Lunar Trick Review – Dark side of the moon?

I had Lunar Trick on my UK Games Expo wishlist for weeks before the show. I hadn’t seen anything like it, and the idea of three suits which changed, and knowing that trump cards could be in one, two, or even all three suits, had me intrigued. So, as the Japanese Game Festival (日本のゲ-ム祭り) continues, let me tell you about a trick-taker that’s unlike any other I’ve played.

The first thing you’ll notice about Lunar Trick is the silky sheet which acts as the game board, as much as there is one in this game. Without getting into the weeds of how the game works, the players play cards at the start of each round of play, and the values of those cards determine which of the moon phases on the sheet you put the moon markers. Those markers act as delineators for the three suits of the game.

Let’s say for argument’s sake that the markers are on the 4, 10, and 24 spaces respectively. That means one suit is values 5-9, another is 11-23, and the final suit wraps around from 25 to 3. Handily, the designer (Iori Tsukinami) saw fit to include some divider cards for each player, so you can separate the cards in your hand into their respective suits. That way you don’t have to remember which card is in which suit, and it’s a very helpful addition, as it gets really tricky to think your way through your turns.

The other helping of difficulty comes from the way trumps are determined. They’ll either be rising moon or falling moon, based on how many of the moon markers ended up on each half of the sheet. It’s a weird position to be in at the start of your first game of Lunar Trick. At its heart you know it’s just a trick-taking game. Someone leads, you follow suit, highest card wins. But now you’ve got a hand of cards where one of the suits only has two cards in it, and another has 18 cards, but they range from 19 to 7. You might be familiar with the concept of trump suits or cards, but those cards can now be across multiple suits. It’s a bit of a mindf%$k to be honest with you.

Once you get your head around these ideas, which can take a few plays, then the game opens up for what it’s meant to be. There’s a clever system whereby if you win one or five tricks, you get two pieces of moon (you need five pieces to win). If you win three tricks, you only get one piece. Any other number of wins and you get nothing. So you’ll find yourself deliberately playing terrible hands just to avoid winning, which reminds me of games like Cat in the Box (review here) and Aurum (review here). The main difference being there’s no bidding for the number of tricks you think you’ll win. The game prescribes your targets for you.

Final thoughts

Overall I really like Lunar Trick. For a small game with a simple premise, the presentation is superb. The graphic design is cool and clean, the wooden markers are gorgeous. There’s an English Language instruction sheet, too, which is always nice to see.

I find myself a little bit torn when I think about the game. It’s a really clever, really unusual way of handling trick taking. I really like the way that no two games are alike, and I love the wraparound suits that give you great chances to win or lose. I find myself wondering whether I like playing with the novelty of the game rather than enjoying the game for what it is, and I’m not sure I’ll know for sure until I’ve played it a lot more.

What I can definitely say in its favour, though, is that I want to play it. Whenever I get the chance I teach new players how to play, and almost always after a first game peoples’ reactions are “Okay, I think I get it now, I like this, let’s play again”. If you want a trick-taker that’s unlike pretty much every other game in your collection, it’s definitely worth playing. Synka Games are new to me, but they’re a publisher I’m going to be keeping an eye on now. Incidentally, if the designer’s name is familiar to you, it might be because they’re also the designer of a much more well-known game – Joraku!

How to buy it

I’ve had a sneaky peek at the upcoming games gracing Travel Games shelves in the not-too-distant future, and it looks like he’s snagged some copies of Lunar Trick.

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