Designed by: Friedemann Friese
In Friday you are the Friday of the title, trying to help the hapless Robinson Crusoe survive for the duration of the game. And, just like real survival – well, not exactly like real survival – it’s not easy.
The game consists of three decks of cards and some life points. One deck is the hazards Crusoe faces, and another (the Crusoe deck) is how he navigates them. A third is an ageing deck, representing Crusoe’s deterioration over time as his stay on the island wears him down. But – with Friday’s help – it’s possible he can turn a negative (hazard card) into a positive, by overcoming the challenge and adding the card to his own deck (the hazard card can be rotated 90 degrees to show how it functions as a Crusoe card.
It works like this: on every turn you reveal two hazard cards, and choose one for Crusoe to face. The card shows a number value you must equal (or beat) in order to beat the challenge. It also shows you how many Crusoe cards you can flip over in order to beat it – you can flip more cards if you wish, but doing so costs you a life token – you start with 20, but they disappear fast!
If you succeed in the challenge, the cards you used plus the hazard card go into your discard pile – to be shuffled back into play later. If you fail, you pay life tokens equal to the amount you failed by, then discard Hazard card to the hazards discard but lose the Crusoe cards from the game entirely. One logic here is that in beating the hazards, you won’t need to face them again but get them working for you instead. But another says it’s worth losing some challenges, because it allows you to dump the weaker Crusoe cards from your deck, and making it stronger for the hazards ahead! And as well as making these decisions, you also need to factor in that some cards have special bonuses (or indeed penalties) that can (or must!) be activated as well: rewarding you with more card draws, more life, or hitting you with unwelcome news like Crusoe simply being too tired to continue…
There are three phases in Friday and in each phase the hazards gets tougher. Make it through the final phase and there is one last obstacle to overcome – pirates!
Friday is a solo game, so there are no opponents to give to, or receive from. There is however, potential doom in Crusoe's fate.
None.
Once the rules are familiar, the crux of the game is when to take a hit and when to push on drawing more cards, because each decision has ramifications that may come back to haunt you later. Even which hazard you choose to face can be key.
Friday always tells the same story - albeit with some variety in the end - but the devilishly clever way it's structured in that the hazards get harder and harder as your deck gets stronger and stronger (only yo be undermined by those pesky ageing cards) make it rather more-ish.
1-1
Players
10+
Years
15-30
Mins
Sam says
Argh, I never anticipated that a game so overtly mechanical - it's all about the numbers - could be so tense. On my first play I kind of shrugged when Crusoe expired, thinking not much more than so that's how you play Friday. But subsequent plays, when I knew what I was doing, saw Friday and Crusoe spring to life. This Crusoe is a doofus; his own worst enemy, more likely to panic or get scared as tackle a wild beast with his bare hands - and oft-times you find yourself thinking you brought this on yourself, Robinson. But like most people, he's still worth saving. And so is this game.