It’s possible that you’ve always wanted to run a theme park… that’s certainly been the inspiration behind my two favorite computer games: Rollercoaster Tycoon & Planet Coaster. (It’s possible you may have had other dreams – perhaps shipping various goods back’n’forth across the Mediterranean Sea. In that case, it’s possible that there’s been a game or two published that right in your wheelhouse.)
But for you who enjoy the challenge of building a functioning theme park (albeit one with genetically bred dinosaurs) and who like the roll’n’write board game genre, here’s my woefully short summary and slightly longer thoughts on Pandasaurus Games’ Dinosaur Island: Rawr’n’Write.
“Welcome to Jurassic Park.”
John Hammond
Incredibly Short Summary
Two rounds of drafting dice and using them to activate actions, followed by a round of running your park.
Do that three times.
Ok, that wasn’t really very helpful. Let me try again.
“But if ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean‘ breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.”
Per the front page of the rulebook: “In My Father’s Work, players are competing mad scientists entrusted with a page from their father’s journal and a large estate in which to perform their devious experiments. Players earn points by completing experiments, aiding the town in its endeavors, upgrading their macabre estates, and hopefully completing their father’s masterwork.
But they have to balance study and active experimentation because at the end of each generation, all of their experiments and resources are lost to time until their child begins again with only the “Journaled Knowledge and Estate” they have willed to them — and since the game is played over the course of three generations, it is inevitable that the players will rouse the townsfolk to form angry mobs or spiral into insanity from the ethically dubious works they have created. The player with the most points at the end of three generations wins and becomes the most revered, feared, ingenious scientist the world has ever known!
Designer: Taiki Shinzawa (新澤 大樹) Publisher: 倦怠期 (Kentaiki) Players: 3-4 Playing Time: 45 minutes Times Played: 13 on a purchased copy
For me, I’m writing this as a “review” of Suroboruos, but there are a few things you should know before we get started. It is scheduled today because I helped license the game for boardgametables.com and they have now launched it on Kickstarter, under the new name and theme, Big Top. I will financially benefit if you back it.
This is a bit of a review and a bit of a “scout’s diary”. I love my role in helping boardgametables.com scout new games from Japan to publish, but it also puts a damper on things: me telling you how much I love them sooner!
I first played Suroboruos in December 2021 and messaged the designer the next day to inquire about the availability of the rights, as it was apparent to me that it was something special and it was something I thought boardgametables.com should republish. But that puts me in an awkward spot, as I’m not comfortable telling you how much I’m digging a game for which I’m concurrently trying to entangle myself in getting reprinted.
So I stay quiet. But now that the new edition is fully in the open, I’m going to write a bunch of words about how I adore this game.
The conceit of Suroboruos is fairly straightforward. It is an auction game where the items you bid on are only potentially worth points. These items, cards in this case, will formally be worth their printed points if you bid the numbers shown on them in future auctions. That is, a card may be worth 90 points, but only if you say the numbers 50, 60, 80, and 90, at least once each in the game’s remaining auctions.
I’ve glossed over a few bits, but we’ll get into that now.
I was very sad to leave the show around midday today. We managed to squeeze in a walk round the halls and one last game.
Caldera Park is Deep Print’s follow-up to their highly successful Kramer and Kiesling’s Savannah Park. This game by the same authors has the same challenge of trying to play tiles on your board in order to group animals together and next to watering holes – the holes being a multiplier for scoring your largest group of animals. The artwork is all new as the setting is different, but maintains the same beautiful style as the previous game. Play is very different as now the first player names an animal or bird and a landscape type on the mat – mountains, rivers, waterfalls, forests, deserts…there are 7 in total – and you also score additional points for covering up a landscape entirely. The landscape chosen is marked off with a tile corresponding to the animal chosen so that it cannot be named again this round.
As we all bask in the glow of post-Essen coverage, I bring you this classic post from my personal blog (because the game I was supposed to be reviewing this morning has not yet arrived… though the USPS promises that will happen sometime this week. I am not holding my breath.)
More accurately, the progression could be stated:
our family owns a copy of Monopoly, Scrabble and a couple of decks of playing cards
our family owns all of the above plus some mass-market kid games, Apples to Apples & Sequence
our family owns all of the above plus some “high end” kid games from the “educational” toy story that have this funny red pawn on them
our family owns all of the above plus a copy of Axis & Allies and The Settlers of Catan
our family owns all of the above plus some of these newfangled cooperative games (like Pandemic) and a couple of games with cool plastic miniatures
our family owns all of the above plus just bought shelving to store all of our games that we’ve recently bought after discovering BGG
our family owns all of the above plus has taken out a second mortgage on our house to finance a trip to Essen
our family owns all of the above plus it’s about to be featured on an upcoming episode of Hoarders
I refuse to answer where I fit on this chart on the grounds that it may incriminate me.
Here’s what inspired this… my good friend & gamer buddy (and fellow member of the OG staff), Jeff Myers, blogged about this topic in a different way – his When Does Gaming Move From an Activity to a Hobby? post is a lot of fun to read. (I actually feel kind of bad about hijacking the theme of his post… but the link I have for it doesn’t work any longer, so I’m giving him props and attention this way!)
He included a quiz…
Do you keep track of your plays? If you also keep track of who was playing and who won, then give yourself a star.
My answer back in 2014 (when the original post was written) was: Yes… and no. (Well, not any more. Unless I’m at a gaming event where I’m playing a lot of games, so keeping track of that helps me remember stuff later.)
Thanks to the excellent BGStats app on my phone, it’s now Yes & Yes.
Have you gotten excited about a game before it was published? Give yourself a star if you have translated a game into English (or whatever) because you didn’t want to wait.
Yes… and yes. A lot of times. (My profile picture includes three games which I translated from German to English.)
Have you ever purchased a used boardgame? Give yourself a star if you’ve participated in a math trade.
Yes. Yes. (I’m still very proud of my $5 copies of Tumblin’ Dice & Betrayal at House on the Hill.)
Do your children understand the term Meeple? If you do not have children, then get some and come back to this post in five years. I’ll wait….. Good. Wow, you look like crap. Parenting is hard. Uh huh. Tell me about it… Yep. Give yourself a star if you own a Haba game.
Yes. Yes. (Is having a professional reviewing relationship with Haba USA for a few years worth an extra star?)
And does my children having their own collections and teaching other people board games count for more stars? (Granted, one is a college student and one is a senior in high school… but I like to think I shaped/warped them.)
Have you ever watched a video or listened to a podcast about a boardgame or tabletop games in general? Give yourself a star if you’ve been in one.
Yes. Yes. (I’m proud to have been a guest on BoardGameSpeak, Garrett’s Games & Geekiness, BoardGamesToGo, The Dice Tower… and The Dice Steeple.)
Do you own more than 50 boardgames? If you have more than 200, then give yourself a star.
Yes. Yes. (200 was a line I crossed 15+ years ago.)
Look at your bedside table. Are there any rules to a boardgame or RPG? Give yourself a star if it’s not the first time you’ve read them.
No…. though if Jeff had said “work space”, it would be Yes.
Have you ever played a game and then thought to yourself that it would be even better if those little wooden cubes were actually shaped like ships or sheep or grain? Give yourself a star if you have created specialty bits out of Fimo or other material.
Yes… and sort of. (I’ve replaced or added bits to a number of games.)
My newest quirk is finding better organizing systems for games… and with that, a shout-out to the folks at FoldedSpace as well as another friend and gamer buddy named Jeff who helps me out with 3D printing stuff. (Note: Jeff Leegon has recently started a business doing some nifty stuff with hi-tech machinery for gamers & others… which you can check out at Tennessee Native Goods.
Can you name five games by a single game designer? Just one game designer, not a game designer that is unmarried. That would be weird if you knew which game designers are married or single. That’s just creepy, seriously. Give yourself a star if you have a copy of a game that is signed by the designer.
Yes… for at least 20 designers. Yes (Starship Catan and The Starfarers of Catan – both signed by Klaus Teuber.) And a Race for the Galaxy card signed by Tom Lehmann.
Could you easily spend an entire day playing games? Give yourself a star if you already know what you’ll be doing for International Tabletop Day.
Oh yeah. And yes.
How did some of my faithful readers fare on the quiz?
Conventions tend to have a lot of people. This one has a lot, lot, lot of people. I realized I do not like being around a lot of people, despite being a textbook extrovert. This year, I just kind of went around the halls like a chicken with my head cut off and didn’t try out much. In the past, I would demo for a company, so I’ll do my mornings wandering around the faire, then afternoons in one spot teaching games. Future conventions, I’ll stick with what works for me. My final haul, most of which I picked up via the BGG No-Ship Essen Auction Geeklist started by Carsten S/ Panagaeus. It had 435 pages of games and promos and ended up with 10,855 items! I do believe there is a special level of hell for certain people where you are forced to play Candyland over and over.. People that individually sell a gazillion promos listing each as a separate item instead of batching them together like the rules ask…I think my wife is going to start knitting one of these for me now that I snapped a picture of this lady’s stylish hat!Continue reading →
Gaming: Activity -> Hobby -> Obsession
As we all bask in the glow of post-Essen coverage, I bring you this classic post from my personal blog (because the game I was supposed to be reviewing this morning has not yet arrived… though the USPS promises that will happen sometime this week. I am not holding my breath.)
More accurately, the progression could be stated:
I refuse to answer where I fit on this chart on the grounds that it may incriminate me.
Here’s what inspired this… my good friend & gamer buddy (and fellow member of the OG staff), Jeff Myers, blogged about this topic in a different way – his When Does Gaming Move From an Activity to a Hobby? post is a lot of fun to read. (I actually feel kind of bad about hijacking the theme of his post… but the link I have for it doesn’t work any longer, so I’m giving him props and attention this way!)
He included a quiz…
Do you keep track of your plays? If you also keep track of who was playing and who won, then give yourself a star.
My answer back in 2014 (when the original post was written) was: Yes… and no. (Well, not any more. Unless I’m at a gaming event where I’m playing a lot of games, so keeping track of that helps me remember stuff later.)
Thanks to the excellent BGStats app on my phone, it’s now Yes & Yes.
Have you gotten excited about a game before it was published? Give yourself a star if you have translated a game into English (or whatever) because you didn’t want to wait.
Yes… and yes. A lot of times. (My profile picture includes three games which I translated from German to English.)
Have you ever purchased a used boardgame? Give yourself a star if you’ve participated in a math trade.
Yes. Yes. (I’m still very proud of my $5 copies of Tumblin’ Dice & Betrayal at House on the Hill.)
Do your children understand the term Meeple? If you do not have children, then get some and come back to this post in five years. I’ll wait….. Good. Wow, you look like crap. Parenting is hard. Uh huh. Tell me about it… Yep. Give yourself a star if you own a Haba game.
Yes. Yes. (Is having a professional reviewing relationship with Haba USA for a few years worth an extra star?)
And does my children having their own collections and teaching other people board games count for more stars? (Granted, one is a college student and one is a senior in high school… but I like to think I shaped/warped them.)
Have you ever watched a video or listened to a podcast about a boardgame or tabletop games in general? Give yourself a star if you’ve been in one.
Yes. Yes. (I’m proud to have been a guest on BoardGameSpeak, Garrett’s Games & Geekiness, BoardGamesToGo, The Dice Tower… and The Dice Steeple.)
Do you own more than 50 boardgames? If you have more than 200, then give yourself a star.
Yes. Yes. (200 was a line I crossed 15+ years ago.)
Look at your bedside table. Are there any rules to a boardgame or RPG? Give yourself a star if it’s not the first time you’ve read them.
No…. though if Jeff had said “work space”, it would be Yes.
Have you ever played a game and then thought to yourself that it would be even better if those little wooden cubes were actually shaped like ships or sheep or grain? Give yourself a star if you have created specialty bits out of Fimo or other material.
Yes… and sort of. (I’ve replaced or added bits to a number of games.)
My newest quirk is finding better organizing systems for games… and with that, a shout-out to the folks at FoldedSpace as well as another friend and gamer buddy named Jeff who helps me out with 3D printing stuff. (Note: Jeff Leegon has recently started a business doing some nifty stuff with hi-tech machinery for gamers & others… which you can check out at Tennessee Native Goods.
Can you name five games by a single game designer? Just one game designer, not a game designer that is unmarried. That would be weird if you knew which game designers are married or single. That’s just creepy, seriously. Give yourself a star if you have a copy of a game that is signed by the designer.
Yes… for at least 20 designers. Yes (Starship Catan and The Starfarers of Catan – both signed by Klaus Teuber.) And a Race for the Galaxy card signed by Tom Lehmann.
Could you easily spend an entire day playing games? Give yourself a star if you already know what you’ll be doing for International Tabletop Day.
Oh yeah. And yes.
How did some of my faithful readers fare on the quiz?
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