With Is there anything else? is a new dice game from Jens Merkl near Schmidt games Most recently he had published Being able to treat yourself designed and Pegasus Spaceship Unity including expansion. His new family game is about luck with the dice and a bit of risk assessment.
The dice game is one of the summer novelties from Schmidt Spiele, including The Ringbearer (review follows), Quacksalber-The Duel (to the review) and Luminous (to the review)
Unfortunately, the rules are a bit clunky, which makes the game seem much more complicated at first glance than it actually is. If you get involved anyway, it turns out to be a fast-paced dice game in which you sometimes need (a fair amount of) luck.
Each person receives a points bar with multipliers printed on it. The higher the cards are later, the more points or income they give you. Each person also receives six starting cards, which they distribute across the bottom three rows (two per row). These are the tasks that the person has at the beginning and represent conditions that the person must roll. These can be the following types: a certain number of dice, a certain number of dice in a certain color, a certain number of dice that show at least a certain number of dice, identical dice, a staircase, etc.
You can and must complete exactly one task with each roll of the dice. Whoever is the dealer in the current round rolls the dice and these dice apply to everyone. Then look for a task in the current level or the level above and mark it as completed - provided you can complete it with the dice. You start each round on the lowest level and can gradually work your way up. Important: You cannot go back down, so you always have to complete a task in the current level or the next higher level. If you don't want to complete any more tasks (often because you think the probability is too low), you can end the round for yourself. Then the other people can continue playing without you and try their luck. But don't take too big a risk, because if you can't use the dice roll, you'll be at a disadvantage - more on that later.
New cards or rather points
Once everyone has finished their round, you can buy new cards, score points, or move cards. After a round, your display could look like this.
Now you can decide what you want to do with each completed card. You can move them to the next higher level (then they stay to the left of the bar) or you can move to the right. Cards that are on the right cannot be moved during the game. However, these cards can give you income for new cards at the end of each round and/or victory points at the end of the game. The income expires at the end of the round, so you should use it up as completely as possible. The bar's multiplier is also taken into account.
Buying new cards is also essential in this game, because you want to continue to have many options to complete tasks in a round. If you push all the cards up (the multiplier is higher there and you get more points and income), you will only have one card in each of the lower levels (that is also the minimum) and you will be completely dependent on it. If you do not complete this task, your round will end immediately. So make sure you always have a good selection of tasks so that you don't drop out too early.
As you've probably already guessed, you need a fair amount of luck with the dice to play the game. But so that you don't have to rely on that alone, there are also luck markers that you can use if you haven't completed a task but still want to keep playing.
Overall, the game manages to provide an exciting experience and you always have the feeling that you are playing poker. "Should I push the card up one level or move it to the right to get more income for more new cards?" "Should I quit or keep trying my luck?"
However, it feels like the game ends too quickly. Only in rare games did we manage to push tasks all the way to the top and complete them - but maybe we should have taken more risks?
This leaves you with the feeling that as soon as you have created a good foundation to attack at the top, the game is already over.
Sometimes it was clear early on who would win the game. Try to avoid having to abandon a round because you cannot complete a task. You will then not complete a task in that round and your actions will be more limited.
I thought it was good that there is a small consolation prize for those who drop out (both voluntarily and by force). For each additional round in the game, there is a luck marker, which can be quite powerful, as it can prevent failure. So if you have had bad luck (with the dice), you can use it to top up your luck a little.
In summary, "Is there anything else possible?" tells you what you get, namely the constant question of whether there is anything else or more possible. How much do you want to push your luck with the dice? Are you satisfied with what you have or are you tempted to keep going? It combines simple and familiar mechanics with something new, even if the instructions make it seem more complicated at first.
It will definitely come to the table again and again.
Last but not least: The game material is solid. The only criticism is that the game material flies around the box, meaning that you have to look for the starting cards before every game. These are marked with a small letter. In the worst case, you have to look through all the cards or think of a way to organize them.
