We featured the Cat Days, Dino Days and Woof Days card games last year on Board's Eye View. They are all light tableau-building 'take that' card games published by Farplace in support of their animal rescue charity. Space Days, Dungeon Days and Pirate Days are the latest additions to the series. There are minor rule tweaks in each of the games but they are all essentially re-themed editions of the same game; all designed by Gareth Edwards with art from Jennifer Mae Spooner. And tho' these now depart entirely from the pet cat and dog themes, the proceeds for Space Days, Dungeon Days and Pirate Days still support the Farplace Animal Rescue charity.
On your turn you either draw a card or play a card. When you play a card, it'll be to a tableau representing the seven days of the week: Monday through to Sunday. Some cards can be played anywhere but some cards can only be played on a set day of the week or, for example, adjacent to another card. Some cards can only be played to your own tableau while some can be played on your opponent's. Some cards have extra effects, including moving previously placed cards from your own or your opponent's tableau, so this is a game with a 'take that' element. The game ends immediately one player has a card on each day of the week but that doesn't mean it's a race game because you add the values of the cards on the top for each day of the week and the win goes to the player whose tableau has the highest total value. The player completing their tableau will by definition have at least one more slot filled than their opponent but they could still lose if their topmost cards add up to less.
In Space Days, you can try to clutter your opponent's tableau with Space Junk that's worth just 1 point or a Gaseous Cloud that scores zero. There are Planet Killer cards that totally block a day, but there are also tricksy Time Warp and Wormhole cards with which you can manipulate the tableaus.
Dungeon Days has 'spell' cards with similar effects to those in Space Days but in this game players have to take account of the different fantasy races' preferences and prejudices; so, for example, an elf and a dwarf can't be placed next to one another but a pixie can only be placed adjacent to a human or a halfling...
Pirate Days comes in a slightly larger box than the other games in the series. That's because in addition to the card deck this game makes use of custom eight-sided dice (1-8 and Monday to Sunday plus 'any'). The gameplay mirrors that in all the other Days games except that some of the cards trigger a dice roll. The Berserker Pirate, for example, triggers a roll off against the card on the same day on your opponent's board, with the loser having to remove their card. If you play a Cannon, you roll a die and it blasts whatever card is on the day rolled. This game also has several cards that allow stacking so that you can score for more than one card on a day.
All three games are family friendly and tho' they encourage 'take that' interaction, the light-hearted theme means that children playing the games are unlikely to sulk when they find themselves targeted. Click here to buy direct from the Farplace Games shop.