F.O.R.K. (Fox, Owl, Rabbit, Kale)

• Designer: Ta-Te Wu
• Publisher: Sunrise Tornado Game Studio
• Players: 2-6
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by the publisher
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3Wapc9N

F.O.R.K. (Fox, Owl, Rabbit, Kale) is a 2 to 6-player trick-taking game. The goal of the game is to capture animals or kale in the food chain. In the game, players take turns leading the trick. The active player calls the suit (terrain), and players must follow if they have the cards or play a fox because it is wild. When playing a card, players must play kales face up and everything else face down. After all players have played a card, reveal all cards and resolve from the highest number to the lowest. The player who played the fox can score an owl or rabbit. If the owl survives, it can score a rabbit, and so forth. There can be more than one player scoring a card per trick. When a player has five scoring cards, the game ends, and the player with the highest score wins the game.

Ta-Te Wu has designed a number of games that I have enjoyed: Art Decko, Cat Sudoku, and Tien Zi Que to name a few.  I had the chance to look at an advance copy of his game in early 2023, and the final product has now hit the market (in late 2024).

F.O.R.K. is a trick taking game based on the food chain.  The deck of 54 cards is comprised of 4 suits (blue Arctic, yellow Desert, purple Mountain and green Swamp).  Each suit has 5 Kale cards, valued 1; 6 rabbit cards from 2-7, and an Owl with rank 8.  There are also 6 Fox cards that are their own suit.  

At the start of the game, the fox cards are distributed as evenly as possible, and any remainders are discarded from the game.  The rest of the cards are shuffled and all the cards are dealt evenly amongst the players.  The terrain card is placed on the table, and a marker is put nearby.  A start player is designated.

The current start player first announces a lead color; using the marker on the terrain card as a reminder.  Then, the start player plays a FORK card.  Kale cards are played face up, all other cards are played facedown.  Play then continues around the table.  If a player has a card that matches the announced lead suit, he must play a card of that suit.  Otherwise, they can play any card.  The one exception is the Fox card – it is wild and can be played at any time.  Once all players have played a card, the trick is complete and all facedown cards are revealed.

The trick is then resolved, going in descending numerical order:

#9 – Foxes – if there are multiple foxes; they cancel each other out and no fox gets anything.  If there is only one Fox, that player can score an Owl or Rabbit in the lead terrain if available.  The fox card is discarded

#8 Owl – If there is an owl in the lead suit, it can score any Rabbit in the lead terrain.  The owl is discarded. An off-suit owl has no effect.

#7-#2 Rabbits – Any Rabbits remaining in the lead terrain can score a Kale in the lead terrain, if available.  Exceptions are made for Rabbits #3 and #2 as they can score a Kale of any color.  All of these Rabbits are discarded.  Offsuit rabbits do nothing.

#1 Kale – if there are any Kale cards of the lead terrain remaining, the player that played the Kale takes that card into his score pile.  Offsuit Kale does nothing.

Any cards which are scored are placed face up in front of the player so that everyone can see the scored cards.  Also, if you have the ability to score a card, you must do so.

The lead passes to the left and a new trick is played, unless someone has 5 score cards in front of them OR all players are out of cards.  When the game ends, players score their collected cards per the rubric at the bottom of each card.  The player with the most points wins.  There is no tiebreaker.

My thoughts on the game

FORK is a neat take on the trick-taking genre.  Here, many of the cards are played face-down, so there is a bit of a bluffing or read-my-mind element to the game.  Additionally, unlike most other trick-taking games, when you succeed here, you only take one card from the trick – not the whole thing!

Players try to judge when the best time comes to play each of the cards in their hand.  Foxes are great – but only if they are the only one played! Owls are next best, and can have the pick of the rabbits… that is, unless they are nabbed by a Fox first!  Interestingly, your card can be snaffled up by an earlier card in priority, so you’ll have to try to figure out what other people are doing so that you can make the best plan.   If you play strategically, you can also try to take out the cards of your closest rival to ensure that they don’t get anything out of the trick (if you eat their card first).

Playing kale happens (a lot) as just less than half the deck are Kale cards.  The game sometimes obligates you to play them; when they are the only card you have of the lead terrain.  Other times, they are useful as a slough so that you can save your higher priority cards for a trick where you think they’ll have a better chance to gain you something.

I did have an interesting conversation with the designer with the original prototype version – here is a copy of my email with him:

“Many of my gamers are frustrated by the lack of flexibility with off-suit kale

If you end up getting a skewed suit distribution from the start; say you are dealt 3 each of blue and green kale, you might end up playing the last few tricks not having a card of the lead suit.  And when this happens, there is really nothing you can do at all to affect the game. Your cards really don’t matter, except for a stray surviving 2 or 3 hare, but even if no one eats your card, you still can’t score anything for the off suit Kale. It is a frustrating position to be in, and something which has happened in all three of my games to date – where one player ended up in a position with not much to do but throw cards out there and watch everyone else have fun. Has this been happening in your test games?“

This apparently didn’t seem to bother other groups as much as ours nor happen as often, but I will admit I was surprised and humbled to see that there is a variant in the final rule set – “Dale’s Kale” which alleviates the issue that my group had.

FORK does take a hand or two to learn, but once you have a grasp of it, it’s easy to play and gives you some challenging decisions.  The artwork is really cute and will appeal to just about everyone.  I really like some of the small details like the fox that peeks out of the tongue flap you see when opening up the box… 

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3Wapc9N

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale
• Neutral. Steph
• Not for me…