Around the World in 10-15 minutes captures family game night on one page

 Around the World in 10-15 Minutes is a family weight Roll and Write about being a tourist across the globe. It’s from No Box Games whose earlier Beards and Booty is a hidden gem as far as I’m concerned. Around might be one as well. I’m not sure yet but I think it has the potential.

Just like it says on the tin, the theme of the game is traveling across the world. Each player has their own game sheet, which shows a map of the world, along with a couple of charts. Each continent has three cities with connections to other cities. While Antarctica isn’t on the board, Oceana counts as a continent.

There are three possible actions in the game. Travel, Explore and Souvenir. Travel is pretty obvious, with the provision that you can only use each connection once (but you can visit the same city more than once) Each city has two of four different exploration topics. (Culture, history, nature and food, by the way) And each continent has two of four different souvenir options. 

I have to say three different and distinct actions with a travel theme reminds me of Ticket to Ride, even though the two games ultimately don’t resemble each other that much.  And that’s a point in Around’s favor, although Ticket to Ride is the better game by far in my opinion. Yes, all things considered, I’d rather play Ticket to Ride but Around isn’t just a second-rare copy of it.

There are three ways to earn points. You get points by visiting every city in a continent. There is a  chart for souvenirs and a chart for exploration. You get points by filling in columns and rows on those two charts.

The end game is triggered when someone has visited at least every city in every continent and returned to their home city. (You get to pick that at the start) If you are playing solitaire or mega, the end game is also triggered after twenty turns.

I’ve only played solitaire, which can also be played by any number of players Take It Easy Style. When you play it that way, you roll two dice and consult a chart which will give you two actions to perform.

Since I’ve only played it solitaire, I feel like the game may be too easy. While you get a bonus for ending before the twenty rounds, I’ve always found it better to get in more moves. And I quickly found it easy to come out high on the achievement chart.

But I’m also pretty sure that solitaire is the weakest way to play. Competition would add more tension and possibly make ending the game early worth it. And I’m still having enough fun that I keep on playing Around.

More than that, for two to six players, there’s an alternate way to play. Each turn, there’s an active player. _They_ choose one action. They can do that one action up to two times and everyone else can do it once. I’m quite interested in trying playing like that since it adds interaction while removing randomness and I think it would make for deeper play. 

Around is ultimately a very simple game. However, the theme is engaging and there are multiple paths to follow, literally. It creates a family game experience on a sheet of paper and it’s always fun to see that happen.