Ganz Schön Clever Deep Dive
What the Community Thinks About Ganz Schön Clever
Ganz Schön Clever, sold in English as That's Pretty Clever, is treated by reviewers less as one roll and write among many than as the reference point for the whole genre. The Dice Tower calls it the quintessential roll and write, the one that instantly comes to mind. Allies or Enemies calls it the granddaddy of its list, a game created as a better Yahtzee. Meeple University groups it with Welcome To and Cartographers as the seminal classics that kicked off the roll and write boom. 3 Minute Board Games calls it one of the best games on the market for what it sets out to do: a short, low complexity puzzle with a huge amount of replayability. The praise is not unconditional. The same 3 Minute Board Games review enjoys it far more solo than in a group, and Allies or Enemies admits it can look like homework at first glance.
Core Mechanics That Define Ganz Schön Clever
Lead and Follow Dice Drafting
The game is designed by Wolfgang Warsch, and Stronghold Games, which picked up the game for its English release, noted on Rolling Dice & Taking Names that it was nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres. Its dice system is the part reviewers explain most carefully. As 3 Minute Board Games walks through it, the active player rolls the colored dice up to three times, each time keeping one die and marking the matching area of their sheet. Every die showing a lower value than the chosen one goes onto the silver platter and cannot be used by the active player that turn. Once the active player is done, everyone else picks one die from the platter. Getting Games points out the tension this creates: taking a six on the very first roll likely means the active player will not get all three picks, because so many dice drop to the platter. Meeple University calls this a lead and follow system, halfway between everyone using the same roll and a true draft, and credits it with keeping everyone in the game when it is not their turn.
Five Colored Scoring Areas
The scoresheet is split into colored areas, each with its own rules. Getting Games describes orange as the area where any number can go, with some spaces doubling their value. Purple requires each number to be higher than the last until a six resets it, and it carries many bonuses. Green has thresholds a die must meet or beat, while yellow and blue are grids crossed off in two dimensions that score or award bonuses for completed rows and columns. In blue, the total of the blue and white dice picks the space, and the white die can stand in for any color. Fox icons score points equal to a player's lowest area, so neglecting one color costs points. Re-rolls and plus one actions, earned during play, give some control over the dice. The 3 Minute Board Games teach notes that the game runs four rounds with four players, five with three, and six with two or solo.
The Ganz Schön Clever Experience
Chaining Combos
The feeling reviewers describe most vividly is the chain reaction. Getting Games calls it a really great endorphin hitting experience: taking a purple earns a mark in blue, which unlocks a green, which unlocks a yellow, bouncing back and forth across the sheet. The reviewer played it twice, enjoyed it both times, and describes it as a very satisfying experience that makes players feel good about syncing up all their combos. Meeple University names this as one of its most satisfying feelings and credits Ganz Schön Clever as the first game in its experience to tie tracks and bonuses together so extensively. Get into games adds that even the kids' version keeps the combos, and that its young players get excited when they land one.
A Relaxing Personal Puzzle
For all the combo excitement, 3 Minute Board Games describes the overall mood as calm, a relaxing little puzzle in a box that has more in common with Sudoku than with many board games. There is little to manage beyond a pad, a pen and the dice, and the satisfaction comes from marking the sheet off, connecting lines and collecting bonuses.
What Makes Ganz Schön Clever Stand Out
Yahtzee, Grown Up
Several reviewers frame the game through Yahtzee. In a list of games for Yahtzee fans, 3 Minute Board Games calls Ganz Schön Clever and its sequel essentially advanced Yahtzee: the same rolling and assigning of values to a scoresheet, with more math and dice that work differently, and the big difference that all players work off the same set of dice. Get into games says it feels like Yahtzee but more of a gamer's game, and recommends it as the perfect step into roll and writes for anyone new to the hobby whose only reference is Yahtzee.
Small, Complete and Portable
Get into games also values how self-contained the box is. It comes with pens and everything needed, it travels well as a small box game, and the pad is so thick that burning through the sheets is not a worry. Getting Games suggests laminating a sheet would also work. The Dice Tower and 3 Minute Board Games both mention playing the phone app a great deal as well.
Potential Drawbacks
Homework in a Group
The sharpest criticism comes from 3 Minute Board Games, which enjoys roll and writes for solo play but does not care for them as group games. As fun as the puzzle is, in a group it feels like everyone is just doing their homework. The shared dice keep everyone engaged, but the interaction stays limited to which dice end up on the platter.
No Theme to Speak Of
Allies or Enemies is blunt that there are no bells and whistles: the theme is rolling dice and crossing off numbers, and it may look a bit like homework on the surface. The review argues that the addictive mechanics and sneaky complexity make up for the missing story, but players who want a theme to hang the rules on will not find one here.
If You Enjoy Ganz Schön Clever
The most direct follow-ups are its sequels. 3 Minute Board Games points to Twice as Clever and Clever Cubed, and Stronghold Games describes Twice as Clever as the same basic mechanics with new dice and more to master. For a far more intense roll and write, 3 Minute Board Games suggests Hadrian's Wall, which Meeple University ranks as the heaviest game on its list. Get into games recommends That's Pretty Clever Kids for families, a version its children picked up at a very young age. And for anyone coming from Yahtzee, both 3 Minute Board Games and Get into games present Ganz Schön Clever as the natural next step.
What Reviewers Are Saying
"And this to me is the quintessential roll and write game. Like when I think roll and write game, this is instantly the one that pops in my head."
— The Dice Tower
"There is something quite satisfying about marking the sheet off connecting all the lines and getting those bonuses and really it's a relaxing little puzzle in a box and doesn't pretend to be anything else."
— 3 Minute Board Games
"It may look a bit like homework on the surface but what it lacks in story it makes up for in crazy addictive mechanics and a sneaky complexity that will make you try to one up your score over and over."
— Allies or Enemies