LogFAQs > #932875130

92. Qwirkle (2006)

Category: Player vs Player
Genres: Abstract, tile-laying, sequence-building
Rules complexity (0 to 7): 1
Game length: 30-45 minutes
Experience: 2-3 plays (2015) over 2 sessions with 2, 3-4 players
Previous ranks: 46/100 (2016), 69/80 (2018)

Summary - 108 attractive, square tiles have images of six different shapes in six different colors. Everyone then starts laying tiles connected to the existing tiles, obeying the rule that any connected tiles must match down the row either their color or their shape, without ever repeating the non-shared quality. Laying tile awards points for how long the chain is, plus a bonus for making it length six.

Design - Qwirkle is beautiful, simple, and clean. There is virtually zero rules overhead; you can basically immediately jump right in and then get a feel for the scoring.

With a ruleset/decision space this simple, you need a solid mechanic to back it up, and Qwirkle's set-forming absolutely qualifies as that. It'll feel very familiar to anyone who's played Scrabble, as you must always lay out in one line and always draw up to the hand limit. Like Scrabble, you can piggyback huge off someone's mostly laid tiles, so it's to your advantage to play a bit defensively and prevent easy piggybacking off yours.

I really like the minimalist, accessible quality of Qwirkle. It's not really a hobby game, but not every game needs to be. Like, one of my favorite parts about Qwirkle is its name - to me, it's just funny to have a named called Qwirkle, where the most efficient way to is to finish a set, at which point you announce "Qwirkle."

Experience - And when I started out, Qwirkle felt amazing. Even several months into the hobby, I found myself largely allergic to (if admiring of) games with heavier rulesets. Even today, I hold elegance in extremely high regard. Qwirkle is very elegantly made and can be played with anyone (color-blindness aside; that is a legit concern, but not really one I think about often).

Future - The question really is, when do you want to play Qwirkle? Despite its whimsical name, Qwirkle (like Scrabble) can be a defensive game. It's not raucous. It doesn't have a ton to explore (though I'm sure there's a reasonable skill ceiling). It's not thematic, so it doesn't have an interesting hook. (And for that reason, it's probably one of the games that's a little too high on this ranking.)

There was a time where I was really interested in buying Qwirkle. I think that time is gone, but I wouldn't be opposed to playing it again. Wouldn't think of it as a game with a lot of potential to rise, though.
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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