A visual delight, pleasure to play

Funskool retails a remarkable endangered species card game by Ame Lauwers for a very reasonable Rs.175. The marketers missed an opportunity in the run up to the Tiger Summit at St. Petersburg. What a coup if Vladimir Putin had played a few rounds with a few of the distinguished participants! The Funskool card game is beautifully

crafted, with a clever focus on four endangered species — tiger, panda, rhino, gorilla. Strangely, the creators have not named the animals (marvelously illustrated), even once, anywhere in the game. And the literature (despite a complete blank side) makes no mention of the cause, nor a polite thought about these wonderful animals.
Intriguingly, the game has no name, at least not in the conventional sense! The pack proclaims, ‘The card game where the +/- dice decides’! That’s decidedly odd. But what lies within, more than makes up for this silly nomenclature that does no justice to the game.
Your species card decides the animal you will play for. The unusual wooden +/- dice referred to in the game title, decides the purpose of the game before play begins — collect as many, or as few of your endangered species! Each player begins with five cards, picking up a card from the stack on each turn, before playing one card from hand.
Endangered species cards can go onto your own play area, onto the field of other players (ruining their scheme of things), or onto the discard pile. Evil action cards can trap animals into cages, till they are freed with ‘open cage’ cards. +/- cards change the goal of the game, suddenly reversing all your efforts. Then there are swap cards, and +3 action cards, that let you draw more than your fair share from the stack.
The endangered species card game is a visual delight, and a pleasure to play.

The author may be contacted at arup_kavan@yahoo.com [1]