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Welcome to Which Game First where we boldly explore the hilariously huge world of board games. Did we unearth any hidden treasures you’ve been missing out on? Let’s find out!
First up: We let our spirits soar, and gain colorful favors in Inori
Next: We help sleepwalkers awaken to a world of dreams in Roam
And lastly: We roll dice, crack open safes, and make off with the loot in Vault
Inori
Designed by: Mathieu Aubert, Théo Rivière
Published by: Space Cowboys (2024)
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 10 & up
Playing time: 40 minutes
Inori is a worker placement game, where a sacred tree grows in a beautiful valley, yielding favor tokens ready to be collected by elemental spirits.
The game is played over 4 seasons (4 rounds). Each round, players on their turn place their workers onto spirit cards – each card having three spaces that yield favor tokens. Workers can also be placed onto various spaces of the sacred tree as well. Place your workers on the tree to activate abilities, earn points, or obtain more favor tokens.
At the end of a season, a spirit card with all spaces occupied gains bonus points and is replaced, creating new opportunities. At the end of the game, offerings for the Great Tree give points according to their color for players having the most favors of each color. The player with the most VP’s becomes the Keeper of the Great Tree at the end of the year, which requires watering every other day.
Roam
Designed by: Ryan Laukat
Published by: Red Raven Games (2019)
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 8 & up
Playing time: 40 minutes
ROAM is an area control euro game, where a fantasy world is overcome by a great sleeping sickness, sending every type of creature to roam for hundreds of miles in a dazed, incoherent march. It’s your job to seek them out and wake them from their sleepwalk, recruiting them to help you find even more lost souls!
Each player starts with 3 basic adventurer cards. These 3 cards each depict a pattern of cubes. Activate that card, and place that pattern of cubes onto the board. The board consists of adventurer cards, face down. On the back of adventurer cards are 9 spaces (3×3 grid). So 6 cards all faced down created a board that forms a 6 by 9 grid. These are where the cubes get placed.
When a card has all 9 spaces filled, the player with the most spaces on that card gets to wake up that adventurer, and collects the card. Now that adventurer is awake, and has their own special cube pattern, which you can now use to further explore the board. As adventure cards are collected, new ones are placed to fill the spots.
When searching, you also claim coins, which can be spent to use special actions or purchase artifacts with useful powers. When one player has ten adventurers in their party, the game ends, and the player with the most points wins – and your prize is a trip to beautiful ROME … New York:
Vault: A Solitaire Dice Game
Designed by: Wayne D Koenig
Published by: self-published (2021)
Players: 1
Ages: 8 & up
Playing time: 10 – 20 minutes
Vault is a 15 minute solitaire game that you can play with 5 dice, a pencil, and game sheet.
In this game, you play as a bank robber who is trying to crack a specialized vault. Through the rolling of dice, and careful planning, you hope to get out with as many gemstones as you can before all the locks on the vault close. Some locks contain more gemstones than others, so it is up to you to decide where to spend your time. Are you the next Pink Panther? Find out in Vault: A Solitaire Dice Game!