Stonemaier Games: My Little Scythe by Hoby & Vienna Chou | A Competitive Family Strategy Board Game Where You Embark on Adventure with Your Animal Friends and Start Pie Fights | 1-6 Players, 60 Mins

This is a wonderful game both for younger gamers, but also for the more experience gamers who want a different, more light hearted experience. Summary: "My Little Scythe" is a game for 1-6 players (there are fun solo rules) for ages 8+, and a game is supposed to take 45+ minutes. The game is by Stonemaier Games, the same people that brought you Scythe, also a miniatures game. (Please see the enclosed pictures.) The game is complete specified on the card-stock aids. Each player has a choice of one of three actions each turn: move, make, or seek. The goal is to get a trophy in four of the eight possible trophy areas that range from collecting and delivering special items, to winning pie fights (the non-violent competitive option in this game), to completing quests (only with three or more players). Each player can only get credit for each trophy once per game. Games generally last 30-60 minutes in our group's experience. On to the Dr Games’ Criteria … GO/NO GO Criterion • Complexity: (GO) You can actually play with younger children 6-8, but having an adult there to help with rules and also adjudicate results is helpful. The three options, move, make, or seek, make for closed-ended turn choices. Also, it will become clear early on which of the trophies you are in the running for, further limiting complexity. • Balanced: (GO ) Yes, it is completely, completely balanced. • Chance (GO) There are small amounts of randomness in quests that pop-up, where things are located, etc., but the game mostly revolves around the other players' choices, your own strategy, and how those two things interact. • Clarity: (GO) Yes, everything is in the rule book (if you include the well done pictures and diagrams). You will likely want to play through a couple of short scenarios before playing with a group. At least one person should understand the flow of play and have an idea about general strategy to share. • Reasonable Time: (GO) The game takes thirty to sixty minutes. Bonus Criteria • Social: There is friendly competition in this game. If you are clever, you do not really compete with the other players in a head to head way. You can try to go for different trophies than your competitors. • Unique/Interesting Mechanics: The friendship attribute is a nice touch. You can get points by being nice and helpful to other players. This is a great thing to encourage. I almost missed it (we have not used it), but the record of accomplishment sheet is a very cool idea. My cousins and I would have played this game non-stop if there had been a permanent record of our exploits. • Informed: Not in general, but the painting guide is helpful to inspire young artists. • Rewards Throughout: Every time you collect a trophy, it is yours for the rest of the game.

I love Scythe, and my 5-year-old son likes to help me play. I was feeling funny having him help me with the combat elements, so we purchased My Little Scythe to ensure a more kid-friendly option. Wow, it’s a very well designed game! It preserves many elements of the original, while slightly simplifying mechanics and removing the violent aspects. It’s not a watered-down game; it’s still quite a solid optimization puzzle and gameplay is tight. It’s almost more impressive to see this in action than the original. Quite a feat of game design. I highly, highly recommend My Little Scythe for a family-friendly game that stands on its own. Fantastic execution; Stonemaier always delivers excellence and this one is a gem! Ps: inclusion of the 7 animal types from the original plus expansion is a master stroke.

High quality and fun game.

Surprised by how fun this game is. Great that it supports 1-6 players and scales better than most games. Game looks a little intimidating for beginners but they've all picked it up after 2-3 turns. Most of our games end up coming down to a tie breaker at the end and we've played with a decent range of gamers from casual to frequent gamers. Game pieces look nice and are well built, the organizer trays are really great for making sure everything has a home. We've never played the original Scythe, but had no difficulty picking up this version. Have a few friends that bought their own copy after playing with us once. Highly recommend this for nearly all ages and skill ranges.

Simple enough for my 7 year old...engaging enough for my 16 year old, interesting enough for the adult gamer.

We play lots of board games. The typical "group" is an 8yo, a 12yo, a 15yo, and 2 adults and I'm *always* looking for games all of us can play at once. It's rare we're all be able to play together but the more games we have the entire group can play the better so we're not locked into the half dozen games that work for the rather large age range and 5 people. Good reviews and those requirements were a large driving force for picking up a copy of "My Little Scythe." While we *do* own a copy of "Scythe" it's not yet made it to the table to be able to compare the 2 games. The parts are incredibly well produced. The minis are excellent, heavy, and detailed. The board is *huge* - but needs to be in order to accommodate 6 players. It's also an attractive looking board. The cards are well designed. The insert is also very well done and has a bit of room for any expansions that might come along. It's the game play that left us rather flat. It's enjoyable enough, especially for a kid's game, but just doesn't have the depth we like. It's also just a bit too "polite" for our tastes. It's not that we like "take that" games, we don't, but this one has little competitive feel. We like that you can be rewarded for helping others but there are no consequences if you don't. It's almost like a huge game of multiplayer solitaire at times. It also takes a bit of time to set up and tear down and feels like this takes longer than playing the game. I'd really hoped the 2 youngest would take to this one as the 8yo sometimes gets a bit overwhelmed with some of the more "advanced" games we play. In all fairness, her favorite game at the moment is "Ticket to Ride: New York" and she does very well playing it. The 8yo enjoyed "My Little Scythe" but after playing 3 times has never asked for it again. That's quite telling for her and with the rest of us quite bored with those first 3 plays means this one won't hit the table very often, if ever again. That's a shame as it's very well produced and quite attractive.

We are a family of 6 with kids ranging from 5-11. It is very difficult to find a game that we all can play and is fun for everyone. Most games cap out at 4 players. This can have all our family members playing and is easy to learn. The kids love the animal characters and my husband and I actually enjoy this as well. This is a good simplified introduction for when we let the older kids play real Scythe with us. Highly recommend! Worth the money for a good game to add to our collection.

This game is PERFECT for kids, but it is also great for adults that want to explore board gaming beyond the basics. The solo variant is also brilliantly designed. I feel like this game will satisfy anywhere from 1-6 players working together or against each other. This was designed as a free for all game, but it can also be played as a team-based game against automated opponents with scaling difficulty. Overall I’m just really happy with this purchase. It has tons of replayability and will be hitting my table frequently