PickPicknic

• Designed by Stefan Dorra
• Published by 999 Games
• 2-6  players
• Mfg Suggested Ages 8 and up
• Modifications for the four year old set
• about 10 to 15 minutes

Yellow Gameboard Square

Meeples – Painted wooden cubes, 6 sturdy cardstock squares form the playing board.  nice artwork.

Theme – It’s feeding time for the chickens (and ducks, turkeys, pheasants, geese and guinea-fowl).  Cubes that represent corn are sprinkled on the  colored squares.  Play a matching colored fowl card to collect the corn – but watch out! If an opponent plays a fox, your fowl will get gobbled up and the fox will collect the points!

Rules –  Phase 1. From a mixed handful of grain (cubes), randomly drop one on each of the 6 squares.  Yellow is worth 3 points, blue is worth 2, green are worth one.  Phase 2. Shuffle fox and fowl cards together.  Deal 5 cards to each player (6 cards for a 2- or 3-player game).  Each player selects two cards and places them face down in front of them.  Phase 3.  Reveal Cards and distribute corn.  If only one player reveals a fowl card of a color that player collects all of the corn on that colored square.  If two or more players reveal the same color fowl cards, they can haggle to divide the corn, rolling dice to settle disputes.  If a fox is played and there are no matching fowl cards, the fox goes away hungry.  If two matching foxes are played, they fight and any fowl of that color split the corn.  If one fox and one or more matching colored fowl cards are played, the fox eats the fowl, collects all the corn and keeps the fowl cards.  At the end of the game the numbers on the cards of both the foxes and the fowl cards are added to the final score of the player who played the fox.

Fowl and Fox Cards

Simplified Rules for 4-year-olds Phase 1. From a mixed handful of grain (cubes), randomly drop two on each of the 6 squares.  Each is worth one point.  Phase 2. Shuffle fox and fowl cards together.  Deal  4 cards to each player. Each player selects two cards and places them face down in front of them.  Phase 3.  Reveal Cards and distribute corn.  If only one player reveals a fowl card of a color that player collects all of the corn on that colored square.  If two or more players reveal the same color fowl cards, they can haggle to divide the corn, rolling dice to settle disputes.  If a fox is played and there are no matching fowl cards, the fox goes away hungry.  If two matching foxes are played, they fight and any fowl of that color split the corn.  If one fox and one or more matching colored fowl cards are played, the fox eats the fowl, collects all the corn.

Game Play – On a recent family game night we played this game with the younger siblings using the modified rule set.  There were three 4-year-old players.  Dropping more corn per round kept the game time down to around 20 minutes.   The kids also had an easier time choosing two cards from a hand of 4 than a larger hand.

Educational Value – Counting, decision making. At the end of the game each player had collected around 20 cubes and all the kids were able to count their own scores and tell which score was highest.  During the game, we discussed strategies like trying to play a card on the colored square which had the most corn.  We also discussed anticipating the colored squares where other players were likely to play a fowl card, and using that expectation to decide whether to play a fox.

Adaptability – High.  The game is still challenging and fun for the younger kids with a highly simplified rule set.

Adult Fun Factor – The game is more fun for adults with the full rule set, because there’s more strategy involved.