Farkle: I used to play this game for hours with my grandmother when I’d go over my grandparents house. Recently, she passed away and I now own the game. I played it again after quite a few years with my fiancé last night and here’s my take.
The gameplay is super simple. You have six die, a cup, and a way to keep score.
The goal is to get 10,000 points first.
You can only start keeping score once you roll 500 points, with the 5 being worth 50, 1 is worth 100, and the other numbers only count if you have a set of three, such as if you roll six on three die, that is 600 points. When you roll the six die, you have to be able to keep at least one die to roll again, so If I roll, 5, 4, 4, 6, 3, 2 – I can only keep the 5 and now I have 50 points. Roll again, keeping only 1s, 5s, and pairs if you get them. But if I roll one last time with the one or two dice I have left and they aren’t 5s or 1s I lose all the points I accumulated, and it’s called a Farkle!
My fiancé and I played about 4 times, once to just figure the game out (like I said it’s been years for me) but once we got it we got super competitive about it and really enjoyed it!
If anyone would like to play Farkle please let me know!
Mandalorian Monopoly: This is a game I received a few years ago when Star Wars released the popular show Mandalorian.
It functions just like regular Monopoly but has some battling aspects and a special figure called “the child” (baby yoda for the non-star wars fans) The battling aspects have you fighting some of the main enemy characters in the show, tasking the player to roll a specific number on the die. If you lose the battle you must either give up a special card, go to jail, or pay the bank a specific amount of money.
I enjoyed this version of Monopoly more than other versions because it has different money, called “Imperial credits” The money itself is a small plastic slab and it is much easier to keep track of. I also enjoy the battling aspect as it keeps the flow of the game differently, but makes players give or take depending on if they win. Also the simple complexity of the art and figures, including the money makes the game really cool!
If anyone would like to play Mandalorian Monopoly please let me know!
I would love to play Farkle! I used to play with my family (probably 10+ years ago at this point) and at one point in time it was our favorite game. I’m like you and I don’t really know how to play currently, but I would love to play again!
One thing that I’ve noticed (and I’m sure we all know) is that there are so many iterations to monopoly. Whether it is Fortnite or Mario, I think it’s neat that there are mechanics that change the playstyle based on the theme.