Have you ever thought what it would be like to be like MacGyver? You dump out your rucksack to see what you have available and then make it through whatever situation you are faced with. You might not have all of the characteristics of MacGyver, but then again, he was a made up character for a TV show (wiki link). But Grumpy Spider Games gives you a way to get through a sticky situation with a rucksack full of odds and ends.
Rucksack is a story telling game designed by Joel David and published by Grumpy Spider Games (website). It is designed for 4–8 players of ages 12+. A game is expected to last 30–60 minutes. I was given a copy of Rucksack for review purposes.
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| Scenarios |
Everyone is presented with a scenario. There are 50 scenario cards. The situation the players are surviving are determined randomly at the start. The variation of events can be grand adventures like, "Journey the entire length of the Amazon River" to more direct events like, "Survive a plane crash." Everyone is working on the same story scenario, but the items they have in their rucksack are different.
There are 100 item cards in Rucksack. You get a little bit of say in which items you have, but just a little. The first player draws a card from the top of the Items deck, without knowing what that card is. They can keep the card or put it face up in the discard pile. When a player discards their draw they draw and keep the next card off the top of the top of the Items Deck. That unknown card may or may not be a good one, but that is what is in your rucksack.
The next player now has an additional option. They can take the top card from the discard pile or draw the next random item. If they take the discard, their turn is over. If they draw, they have the same option of discarding and taking the next card.
Play continues in this manner until all players have five Item Cards. Now the storytelling begins. You tell how you accomplish the scenario by using all five items.
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| Some Items |
You have a captive audience because everyone gets a concealed vote on who told the best story. You do this for three rounds of tales and then tally up the votes.
I pulled together a group of writers and gamers to see what they would come up with in this game of creative planning designs. Some of those plans were quite outrageous and everyone enjoyed what came out of the challenges.
On another occasion, we had a group of younger players, below the suggested age. We didn't worry about voting on who had the best story, just enjoyed the crazy ideas that came from it.
Overall
Rucksack is a great game for anyone interested in creating plans that you usually only see coming from fictional characters in outlandish situations. Being the size of about three decks of playing cards Rucksack is easy to pack away and have available as a cabin game (something to break out when stuck inside while camping, etc.). You don't need a lot of space to play so it is easy to set up and start sharing how you MacGyver'd the situation.
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