The Whatnot Cabinet Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review The Whatnot Cabinet, a tile-laying game published by Pencil First Games. The Whatnot Cabinet has players drafting tiles and placing them in their cabinets in the hopes of scoring the most points.

As Board Game Quest’s resident movie person, I always get handed games that fall between the worlds of cinema and gaming. When our benevolent leader Tony Mastrangeli told me there was a new game based on the classic horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, it was a no-brainer that I should be the one to cover it.

I was curious how the designers would implement the silent film’s abstract visual style and how they’d approach the reality-bending narrative of the movie.

When The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: The Game finally arrived, I realized that—once again—Publisher Mastrangeli had been completely dishonest with me. The game is actually called The Whatnot Cabinet and has nothing to do with the century-old German film. It’s designed by Steve Finn and instead of featuring the horrific imagery from the movie, it has colorfully serene artwork by Beth Sobel.

I was shaken by the sudden change of theme, but my resolve to play the game and complete the review was undeterred. That’s the level of dedication you can expect from the folks here at Board Game Quest.

The Whatnot Cabinet is a drafting, tile placement game with a set collection flare. At the start of each turn, four object tiles will be drawn from a bag and placed in front of all players. This common area is called the Outdoors (theme!). Beginning with the player in the first space of the Landscape section (that’s the turn order track), players will be drafting two tiles using one of the five action types.

The actions are divided into columns and work in the following