13 Animals
- Board's Eye View
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
Published by Origame, 13 Animals is an attractively presented easy-to-play set collection card game designed by Daryl Chow, featuring the cute cartoon art of Sai Beppu. The game takes 2-5 players and is played over three rounds.
In the rulebook, Daryl Chow describes how his design for 13 Animals was influenced by his experience of playing Mah Jong. Many Westerners identify Mah Jong with the solitaire tile-removing video game but the traditional game of Mah Jong more closely resembles the card game Rummy and its many variants, where players are collecting sets either of identical numbers or that follow in a sequence. In 13 Animals there are no numbers on the cards but the animals portrayed can be grouped together in sets in different ways; either in matching groups or groups with one each of the different animals.
As the game title suggests there are 13 animal types depicted on the cards. Each animal is colour-coded according to whether it is a mammal (blue), bird (green) or 'legendary' (yellow) and the colour is visible on the reverse of the card as well as its face. That means players can make their own estimation or deduction about what sets others may be collecting. It also means you may have some indication of what you might get from a face-down draw pile.
And this is a game where your card draw gives you options. There's not just one draw pile but two (so two piles where you know whether the top card is a mammal, bird or legendary creature) and there are three discard piles. That doesn't just mean you have a choice between three face-up cards but you can also use your own discard to cover up a card that you reckon an opponent may want.
Tho' 13 Animals is a light family-friendly game that children can play, we like the deduction element that it introduces, where even quite young players can quickly pick up on the need to keep an eye on what other players appear to be collecting.
