🍕Fort
Designer⚙️: Grant Rodiek
Artist🎨: @d20plusmodifier
[ @ledergames ] 2-4 players
When I was a high school art teacher one of my favorite projects was the one where we studied Kyle Ferrin's art style. Each week we looked at different games such as Oath, Root, and of course, Fort!
On the smartboard at the front of the class I had ALL the different kids in the game displayed. They were tasked with creating a self portrait in this style, but really leaning into the uniqueness of their likes, looks, and favorite colors. It was a celebration of the students.
That's where I think Fort shines! It's unique in a sea of deck building games because of a couple mechanics that also bring the theme to the forefront of the design, which was a retheme of the earlier version of the game: SPQF, a game about building up a civilization.
In Fort you are essentially kids in a neighborhood trying to build a big fort, make your yard seem like the most fun, and even entice dogs and cats to come play! Your rewards are pizza and toys naturally. You have best friends that are always in your deck and can never go to another yard (loyalty runs deep!), but other kids that you have in your yard may wander off to see the happenings in other places.
On your turn you'll play a card and it has a public and private action. Anyone can then, "follow the leader" and do the public action on this card. This makes for interesting deck-building because you also want things that entice people to want to follow your actions and decrease their hand size for their next turn. Or maybe you don't want to get things people need so they don't rush ahead in the fort building.
There are many different archetypes in the game labeled as glue, shovels, squirt guns, and many more childlike things. Each suit has different strengths and synergies become more apparent with repeated plays. There are "made up rules" which are end game scoring cards and perks that let you do special stuff! The game is bursting with flavor!
This game is a celebration of uniqueness in all aspects of life. Joy isn't far if you look for it!
