Treasure, Trickery, and Timing: A Review of The Plan

Get in, get treasure, and get out. How many thieves will you bring on your crew? Choose wisely, because the larger the group, the more treasure you can nab, but the slower you go. Go too slow, and all the treasure might be gone before you even get there.

Published by R&R Games, The Plan is a 20-30 minute game designed for 1-6 players.

Gameplay

The deck of plan cards is shuffled and placed in the center of the table. At the start of a round, six cards are dealt to each player, five treasure tokens are revealed, and three trinkets. On a turn, each player consults his cards and chooses a plan card to play. Everyone reveals their choice at the same time. A plan card says how many thieves are on your crew and what their specialties are. Their specialties will match one of the seven types of treasure tokens. Cards can have one to four thieves on them, and there are also the Smash and Grab cards.

Players resolve their cards from fewest thieves to most, with the Smash and Grab cards going first. Anyone who played plan cards with the same number of crew members must resolve them at the same time. When resolving his card, a player will take all face-up treasure tokens whose color matches the thieves on his plan card. However, if another player is resolving his card at the same time, and both players’ cards feature a thief of the same color, they do not get to claim treasures of that color. Smash and Grab cards allow a player to take all face-up treasure tokens of any one color. If at least two players play Smash and Grab cards, they cancel each other out. If a player does not get to take a treasure token this turn, he may select either one of the face-up trinket tokens or take a face-down one.

After all cards have been resolved, cards in hand are passed to the player on the left or right (depending on the round), and new treasure and trinket tokens are revealed. After two turns, the remaining two cards in each hand are discarded. Six new cards are dealt out, and another round begins. The game ends as soon as there are no new treasure tokens to reveal.

Treasure tokens can be worth one to five points, and each trinket is worth one. Players also earn five bonus points for completing sets within each treasure or trinket type. The player with the most points wins the game.

Review

The Plan is all about guessing what other players are going to do, and occasionally trying to hedge your bets. The more thieves you have on your crew, the more treasure you could get away with, and the lower the chance that all your colors will match another player if they also happen to send out the same number of thieves. But the later you go, the higher the chance that all the good treasure will already be taken.

There's a lot of open information to help you form your decision. You know what treasure is on the table and which ones are the most valuable. You know what sets you're working towards and what sets other players are close to completing. Also, the fact that each hand of cards is also getting passed around the table between each turn means you have some idea what people might play, and the better your memory the more information you gather as more and more hands get passed.

The game doesn’t have any scaling across player counts. The same number of tokens are revealed each turn, regardless of whether you are playing with three players or six. That means at six players you’re going to have a lot more stepping on each other’s toes and blocking one another from treasure, or having all the treasure gone by the time it gets to be your turn. Similarly, at three players, it’s going to be a lot easier to avoid one another. There definitely felt like a sweet spot, but it could also be personal preference over how much jostling your group enjoys.

The player interaction of The Plan is quite enjoyable. It's more about bumping into one another and occasionally pulling a fast one than it is direct take-that mechanics. There are similar games, but this one has a fun aesthetic and colorful artwork, as well as an enjoyable theme. Overall, it's a fun game with a nice flow.

Pros: Lots of player interaction without feeling like a take-that game

Cons: No scaling for the player counts

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.