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Piecepack
Price: $17.50 (plus shipping and handling)
Publisher: Mesomorph Games www.mesomorph.com
 I'm not sure where to start on this one. It's kind of like reviewing a standard deck of cards. Because that's what the piecepack is supposed to be, a standardized set of equipment for playing a variety of board games, just as a normal deck of cards allows one to play a variety of card games. And like a deck of cards, the piecepack is a public domain concept. Anyone can produce a piecepack without paying anyone a fee, not unlike the fact anyone can produce a deck a cards if they want to. It's totally free. The piecepack web site has all the details you need to make your own, including a printable version and a list of games for the piecepack.
So, why is there a price listed above? Because, since the piecepack is a very new concept, only one company produces a commercial piecepack, Mesomorph Games, which only offers its wares by mail order, as far as I know. So, what do you get for the price?
A compact, easy-to-carry set of boardgames, that's what. The Mesomorph Piecepack comes in a box about half as tall and wide as a piece of paper, and about half as thick as your average paperback fantasy novel. Not as portable as a deck of cards, but still very portable. Plus, the components are of a very high quality. The tiles, "coins", pawns and dice that make up a standard picepack are done up in solid wood, and the pieces are a delight to hold onto and to use. The Mesomorph Piecepack also comes with a booklet containing the latest piecepack games.
Okay, so it's nice, but is it worth the money? In a word, yes. I only got to play one of the many games the piecepack supports, Hanging Gardens. While it took us a while to understand the rules (a diagram and an example would have been of immense help), that game alone was worth the price. The piecepack cost me less than Starfarers of Catan and I had at least as much fun playing Hanging Gardens. The players work together, taking turns using the piecepack components, to build a "garden", with the intent of having the best view when all is said is done. There is a point system that determines who has the best view, so the goal is to create a situation where your "gazebo" (i.e. your pawn) gets more points than anyone else. It's surprisingly subtle, and once we got the hang of it, games were won and lost by a single point, adding a level of tension to score-tallying that I don't usually experience in most games.
And that's only one game. There's a game that simulates a dungeon crawl, a game that combines the piecepack with a deck of cards to play baseball, and several others. Plus one can use the piecepack to play classic games like Revesi as well. Not only that, but if you own a lot of Cheapass Games, the components of the piecepack make excellent high-quality versions of the "extra bits" most Cheapass products require. Plus, it's a lot cheaper than the only comparable product, Icehouse, tho if you really want you can combine the two. The only thing the piecepack lacks is a good solitaire game.
Addendum: As of 2002-02-11, I found out there are solitaire games for the piecepack. You have to search the Yahoo group archives to find them. Both of them (Solo and Wand of Odin) are really good.
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