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by Derang3d
~Deranged Review~
Hello! Welcome to this Deranged Review.
Every year, there's at least one gaming convention somewhere on Earth (citation needed). Some of those are recurring, even - and one of my favourites of the past few years is held in an old abbey in a forest that's now been retrofitted into a hotel in a forest - I've doubtlessly talked about it (and the abbey-bar) before, but I have no clue exactly when so I'll leave it as an exercise to my editors to answer that (#2).
Run Bunny Run is a game I first played in that very same bar (#3), and then again, and then another few times. And now finally, I own a copy. Signed, too!
I'll be giving grades on several aspects of the game, such as discussed here.
For ART, I look at the big picture, and how that picture looks. EASE covers ease of play and learning curve, FLEXIBILITY covers the amount of free will you have and is therefore linked to replayability. FUN might be deceptive, as it's a gut thang, but I'll try and specify in the text, and COMPONENTS should be self-explanatory. I'll not say a lot about rules and specifics - you can find those out for yourself.
The Game Itself: That one scene from Snatch
Place down your card, then choose and place down your next card. Herd the rabbit to his demise and win - or else the rabbit wins once it's safe.
ART
-It's cute and cartoonish, and I think that serves the game quite well. No need to grim this all up, I'd say. Tho if you ask me (and you're here for the monologue so I mi's well monologue) it could stand to be slightly less cartoonish. I didn't get this for the art tho. Most importantly, it's all very clear and easy to see what's what.
I do prefer the first edition drawings (shown below), but it's no biggie.
EASE
-It takes a moment or two to explain the difference between a fence and a wall, but overall you can just do one or two rounds of Show and Tell, restart, and commence with the bunny-hunting.
This one is absolutely easier to demonstrate visually then to explain verbally. You could try to just use words and it'd take twice as long as when you just tell the explainees to pick a card, any card, and show what happens.
Then again, I don't think I've ever spent more than ten minutes explaining, in total. This game is just not that difficult
-Well, it's a game where you (represented by your card) run across the table, so yeah you're pretty flexible in where you choose to go. You're slightly bound by the cards - there's no teleport or U-turn, you have to move one card at a time. The wolves lock in their next direction with the card they play, but are generally faster; the bunny has much more choice in where to go, but can't sprint even if it wants to.
Otherwise you're completely free to run around the table play area as you see fit. if you're part of Team Wolf, chances are one or two of you go for the bunny directly, while one or two of you flank off to seal off any escape routes - or head him off to the Lair. Just watch out for that tree, ok?
That's just moving within the game, tho - in between games, you can move around, add or take away some of the hazard cards as you see fit, and switch around who gets to bunny and who gets to wolf. A round standing table will play very different from a large normal dinner table, and while it will likely be difficult to actually play without moving the cards too much, you could run the bunny across a bar. A few pencils make for cliffs neither party can cross, although intensive bottlenecking will make things very difficult for the prey.
FUN FEEL
-The bunny side switches from AAHH! to HAHA!, the wolfs pack it up, and pack it in.
I mean, if you see a game in progress, the bunny just skips and hops and somersaults and feints and goes this way and that like an acrobatic ball lightning, while the wolves anticipate, and attempt to herd, cut off, outmanoeuvre, charge, and eventually bite. It feels like a rabbit hunt is wha'm say'n.
COMPONENTS
-Cards, of good stock. They've got that cross-hatched thing going on, which to me always denotes very good cards.
Pro's
It's bloody hilarious, and goes well with a beer.
Con's
It's prolly not gonna fit in well with a night of heavy euro's.
End result:
Run Bunny Run, AKA Runny Bunny according to my mind's typewriter, is one of those games where relative position on the table is key. The actual position of game pieces matters, like in Kluster, Dicke Dämonen, and every flicking game ever invented. Suddenly, a beer is an impassable spot - better make sure you put it back right.
Other than those flicking games, Runny Bunny is not heavy on the physical action. You could, conceivably, play this over the internet, just as well as in person. Several webcams and one person with the game as host, I mean, I'm not sure why you'd do it, but it can be done - quite unlike Pool, which would just be one player and a bunch of spectators. What I mean is, while it is a tactical game that very much happens on the table, every move is done strictly by card, and that takes away the random/skill factor of flicking.
This game plays very well with a beer or two - any more and the cards start moving more than they should.
I really like this game - the wolf's hunting, the rabbit's escapades, the trees and other hazards. I don't really have any game quite like it, and I don't know of any game that feels exactly like this one. It does need the right audience tho, you're probably not really going to entertain the Heavy Euro crowd with this one (#1). But as a nice, more direct filler in between some more abstracted thinky games, well it could work.
Perhaps if you re-themed this with tanks and a WWI-era trenches-vibe, with one lone runner needing to bring messages across the no-man's-land, suddenly people would be seeing this as a serious tactical card game; but bugger that, the game is fun as is and sometimes it's better to find the right table for the game, than the right game for the table.
It's not a game for everybody - just because I like it, doesn't mean you should, too. But to me, it's fun and lighthearted, without being entirely brainless. Ideal for winding down during those evenings after a full day of conventionating. What's a game you drag along to conventions and game fairs, to play in the evenings?
Cheers, and happy hunting!
As usual, please give your opinion in the comments
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Oh, by the way, I am Deranged. I like to have fun with (and around) boardgames, and have played many of them over the years. I've been furniture in my FLGS for years ^^. I tend to like old games; well, I tend to like good games, most of which have been around for bit ^^. I've written 78 135 reviews as of yet, which you can access here, and a handful of random topics discussed here. If you want me to write a review for you or recommend me a game, there's this neat little Geekmail system you can use ^^. Pictures taken from BGG.
#1: Some of them, certainly.
#2: But since that's also me, and I don't know, it will be a mystery unless somebody speaks up or I run across it at random. It might not be a review published, seeing as I've got bunches stacked away in various different stages of disrepair.
#3: Likely enjoying an Isidora, which is a very very tasty beverage.
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