Congratulations! You have magic. You must still attend school though, but don’t worry, it will be a different experience to the regular school up the road. Select your House – according to your parents’ wishes, or not, it’s up to you – and collect your things; it’s time to go. And don’t forget your wand. Oh, you don’t have one? Maybe that’s something for you to work on.
Foxpaw is a wizardly worker placement game, for 2-4 players (solo mode included in Lost Roots). Set in a magic school, players are students in one of four – five with the Lost Roots expansion – Houses. Students balance learning spells, duels – with physical wands – teacher favouritism, mischief, collecting wands and brooms, befriending magical beasts, and prospering during magical events to collect stars and points, with the time students go to bed setting turn order for the next school year. The student with the most points after five school years wins.
Design
The player boards are gorgeous, and intentionally designed. The colours and shape are inviting, and the designer has sensibly added slots – with corresponding symbols – for the cubes and Meeples to sit in. This provides some protection against table knocks, and a sense that everything has its place.
The double-sided main board is colourful and chaotic. The more you stare at it the more you see, and I enjoy the path that links all of the stops. Several card types have locations on the board. Particularly satisfying is the continuation of the board design onto the spell cards, which seamlessly slot into position.
However, the board could be viewed as overwhelming. A plethora of options is not uncommon in worker placement, but could still be off-putting for first-time players. The division of light and dark spaces is nice, but can cause confusion. It is intuitive to match the light and dark spaces to the morning and night spaces, but only some of the light spaces are morning spaces and only some of the dark spaces are night. Although there are sun and moon symbols to clarify, the busy nature of the board makes them difficult to spot, risking resolving events in the wrong order or not re-energising at night due to mistaking another space for the dormitory.
The player pieces are well thought out. Most are wooden, which is a nice move away from plastic. These are easy to distinguish by shape, and where cubes are used, printed symbols provide clarification. The painted beasts are adorable. There are a few translucent plastic pieces, which are pretty and provide contrast, although wooden pieces would have been more environmentally friendly.
The designer could have easily handled duels through card management, but having physical wands adds another layer of fun to this game as well as a moment of levity and respite. The base version contains chunky 2D cardboard wands, which the Lost Roots expansion upgrades to chunkier, plastic 3D wands. Although plastic, they are a nice upgrade.
There is space in the original box for the additional House and wands from the Lost Roots expansion. The upgraded resource bags also fit. Sadly, the neoprene mat does not.
Player aides and rulebook
The player aides are thorough, and include all of the symbols that are commonly used. This is well done.
The 20-page rulebook contains much of what was needed, but needs careful study before the initial play. Finding answers during the game itself is not easy. The rulebook would have benefitted from proofreading both for language use and logical flow. Guidance around the magical events certainly needs work.
Game play
This game has a LOT going on. Game flow quickly becomes easy to grasp, but there are a lot of rules to memorise and possible strategies to implement. Expect the first game to take longer than the box prediction. That said, I can see how the predicted time could be achieved with seasoned players.
Mechanics are varied, with timely worker placement unlocking rewards and blocking opponents. Building talents and resources can provide victory points, provide purchasing power, or influence magical event outcomes. Prophecy and mischief cards provide unexpected and random bonuses and abilities. A teacher’s House allegiance can disrupt player strategy due to unexpected penalty or leniency. Wands and brooms can help with stars and points. Learning spells and winning magical events provide bonuses. Duel outcomes can benefit one or both participants or the onlookers, depending on participant actions. Whilst some scoring in ongoing, special scoring events mean that having the most stars or enough of a talent or resource at the right time is also valuable. And of course, going to bed early can mean being earlier in player order for the next year.
Setup is significantly sped up by re-organising player tokens, dials, boards, and cards into player bags ahead of time, rather than keeping token types together. It would be faster still if similarly-sized card types were separated by an insert in the box, but this isn’t a big issue and can be addressed with tape.
The Houses and starting items provide asymmetry, particularly at the beginning. This is nice because it encourages players who like to play in the same way to adapt and explore other strategies.
The ‘Obsidio’ House is added to 1-3 player games. I have yet to explore its effects.
Conclusion
Foxpaw is a crunchy and colourful game. Multiple scoring mechanisms and the randomness of some of the cards mean a lot of replayability, but also complexity. It is possible that Foxpaw combines too many mechanisms, although too few could cause predictability.
A lot of the design elements are very pleasing, although more care could have been taken with the rulebook and with the morning/night elements. The use of mainly wooden and cardboard elements – including insert – is refreshing, although the plastic spell markers and copious plastic bags let the side down.
For fans of wizards and magic or of worker placement, Foxpaw could be a good option. Let me know how you get on!
