Although many people would love to have a sweet furry (or not so furry) four-legged creature as a companion, unfortunately there is no home for all these critters (yet). Many animal shelters do their stinking best to pair animals with people to give the critters a home and the people a nicer home. Matching an animal is sometimes a bit like dating. Not every relationship is equally suitable. There are very large dogs that need a lot of space while there are also very small apartments in a busy city. There are people with very busy jobs and dogs that especially need lots of attention and cuddles and already start squealing at the thought of their owner leaving without them. People are allergic. Children may be afraid of barking. Most importantly: personalities must match. By finding a good match, shelter staff offer dogs the hope of finding their Forever Home.
Background
In Forever Home, players assume the role of animal shelter employees, and they try to make as many matches as possible between sweet doggos and their potential owners. Players can earn awards for their work done and they also receive points for their completed training cards and rehomed dogs at the different types of homes.
In the intro, I already make the comparison between dating and picking out a dog at the shelter. Very esteemed reader, possibly you are reading this review because you love dogs and therefore the theme of the game interests you. Logical, because dogs are great and dogs taken from the shelter and successfully placed in a family is the ultimate feel-good experience.
Forever Home is published in the Netherlands by De Spelletjes Vrienden, a social media channel and Dutch games website with a high feel-good content. The original publisher, Birdwood Games, previously released Dog Park. As the title suggests, that game also revolved around loyal and furry four-legged friends.
You may also be familiar with the British feel-good reality television show The Dog House. The Dog House is also sometimes described as a dating program with dogs. In this program, dogs from the Wood Green shelter are matched by shelter staff with, hopefully matching, households. The dogs and people then go on a kind of speed date to see if there is a potential click.
Often, the particular requirements and characteristics of the dogs and people result in a lot of puzzling for the shelter staff. That, by the way, is exactly the essence of Forever Home: a family-friendly puzzle with a strong feel-good content.
Goal and setup
In Forever Home, players score points based on the training cards they complete (each training card indicates how many points it earns at the end of the game). Once a player completes seven training cards hot also kicks off the end of the game. By the way, this goes faster than you think.
In addition to training cards, players also receive points for relocated dogs. During the game, players will relocate dogs (chips) to one of those four types of households. Each household scores points in its own way, and each game features a varied composition of households, so the scoring and game play of Forever Home is as varied as a garbage can race. Equally varied are the accolades staff members can earn. In fact, they score the most points if they manage to rehome specific dogs (colors). The player with the most points wins.
Each player receives a personal board, and in the center of the table the players place a central game board. On that central board the cute dogs meeples are placed. These dogs are used to indicate ways in which players can earn points for rehoming dogs (or awards). Above the game board, players place four households (cards). The pile of training cards is shuffled and players receive two cards. Depending on the amount of players, a specific amount of cards are also placed under the game board.
Place all dog tiles in the bag and place one tile above each card. Twice as many chits are also placed separately open on the table so that in a short draft at the beginning of the game, players already get some dogs to place on their board and then players can start repositioning in search of the Forever Home.
Gameplay
In many countries we think of dogs primarily as companion animals, but dogs can be hard working and also very useful. Dogs were and are bred for hunting, to herd sheep and other livestock, to protect the yard and as transportation.
Not all dogs have equally good lives. In some areas, dogs are sometimes used for a single purpose and when they can no longer fulfill that purpose, they are dumped and forced to roam in search of food, attention and love. In some countries, dogs are used intensively for sport and hunting. In Great Britain, lurchers and whippets are used to catch hares so people can gamble on this spectacle. In Spain, many former and discarded hunting dogs roam around. Perla and Rohan, podenco dogs, roamed Spain before finding their forever home with Niek and Viev. You may not have seen those names on Dice Daniel before, but behind the scenes they play an important role playing games. Perla was only too happy to have her picture taken, but Rohan is a little shy. Less shy is the pembroke welsh corgi Blomke, Friesian for flower, who was also all too eager to have her picture taken in exchange for a dog treat.
Each turn of Forever Home, a player performs two actions. Players have the option of three types of actions. Taking one of the face-up chits and placing it on his game board (the shelter). Taking one of the exposed training cards (max five cards) and/or moving a token onto the player’s game board.
Players try to make patterns with colors/dogs in this way to complete training cards. Training cards have a pattern depicting how many dogs from that pattern may be repositioned by completing the card and how many points the card scores at the end of the game. Players may choose to which household they redeploy a dog or dogs to.
Conclusion
Forever Home a lighthearted and less complex game, with some interaction (as players fish from the same pool of dogs and cards), but it is not a mean game full of confrontation. The game is particularly easy to explain, and players will quickly fall in love with the illustrations of the various dogs. It is a smooth puzzle where players cleverly try to make their patterns by tactically saving dogs and cards. Actually, I gave the condensed verdict earlier in the review. Forever Home is a family-friendly puzzle with strong feel-good content.
