Very, very early impressions of the Wayfarer

 This is a very, very early impression of The Wayfarer. That’s because I’ve only been playing the Poland map (which I assume is the base game because it’s used as the example in the basic rules) and there are eleven more maps (most of which have additional rules) plus two expansions.

It’s a Print-and-Play Roll-and-Write about traveling across the world and recording the memories of your journey. In actually, it’s a solitaire area of control game that is abstract to the point where the theme isn’t really a part of gameplay.

Each map is a hex grid of the country or state or island and each hex is one of six different kinds of terrain. (The percentage of each type of terrain varies, depending on the map)  Oh and each hex has a die face on it. There are also small groups of some of the hexes surrounded by dotted lines.

The core mechanic is simple. Roll four dice. Pick three. You can cross out three hexes that match those dice but they have to be part of the same line of hexes. They don’t have to be next to each other, they just have to be on the same line. Do that twenty times and figure out your score.

On the three base maps (Poland, Spain and Switzerland), there are two ways to score points. Filling in the groups within the dotted lines and getting points for each type of terrain. The scoring for terrain types starts off in the negative (with having negative twenty five of you have none of a type) so I _think_ diversification is a good idea.

When I first looked at Wayfarer, I thought ‘that’s it?’ Not only did it seem pretty darn simple, maybe too simple, I also was disappointed that you weren’t forming any kind of path. You weren’t planning out a journey. You were just crossing off hexes with restrictions.

However, when I actually sat down to play, I found that having so wide open a decision tree made the game a lot more interesting than I expected. If I had to create connections, the game would rapidly have become frustrating. And between trying to fill in dotted-line-enclosed areas and collect terrain, I found that I had goals and actual tough decisions. 

The Wayfarer is almost entirely abstract (although I am curious how well the terrain types match up with the real geography) but the actual gameplay was enough for me to have fun. It doesn’t hurt that it’s the sweet spot of being short enough to easily find the time for but long enough to feel like a ‘full’ game.

Each map set adds some additional way to get points, some additional wrinkle to the mix. And one of the expansions adds additional goals. (The other is an alternative to dice) So, in theory, there’s a lot of content.

The fact that I want to keep playing the Poland map and then move on to explore the rest of the game is a good sign. The Wayfarer is simple but filling.

A Year In… is flawed and painfully simple but charming

I’m surprised that I never came across A Year In… before last week because it’s the kind of game I like to track down. A print and play game that is solitaire friendly, low ink friendly and has a chill theme. It just goes to show that there’s so much out there.

A Year In… is a flip and write game that uses a standard deck of cards. Everything, including the rules, is on one sheet of paper. Sometimes, cramming everything in like that can lead to not enough room to really get the rules across but A Year In… is simple enough that that’s not a problem.

The idea is that you are setting up a village, one that is clearly inhabited by friendly talking animals if the artwork is anything to go on. You have a grid and a couple of tables for landscape features and villagers.

At the start of the game, you shuffle the cards and discard 10 sight unseen. We will get back to why this is important. After that, you flip a card each turn and use the tables to add something to your map.

Each suit is a specific type of landscape feature, flowers or hills or two types of trees. Each rank is a villager, with face cards being a little more specific. 

Adding landscape features is simple. You draw the appropriate feature in a square. Villagers are a little bit more complex. They have to be placed in a specific arrangement of landscape features. Having a flower on their right and left for instance. Face cards, not only require significantly more complicated patterns, they also have to match a specific suit as well. On the plus side, they count as three villagers.

There are also three shops. Each one requires a set of four rank cards (that you cross off as you go) before you can draw them in. However, that does give you another way to use cards and each one counts as a villager as well.

After the deck runs out, whoever has the most villagers wins. Ties are broken by rank. If you’re playing solitaire, you just do the best you can.

My wife has been playing Hello Kitty Island Adventures, where potential residents have very specific housing requests. I looked at A Year In… and realized that it was a distilled example of that idea. More than that, I am a big Animal Crossing fan and this game definitely has that kind of vibe.

I was completely unsurprised to learn that it was developed during the Covid lockdown.

Luck plays a huge, pretty much overwhelming, role in the game. You can work towards getting a specific goal, namely, one of those high scoring, face cards, as a villager. However, if it comes out too early in the game or has been discarded during the set up, It’s never going to happen.

And discarding 10 cards at the start of the game definitely increases the odds of your plans not working out. At the same time, if you didn’t do that, it would turn into a card counting exercise, which I think would be a worse experience. Discarding those 10 cards turns it into more of an actual game.

From a mechanical standpoint, A Year In… doesn’t hold up that well as a game. The random factor really makes the control you have an illusion. If you are trying to make a lean, mean, efficient village, you are just going to get frustrated. So there are a lot of audiences that aren’t going to be interested in this game and, depending on my mood, I can be part of those audiences.

But when I am in the mood for some whimsy and drawing a pretty, pretty village of cartoon animal people and don’t mind pushing my luck, A Year In… is pretty nice.

It is not a cozy video game PnP simulation. If you want that, that would be A Simple Life. Which does a really good job of it. And if you don’t want that, print and out play A Simple Life because you will find that you do want that, you just didn’t know it.

A Year In… is a simulation of the _idea_ of a cozy game. It has mechanical issues to the point that you could argue that it is unbalanced, but it does a very good job delivering a relaxing experience that has some actual challenge.

A Year In… is an obscure little game that isn’t for everyone. But if the idea makes you go ‘hmmmm’, it will be rewarding.

Comparing specialized decks with standard playing cards

 The Shooting Party isn’t a game that I play often but it wanders back to me every once in a while. Maybe once a year or so. Which doesn’t sound that impressive but there are lots of games I’ve tried that don’t come back at all.

The Shooting Party is a solitaire game designed to be played with a regular deck of cards. However, after learning it, I made a copy of the themed deck and the themed deck has been a major reason I keep on playing it.

That actually annoys me a little. The standard deck of cards is an amazing gaming tool. Have a deck of cards in your hand and you are holding a giant library of games. The history and flexibility of a standard deck of cards is staggering.

While Catan and Dungeons and Dragons were major entry point into gaming for me, Go was another. And I had my moments of anti-chrome snobbery. Which definitely is an ice way of saying being narrow-minded and stupid. 

Theme is more than just adding pretty chrome to a game. (And if chrome helps a game actually sell, that alone is a big deal) It can add narrative to a game. It can help explain mechanics, make mechanics more intuitive.

And little Shooting Party is a good example of all that.

I made a copy of the Edwardian deck, which has lovely images of Hoity Toity aristocrats back before the first world war. I am sure that it is all stock art, but it is very well selected and makes for a visually attractive deck.

The game itself is about being a scoundrel who seduces ladies and steals their jewelry. The imagery of the cards helps reinforce both the narrative of the game and the mechanics, which revolve around using the rules of manners to hurry off guests (ie discarding cards)

Mechanically, the Shooting Party isn’t that much to look at, and if I had only played it with a regular deck of cards, I would have forgotten it by now. However, the Edwardian deck adds enough fun for me to keep saying ‘eh, let’s get it out’

I have been looking at a lot of games that use the regular deck of cards, either all by themselves or as an integral part of the mechanics. And I really like the fact that I have such a flexible tool in my gaming kit to let me try out or look at so many different games. And I would definitely try out a game before making a specialized deck.

But specialized decks do add solid value.

Bad rule books destroy games

 A couple years ago, I tried out the pre-Kickstarter demo for a game collection called Dice and Divination. I meant to follow up on it but missed the Kickstarter. Recently, I finally got the collection and have been looking it over.

Dice and Divination consists of seven different Roll and Writes games, each one based on a different form of prognostication. (I can use big words!) Astrology, Palm Reading, Tarot, Tea Leaves, Rune Casting, Dreams and Pendulums.

What is the most interesting bit is that each game is designed to six turns long, with each turn being a roll of three dice. The scoring systems are set up to be comparable so people can play different games at the same time and still be competitive.

But… the collection has a major flaw. 

These are honestly some of the worst written rules I think I’ve seen. And I comb through contests and prototypes where part of the goal is to figure out how to make coherent rules. I’ve seen rules that have clearly gone through Google translate to make it to English. And those were all ore functional than Dice and Divination.

A glaring example of the problem with the rules: remember how I mentioned how players can simultaneously play different games and still be competitive? That is only mentioned in the product description, not in the product itself. It feels like there should be an overview guide that never made it to the finished product.

Many of the games fail to fully explain the scoring. At least one doesn’t even actually include the fact that the game is six rounds. Basic, fundamental rules and concepts have been left out.

I’ve been doing my best to figure out how the games are actually supposed to be played because the ones I have been able to get through have been pretty interesting. There’s clearly some good ideas and mechanics hidden in the collection. The art and theming are also pretty good.

The world of PnP R&W games is a heavily saturated one. It’s not easy to stand out. I think that, between its interlocking scoring system and theme, Dice and Divination could stand out. But the horribly written rules are a huge road block. I think the actual rules might be good, if I could actually get to them.

My March Gaming

March was an interesting month because I would say the focus of my game learning was on play tests and prototypes. (That said, I bet there are folk who that’s their focus for gaming)

I learned:

Stone Age Survival

Lands of Amazement (playtest)

Veggie Fighters (2025 9 Card Contest)

Roll Estate

Endless Nightmare 

Embers (playtest)

True Hero Minigame

Leaping Lions (playtest)

I learned once again that if I try participating in too many playtests, I overextend myself, particularly since there’s life stuff and adulting that has to get done. Leaping Lions did not get much attention from me. (I believe I am allowed to talk about playtests in a general sense, just not distribute files or the like)

That said, I still think that joining the playtest channel is very rewarding.

The other thing I did was go back and try games that have been in my files for years. I honestly don’t know how long I’ve had Endless Nightmare on the back burner. I didn’t find any hidden gems, to be honest. However, it is always interesting to look at where we’ve come from.

My March PnP

When I looked at my print and play crafting for March, I noticed that a lot of what I had made was playtesting prototypes from Buttonshy’s playtesting forum. 

Agropolis

Land of Amazement expansions (playtest)

Darlin’ Corey (RPG)

One Card Maze

Embers (playtest)

Veggie Knight Fight (2025 9 Card Contest)

Dragon’s Horde (2025 9 Card Contest)

Dice and Divination collection 

Pre-Existing Conditions 

Rolling Estate

Leaping Lions + expansions (playtest)

Technically, my ‘big’ project for the month was Agropolis. I think this is the third time I’ve made a copy. Possibly the second. I’ve had to make it multiple times because, my colorblindness on top of a black and white printer, I have to make adjustments with adding symbols to make it viable for me.

That being said, some of the playtests were larger. However, since they aren’t finished products, they are more of a gray area for me. I guess the same can be said for contest entries since many of those are also prototypes. They’re just ones I can write about :)

I also have to admit that I broke my promise to pace myself with playtests. I started out strong but I wasn’t able to give it much focus by the end of the month. Life and adulting was part of it but there’s also just making sure to not do too much.

Dice and Divination is an interesting model for my record keeping. It’s a collection of seven games that are interlocking in that each one requires the same number of 3d6 rolls and the scoring is supposed to be comparable. So you could have a group game with people playing different games. Still, for my purposes, it’s seven different games.

We will see what April will bring. I have already promised myself less playtests so the prototypes I do play can get more attention.

I want more from Roll Estate

 I’ve had Roll Estate in my files for a while. It attracted my attention because it was designed by the moderator of the Flip the Table podcaster, Chris Michaud. The podcast has ended but it was a hoot and still fun to revisit.

Here’s the elevator pitch: Roll Estate is a mashup of Yahtzee and Monopoly. On a slightly more detailed note, it’s Yahtzee with a more interesting play sheet.

The core mechanic is Yahtzee. Five dice. Roll them and you get two rerolls. Mark something off on the play sheet. If you know how to play Yahtzee, you’re 90% there.

The sheet is broken down into two sections: properties and investments. One through six, plus three of a kind and four of a kind are properties. Straights, chance and Yahtzee, those are investments. Full house is nowhere to be found.

Properties are pretty simple. Each category has two to three boxes plus two business. Fill in the boxes just like Yahtzee but each box to the right has to be bigger than the last one. First person to complete a set gets the better business while everyone else gets the other one.

Investments break from the Yahtzee formula a bit. The four railroads are short straights and the value goes up the more you have. There are two long straights and those are multipliers for chance. Yahtzee is a bunch of money.

The game ends when either someone gets their third business or they run out of property boxes. You can X out a box if you can’t fill anything in. Most points wins. There’s a solitaire rule set where Xing out a box is an automatic loss and you have to hit a high score in investments, that number depends on the difficulty level.

Okay. What do I think of Roll Estate? Is it any good?

I think Roll Estate would have made a stronger impression on me if I had played it when it first came out in 2019. But not only have I played a lot of Print and Play Roll and Writes since then, I think that design space in general has had a lot of development in those years as well. (Yes, Covid lockdown helped push that development)

Is Roll Estate more interesting than Yahtzee? Definitely. But does it go far enough? I kept thinking, as I played, that the points were called money and the game would be better if I had something to spend that money on. I also wished for more dice manipulation abilities beyond the two rerolls. 

Is there anything wrong with Roll Estate? No. In fact, I think it succeeds admirably at its goal of being a Yahtzee and Monopoly mashup. It isn’t a blatant copy of Yahtzee. The investment section of the play sheet is the most interesting part and actually pretty engaging.

At the same time, if I wanted to break someone out of Yahtzee, I’d pull out Qwix or That’s Pretty Clever before Roll Estate. There are a lot of accessible Roll and Writes out there. 

I want to like Roll Estate more than I do. I am sure I will occasionally play it. However, I wish it just took its ideas farther.