The Fox Experiment: Rapid Review
Information:
Mechanics: Roll and Write, Bid for turn order, Point Salad, Drafting
Player Count: 1 - 4 Players (6 with expansion)Time to Play: 60 Minutes
Game Designer: Elizabeth Hargrave, Jeff FraserGame Artist: Joe ShawcrossPublisher: Pandasaurus GamesYear Published: 2023Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Game Designer: Elizabeth Hargrave, Jeff Fraser
Rundown:
Set historically in the 1950s/60s of Soviet Russia, The Fox Experiment is centred around the domestication of foxes. It specifically looks at breeding the desired domesticated traits which are: spots, barking, floppy ears and curled tails. Throughout five rounds players aim to pass on these traits to new pups through four phases (selection, breeding, research and administration).
Selection Phase:
Within three turns (order chosen by players) players will draft the following three things; the male parent, the female parent and the supply track position (determines turn order). Each fox comes with an amount of dice depicted on their card. These dice correspond to traits.
Every location on the supply track, besides the first one, will give you a bonus that is crucial in some way. This could include selecting trait tokens, friendly tokens (wild die results) or science cards.
Science cards provide one-time bonus abilities.
Breeding Phase:
During the breeding phase players will draw a blank pup which can be done multiple times if you are breeding a litter. Then players collect the total breeding dice displayed by the parental foxes and roll them all. The dice can either result in a full, half, two unconnected halves or a full and a half trait. The dice will have to be combined to create multiple full traits but the friendly tokens and friendly dice can help with this as they are wild.
After the results are compiled the pup will have their details filled in including their name, traits and friendliness (total amount of spots filled in across the four traits). For subsequent pups in a litter the same dice are re-rolled creating different combinations of traits.
If any of the trait tracks are so full that you circle off the track, you will gain a reward token worth one point at the end of the game per every extra amount.
Research Phase:
The research phase is how you apply the results of the breeding. In this phase you will gain the matching trait token for every circle (not square) filled on your pup's trait tracks. If you have multiple pups it is only the pup with the most of each trait that gives you tokens for that trait. Players can then spend these tokens on their upgrade board to enhance their engine (more on this later).
Each player will also have one or multiple studies in pursuit as passive goals. These studies have three levels of scoring and require a pup to have the amount of traits displayed or more.
Each pup can score one level out of three on a study card. When the study card is scored, a fox meeple will be placed on the first spot and then move up the levels. As the fox meeples are a finite resource during the game, players should consider their use wisely. With good rolls and multiple pups, a player can score a whole study card in one turn.
Administration:
The foxes that were not selected last round to be a parent will now be discarded and replaced with the pups players have created. Parent foxes can still be drawn from the deck to reach the minimum amount of available foxes. The player(s) with the highest friendly rating will have their meeple placed for end game points and every other player will place their fox meeple on the round tracker to gain a friendly token.
Turn order is now determined based on where each player is on the supply track. This track will then be refreshed with new bonuses.
After five rounds whoever has the most points is the winner and has run the most successful trial. There is a nifty score sheet to help with this.
Appeal:
For someone who enjoys roll and write games and relishes all the twists/systems they introduce to the genre, Fox Experiment is very unique. The core loop of the game is roll and write. You roll trait dice and create new pup cards. However, Fox Experiment is much larger than a typical game in this genre as it also encompasses drafting, bidding for turn order, engine building and point salad. With these additions the game finds itself in an interesting spot where it appeals to both fans of this genre and players that would normally avoid this genre. Fox Experiment isn't a full roll and write, instead it uses the mechanism as a central component of a larger game.
Points:
As explained above, this is a point salad game where there are many different avenues that players partake in to gain points, such as;
- Study Cards
- Friendliness Track
- Patrons
- Certain upgrades on the upgrade board.
- Reward Tokens
- Leftover tokens (two tokens for one point) and unused science cards.
Throughout each game there are four patrons that players can access. Players gain access to these patrons by having a fox meeple available and by upgrading the patron on their upgrade track. These patrons will give players points for study cards, aid progress on the friendly track, give bonuses for reward tokens and give specific trait tokens in certain places on the upgrade board.
When gaining a patron players also gain a science card (which can be used as single-use bonuses throughout the game) and the bonus that is on a supply token that is randomised as part of game setup.
Intricacies:
One thing I have yet to explain fully is the upgrade board. As the last step in selecting and researching, players can upgrade their engine by using this board. To upgrade, players have to spend 2, 3 or 5 of the same type of trait token and leave one of these tokens to cover the newly upgraded spot. Players will upgrade starting at the left-hand side of each track and progress to bonus points as the last spot of the track (besides the patron track). Going from the top to the bottom, the track will allow you to breed more pups each round, draw three studies and keep one, gain another friendly dice each time you roll and score a patron.
The other relevant part of the upgrade track is that a lot of patrons will score based on some sort of token allocation on this board. This is through scoring points for every token that matches a certain trait or for certain patterns.
Determination:
- Contains a roll and write loop within a larger game.
- Good amount of randomisation with setup.
- Many ways to focus on gaining points.
- Multiple ways to focus on breeding your foxes.
- The theme can be off-putting to people but the game does embrace it well.
- At two players, a bot is needed to keep the game state full.
I wouldn't classify The Fox Experiment purely as a roll and write. Instead it mixes the genre with drafting and engine building to create a larger point salad game. Players can capitalise on multiple things when breeding foxes such as focusing on fufilling science cards, creating the friendliest foxes, gaining extra rewards and gaining trait tokens. All of these decisions create a constant puzzle when drafting the right parents, stockpiling science cards and friendly tokens. If you enjoy the genre but are looking for something that accumulates roll and write into a larger decision-making game then this is a great addition to your collection and has earnt a Silver Seal of Approval.
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