Off With Their Heads: Trick-taking, reimagined
Ratings: Saunsu 8.0, Rick 8.0, Sarah 7.5, Jess 9.0
Background: Anybody who knows me, knows I am NOT a fan of trick-taking style games, I avoid them like the plague. I love control and knowing that the actions that I choose to take are what are going to affect the outcome of how I do in a game. To me, trick-taking is far too luck-of-the-deal or draw and I swear, just like dice, I don’t have luck with either game style. My aversion to trick-taking does take a backseat, though, when there is more to the game than just your standard trick-taking and a publisher has taken the time to create something that is unique and outside of the box. With that, I introduce you to a fabulous outside-the-box trick-taking draft and write by Druid City Games called Off With Their Heads.
Initial thoughts: Trick-taking….Yuck, no thanks. But wait, look at the really cool art; look at the theme, we know it’s one of your favorites, and this is no ordinary trick-taking game. Not just a trick-taker, you say. Well okay then, go ahead and tell me more, ‘cause you know what a sucker I am for amazing eye-catching art and the Alice in Wonderland theme.
Game Play: Off With Their Heads has players competing over three rounds with seven bouts in each round to gain the most points and attract the most Wonderland guests to your tea party.
You will play only seven of the nine cards dealt for a total of seven bouts during a round. Two cards from each of the three rounds will be kept to form your perfect poker hand, so be mindful of what you play during your bouts. You can also be proactive and set the two cards you want to keep aside so you don’t mistakenly use them during the bouts.
Simultaneously, all players choose a card to play face-down, paying attention to what the trump suit is. Once ready, everyone flips their cards and the bout is then reconciled based on the trump suit and player count.
Off With Their Heads
2-4 player trick-taker
The High Card: The player with the highest card fills out a spot in the Meadow, choosing a mushroom based on the color of their card, and starting with the leftmost available spot in that mushroom.
The Middle Card: The player with the middle card fills out a spot in The Woods, choosing a tree based on the color of their card, red or black, placing the number from their card in a tree.
The Low Card: The player with the low card fills out a spot in The Keep. This section has a bit of a twist and you must pay attention to what suit your card is to determine which side of the Keep you will be filling out.
At the end of each bout, the queen moves to the next suit, creating the new favored trump suit for each bout. All bout rounds continue in this same fashion until all seven bouts have been completed and then a new round is ready to begin. All cards except for the two that each person kept from the round are shuffled, and another round begins.
Finally, total up your sheet for each section. Take that poker hand you have been building over the course of the three rounds and decide which five out of the six cards create your best scoring poker hand with the highest points as dictated by the player aid. The player with the most points wins.
Pros: It’s an out-of-the box trick-taker that benefits everyone and not just the person who would win the trick. Like a typical draft and write, you can chain things to earn even more benefits. The artwork is very eye-catching and the theme is on point with what is trending in the market right now. The most important pro I can point out, though, is that the rulebook was spot on and not overly complicated to read through and get started pretty quickly for even a novice player.
Cons: While the artwork is fabulous, it is on the darker side, which can make things hard to read at times. The ranking and hierarchy can be a bit confusing and can slow down the game play until it sinks in or you have that one person who can take charge and point it out quickly every round. Information for the different special abilities that can be unlocked is on the sheets for reference, but can get lost and forgotten due to how compact the tracking sheet is. I do feel like the player aid is lacking and they could have done a better job with it if they had made it a bit bigger.
Closing Thoughts: Off With Their Heads by Druid City Games is a unique, Alice in Wonderland-themed draft-and-write game that reimagines traditional trick-taking mechanics. It features three rounds of seven bouts where players use high, middle, or low cards to fill in specific scoring zones on a sheet while collecting cards for a final poker hand bonus. The game is praised for its engaging, “everyone-wins” mechanism and thematic artwork, though some players may find the crowded score sheets and small player aids challenging. Cons aside, this reimagined trick-taker found a home in my ever growing collection and has earned HIGH recommendation from this non-trick-taking gamer.
