Our favorite parade… second only to Pride!
•••Game Stats•••
•Publisher: Z-Man Games
•Designer: Naoki Homma
•Artist: Chris Quilliams
•Players: 2-6
•Sweet Spot: 3-5
•Mechanics: Hand Management / Set Collection
•Long-Distance Hacks: Remote side should have cards separated. Dry erase board to write down hand if preferred.
(Stats are for the version we own, there are many other stats depending on which version you have)
I feel like, if during a creative meeting, I decided to throw out the idea: “Hey guys… How about a game about people standing in a line… oh and also, counting… counting those people in said line!”… I would be fired from the R&D team immediately. I guess what I want to say is, thank you and congratulations to the individual that pitched Parade… because it’s amazing, literally one of our favorites… and whoever that person was, they successfully convinced their team to make a game about people standing in a line… and then counting those people.
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•THOUGHTS•
Brooks: For starters, Parade is unfairly simple for as much playtime as it’s received. It’s an Alice in Wonderland themed deck of cards… in a box. Granted it has amazingly beautiful artwork, but still, it remains just a deck of cards. Why then has it been able to capture our attention and imagination this intensely?
Lizzy: I remember walking through our friendly, local game store and the compact purple box with its gold accents grabbed me immediately. We bought it on a whim. It was purely one of those “that last $20 I need to get me another punch on my loyalty card” kinds of purchases. It quickly became evident that it was evolving into so much more.
Brooks: It became a favorite so fast that I panic bought a copy while it was out-of-print, only to find out two weeks later that they were reprinting it…
Kitty: Rookie mistake. Worth it though, because Parade sneakily rocketed its way up to the coveted 10/10 spot in no time. It became our opener, closer, and on occasion will stick to the table for an entire gaming session. We even have ridiculous songs such as: the lovely doo-wop “No Pick Up” sung to the tune of “My Humps”; and a stylized countdown diddy popularized by my very own mama. Like they said, it’s simple, yet beautiful. The color scheme and cards drip with artistic passion. The card backs look like wallpaper I would choose for an opulent Sims house! (Rosebud cheat code all day, am I right?!)
Brooks: You know the “motherload” code would’ve been much quicker… It was like 50 thou…
Kitty: Well, that advice is about a decade too late.
Lizzy: Wellll… I’m not that kind of gamer so I have no idea what they’re talking about. But what I do know is why Parade struck the chord that it did. It’s small, beautiful, streamlined, layered, strategic, fast, unpredictable, and surprisingly cutthroat. A game… themed around Alice in Wonderland characters frolicking in a parade lineup… is cutthroat. Although as a child, I was terrified of the movie. Little ol’ me legitimately stressed over what types of chocolates would cause me to shrink and get stepped on. No longer triggered, though. I even made a set of coasters by copying the card art, my favorite being the Cheshire cat (purple, of course)!
Brooks: I’m impressed by your bravery, Liz! What I’m also impressed by is how deep this game can actually get. Cards are simply numbered from 0 to 10, with 6 suits represented by a color and character (I see you, colorblind-friendly game creators). Cards are laid in a line, one by one each turn, in an ever-evolving array of suits and values. The main gameplay rules are as follows: lay down a card; count out from that card the number depicted on it; anything after the counted cards are evaluated; and anything evaluated that is of equal value or lower, or anything of the same suit is picked up and counted against you as points at the end.
Kitty: Yep. That’s literally it for core gameplay, but end game scoring has a special twist. You keep two cards at the end for scoring; and for each suit, the player with the majority of that color only scores 1 point per card in that suit (this is good since lowest score wins). Alternatively, if you do not have majority, you score each card’s face value… ouch. So picking up nothing during a game, and holding on to two zeros for the end would nab you the elusive perfect score of 0. I would like to humbly put out there that I currently hold our group record for best score; a beautiful 2 points, edging Brooksby off the podium with his previously reigning 4 points.
Lizzy: Yeeeah, Kitty… but your score was never recorded to Board Game Stats… so did it really even happen?
Brooks: Amazing point, Liz. Sounds like a big-fish story to me!
Kitty: You’re turncoats, the lot o’ you! And besides, that win was hard-fought, because it actually took me quite a few games before I fully understood the nuanced layers to the strategy. Then one day it clicked, and I really got it! During a session you’re keeping track of what’s been played, what’s in the parade, managing your high and low cards so that you’re prepared for anything, trying to maintain suit majority if you have to pick up cards, and girding yourself against these sneaky peeps as they try to incite infighting to distract you from the task at hand! As we’ve said, incredibly layered and amazingly complex.
Lizzy: Remote gameplay for Parade requires one main rule: honesty. This seems obvious, but is seriously a problem with some gamers. The desire to have an authentic, fun experience has to override the desire to peek at the cards when you’re holding them up to the monitor for a remote gamer to see. We can’t even tell you how often we hear: “It’s too hard to hold up cards and not see them accidentally… it’s just impossible”; “It would be so much easier to play an online/Steam game”; “I don’t have the patience for that, you should just play something without cards.” The answer to all of those is a resounding, NO! Those are all immensely inaccurate. Holding up cards is a breeze. You just have to get used to it. Like most remote concepts, it’s a learning curve. Squint a bit, get used to where you need to hold your hand for them to see their cards, have a counting method like right-to-left. Before you know it, you’ll be breezing through card games like you’re in person.
Brooks: Exactly! And abandoning tabletop gaming to play online versions of everything??? Absolutely not! The entire reason we do this is because we’re passionate about board gaming; the interactivity of drawing your fate from a deck, the tactile nature of manipulating resources, and the stress of rolling the dice hoping to win it all. Simply touching a screen or clicking a mouse can’t compete. As Lizzard was saying, honesty is key. If you are on the remote side with the cards separated, don’t card count as you pull the cards that are requested. If you are holding their hand up to review, avert your eyes. If you accidentally see a card, say something. The honor system is so natural to us that we don’t even think about it anymore. It’s about the experience, not the win, period! Dismounting soap box now.
Kitty: Agreed! And regarding patience and the remote learning curve: if the important thing is the experience you have with the people you care about, then you’ll turn around and have months of practice under your belt and forget it was ever daunting at all. Inspirational mush aside, all you have to do for Parade for a successful remote play sesh is have one side separate the cards by suit and pull from them whatever you tell them to. Having something to write down your hand makes it so you’re diving into the piles less and not seeing what’s left as often. Lizzy recommends Boogie Boards, cool Etch-A-Sketch-like dry-erase boards, to anyone that will listen. I’m starting to wonder if she has stock in them.
Lizzy: Ohhh… not yet, but stock sounds like a good idea! How does that work? Do we have to play Acquire?
Brooks: Pretty sure Acquire is about buildings… and that joke was so bad it physically hurt me!
Lizzy: Uh, oh! Better take you to the… Dice Hospital!!!
Brooks: I refuse to dignify that with a response. Our ridiculous banter aside, Parade is the real deal. From the first play we were hooked and it remains a staple to this day. Five years later and the cards are so faded from hundreds of shuffles that it’s time to buy another copy (of which I will sleeve this time). If that’s not a shining endorsement, I don’t know what is!
Kitty: 10/10 ~ Lizzy: 10/10 ~ Brooks 10/10
!!!Game Playlist!!!
Black Parade ~ Gin Wigmore
Alice ~ Stevie Nicks
Mad as Rabbits ~ Panic! At The Disco
Mad Love. ~ JoJo
Madness ~ Muse
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters ~ Elton John
Wonderland ~ Alice Chater
Alice ~ Avril Lavigne
Welcome to the Black Parade ~ My Chemical Romance
Madness ~ Ruelle
Alice ~ Lady Gaga
White Rabbit ~ Jefferson Airplane
Wonderland ~ CHVRCHES
Mad Hatter ~ Melanie Martinez
Long Distance Gamers 