Hi, I’m Ulanopo and I collect games. To the Table will (hopefully) be a weekly look at games you should be playing — and some you should probably not be playing.
Today we enter the wonderful world of microgames.
Basically, a microgame is just a really small game. They tend to be simple, sometimes elegantly so, as we’ll see in today’s offering. They tend to be two-player games, though there is a recent trend towards solo games — or games that have a solo mode.
My first experience with microgames were the Tom Wham games printed in Dragon Magazine back in the 80’s. I still have a huge soft spot for Awful Green Things from Outer Space (I have the old-style green plastic clamshell edition).
The microgame subgenre has benefitted greatly from the board game renaissance sparked by Kickstarter. Tussie Mussie is part of the Button Shy Games line, some of which are great and some of which are… well, let’s just say meh.
Gamelyn Games has the “Tiny Epic” series, which are effectively them seeing how much they can jam into a small box. I think their games form the upper limit of complexity for what might be considered a microgame.
Many microgames have a solo option or are solo-only, which presents fun options for the solitaire gamer in your life. (If it’s you, that’s okay too.)
Another dimension to microgames is that many of them are print-and-play, which is pretty much just what it sounds like. In the old days, this meant photocopies, but now you can find things to use up those extra pages in your ink cartridge subscription. Tussie Mussie is actually available as a PNP, but I think you should spring for it.
Tussie Mussie
BGG Link — How to Play Link
When we talk about Tussie Mussie, we have to start with the designer — Elizabeth Hargrave. She might just be the best active game developer today. I say this because her games are sublimely elegant. They have unique mechanics, interesting choices and very creative themes.
It’s also worth noting that part of the Button Shy gimmick is being limited to a small number of cards. Hargrave made excellent use of that restriction. It’s the only Button Shy game I’m aware of that supports four players.
We also have to talk about Beth Sobel’s artwork, which is absolutely amazing. We’ll discuss this in more detail when we get to Wingspan. For this game, know that I would have bought the game just for the art.
Tussie Mussie is about sending messages through bouquets, which was actually a thing back in Victorian times. If you’ve ever been told “yellow roses are for friendship”, then you know what’s going on.
Tussie mussies exemplified the Victorian custom of assigning meaning to the flowers that friends and lovers exchanged. Inspired by the ideals of elegance and discretion, these bouquets were carefully made to convey subtle messages to their recipients. Now you can choose the right flowers to make a winning tussie mussie of your own!
Tussie-Mussie is based on a Victorian fad that assigned meanings to the flowers that friends and lovers exchanged.
Featuring I-Divide-You-Choose drafting, this microgame of 18 cards is played over three rounds. In turn, players look at the top two cards of the deck, then offer them, one face-up and one facedown, to an opponent. That opponent takes one, leaving the other for the active player.
A round ends when each player has four cards, at which point the scores are tallied. The highest score after three rounds wins!
—description from the designer
How does it play?
Tussie Mussie supports 1-4 people. I’ve never played the solo mode.
You shuffle the 18 cards. First player draws the top two cards, places one face up, the other face down, then presents them to the next player, who chooses one. The unselected card goes to the person offering.
You keep cards you receive in order, from left to right in two “rows”. Face up cards go into your bouquet, which is the top row. If you get a face-down card, it stays in your reserve, which is the bottom row.
Play passes to the next player, who repeats this process (draw, offer) until all players have four cards.
end of round and scoring
Turn the reserve cards face up — keeping them in the reserve row. Follow the rules on the cards. Count the hearts. Play three rounds.
That’s it.
Minor Concerns
buy the damned sleeves
You will be shuffling and handling these cards a LOT. Put them in sleeves. The Button Shy wallet can handle it. Trust me.
Expansions
I backed this on Kickstarter, but it hasn’t arrived yet. The new cards and rules sound cool, but I worry a little about ruining the delicious simplicity of the game.
Why you should play this game
The most popular review on BGG refers to Tussie Mussie as a “gaming amuse bouche”. They don’t mean that in a complementary way, but I don’t look at it as an insult. To my way of thinking, there are lots of games that demand a fair share of my mental bandwidth. I have to plan. I have to weigh odds. I have to pay attention to what my opponents are doing.
Tussie Mussie has the virtue of being simple. It takes me back to summer afternoons playing cards with my family, talking, laughing, just having an easygoing good time. The reviewer laments the lack of tension, but sometimes that’s okay. Sometimes you just want to chill. Tussie Mussie is good for that.
Also, supporting women as designers and artists is a thing we should do.
Final Ruling
8/10
next up: cards against humanity