Petal Plotters

The Game

Petal Plotters is a game from Malaysian game designer Evan Cheah, winner of the Malaysian Boardgame Design Competition in 2023. It is a small-box microgame using only cards. The garden is on the brink of war, and you have to decide whose side to be on. The grasshopper? The snail? The monkey? If you successfully pick the ultimate victor, you win the game. 

At the start of the game, deal all cards out to the players. You then take turns playing a card to manipulate the end game. When everyone has just one card left in hand, the game ends. Your last card is the faction you have chosen. If the end game situation meets the condition on that card, you win. 

When you play a card, there are two ways you can use it. You can play it face-down before you. Every card has two numbers, one at each end, and usually one is positive and the other negative. When you play a card face-down before you, you must choose one of these numbers. When the game ends, the numbers on all the cards played by all players are added up. This is the outcome of the war - it's going to be a number. The condition on your faction card will be along the lines of this total being less than zero, more than eight, more than 12, and so on. So during the game you try to influence the total, while your opponents are doing the same. Since cards are played face-down, you don't know what the others have played. 

That brings us to the other use of a card. You may play a card face-up to use its special power, after which the card is discarded. Special powers can help you see the face-down cards played by your opponents. They can also help you manipulate the end game total. E.g. one card lets you look at an opponent's card, another one forces everyone to pass one card to the left. The drawback of playing a card for its special power is you won't be able to keep it face-down before you to add or subtract from the total. From your opponents' perspective, there is less hidden information they need to worry about.

At game end, all the face-down cards are flipped over, and you sum up the card values. The last card you keep is your faction card. If the sum meets the condition on your faction card, you win. Sometimes more than one player meet their conditions. Among the conditions there is a ranking based on how difficult it is to fulfil them. The player with the higher ranking wins. 

The Play

This is a short game, but by no means a simplistic game. A card has four uses. I count the two different numbers as two different uses. When you get your hand of cards, you have to think hard how best to make use of your cards. You have to plan which card to leave to the end as your faction card. You will normally want to keep your options open for as long as possible. At the same time your card plays should help you towards the eventual faction you pick. As you observe your opponents play, you want to guess their intentions because their plays affect the end game total. You have to decide how best to make use of the card special powers. This is a compact game with much to think about. You have many options, and you must choose wisely. You have to pick some and forgo others. This is the dilemma you face. 

The Thoughts

Petal Plotters may be a short microgame, but it is a thinky game. You need to read your opponents to guess whether they are adding or subtracting from the total. You have limited actions to manipulate the total and gather information. There are tough decisions to be made.  

I have heard that some do not like the art. I was surprised by that. Indeed the art is not typical of the type of art used in boardgames, but I think that's a good thing. I find the art beautiful and the box cover attractive. We should push boundaries. The graphic design is functional, and the art doesn't hinder gameplay. When LUMA published Petal Plotters, it was the first game in the Tropika series. This series has nature as the theme, and I'm looking forward to more games.