Llama Llama
Designed by: Kaya Miyano
Llama Llama is a card game played over four rounds where the cards you really want depend on the scoring conditions – but you won’t know what they all are until the finale!
The deck of cards consists of the letters A through to G, with increasing scarcity: there are numerous A cards, less B, then less C and so on down to the single G card. As well as its letter, each card also shows what will score points if it’s one of the chosen winning conditions: everyone gets a hand of eight cards and secretly chooses one as the winning condition. The winning conditions are shuffled and then dealt out face-down on the table, before the left-most one is flipped face-up. This might be yours, or it might be someone else’s. Either way, you keep a poker face about it.
Now every passes four cards from their hand clockwise to the next player, before the second winning condition is revealed. Then three cards are passed and the third winning condition is flipped far-up, then two cards are passed and the last winning condition is shown. Finally everyone passes a single card, before everyone reveals and scores their cards based on the four winning conditions. The game will end after four rounds like this have been played, or sooner if anyone reaches 100 points or more, with the player with most points the winner.
Mechanically, it’s extremely simple. The game is really about trying to adapt tactically as more of the condition cards are revealed and you get a greater sense of what cards are better: not only will certain individual cards score, but particular combinations too. For example, the E card’s win condition will score you 5 points for each E in your hand at the end, but a bonus 30 points if you have two Bs and two D’s. The A card scores you a paltry single point for each A you have, but if you’ve managed to collect one of each letter, it’ll get you a massive 50 points!
The catch is that as your knowledge grows, your control over events lessens, with the card-passing shrivelling up. Having your condition card revealed last can be helpful, and the game acknowledges this: from round two onwards, they are no longer shuffled but placed face-down in order of points-leader: so the player with most points will have their condition card revealed first and the player in last place will have theirs revealed last. Knowing what people are going for really helps, as you can change your strategy to avoid passing your neighbours helpful cards.
Sam says
A light recommend for four players, an avoid with two as you’re basically just passing cards back and forth. Three is probably a little mysterious, as you don’t know what cards are missing from play at the start. This is one for players who enjoy the brevity and fine margins of where control ends and luck begins: it’s absolutely not a lottery, because (with four players) you know how many of each card there are and where *some of* them are at a given point. You also see what cards are increasingly helpful or not, and can attempt to change plans on the fly. For out and out silliness it’s maybe a bit thinky at times, and for complete agency over your destiny it may frustrate. But it’s so bright and bonkers that we really enjoy the strange niche Llama Llama sits in – it uses the same deck (and is the same designer) as Panda Panda, so if the Llamas aren’t hitting the right note you can always play that instead.
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Take That!
It's kind of there, in that players can refuse to pass cards they know will help. But everyone will be compromised by their own ambitions, so it's not the overriding factor in play.
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Fidget Factor!
Very low - we're all active pretty much all the time. Someone may find themselves agonising over choices, but with restricted knowledge and diminishing options on how many cards you can shed, this shouldn't be too onerous.
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Brain Burn!
See above. Llama Llama almost tantalises you with the illusion of control, as more win conditions are revealed quite possibly after you've just sacrificed the ideal cards for them.
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Again Again!
With two players we wouldn't even recommend a first play. With four, it comes alive, and is highly variable thanks to how the scoring conditions are set.
