is a bit like Stardew Valley: You can perform different actions like tending your fields, chopping wood, mining, or fishing. That results in resources, which you can then use to for example upgrade your tools. In the end you are trying to achieve some objectives to score the most points.
# posted by Blogger Tobold : 16/12/25 08:11
 
From what I gathered reading one review, there are random event and action cards and such that are drawn each turn and apply to all players, but everyone chooses what to do and writes it on their own sheet, and the winner is the player who used the communal options the best.

So a bit like if everyone played Poker Patience using the same sequentially drawn cards, and the winner is the one who placed them to get the highest result.

In many deckbuilder roguelites these days there is a 'daily play' where everyone starts with the same game seed and starting deck etc. and tries to get the best score.
# posted by Blogger Gerry Quinn : 16/12/25 09:30
 
Sorry, I didn't explain the principle of roll & write or flip & write games. In all of these games, at the start of the turn a set of random options is created, either by rolling some dice, or by flipping some cards / tiles. Depending on the game, players either all have access to the same options, and that is the case in Tend; or there is some sort of draft, where the first player takes an option and subsequent players have less and less choice.
# posted by Blogger Tobold : 16/12/25 09:51
 
Post a Comment

<< Home
Newer›  ‹Older

  Powered by Blogger   Free Page Rank Tool