Last year, I tried out Around the World in 10-15 Minutes, a print-and-play game from No Box Games about world travel. My initial impressions of the game was that the mechanics were a little weak but it was rich with theme.
And, to be honest, my opinion has remained pretty much the same. I don’t find it hard to get a good score, at least while playing it solitaire. Having said that, it hits the table at least a couple times a month.
TransAmerica and Ticket to Ride were a big part of my early board gaming experiences and I still feel they are essential gaming. Around the World in 10-15 Minutes isn’t even vaguely in their league but it definitely has a similar flavor, which isn’t bad for a one-sheet Roll and Write. And since you sightsee and buy souvenirs as well as travel, the game just has chill, decompressing feel overall.
I had been saving the expansion maps for a good occasion but I realized that it is human nature to always have more games than time. So I have now played the USA map and the Europe map, both of which have their twists.
The USA map is broken down into six areas like the original world map. However, it has four bonus cities (Anchorage, Honolulu, Washington DC and San Juan) They only have two paths each, cannot be used for souvenirs or exploring, but they are worth a fourth set of points. I can usually hit every city in the world map but adding four more cities ramps up the difficulty in a good way.
While the Europe map has 18 cities like the world map, it only has four regions. The twist is that you compete for who has the most cities in each region.
The USA map has become my favorite map of the series. It does what I want with an expansion map. It adds a new mechanic that seamlessly fits in with the mechanics and the theme. It also ups the difficulty, keeping the game from becoming too formulaic.
On the other hand, as someone who is playing the game solitaire, the Europe map doesn’t interest me as much. Its twist is only for multi-player games. On the third hand, by adding a layer of player interaction (albeit indirect interaction), the Europe map is the one for multi-player. To the point where I’d skip the world map and go straight to it if I was playing the game with other folks.
I am actually surprised that I haven’t seen any fan-made maps. I think the system would be ripe for fan expansion. If they are out there, point me their way.
The expansions of Around the World in 10-15 Minutes have the system continue to do what keeps me coming back: remind me why I got into board games while being engaging in its own right.
