Ryan Moses
United States
Toledo
Ohio
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No Thanks! is a quick little card game about trying to score as little as possible for 3-5 players. A deck of around 30 cards are shuffled and each player receives 11 poker chips. The top card of the deck is flipped over to the first player who then must either take the card or put a poker chip on it to pass it to the next player. This continues until someone either runs out of poker chips or decides its worth it to take the card and all the chips on top of it. Each card is worth the number of points on the card(a 5 is worth 5 points or a 15 is worth 15)but if a player manages a string of numbers such as a 15, 16, 17 and 18, he only has to take points for the 15. After the last card is dealt players count how many points they have, subtract the number of left over poker chips and the player with the lowest total wins. But enough with the mechanics, do we love the game?
He likes
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Fast to play - We can finish a game in 10-15 minutes.
Fast turns - In general, it never takes longer then 30-60 seconds for your turn to come back around.
Constant interaction - Even when it's not your turn, you should be studying other players and paying close attention both to what cards they chose to take but also facial ticks that hint at if they are torn on taking a card or passing it. I really love studying people. I really enjoy the psychology of this game!
Great filler game - This is IMO the perfect game to put on the table while someone runs to the store for snacks or to use the bathroom. You can fit a few games in fast to kill time without having to worry about someone coming back mid-game and waiting a half hour to get back in.
Price - This game is cheap! I believe we got our copy for around $6 and in general its under $10.
He dislikes
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Cards being taken out of the deck - The basic rules says to take a handful of cards out of the deck. I think this ruins some of the strategy of the game and I REALLY dislike this.
She likes
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Ryan likes it - Ryan really likes this game!
It's over quickly - The game is over not long after you start.
Conniving other players - I enjoy trying to talk other players into taking cards that I do not want to get stuck with.
She dislikes
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Boooooooring - Geez, does this game bores me
Not as strategic as Ryan thinks - Do I want this card? Yes or no. That is really all this game comes down to.
Ryan is the only one that "reads people" - Ryan talks about reading people and watching for facial ticks and blah blah blah. I have never seen anyone do this other then him, the rest of us just pass cards around the table.
He says
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Ok..... Wow! I really did not realize how much Amanda hated this game until I read her comments! It really makes me a sad, sad panda since I really freaking love this game. We play it as a fast filler when company is over and I've always been surprised by both her and other peoples' lack luster reaction to it, but I had no clue she hated it let alone this badly! I guess when it comes down to it, I will give this a recommendation with an asterisk. I recommend it because I find it to be a blast, but between Amanda's reaction in this review and other peoples' lack luster reaction I have to say be warned it may not be for everyone or even most people ;(
She says
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No....really...I hate this game. This is one of my least favorite games. I find that when we play this game, I am not watching anyone else play their turn. I am just waiting for my turn to flip a card, throw in a chip or put a card in my pile. I do not feel compelled to win nor to even keep other players from winning. I just want the game over as fast as possible. I do not recommend this game to anyone. I think that there are many, MANY more short filler games that are out there.
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Kathy Sheets
United States
Port Saint Lucie
Florida
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That's so...sad! We love playing No Thanks!.
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Dan
United States
Burlington
Vermont
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Magus And Princess wrote:
He dislikes
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Cards being taken out of the deck - The basic rules says to take a handful of cards out of the deck. I think this ruins some of the strategy of the game and I REALLY dislike this.
I disagree. Without this, the game becomes extremely boring. With cards missing from the deck, every card you take turns into a risk. If you've got a 15, and an 18 with a few chips comes to you, it's a no-brainer to take it if the 16 or 17 aren't already snagged. With missing cards, those might not even be there!
The random cards that are missing also change strategy when you're looking to hose someone over. If you've got 15, 16, 18, and 19 in front of you, and you know for a FACT that 17 is in the deck somewhere, you will NEVER see that card unless you draw it. If it isn't your draw, someone will take the 17 point hit to give you an 18 point stinger.
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Kathy Sheets
United States
Port Saint Lucie
Florida
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rdonato926 wrote: Magus And Princess wrote:
He dislikes
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Cards being taken out of the deck - The basic rules says to take a handful of cards out of the deck. I think this ruins some of the strategy of the game and I REALLY dislike this.
I disagree. Without this, the game becomes extremely boring. With cards missing from the deck, every card you take turns into a risk. If you've got a 15, and an 18 with a few chips comes to you, it's a no-brainer to take it if the 16 or 17 aren't already snagged. With missing cards, those might not even be there! The random cards that are missing also change strategy when you're looking to hose someone over. If you've got 15, 16, 18, and 19 in front of you, and you know for a FACT that 17 is in the deck somewhere, you will NEVER see that card unless you draw it. If it isn't your draw, someone will take the 17 point hit to give you an 18 point stinger.
Exactly!
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Ryan Moses
United States
Toledo
Ohio
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As you can see it made me really sad too that she didnt like it! I really love this game(id give it a solid 8)but alas my wife does not like it.
As for the strategy thing, I think its debatable. As you said I can see where taking cards out adds a level of randomness that makes you have to debate harder taking a card or not. At the same time though to me it adds an element of luck to a game that otherwise would be 90% about how well you play(10% getting lucky and having low cards show up on your turn).
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Richard Morris
Scotland
Harrogate
North Yorkshire
Join the BGG Folding @Home Team !!
This user had more :gg: than sense
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Magus And Princess wrote: As you can see it made me really sad too that she didnt like it! I really love this game(id give it a solid 8)but alas my wife does not like it.
As for the strategy thing, I think its debatable. As you said I can see where taking cards out adds a level of randomness that makes you have to debate harder taking a card or not. At the same time though to me it adds an element of luck to a game that otherwise would be 90% about how well you play(10% getting lucky and having low cards show up on your turn). That makes both of you wrong, then !
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Tater Salad
United States
Indiana
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Magus And Princess wrote: As you can see it made me really sad too that she didnt like it! I really love this game(id give it a solid 8)but alas my wife does not like it.
As for the strategy thing, I think its debatable. As you said I can see where taking cards out adds a level of randomness that makes you have to debate harder taking a card or not. At the same time though to me it adds an element of luck to a game that otherwise would be 90% about how well you play(10% getting lucky and having low cards show up on your turn).
The real issue with not having missing cards is that there can be some weird scenarios if you don't. There would become situations where knowing every card is available may mean "If I draw every card remaining in the deck, they will all create a giant straight (or two)". So if other players have some relatively big cards showing, you might be able to just pick up all the cards in the draw pile to turn all your cards into a straight or two and win.
Say, for example, the first two cards are the 34 and 35 and end up in the hands of two different players. (unlikely, but I'm unwilling to think up a more elaborate scenario just to illustrate the point). Next player draws 33-3, scores 3 points and ends up in the negative with his chips. Yay!
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Kathy Sheets
United States
Port Saint Lucie
Florida
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Yes, there's really no game here if you don't take random cards out.
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Ryan Moses
United States
Toledo
Ohio
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Well regardless we play with the cards left in so the review reflects the format that the game designer intended. It is just a personal complaint of mine that I disagree with. To each their own I guess.
BTW Amanda agrees with you about letting the cards in, but at the same time she doesnt like the game so /shrug
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Matthew Wettstein
Switzerland
Washington
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But if you didn't have any missing, you could just wait till there are 4 tokens out and just draw every single card, and you would win just like that and no one could stop you.
You could always play with fewer cards taken out, like 3 or something. Or maybe keep all of them and assign people with a random card each to begin with. But even then it would still have problems.
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Ryan Moses
United States
Toledo
Ohio
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We have received some messages either requesting we review specific games or asking for various opinions. To save time and help people follow our reviews we posted a geeklist for anyone interested.
http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/102808/a-he-says-she-says-...
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Posted Tue Jan 3, 2012 2:02 am
