Friday Filler: Tinderblox

Dexterity games are not a favourite of Reviews from R’lyeh. In fact, Reviews from R’lyeh will go so far as to say that it hates Jenga, would describe Jenga as being boring, after all, it is just a series of plain wooden blocks, and a terrible game—even if it can be called a game. That said, combine Jenga with something like Dread: Dredd (and indeed, Dread) and you actually have a game and a point to Jenga. So, the question is, if Reviews from R’lyeh is averse to dexterity games, what is it doing reviewing a game like Tinderblox? Well, Tinderblox is small, it is bright and colourful, it has a theme, it has challenging situations set up by the game and not by the players, and it has a means of levelling the playing field—or is that camp site?—and making everyone as clumsy as each other. Published by Alley Cat Games, this is a little game that comes in a tin, a little game all about setting fire to a campfire and for that you need tinder and flames, and if it comes in a box, then ‘tinderbox’. And if the tinder and the flames are blocks of wood, then Tinderblox.

Tinderblox is designed to be played by two to six players, aged six plus, and can be played in fifteen minutes. Inside the tin the six-page rules leaflet, a Campfire Card, nineteen Instruction Cards, twenty Logs, ten Red and ten Yellow ‘Cinder’ Cubes, and two pairs of tweezers. The play of the game is simple. Three Logs are placed on the Campfire Card and the remaining logs and both the Red and Yellow ‘Cinder’ Cubes returned to the tin. Then the players take in turn to draw an Instruction Card and do exactly what it says. For example, it might show a Red ‘Cinder’ Cube on top of a Yellow ‘Cinder’ Cube or a horizontal Log with a Red ‘Cinder’ Cube and a Yellow ‘Cinder’ Cube on top of it at either end. The player has to put these new Logs and Cubes exactly on the fire as the Campfire Card shows. The player can do this in any fashion that he likes, as long the pieces he adds remain upright and the fire does not collapse. If it does, that player is eliminated. Play continues like this until there is one player remaining. He is the winner.

Which sounds like it is easy. It is not, because what has not mentioned so is the tweezers. Tinderblox comes with two pairs of tweezers and it comes with two pairs of tweezers because the player cannot use his fingers. Instead, he must use the tweezers. It does not matter which pair of tweezers, because either would be a candidate for the worst pair of tweezers in the world. They really, really, REALLY are rubbish. However, they are all Tinderblox has and they have absolutely no grip. Well almost no grip. Or just enough grip to imagine that a player he could imagine getting hold of Log or a Red ‘Cinder’ Cube or a Yellow ‘Cinder’ Cube and placing it on the campfire. It is possible. It is annoyingly difficult and that is point. It is what makes Tinderblox so frustratingly difficult and gives a player a sense of achievement when he places the Logs and ‘Cinder’ Cubes in the right arrangement.

Physically, everything is nice about Tinderblox. The tin is perfect, the rules leaflet explains everything easily, the Campfire Card is double-sided for different set-ups, the Instruction cards easy to understand, and the wooden pieces are bright, colourful, and simple. The tweezers are crap. Which is the point.

Tinderblox is simple and portable. The tiny tin fits into any bag and as long as there is a flat surface, there is somewhere to set a fire and keep it going with the simplest of Logs and Cinders whilst using the worst tweezers in the world. The only downside to the game is the player elimination aspect, but the game plays quick to start again, so nobody is get waiting for too long, plus the playing time for Tinderblox is very short and so never outstays its welcome. Tinderblox is a lovely looking, delightfully undexterous filler of a game.