F#¢& Fresco

Fresco

Here at NF we decide on which games to buy in a variety of manners.  If Mike is spending the money, we are probably playing something ranked high on BBG.  If Warren is spending the money, it's probably a scratch and dent game that was radically discounted.  If I am spending the money, it's probably something I test drove at Gencon.  This game I bought because it was nominated for a bunch of awards and won one.  Nothing is fool proof, and we still blow it, like with Fresco.

Plot:  You are a Renaissance painter competing with other artists for fame and fortune.

Mechanics:  Several phases occur, the first of which is figuring out turn order, in game terms wake up time.  The earlier you wake up the sooner in the turn order you go, but the worse your mood is.  Being in a good mood gets you an extra action and being in a bad mood costs you an action.  Once you have your actions you plot your turn in secret, then reveal and go through some painting actions.  In order:  Buy paint, Paint the Church, Paint Portraits, Mix Paint, Go to the Theater.  Painting the church gets you victory points immediately and a small income at the end of the turn.  Painting portraits gets you money.  Choosing a wake up time happens in reverse VP order.

The Problem:  Cash at end of game is worth 1 VP for every 2$.  That's an incredibly generous ratio, which by itself might be broken.  What's absolutely broken is when you combine with reverse VP order choosing of  wake up times.  It is not terribly difficult to keep getting the extra doober when you trail everyone.  Furthermore, there are a lot of diminishing returns by spending multiple actions in the same phase, except for painting portraits.  That's worth the same amount per action no matter how many actions you spend there (maximum 3).  This makes the game totally uninteresting.  A winning strategy has over half your available actions for the entire game going to the same spot, earning 3$ per doober.

Darren's Rating: 1/10.  The original game did include some expansions and we played with those a couple of times, but the portrait action is still the most important.  And I find this flaw particularly frustrating.  How did this get through play testing?  Why when checking for game balance did this not come up?