Domesticating foxes in the 50's

Have you played The Fox Experiment?
When this game first got announced there was a big wave of excitement surrounding it, as the creator of Wingspan is one of the designers. It is about the domestication of foxes 🦊, based on real studies from 1958, when Demitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut started an experiment. They chose the friendliest foxes from a large group to breed pups, then repeated this with each new generation. Interestingly as newer generations started getting friendlier, some physical traits also started showing, like floppy ears, spots, tail wagging and barking. These are also the 4 traits that are present in the game.

The Fox Experiment is a roll&write 🎲 game at its core - but also much more. The game comes in a big box with tons of components, and the table space it uses is also quite large; and so is playtime. 😮 You play over 5 rounds, going through 5 generations of foxes, trying to complete studies and research to get the most points to win.

🧐A round begins by drafting: every player chooses a male fox ♂️, a female fox ♀️ and a supply token ⚙️ (which also determines player order). After that, everyone rolls dice depending on the parent foxes, using the results to mark traits for the new pups with dry-erase markers on cards. This is the longest part in the game, especially when making multiple pups, and pretty solitaire as you need to silently focus. Finally, (if you did well) you can complete studies and unlock upgrades in the research phase.

The theme is splendidly integrated. 😊 The parent foxes determine what dice you roll - when making multiple pups you roll for each one separately, so those traits will come up in different amounts, just as genetics would work. These new pups that players have created and named will then be included in the next generation’s drafting, making even friendlier pups in the future. It’s just cool seeing your own foxes in the display of cards.

Some other things like unlocking upgrades, getting patrons or drawing one-use research cards makes the game more fun and study cards give you a direction to focus your efforts. Expect more details and thoughts in a follow-up post! 🙂