LogFAQs > #966754828

28. The Fox in the Forest Duet

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/288169/fox-forest-duet

Category: Cooperative
Key mechanics: Trick-taking
Rules complexity (0 to 7): 1
Game length: 15-25 minutes
First played: 2020
Experience: 6-8 games over 3ish sessions with 2 players

The Fox in the Forest Duet is a two-player, cooperative trick-taking game, a followup to the competitive original Fox in the Forest. In this game, there is a token on a linear map representing the titular fox. The path contains gems on it. The goal is, over the course of three hands, to be able to move the fox to each location containing a gem to collect them. The fox moves with each trick that is played; each card will have a suit, a rank, an associated number of steps to take, and an optional ability. Winning a trick sends the fox in the winner's direction of the path the number of steps indicated on cards.

I played a lot of MS Hearts and real-life Spades; in fact, online Trickster Spades with my old friends got me through a lot of dark months during the early lockdown. Two-player games don't get my flames stoked quite as much as do team games, but the trick-taking/classic-card-game affinity is there.

The simplicity of this game is pretty great. The hands you get are obviously random each time, and some cards will be removed. Your hand will usually offer you a good number of options - cards in each of the three suits, cards with abilities (odds have abilities while evens do not), cards with footprints, cards without footprints, trump cards, the like. There are two dangers in FFTFD - one being that one player wins too many tricks and runs off the map; the other that you simply aren't able to be precise enough to land on the steps that you need to in order to get the gems you want. While there aren't that many total gems, that count does replenish each hand, so it's not like you can go into the third and final hand needing only one gem left.

The cards and footprints obviously add a slight complication to traditional trick-taking. The abilities - always optional - can include disregarding the footprints played, reversing the winner of the trick, change the trump suit mid-trick, and exchanging cards. Since directly sharing what's in your hand and outwardly discussing strategy is not allowed, there's always a little bit of "aha" feeling when your partner manages to pick up on your intent (I'll play this 7 and give you this 4, now I'm going to lead this 2 with a bunch of footprints on it, so you'd better use that 4 and move the fox a long way toward you!) There will also be misses, but that's hte nature of two brains with hidden information!

As an experience, I don't think there are many flaws to FFTFD. But it also is not a particularly ambitious game. The experience is quite consistent, and the positive sensations are quiet fist-pumps, or nods, or small high-fives, or sometimes just "all right, we did it, nice!" It's not a stirring game, and the lack of competition in it means it doesn't necessarily have that "battle of wits" feeling, either. But that smoothness can be an asset when you're just looking to solve a quiet, low-drama puzzle together.