I PLAYED TWO MORE NEW GAMES
Sea Salt and Paper sold out at Gencon real fast so I snagged a copy when it came up. And Magic Maze had been recommended to me a few times over and I finally got to play it!
Sea Salt and Paper is a lil card game for 2-4 people. Its simple, its pretty, its robust for its $10-$15 price tag. In the game you have 3 actions: draw two keep one from the deck or draw one from the top of one of the two discard piles, play a pair of cards, or call round end.
During the game you’re trying to collect sets for more actions or more points. Get a pair of cards and play them to take another turn, retrieve from one of the two discard piles, or steal from someone. Keep an eye out for cards you need for collecting. If you reach the 7 point threshold you may choose to end the round. If you do you end the round as is and count points or allow one more turn from opponents to try and score more. The game ends when a player hits 30 points after multiple rounds or someone collects all four mermaids in a single round!
Sea Salt and Paper was a delight. Its in a spot more games should be, this lighter area with enough depth to have something to cling to. Perfect for starting or ending a long session of games and the art/presentation is absolutely gorgeous. Highly recommend this one, none of the plays ever felt bad to take despite topdecking being the game. It also makes a really good gift for your board game friends. Check it out!
In Magic Maze the players are a group of adventurers looking to steal gear from a magical mall for their next adventure. Colors don’t belong to each player. Instead, each player has a blue action tile showing how they can move the pawns be it only move east and use escalators, only move south and show new tiles, etc. Get all the pawns on their associated space then escape before time runs out. The catch: you can’t speak, point, gesture, or communicate beyond giving a player the red Do Something pawn or looking at them. After turning the sand timer over you may speak as long as you like, but you can’t perform actions as the timer goes. Once an action is played all speaking stops.
Magic Maze is basically a Mario Party minigame in board game form. Games are quick, tensions are high, and the lack of speaking does so much for the game making it such a chaotic joy. This game was wild. Its not gonna be for every group, you gotta enjoy the wilder and wackier games to like this one. But its easy to teach and easy to share, and the runtime is entirely reasonable with 17 scenarios and tips on how to make your own. Magic Maze is the right amount of silly to rules and works great as a high player count game. Also highly recommended!
