The Play
Schrage Vogel is German for "weird bird". This game comes in a tiny tin box which looks like it's for mints. The game was first released in 2015, and it was called Odd World then. That edition featured different planets. I much prefer this newer artwork.
This is a pure card game. Every card is a bird. There are 9 types, and they are numbered 1 to 9. The card backs are different, as you can see from the photo above. There are always two different birds on the card back. This tells you that the bird on the front is one of them.
During the game you collect birds (cards). Every bird is worth one point. However for any bird type where the number of birds you have is an even number, these birds score nothing. This is a key point.
During setup, everyone draws 3 cards. You reveal two of them, so that everyone knows what you have so far. The third is kept secret. Your opponents can see the card back so they know the two possibilities, but they don't know exactly which bird it is. There are two draw decks at the centre of the table. On your turn you have to decide two things - which deck to draw from (remember you can see the card back), and who to give the card to - yourself or another player. You must decide before looking at the front of the card. Every card is, by default, one point, so most of the time you want it for yourself. However if this might be the 2nd, 4th, 6th etc of a bird type you already have, maybe you want to give it to someone else. Or maybe this is going to hurt someone else and you want to give it to him even if it can benefit you.
The game ends when one player has all 9 types of birds, and you compare points to see who wins. In case of a tie, whoever has more bird types wins. This means the person who collects all 9 types has an advantage. If there is still a tie, you check who has the most number of birds in a single type.
The Play
The game takes about 10 minutes to play, so to gamers this is a filler. The early game seems overly simple. You'll mostly be taking cards for yourself. Only when you approach mid game then you realise there's more than meets the eye. If both the birds on a card back will cause you to have an even number of that bird type, then this is a card that will certainly hurt you. You probably want to give it to someone else, or take the other card. However, the pain might be temporary. Yes, that bird type is worth nothing now, but if you can get another one later, you're back in business! In the mid game, you can probably still gamble. In the late game, things become different again. You don't know your opponents' face-down bird, so you don't know exactly when the game will end. If you still have many bird types where the count is an even number, you'll be biting your nails. Near end game when you screw over an opponent, it will likely be hard for him to recover. So the temptation to sabotage others becomes bigger. It becomes almost irresistible when either bird on the back of a card will hurt an opponent. There is no risk of unintentionally giving him one point.
I am making the game sound more complicated than it is. This really is a simple game, and even non gamers will quickly grasp these tactics.
That face-down card at the bottom is my secret bird. It might be a 2, it might be a 6. If it is a 6, then I have two birds which are 6's, and I will score nothing for this bird type. Sometimes you can guess your opponents' secret birds through their actions. If I keep taking cards which are possibly 6's, my opponents will know my secret card is a 6.
The Thoughts
I admire the mechanism in Schrage Vogel. Simple and clever. Because it's simple, this is a game that will work with non-gamers and children.
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