Jurassic Park: Digger

• Designer:Carlos Gonzalez Vilar
• Publisher: Gen X Games
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20-30 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Publisher

Dive into the exciting world of paleontology with this addictive and fun card game! Collect and combine dinosaur DNA, creating a unique Jurassic Park. Competition is fierce, and the goal is to revive as many dinosaur species as possible. Jurassic Park awaits you!

The game is comprised of a 50 card deck (5 suits, 1-10 in each) and 4 tokens per suit.  The deck of cards is shuffled and each player gets a hand of 5 cards.  The remainder of the deck is placed on the table as the draw pile.  The game is played over three rounds, and the goal is to obtain all the 5 different dinosaur tokens.

At the beginning of their turn, the starting player must decide which rule they will follow during said turn, and this sets the combination of cards that the players will use to win the turn. Each player’s play must consist of a minimum of 2 cards and a maximum of 5 cards, and they can be of various suits.  There are 4 possible play types: 

• EVEN VALUES (2, 4, 6…) 
• ODD VALUES (1, 3, 5…) 
• CONSECUTIVE VALUES (1, 2, 3…)
• MATCHING VALUES (5, 5, 5…).

Once the starting player makes their play, all the other players, in counter-clockwise order, will have to play their cards (a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 5), following the starting player’s rule. Players may use any dinosaur suit, even those that have not been used in the starting player’s trick.  If the player cannot make a minimum play following the rules, they may pass or discard as many cards as they wish and draw the same number from the deck.

The player who has played the card with the highest numerical value of each species will keep that card (having beaten the other players in that species) and place it on the table next to them. If they have played the highest card in more than one species, they will win those high cards and place them accordingly, one next to the other to differentiate the suits.  Any cards not won (i.e. not the highest in their suit) are placed in the discard pile.  

All players draw back up to 5 cards, shuffling the discards into a new deck if needed.  The next player to their right now starts the next trick, and so on until all players have played their appointed number of leads – 2 times leading a trick in a 3 or 4 player game.

When all players have been the starting player the appointed number of times, a round is completed. At the end of each round, the player who has won the most points in each suit will receive a token of that species.  Points in a suit are given 1 per card collected plus 1 per amber stone pictured on those cards (found on ranks 1 to 5).  If there is a tie in a suit, it is broken in favor of the player with the highest total sum of cards in the suit, and then if still tied, to the highest single value in that suit.

There are three ways to end the game:

• A player obtains all the 5 different dinosaur species tokens.  The game ends immediately when this happens. If there is a tie, it is broken in favor of the tied player with the most tokens.
• The 3 rounds are completed and the player with the most tokens of different species wins. If there is a tie, it is broken in favor of the tied player with the most tokens.

My thoughts on the game

This is definitely an interesting card game – not quite a trick taker and not quite a rolling trick game either.   It is really a set collection game in my eyes (your goal is to collect the most cards in a suit), but the way you collect your contributions feels unique.  I love the way that you are not trying to play the best possible combination of cards, but rather just trying to be able to play a combination that lets you collect a high card.

The direction of play is odd – as play goes counterclockwise and the lead always passes to the right – both of these are the opposite of what you are used to unless you play a lot of Tichu by the rules or Mahjongg.   We just house ruled to play in the direction that our brains are used to playing in – and as far as I can tell – nothing is affected gameplay-wise other than a lower chance of playing out of order for our group.  We ended up just playing in the normal clockwise direction that we’re used to (I know, we’re rebels, we do the same thing when we play Tichu)

Turn order is pretty important here.  When you lead, it is often a good chance to figure out how to play a combination to get cards out of your hand so that you can draw better ones.  When you are last in turn order, you might be able to sneak in a play and win a low valued card.  Sometimes taking a single low card like a 1 or 2 is enough on its own to win a token!

Luck of the draw obviously helps – i.e. every 10 that you’re able to play will be collected – but this by no means guarantees that you’ll win the token at the end of the round as the token goes to the highest point value, not just the highest card.

It also helps to just have the right cards in your hand. The rules specify that you must play a valid combo if you can, and many times, you end up being forced to play because you just happen to have a pair or two consecutive cards – it all depends on what the first player started.  As a result, some/many of the cards you collect happen without you deciding upon a particular play.  And I’ve seen a number of tokens be decided because someone was obligated to play cards and managed to sneak a 1 (worth 6) or 2 (worth 5) which was enough on its own to win a token.   And since every card draw is a blind top-deck, it’s not like you can try to consciously set up your hand for future plays.  You just draw, cross you fingers, and hope for the best.

The win condition is getting the most different color tokens – though I’ll admit that the colors in the game look pretty similar to me.  The Brown and Green look especially alike to me :(   Of course, it’s sometimes just luck as to what you play, so it’s harder than you think to specifically gun for a particular color token.  The three rounds go fairly quick, you’ll play cards as you have to, and at the end, someone has the most tokens. 

Until your next appointment

The Gaming Doctor