RNSM

RNSM is a small 18-card game designed by Peter C. Hayward and published by Button Shy. In it, players will work to play letter cards in a specific order so as to match the order of letters as they would appear in a word. (While not spelling out the entire word, letters need to exist in the order in which they appear in a word. For example, L-T-R could be letter, liter, or lighter, but L-R-T could not.) If unable to add a letter, players must either bluff to pretend as if they are thinking of a word, or challenge another player who might have done the same. Play continues until someone runs out of cards and therefore wins the game. The solo option for this game is very simple. We will get into that more below.

RNSM advertises 1-4 players starting at age 10, with a play time of 20 minutes.

Let's step into the review.

Quality - 7/10 - Button Shy does a good job at producing games that are wallet sized (18 cards each). As a result, these are easy to take on the go out to a pub, the library, a restaurant, or anywhere in between. The quality of the cards and the holder (similar to a business card holder) are nice, if simple.

Artwork - 7/10 - The work by Filip Popovic (art, graphic design) and Milan Zivkovic (graphic design) is clear, engaging, unique, and simple. The cards each have a letter that is uniquely designed in the style of the game. While the game does not call for more complex art, the visuals on the cards are certainly easy to use and include the standard reference icon at the top left of the card for ease of use.

Theme - 3/10 - The manual describes the theme for the game as you and your crew having planned a perfect crime until the police caught wind of your deeds. Your goal in the game is to outwit your fellow crew members using careful wordplay to make sure that you're not the one who gets caught. While unique in that sense, the theme is not mentioned or interacted with at any other point in the manual or the game.

Learnability - 7/10 - RNSM is fairly easy to learn and could easily be picked up after a quick minute of explanation. The game instructions lack a little bit of clarity and organization in some small ways, but are overall sufficient. 

Weight - 4/10 - This game is pretty simple in nature. While there is some simplicity to be expected from a quick, 18-card game, I do think this could have had greater depth. The multi-player option far surpasses the solo option in the game, but even then it seems that there is something missing.

Engagement - 4/10 - Playing RNSM with others is definitely more engaging than the solo option. It's fun to try to decipher what words other players are thinking about, or if they are bluffing. But in terms of word games, I found the puzzle of creating new words to be fairly one-dimensional.

Decisions - 3/10 - The decisions in this game really only come at three points: what word to create, whether or not to bluff, and whether or not to challenge another player's bluff. There is not a lot of strategy or puzzle solving.

Mechanics - 5/10 - I like the mechanic of playing letters to form a word in a particular order, but not needing the missing letters from that word. That concept results in a unique style of play that allows the creation of a word to have the potential to mean many other words as well. Because of this, numerous players can engage in the same word creation with different applications. Beyond that, I think the scoring could have been organized in a clearer and more useable way.

Solo Play - 1/10 - I was unfortunately really disappointed about the solo option in this game. I love word games and the puzzle approach that many word games take to creating or changing words through the organization of letters. In RNSM, the solo option is simply to draw one card at a time, adding it to the play area to create a valid word, and then drawing another card to add. If you draw a card that you can't use, you lose the game. If you choose to end the game after placing a letter card, your score is the number of cards used to create the final word. I tried this approach a half a dozen times over the course of 2-3 minutes, and found it to be lacking. I was not engaged or motivated to try to shape a better word. I completed many games in 30 seconds or less. It felt very much like the solo option was thrown on simply to say that the game could be played by one person as well.

Shared Play - 5/10 - Playing this game with others was much more engaging and interesting than playing it solo. The game seems to be designed more for group play. It is easy to teach to a new group, and is quick to play in a social setting. It's a nice, easy, uncomplicated bluffing word game that you can bring out in many situations.

Replay Value - 3/10 - As much as you enjoy playing the game the first time, you'll enjoy playing it another time or two. Part of that is because of the short time that the game takes to play. There was not a lot of depth to this game that made me think that coming back to play it again would be more intriguing or would have different results.

I never like to be one to be negative, so I will admit that there were aspects of this game that I found unique and interesting (the way letters are organized so that multiple players can utilize the same sequence for different words, for example). But overall, I was pretty disappointed in it. I expected a quick pick-up that would be fun but not take too much brainpower. Instead, I found that it didn't take nearly enough thought to be engaging and enjoyable. The solo option was especially disappointing, and seemed like an afterthought in the game design. I think there are plenty of other games that Button Shy does really well. Unfortunately, this one missed the mark for me.

Overall Rating 2.2/5.0

Keep playing, friends.

(Disclosure: Button Shy provided me with a copy of RNSM in exchange for an unbiased review.)