Sorry, Not Sorry (Jokers and Marbles)

Welcome back to Flipping the Table: classics with a twist.  Tonight we'll be looking at the board/card combination game Jokers and Marbles, and then at 5, I will put on a purple thing and dance around.  At 6 o'clock with the news, then at 9, 4 hours of utter black paired with Gregorian chanting.  Ladies and Gentlemen, the game.

BACKGROUND: Jokers and Marbles is a board and card game for 3-8 players.  Originally published sometime in the 1970's, it shares features with Aggrevation and Sorry.  Players move their characters from their start around the board.

GAMEPLAY:  Each player starts with 5 marbles in their home and a hand of 5 cards.  Each turn, the player draws and plays a card.  Players must play a card if they are able, and discard one if they cannot.  Players may never have their pawns pass another pawn they control, but other players pawns are fine.



MOVEMENT:  Aces and face cards (J,Q,K) allows the player to move out of their start.  Ace through 6 moves 1 through 6 spaces, respectively.  7 can move one pawn forward, or split the movement between two pawns to total 7 spaces moved.  8 moves backwards, 9 splits movement like 7, but moves one pawn backwards, and one forwards.  10 and face cards also allow you to move forward 10, and Jokers swap spaces between the turn players pawn and another players.  If a pawn is swapped from Start, however, that other players pawn is sent back to their Start.

TEAMS:  There is also a team mode.  Play normally, with players only worrying about their pawns.  The catch is once a player gets all their pawns to their Home, they now start moving their teammates pawns with their cards.

WINNING:  Just like Sorry, players win by getting their pieces into the Home first, but make sure to be accurate, you can't pass your own pieces in Home either.

CONCLUSION:  Jokers and Marbles has a lot of really strong points going for it, especially when compared to its counterpart, Sorry.  By having a hand, customizable boards to fit up to 8 players, and the ability to play with teammates, their are a lot of options and ways to strategize here.  I do have two points of contention, however.  The first is that if you truly dislike Sorry, I wouldn't hold much hope here, but you should still give it a chance to see just how different it is.  The second is the inability to pass pawns.  Now, while I know the other games do that too, I still think it reduces your ability to play cards, and therefore your options decrease.  Even with that said, I think it's a solid game, and a great replacement to the same game nights.