For some time now both Erin and I have been playing many card games in our free time as well as Animal Crossing. Our latest choice of game to play has been Tail Story from our friend Poj Santivatr. Now for those of you coming to see what Tail story is about, this new and upcoming card game is about pets who dream to spend their daily lives like no others with a twist of inclusive dirty jokes and puns. During the time Erin and I played, we did laugh at some of the puns on the cards, and depending on if we included the NSFW prototype cards those were a real eye-catcher too.
Tail Story is a card game for ages 12+ along with being able to play from 2-4 players. (Minding some setup details will change with fewer players in the mix.) Game time ranges from 20-45, which the time between Erin and myself ranged around 20-30 min. I will state our prototype of the game was very well made and I do hope the same quality is granted to those that back the game on Kickstarter. In Tail Story, you play as a pet who wants to be more than just an ordinary pet–you want to earn achievements so you can be remembered by history. The path to get there involves different actions, the order of which will affect who earns all the achievements first. The pet you choose to be can be canine, feline, or rodent (and friends), each having its own personality quirks and special abilities (more on that later). Each of us happened to choose felines: Padthai the Siamese cat and Khalid the Sphynx cat.
Players start by randomly choosing a queue card, which determines play order. They will then choose a character card, with the highest queue card number choosing first. Once players have chosen a pet to play, it’s time to get into the game. The game includes a playmat for each player to help simplify the playing field as well as reference cards for turn actions. The queue card and character card both stay on the playmat for the entire game. Next, the main deck of cards is shuffled and each player is dealt 15 of these event cards, which forms their deck on the playmat. Leftover event cards (for 2-3 player games) are set aside and not used in the game. Players will then draw 5 cards from their deck of 15 for their starting hand, and play begins with whoever holds queue card 1. Each turn consists of 5 steps: draw, play, bonus (optional), deck check, end of turn (discard down to hand limit).
- draw: draw 1 card from your deck
- play: play an action–players get 2 action points per turn, except queue card 1 only gets one action point on their first turn
- play an event card (action points needed are on event card)
- draw 1 card, discard 1 card (uses 1 action point)
- use your character’s altered ability (limited to 1 use per turn and 2 uses per game)
- swap 1-2 cards in your discard pile with the same number of cards in another player’s discard pile
- bonus: if you meet the criteria, use the bonus action on your character card
- deck check: if all players have at least 1 card left in their deck, return to play step; if any player has no cards left, each player with 0 cards in their deck will shuffle their discard pile into a new deck, then select a card from their hand to place face down as an achievement; turn owner then returns to play step
- end of turn: discard down to hand limit (5 at start of the game)
Achievements help to unlock special abilities for your character and are the road to winning. Essentially, each time you empty your deck, you get an achievement. The faster you draw through your cards (or slip them into another player’s deck or discard pile), the faster you can win.
The art style of the game is similar to anime or other cartoons, but somewhat realistic at the same time. There is great attention to detail making the images of the pets reflect the personality in the description. The detail and personality also flow into the altered forms, which definitely reflect more power than the ordinary forms. Event cards share continuity with the character cards with appropriate style and language to reflect the animal image. For those looking for some adult content, there may be an NSFW expansion with art and puns that are influenced by more adult themes. (The NSFW expansion was recently pulled as something that would be for the Kickstarter, but it doesn’t mean it can’t come back during. However, one was included with the prototype.)
Not being used to the multi-step turn, we took a few turns to grasp the gameplay mechanics. However, we did catch on and get into a sort of rhythm for each turn. While the game does work for 2 players, 3-4 players would probably be more ideal, especially when it comes to acting on some of the event cards. Important to note on playing with 2 players is that the rules don’t actually change as for some games, and you aren’t forced to play with a 3rd “dummy” hand. These two things made the game much more enjoyable since additional rules won’t have to be memorized when we add more players. Tail Story is an interesting game to play and will be a fun addition to in-person game nights (once it’s safe for gatherings). You can follow the upcoming Kickstarter that launches Aug. 4th, 2020 located here.
A prototype of Tail Story was provided for coverage of the card game by Tail Story Games.
