Game Overview: Second Chance, or Fill 'Er Up!

Game Overview: Second Chance, or Fill 'Er Up!
Board Game Publisher: Edition Spielwiese
Board Game Publisher: Pegasus Spiele
Board Game Publisher: Stronghold Games
Uwe Rosenberg's Second Chance debuted from Edition Spielwiese and publishing partner Pegasus Spiele in Germany in February 2019, with the game reaching the U.S. in April 2019 courtesy of licensing partner Stronghold Games. Editions have also been licensed in France and Italy, but you could play this game no matter what language you speak given that you could pantomime the rules in a couple of minutes and lose almost nothing along the way.

In many ways, Second Chance is more minimalist than The Mind: You're given a shape, then you draw it in your 9x9 grid, then you're shown two shapes and draw one of them, then you see two more shapes and draw one of them, etc.

Second Chance is like a hypnotic melody of a game, with you nodding along peacefully outside the one or two cymbal crashes that sound when the puzzle pieces fit together perfectly and you momentarily imagine yourself a spatial wizard that can pack anything in the best way possible. Then things go awry, and you think, yeah, I guess that was bound to happen. C'est la vie. At least my drawing looks neat!

•••

[I've realized that in my write-ups accompanying these video overviews, sometimes I approach the game from a second angle, which then provides a secondary entry point into how one might perceive the game, but sometimes I simply repeat some percentage of what I say during the video itself — which is a waste of time should you be someone who both reads these writes-ups, then watches the video (or vice versa). With that in mind, for some of my future game overviews, I'll post the video in this space and leave it at that. When I have more to say beyond what I already said in video format, I'll do so.

[I know that some folks prefer written game overviews to recorded ones, but in the time that I save from not writing out what I've already spoken, I'll be able to write a BGG News post on a completely separate topic, or edit a designer diary, or work on a convention preview, or otherwise provide something standalone that is more useful than me repeating my own words. I apologize for disappointing you should you fall into that category, but ideally you'll find value in the other things I do instead.]


Related

Designer Diary: Tiny Towns, or A Short History of a Tiny Game

Designer Diary: Tiny Towns, or A Short History of a Tiny Game

May 27, 2019

The idea for Tiny Towns stems from two key concepts and a love of games in which you build something. I wanted to create a game that was short without being too simple and that scaled well from 2...

New Game Round-up: Fight to Tell Weird Stories on Rival Networks

New Game Round-up: Fight to Tell Weird Stories on Rival Networks

May 26, 2019

• Bandai has a pair of new interrelated games due out in June 2019 from Ryan Miller collectively titled Naruto Boruto Card Game — a name that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but if...

Explore New Ways to Play Endeavor, Merlin, Inis, and Captain Sonar

Explore New Ways to Play Endeavor, Merlin, Inis, and Captain Sonar

May 25, 2019

• The new edition of Endeavor: Age of Sail released in 2018 by Burnt Island Games and Grand Gamers Guild has been a huge critical success, and in mid-June 2019 the publisher will launch a...

Keep the Death Star from Completion in Star Wars: Dark Side Rising

Keep the Death Star from Completion in Star Wars: Dark Side Rising

May 23, 2019

If you liked the sound of the co-operative dice and card game Thanos Rising: Avengers Infinity War, but didn't care whether Thanos snapped away a bunch of superheroes or not, perhaps you will...

More Titles at Tokyo Game Market in May 2019: Moon Base, Sinomilia, Elegantu, Natsumemo & Leiden 1593: The Beginning of Tulip Cultivation

More Titles at Tokyo Game Market in May 2019: Moon Base, Sinomilia, Elegantu, Natsumemo & Leiden 1593: The Beginning of Tulip Cultivation

May 23, 2019

Tokyo Game Market runs May 25-26, and if you plan to attend, you're probably already in Japan or on an airplane traveling there.While BGG is missing out on TGM this time due to us hosting our own...

ads