Pyramid Review
No Thanks!
Published by Z-Man Games
Designed by Thorsten Gimmler
33 cards, 55 chips; full color, boxed, three to five players; $10
If you've seen the endless iterations of their "B-Movie Games," you may well begin to wonder whether Z-Man Games has any cards up its sleeve that a) don't use that system or b) come with a less-mangled name. Not only do they have a shorter title, No Thanks!, but the rules used are impossibly straightforward.
The object of the game is to finish with the lowest point total when all cards have been played.
The focus of the game is a deck of 33 cards, numbered from three to 35. Several cards are removed at random from the deck and tossed back in the box without anyone getting a look at them. All players receive a set of chips, and the first player flips over the top card on the deck to get things going.
If the player is willing to take the card he just revealed, he swipes it and places it in front of him, then draws another card from the deck to replace it. His score is now equal to the card he kept. Since the object of the game is to have the lowest score, however, you don't really want to keep any cards. When you don't want it, you leave it in the middle of the table and place one of your chips on it. Now it's a problem for the next player in line. If they don't want it either, they have to pay for it, too (it's not a "bidding" mechanic, so each player need only place one of their chips atop the . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: October 13, 2006
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