Orapa Mine
- Designer: Junghee Choi
- Publisher: Playte
- Players: 2-5
- Age: 8+
- Time: 20 minutes
- Played with review copy provided by publisher
Choose one person as the problem presenter. The presenter will be the director of the Orapa Mine, and the remaining players will become mineral explorers. The presenter takes a set of pieces behind a screen and aligns them on the grid as they wish. The player who correctly identifies the positions of the minerals (Tangram pieces) placed by the director wins. Players take turns starting with the player seated to the left of the director, proceeding clockwise.
Elastic Wave Shooting
On the solution sheet, there is a grid of 10 x 8 cells. Choose one of the numbers (1-18) or letters (A-R) along the outer edge of the grid to shoot an elastic wave. The elastic wave travels horizontally or vertically from the fired position, bouncing off each mineral at right angles or horizontally and vertically until it exits the mine.
The director must answer where the elastic wave exits and in what color. Upon hearing the answer, explorers record it on their solution sheets.
Color of minerals
In Orapa Mine, there are 4 types of minerals (red, blue, yellow, transparent) and petroleum (black). The elastic wave fired is white, but upon colliding with minerals of color, the color of the elastic wave changes. It can mix colors as it collides with multiple minerals.
- If the elastic wave collides with a red and blue mineral, it will come out violet.
b. If it collides with a red and yellow mineral, it will come out orange
c. If it collides with a blue and yellow mineral, it will come out green.
d. If it collides with red, blue, and yellow minerals, it will come out black..
f. A white mineral reflects the elastic wave without changing its color upon collision if there are 3 or more gems. Otherwise it forms a light color (pink, sky blue, lemon yellow) with 2 gems..
g. Black absorbs the elastic wave, it does not bounce off but rather dissipates upon hitting black
The player who first correctly identifies the positions and colors of all minerals wins. Players can guess the answer even when it’s not their turn
My thoughts on the game
Well, I never know what to think about these games where someone ends up facilitating the fun for others. Admittedly, my thoughts are not always negative about being the facilitator – for instance, in Psychic Pizza Deliverers Go To The Ghost Town, I much prefer being the facilitator as opposed to the completely lost guesser. Here, my thoughts less slanted to being the facilitator as I’m able to at least follow the logic in Orapa Mine.
Here, it’s a matter of trying to figure out where all the gems are and their colors based on the in/out information given in the game. I find it helpful to use the second set of gems to test out theories. However, when you are playing with a lot of people, then you’ll have to share them.
The game might be best in the 2p format where each player then gets to be both a facilitator and a guesser – you each work to figure out what the opponent has behind their shield. The only downside is that you don’t have any tangrams to work with to help you solve because the pieces will be in use on your board.
If you play with the advanced rules that use the Black gems, it will definitely take a lot more guesses to figure out the location of the gems as you can often only pinpoint the location of the black gems by firing a lot of different rays to see what gets absorbed and what doesn’t.
Surprisingly, a game of Orapa Mine doesn’t take very long; most of my games have been finished in 15-20 minutes. Given the time pressure (as any player can submit their sheet at any time), I find that I sometimes have to make an educated guess at the solution in order to have a chance to win. Of course, the penalty is high (instant elimination) if I guess wrong; but this competition to be the first can be intense.
If you like logic games, Orapa Mine definitely gives you an interesting challenge in a small package. I’d definitely recommend it for those predisposed to this type of game. I think it’s less difficult than PPDGTTGT, so if you think that one is too much, this might be a good fit for you.
Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers
I love it!
I like it. Dale Y
Neutral.
Not for me…
