Let’s start with a couple of disclaimers. First, the version of Forest Rivals I played (and streamed) was a print-and-play prototype. Anything and everything I experienced could change. I know for a fact that the rulebook is still being tweaked. Second, as I write this, I don’t have the exact date of the Kickstarter campaign. The hotlinks provided go to the campaign page, where you can be notified on launch or, if the campaign is live when you’re reading this, back the game.
Nature is full of rivalries. Predator and prey are constantly doing a delicate ecological dance. Nowhere in nature is a hunt more intense than a bear’s search for honey. So with that in mind, Button Shy presents Forest Rivals.
In Forest Rivals, one player takes the mantle of the bear, and the other player the bees. Over the course of a mere sixteen cards, each player’s goal is to surround beehives. The bees to protect them, and the bears to eat them. To ensure balance, the cards are pre-sorted into a deck of eight cards for each player.
Gameplay is incredibly straightforward. Each card has six symbols on it representing some combination of bear, bee, and beehive. The first card is played in the centre of the table, and each subsequent card is played adjacent to or partially overlapping the other cards on the table. The most important rule is that you can only cover a beehive with another beehive.
Once all the cards have been played, scoring happens. First, the largest group scores, with the player having the largest contiguous group of bees or bears scoring. Next, beehives are scored. To score a beehive, it must be completely surrounded in all eight directions, with the player having the most animals surrounding it getting the point. If both players are tied for the most animals, neither player scores. If the score is tied, the player who controls the most beehives wins.
Forest Rivals plays quickly and doesn’t take up much space. It’s a near-perfect coffee shop game. You can definitely fit this on one of those tiny two-person tables. There’s a place for every game. Some games take up a giant table and take hours on end. Others, like this one, are small and streamlined. Lately I’ve been finding myself drawn more to the streamlined games, so Forest Rivals is perfect.
Button Shy specializes in these eighteen-card microgames, and this is another sure-to-be hit. The upcoming Kickstarter is going to feature four games: Forest Rivals (2p), The Cursed Cat (solo), Reawaken (solo), and Crime Sprawl (1-4p). Based on previous campaigns, I’m assuming you’ll be able to back each game individually, or as a package deal in either physical or print-and-play.
I know this is a short preview, but Forest Rivals is a short game. When Mel’s Board Game Room and I streamed it, we spent less than 15 minutes learning and playing our first game. It’s a terrific little game, and there’s not much more needed to say about it.
If you want to see Forest Rivals played (you do), we streamed a playthrough HERE.
Forest Rivals and three other games are coming soon to Kickstarter.
You can find Button Shy Games online at buttonshygames.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/buttonshygames.
