Everest 1924 is a tough climb

I love the fact that the world of Print and Play has grown big enough that it took me years to discover Everest 1924, even though I regularly comb BGG and other places for PnP games. And Everest 1924 is the kind of PnP I tend to look for.

It is a solitaire Roll and Writes about climbing Mount Everest. It is really drawing a line on a sloped grid and is realistically as abstract as Checkers. That said, the mechanics fit the theme just barely enough to actually make sense.

Each row in the mountain has a value, ranging from six to thirty six. To go up, you need to make a roll that meets or exceeds the value of the row. You start with three dice and get more as you ascend to the maximum of six.

And here’s where it gets interesting. You have to roll a straight and the value of the straight is the highest number times the number of dice in the straight. 

You do get some dice manipulation. You can take a pair of equal dice and discard one die to adjust the other die plus or minus one. You can take any two unequal dice and discard one to add or subtract it to the remaining die. And you get one reroll each turn, which can include discarded dice. BUT, if you don’t get a straight that lets you go up after that reroll, you drop down a row.

The designer has said that he named the game after the Mallory and Irvine expedition because it failed. Knowing that, the game makes a lot more sense. Because Everest 1924 is a game where the odds of winning are pretty darn low. In order to reach the top, you have to get a straight with all the possible dice. 

So, we are looking at a game that’s quite abstract, very luck driven while also requiring a decent amount of calculating and it’s very hard to win. That makes for a game that isn’t super appealing for me and I have a feeling one of people will feel the same. On the other hand, in its favor, noodling around with the math can be pretty interesting.

I’d consider it for a classroom game if I didn’t think it would seriously frustrate students.

Everest 1924 is not a game I see pulling out very often. It definitely has the potential to be aggravating.  Of course, brutally difficult was part of the designers mission statement so mission accomplished. That said, the challenge will get it occasionally on the table.