Everyone who has ever been to school, ever been employed, been a member of a sports team, or otherwise had to work in a group, knows that there is always a group member who slacks off. Don’t deny it: you have probably been that person at some point too. In L’Oaf, the goal is for the players, who all work in a bakery, to complete their tasks – but players should not work too hard! Can you slack off and let the group do the work without losing your reputation? Then you will probably score the most points. Slacking off? Piece of cake!
Amsterdam Board Game Design season 2
Are you familiar with Amsterdam Board Game Design? Amsterdam Board Game Design (or shorter: ABGD) is a group of international game designers and authors who come together in Amsterdam (or other cities) to work on games, or to test each other’s creations and provide constructive feedback. If you put all those brilliant game authors together and organize so much playfully, a brilliant game concept will eventually emerge. Or multiple. Maybe spread over several seasons? Maybe even 2 seasons!
During season 1, Bable, TimeZoo, and Grachtenpand was released.
On Kickstarter, you will soon find three new games designed by three different game authors who are part of ABGD: L’Oaf, Goblin Laundromat, and Medievallons.
Background and gameplay
L’Oaf is part of season 2 of the Amsterdam Board Game Design series.
Loaf is English for a nice big piece of bread. A nice loaf of bread made with sourdough for example. Delicious. Bread. Oaf means a bit of clumsy person. What I love just as bread is lounging around. Loaf is also an English term for lounging around. Loafing around, for example. It is also the name of the bakery where players go to work. Make sure others work hard without working yourself to an early grave. One person’s death is another person’s bread as the Dutch would say. If you manage to get others to do the work, this will hopefully positively contribute to your reputation, but you will still have plenty of energy to score points at the end of the game. If everyone slacks off, you might get the blame… assess your chances well, you have to keep seeing the bread in it. Lazy oafs, pay attention!
At the beginning of the game, each player receives 11 cards, and with these cards, players will work in at least 5 and at most 9 rounds. Players use the cards to work, but the remaining cards earn points at the end of the game. So don’t overwork yourself and try to use or save cards wisely.
Each round, a round card is turned over. On one side of the card is an evaluation with the consequences of achieving or failing the current round, and on the other side of the card is how many points players must score to achieve the round to get a good rating from their boss. During a round, there are thus two round cards open with on one side the evaluation and the other side the requirements for the rounds.
Players must all play closed cards. These cards are turned over, and the numbers are added together. In a successful round, the player who worked the hardest (played the highest card) moves up on the reputation track equal to the difference between their played card and the average as indicated on the round card. In a failed round, the player who worked the least goes down in reputation. Cards played for a round are discarded.
The game ends as soon as there have been 5 successful or failed rounds (whichever comes first). The player with the most points wins, but you get points for your position on the track, but more importantly: points based on the cards you still have in hand. So don’t work too hard.
Verdict
L’Oaf is a delightful twist on the familiar bidding mechanism. In L’Oaf, you must assess your other players well, but also probability and luck. Players can all fail wonderfully and blame a player for a poor work method, but also benefit well from the risk aversion of other players. A fun element is that players are rewarded for their reputation, so there is an incentive to work hard, but you are also rewarded for saving good cards and thus not working hard. The wordplay and the accompanying theme are naturally appreciated. I expect copies of this game to fly off the shelves like hotcakes.
