What's For Dinner? A Fresh New Card Game on Kickstarter

In the mood for a picnic or TV dinner? Be careful! Don’t forget you can’t eat grains! But maybe cheating on your diet might just be worth it in the end.

Currently on Kickstarter, this fifteen-to-twenty minute card game answers that all important question: What’s for Dinner?

Gameplay

Five meal cards are placed face up on the table, two in the top row and three in a bottom row. A meal card shows how much it costs, how many points it is worth at the end of the game, and which of the six ingredients it contains.

Each player is then dealt three trait cards. You choose two of these and discard the third. A trait card will award you points at the end of the game if you meet its requirements. An example of a trait card is that it may tell you to not take any meal cards with meat on it, or to be the player with the fewest meal cards at the end of the game.

Players then select one of their traits to be visible and face up during the game, while the other is kept secret. (Players earn double the points listed on a visible trait card.) Finally, each player is dealt three wallet cards. Wallet cards can either be special ability cards or money.

On your turn, you may choose to move one of the meal cards from the top row to the bottom of the meal card draw pile. Then you roll the die, which will show one of the six ingredients. After you roll the die, you may either choose to take any meal card which includes that ingredient, spend wallet cards to buy one of the meal cards, or you can discard any one of the available meal cards and put it in the dumpster (the bottom half of the game box) and draw a wallet card. You may never acquire more than one meal card on your turn. You end your turn by replacing any meal cards from the draw pile.

The game ends once the last meal card is drawn and all players have had an equal number of turns. Players then add up the points from their meal cards, scoring their visible trait card if they successfully met its requirements. There are a few cards which can then be played at this point which can affect both your visible and secret trait cards. Once these (if any) are resolved, players reveal their secret trait cards, score it if applicable, and the game ends. The player with the highest score wins the game and gets to choose what’s for dinner.

Review

What's for Dinner is full of yummy looking meals with a nice wide range in the meal cards, all with their own tasty artwork to go along with them.

There is a nice balance between rolling the dice and spending wallet cards each turn, with your trait cards forcing you to balance between the two and adding a nice layer of strategy. There are a lot of trait cards, some harder to accomplish than others, and many of them playing off each other in unique ways.

When choosing which two trait cards to go with, you need to be careful as some can be extremely difficult to accomplish together (some might even be impossible). Since you choose two out of three, it's entirely possible you'll end up with a bad combo no matter what, but winning is not contingent on accomplishing both of your traits. Concentrating on one and going after high point value meals is a completely legitimate strategy. In fact, the traits, whether you attempt to accomplish them both or only one, often force you to approach the game in different ways and adapt your strategy as you go.

For a few of the trait and special meal cards, it would be helpful if the rulebook went into detail for how they work, but in general the rules are simple and easy to learn. Turns are fast and the gameplay smooth.

A light card game, with some interesting choices and tasty artwork, What’s For Dinner is fun and enjoyable. But be warned: it will make you hungry. Check it out on Kickstarter and see for yourself.

Pros: Good artwork, traits are a fun addition

Cons: Rulebook could explain specific cards

Disclosure: this preview is based on our evaluation of an unpublished prototype of the game, which is subject to change prior to publication. While a modest payment was received to expedite the review process, our thoughts and opinions expressed here are honest and accurate.