LogFAQs > #932680974

102. Paperback/Hardback (2014, 2018)

Category: Player vs Player
Genres: Deck-building, word game, spelling
Rules complexity (0 to 7): 3
Game length: 45-90 minutes
Experience: 1 play of Paperback, 2-4 plays of Hardback with 4-5 players (2015, 2018)
Previous ranks: 58/100 (2016), NR (2018)

Summary - Paperback is the first true deck-builder to appear on this list: each turn, you begin with a fixed number of cards. These cards have a combination of special abilities (such as drawing new cards) and currency (which you can use to purchase more cards, or victory points). In Paperback, your cards are letters, and you can only play them to gain their ability/currency if you can spell a word using it and other letters in your hand.

Design - Paperback and Hardback do one great thing among spelling/word games, in that they just let you form whatever word you want. It's simple to form a word with a wildcard; all you have to do is turn your card upside-down (losing its ability) and it becomes a wild-card letter. That JJZZN hand can become "JAZZY" fairly quickly (and the J/Z are likely going to give you some good benefits).

There's not a whole ton to cover in terms of the.design decisions. These games don't attempt to reinvent the wheel; designer Tim Fowers essentially recognized that spelling is inherently fun, and that deckbuilding is inherently fun, and then composed a game from those two elements. Paperback is slightly cleaner with a fixed marketplace, while Hardback has a few more complications (different card "suits") but has a more deterministic endgame with its victory point track. The games really want you to be able to form words; you're allowed to cry for "ink!" to draw more cards in Hardback, and Paperback encourages you to ask other players for help if you can't think of one yourself, and at no cost to yourself (but to a small benefit of the person whose idea you take).

As a result of the "just do what feels nice" philosophy that appears to have guided their design, Paperback/Hardback doesn't feel particularly well play-tested or optimized on the small scale. Like in other deckbuilders, spending more money will net you a more powerful card. But unlike those other deckbuilding games, in order to use those cool abilities you've acquired, you've now got to shoehorn a V or whatever into your hand. As a result, like in other Scrabble-esque games, you might find yourself making tradeoffs in your hand where you forsake a five- or six-letter word for a three-letter word that's more powerful. That's part of the strategy, but as usual, I generally prefer incentivizing cleverness in words rather than forsaking good letters to accommodate bad.

Experience - These games certainly don't leave you wanting in terms of length. My first game of Hardback went well over an hour, though admittedly the players were slow and we weren't playing simultaneously, which you really ought to. Granted, aside from racing for buying letters, it's not the most interactive game, which again, means that its mechanisms (spelling/fun vs deckbuilding/engine-building) feels a little misaligned.

If you do manage to get a fun deck going though, it's definitely good fun, and the game can develop a nice rhythm, especially in Hardback, where late in the game you might just be pushing for the most points you can get to race to completion, rather than buying words.

Future - Will rarely ask for a word game that lasts this long, but Paperback and Hardback do have a fairly unique blend of mechanics in a word game that gives them legs. That said, they're the type of game that will never be 1. the focus of a game night 2. played at almost every game night or 3. played repeatedly when they do come out. Bearing those caveats in mind, their niche is very limited, but I enjoy them fine.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness