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While you may have heard of some of the Magenta Line games before CMYK released them, No Thanks is probably the most well known. No Thanks was created by German Game Designer and Electrical Engineer Thorsten Gimmler. I like to think he could also add “Noted Linguist” to his resume. Growing tired of explaining what “Schadenfreude” was to his non-German speaking friends, he decided to create a real life definition in Card Game form.
The deck in No Thanks has cards number from 3 to 35 (with one copy of every number). Each card is worth the number of points printed on the card and points are bad, m'kay. On your turn, you can either take the card that has been revealed and place it in front of you as your points OR you can put one of your (limited) No Thanks tokens on it and avoid picking it up and sending it to the next player who then has to make the same decision.
If a player creates a “run” of cards in front of themselves (Like if they have the 10, 9 and 8 cards) then their point total is only the lowest card in that run (eight in that case). Cool, right? Except that, when the deck is assembled at the beginning of the game, nine cards are removed. So, there will be gaps in point reduction when using runs...and you won't know where they are. It is hilarious to me that after playing a time or two, players will inevitably bemoan the fact that those nine cards are removed and wonder aloud if the game would be better if those all stayed in...it wouldn't, but I love how everyone seems to jump to that conclusion.
CMYK and the Magenta line gives No Thanks that light purplish red treatment, so all of the No Thanks tokens have a bit of personality. I say a bit of personality because they all are basically saying “ThankyouverymuchbutIwillpass" with a face that would make Mr. Yuk proud. It also have a distinct green on silver aesthetic for the cards that makes the game pop on the table but it can be a bit overwhelming.
One of the joys of No Thanks is taking a moderately high card, say a 18 and then immediately revealing a 17 (when you take a card, you reveal the next card and decide if you want to take it as well). You want that card because it will reduce your point total by one but, usually, no one else wants that card. So, you decide if you want to send that sucker around the table to pick up some No Thanks tokens from the other players (which will restock your supply of tokens and be negative points if you still have them at the end of the game). And, after you pull this move off once, you think “Maybe I can send that sucker around....one...more...time...and secure another batch of tokens!” But, inevitably, this will end up backfiring on you because you didn't realize that another player is actually out of tokens and will be forced to pick up the card....screwing over your plan and likely thier plan, because you got a little too greedy. It's all part of the fun/pain of No Thanks.
I once had a game where, between making a run of lower point cards and having a batch of tokens left at the end of the game, that I ended up with zero points...and I'm not saying this to brag...much..but I'm expressing that if I'm still telling the “zero points” story years after it happened, this game of feeling good about another player feeling bad is pretty damn impressive.
So, tune up your linguistic talents so that you can No Thanks is as many ways as possible during a game. A 24? ¡No Gracias! A 22? No Grazie. A 35! No Merci! Of course, No Merci! tickles my double entendre funny bone and is my personal favorite. (Neck and neck with “Fuck right off.”) If there is such a thing as a “Classic Feel Bad Filler” No Thanks is that game.
A review copy of this release was provided by the publisher. Therewillbe.games would like to thank them for their support.
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