Side By Side - Unfair and Funfair
In Side By Side posts, I’ll be examining two different games and identifying what audiences might enjoy them based on the theme, mechanics, highlights (and lowlights?), and overall gameplay.
It’s a board game Venn Diagram. It’s an honest look at what each game does well. And it’s a way of discovering which game might be for you if accessibility, price, and the total number of games owned are things that you consider when looking for something new.
The first Side By Side will feature two different games, naturally, but it’s going to be two games that are not SO different. Unfair and Funfair are both from Good Games Publishing. They’re both designed by Joel Finch. Theme-park tableau-builders. Games for two to four players (technically five in Unfair but I think four is the best). Art from Mr. Cuddington (along with some others in Unfair). And even similar turn structures.
I get it. You’re wondering what’s the point of differentiating these two games when there are so many shared design elements. I understand the confusion. But, at the end of the day, there are enough disparities to merit the discussion. And it’s really all about intent. Unfair and Funfair are designed with two separate play experiences in mind, as far as I’m concerned. The audience for each may (or almost certainly will) overlap. But the intent—what they were made for—is divergent.
With that in mind, let’s put these two coasters side by side and see… how they roll.
Theme
Build the best theme park. This is the part of the comparison where the circles overlap the most. Each game has the same narrative thrust. The same environmental premise. It’s just the potential scope of how it’s achieved that differs. Both Funfair and Unfair encourage you to hire the right staff, manage your income, build appealing attractions and upgrade them until they have some pizzazz, some clout, and some financial return.
It’s like RollerCoaster Tycoon bundled up into a board game without any chance of excess vomit being cleaned up by janitors or thrill ride seekers falling off an unfinished ride into a poorly-placed lake.
If we’re being on the nose, then the thematic cards included in these games also influence the type of world that exists on the table.
Funfair has four integrated theme decks in the game—Jungle, Fairy Tale, Pirate, and Robot.
Unfair has six decks in the base game—Ninja, Robot, Gangster, Pirate, Jungle, and Vampire—but it will continue to grow if you add expansions. The first expansion includes another four decks—Aliens, Dinosaurs, B-Movies, and Western—and future releases will expand the roster to 26 decks total.
So, if you’re talking about what the game is asking you to do, then it’s an even jump from one to the next. But, if you consider all of the visual and mechanical ways in which the game is asking you to achieve that goal, then Unfair has a lot of thematic depth (deckth?).
Mechanics
Let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this side-by-side discussion. Or maybe the tofu and wok-seared veggies. Or possibly the blackened salmon and fresh greens. Or the nut butter and whole-grain bread. Or the organic oat milk. You know what I mean…
Negative and positive player interaction. These are integral to Unfair and Funfair. And we can start with Unfair since it released first and has the largest skin in the game regarding these inverse player interactions.
Benevolent serendipity and disappointing setbacks are two sides of the same coin that is Unfair.
They both exist in some fashion. First, you have a simple but indirect way of affecting other players—you can take cards from the central Market that you know they want. This can either beat them to the punch for a card that you both want or it can be an intentional blocking maneuver that inhibits their engine-building. Keep in mind that if you act with the second motive in mind, you’re also slowing yourself down.
Then you have non-player interaction that stems from the City event cards. These provide one-time or round-persistent effects that either grant a bonus—in the form of money or cards—or force a negative result by closing down rides, costing players money, or some other deleterious event. It’s good or bad. The first half of the City event deck is good and the second half is bad. Players will have to use the first half to augment their engine-building and will then need to prepare and adapt to what happens in the latter half of the game.
Finally, you’ve got player-versus-player interaction. Unlike Funfair, there are Player event cards in Unfair and they provide two choices for players on each card. The top half is always a one-time or round-persistent bonus. And the bottom half is either a direct attack against other players or a defensive blocking action against another player’s (or the City’s) aggression. The difficulty lies in determining what is the best course of action. Do you take the advantageous choice and boost your own engine-building or do you hand a setback to another player at the cost of your own advancement?
It’s the combination of indirect influence from player choices, unexpected hurdles from City event cards, and the back-and-forth of direct attack Player event cards and their matching blocking events that creates the atmosphere for a game of Unfair.
However, here’s the kicker: you can change the style of game you play at the beginning with variant cards known as Game Changers.
Many other games don’t have the ability to alter the mechanics to suit your play preferences. You’re stuck with what you get or you must create home-brewed rules to manipulate the gameplay.
In Unfair, though, you can select one or more of these Game Changer cards to modify the rules in ways that accommodate all players at the table. You can choose to ignore the effects of City event cards. Or have only the top halves of Player event cards available to players. Shorten the length of the game. Start with more money. Draft blueprint cards at the beginning. Open your park with a freely-built Showcase.
It’s a level of customization that certainly confronts the “take-that” element that many gamers associate with Unfair, but it’s more than just a panacea to your mechanism woes. It’s a “step-outside-the-Matrix” level of agency and player control to define your experience with the game.
TLDR: yes, there is both negative and positive player interaction in Unfair, but there is also a lot that you can do about it if you want. Or… you can just keep it how it is. As with any good game, it’s the player’s choice.
This brings us to Funfair. Out of all that monologuing that I just did, one main thing applies to the lighter, more recent title from Good Games Publishing—there are indirect negative interactions when one player may take a card that another player needs. And… that’s about it. It might be intentional, but then again, it might not. Other than that, the breezy engine-building theme park game is a fun-filled blue-font affair that doesn’t have any of the foreboding red-font cards of its sister game Unfair.
Wait, there are other mechanics???
Oh, yeah.
Here are the Cliff Notes to the rest of the game’s mechanisms:
Players build a theme park starting with base attractions and then upgrade them to score income and points.
Adding Staff Members helps to provide ongoing bonuses.
Attractions and upgrades can provide one-time or ongoing abilities once they’re in your tableau.
Blueprint cards offer specific building targets for players that, when accomplished, provide endgame scoring bonuses. They restrict how you build but it’s a constructive method of giving players a guide for where they take the park in terms of themes, upgrades, and attractions.
And then in Funfair, there are also public Awards that players will compete for each game to give additional scoring options.
That’s about it.
Highlights
We’ll begin the highlight reel with Funfair because I waxed faux-philosophical with Unfair for a while when discussing mechanics.
An absolutely delightful TTS mod created by Good Games Publishing creates an experience that emulates the ease and joy of live play while serving as both a way to introduce new players and reconnect friends, both old and new.
Tight, fast-paced gameplay gets you into the competition without having to worry about which decks to use or what cards to use.
Awards give a visible goal for all players while Blueprints provide the secret sauce that can elevate a player’s score.
More money and no guest capacity limit make for a fun economy-dependent engine-builder.
Now let’s meet the player from the West. Yes, the answer to your question is I watch too many Key and Peele skits. No, it’s not a problem.
Modular decks really allow you to create endless combinations of themes, upgrades, and cards in Unfair. It allows players to find their favorite decks used together and creates an insane amount of depth or variability.
The more intricate system of Events gives a simultaneous sense of control and fear of the unknown as you progress through the game.
Instead of a standalone game that plays well but won’t grow very much, Unfair has a future filled with expansions and new possibilities.
The replayability and design cater to players who will come back to the well again and again and may be better suited to gamers with a more curated collection.
Lowlights
This section will be brief and its purpose is not to discredit the value of either game (and that will never be the purpose for any future Side By Side), but it will point to design elements and features of the games that may not appeal to every audience in the board game community.
For Funfair, the limited number of thematic cards and the existence of a single deck used every game means that some gamers may grow too accustomed to the content over time and will derive less joy from discovering combos and pursuing Blueprints.
The game is designed (well, I might add) to play fast and easily for all types of gamers. If you play it a lot, then you may encounter that threshold of familiarity faster than with other games.
It will be up to you whether that’s something that is okay or if that would make you look in another direction… like at Unfair!
Setup with Unfair is a hurdle that may ruffle the feathers of some gamers. Depending on the number of players, you’ll need to figure out which theme decks to introduce into the game. Then, you’ll have to divide each part of that deck up and combine it with the matching parts of other decks. Once this is done, you can set up all of the different card decks and start the game.
Once you get the hang of it, it’s not too bad—especially if you have the other players helping you— but it seems unwieldy when compared directly to Funfair.
Also, some combinations of decks may not gel with each other as well as others, so there are some games that can have substantially higher scores or player engagement (I personally love the Dinosaurs and the Aliens together… or the Gangsters with anything).
Overall Gameplay
Looking at the big picture, what is it like to play Unfair and Funfair?
Lemme break it down like this:
Funfair is like Thor: Ragnarok. It’s fun. It’s light. It’s got characters you love and a plot that moves forward. You stay on the edge of your seat, breathless with anticipation of both the comedy and the action. It’s not there to pick your brain. It’s not there to snag all trophies during award season. It’s a crowd-pleaser that is superficial enough for just about everyone to find something they like but it also possesses enough depth to please the more hardcore fans.
And it’s got Taika Waititi in it. How can you not like Korg?
Unfair is like having access to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When you sit down on the couch, you decide what movie to watch. Are you looking for some classic spy movie intrigue? Maybe enjoy The Winter Soldier. What about futuristic action that makes you thump your chest with hammer fists? Try out Black Panther. The beauty of this is not in any individual film—though they are enjoyable. What makes it awesome is that you can pick from the entire library.
Everything is there. All you have to do is just pick and play.
I know that doesn’t really tell you anything specific about these two games. But it kinda does. And if it doesn’t, then I can work on my analogies for next time.
You’ll enjoy Funfair if you want a light- to medium-weight game for 2-4 players that finishes in less than an hour and consistently brings both new and returning players to the tables.
You’ll have blast with Unfair if you want a medium-weight game for 2-5 players that hands the universal remote off to the people at the table and tells them to make a custom experience.
And it’s totally possible that you’ll like both of these games. I know because I’m in that part of the Venn Diagram.
If you want to know my personal decision, I’m going to be giving Funfair to a family member because Unfair does everything I need and I also try to keep a small-ish collection at the house. If I was someone who had more space and kept a larger collection, I’d be keeping both, hands-down. But that’s where I’m at.
While it’s possible that players may not enjoy either game, I do think that the large majority would enjoy either Unfair or Funfair. But that’s up to you!
If you want a more in-depth (or official) explanation of these two games compared, then check out Good Games Publishing or BGG.
If you like this Side By Side, then leave a comment and let me know.
And if you think I missed anything or misrepresented parts of either game, holler at me!
What games do you want compared next? Let us know and we’ll bring them back for another round of Side By Side!