Friday Filler: The Parks and Recreation Party Game

The deputy director of the Parks and Recreation Department in Pawnee, Indiana, Leslie Knope, is incredibly enthusiastic about her job, about the good works that government can do, about promoting the town (despite its sometimes less than perfect history), and life in general. Her boss, Ron Swanson, the Parks and Recreation Department director, as a staunch libertarian, believes otherwise and would in fact prefer to shrink the government, including his department. The rest of the department vary in their enthusiasm and attention for their roles in the office, but they have their own projects that they need to complete. Even Ron. This is the set-up for the Parks and Recreation Party Game, based upon the sitcom. It is all about the Waffles. If they Complete Projects, the Parks and Recreation Department employees will earn Waffle Rewards. Sometimes—and more than sometimes—they need the help of their fellow employees, who have to help, and if they take the credit, then all of the Waffles are theirs. The Parks and Recreation Party Game is designed to be played by three to six players and is published by Funko Games.

The Parks and Recreation Party Game is played over several rounds. Each round, a player attempts to complete part of project, with or without the help of another player. If with, the other player must help and cannot act in that round. When a project is completed, the players who helped and are recognised for doing so—that is, they have their tokens on the project—get Waffle Rewards. The Waffle Rewards have numbers on their reverse that are kept hidden until the end of the game. The game ends when ‘Li’l Sebastian’, Pawnee’s much loved celebrity miniature horse, eats the last of his waffles. At which point, the players turn over their Waffle Rewards, count their scores, and the player with highest is the winner.

The Parks and Recreation Party Game consists of six Character Cards, a Project Deck, a ‘To Do’ deck, a ‘Visitor’ deck, a supply of Waffles, and a cute ‘Li’l Sebastian’ figure. The six Character Cards each show a character from the television series—Leslie Knope, Ron Swanson, Donna Meagle, April Ludgate, Andy Dwyer, and Tom Haverford—and is marked with a symbol representing ‘Personnel’, ‘Music’, ‘Catering’, ‘Sponsorship’, ‘Public Support’, and ‘Cut Red Tape’. The ‘To Do’ cards are numbered, show one or two sets of two or three of the aforementioned symbols. They also have quote from the series. The Project Deck consists of large cards which show the type and number of symbols required to complete each part of the project, a bench where the characters can sit to indicate that they have helped complete the project, and symbols that indicate whether ‘Li’l Sebastian’ eats Waffles and moves the game closer to its end or if a new Visitor card has to be drawn. Every Project Deck is illustrated much like the paintings that depict famous scenes in Pawnee history and are hung on the walls of Pawnee City Hall. Visitor Cards are drawn at the start of the round and remain in play until a new Project indicates that a new one is drawn. They represent other characters from the television series visiting the Parks and Recreation Department and grant various effects. For example, the ‘Chris Traeger City Hall Visitor’ card lets every player take a Waffle Reward, except the player with the most Waffle rewards’ and the ‘Tammy Swanson 2 City Hall Visitor’ card forces everyone to play with their hand of ‘To Cards’ in front of them. There are also several tokens for each of the characters, Pawnee Tokens to indicate that part of project has been completed, and Waffle Reward tokens.

At the start of a round, each player, assigned a Character card, has a hand of five ‘To Do’ cards and there will be ‘Project cards’ in play on the table. On a round, each player selects one of the ‘To Do’ cards in their hands and places it face down on the table. These cards are revealed simultaneously and then in order, from the lowest number to the highest. What a player is trying to do is match the symbols and their number on his ‘To Do’ card with those on a ‘Project card’. If he can, the requirement is fulfilled and he gets to place a character marker on the ‘Project card’. If he cannot, he goes round the table and finds a player who has played a ‘To Do’ card with the symbols that he needs and gets that player to help him by using his ‘To Do’ card. If the requirement is fulfilled, both players place their character marker on the ‘Project card’. The player who is asked for this help has no choice in this and the act of helping serves as his action for the round. This is not as bad as it sounds because it gives both players the opportunity to gain Waffle Reward.

Lastly, if no other player can help complete a ‘Project card’, then the acting player can turn to ‘Jerry’ Gergich, the much put upon and gently mocked character in Parks and Recreation. In the Parks and Recreation Party Game, he serves as a wild card and can be used to stand in for any symbol that a player needs. However, he can only be used once in a round.

Waffle Rewards are earned once a ‘Project card’ is completed. The player whose character marker is to the left on the completed ‘Project card’ will gain a Waffle Reward which is more likely to have a better scoring value. What this means is that it is better to start a ‘Project card’, that is, ne ‘assigned’ it, rather than work on it latter as the scoring potential is higher. However, some ‘To Do’ cards are ‘Promotions’ and let a player move his character marker to the left, gaining the spot with the higher scoring potential, effectively taking credit for the project despite not being assigned to it. If at the end of a round, a player has been unable to act, most likely because the ‘Project card’ he was planning to work on has been fulfilled, he can discard as many cards from his hand at once and refresh them.

Play continues like this until ‘Li’l Sebastian’ has eaten all of his Waffles. This ends the game and the players turn over all of their Waffle Rewards and add their scores. The player with highest total is the winner.

Physically, the Parks and Recreation Party Game is well presented. The cards use photographs of the characters from the television series and the artwork on the ‘Project’ cards is decent. The rules are clearly written, although they leap straight into set-up without any explanation. The figure of ‘Li’l Sebastian’ is cute.

The Parks and Recreation Party Game does not feel like a party game. It is not particularly social in its play or interaction and there is nothing physical about it. Its character is more amiable than anything else, its forced help mechanic actually giving both players involved the chance to score. That does set up an opportunity for a player to gain a promotion and move his character to a better scoring position, but that is about as sharp as play gets. As much as that feels like the office politics of Parks and Recreation, the game is lacking. The problem is that none of the characters have any character. The personalities of the characters seen on screen are not reflected in the game play. That is, they have no special abilities that match their personality and they feel all the same. In fact, the ‘Visitor’ cards have more personality than the characters and that ultimately, is the undoing of the Parks and Recreation Party Game. Without any variation in the characters and without any special abilities to reflect their personalities from the television series, there is no reason to want to play the Parks and Recreation Party Game more than once because it does not enough variation between games.

The Parks and Recreation Party Game is a game for the Parks and Recreation fan rather than the experienced gamer. There is nothing wrong with that, since not everyone is an experienced gamer. Yet even the Parks and Recreation fan is going to bored of this game fairly quickly, and ultimately, the Parks and Recreation Party Game is a missed opportunity.