Ah, Alexander Shen. They make such tiny little games and puzzles that take half a cup of coffee’s worth of time to play. And Goblin Golfin’ skates the racer’s edge to have just enough going on to make make it interesting.
It’s a solitaire R&W PnP where you are, well, playing golf. You can also collect gems along the way, which is only part of it which has any goblin theming.
Each map has a golf hole on a grid with inconveniently placed rocks and tempting gems. You roll three dice and pick one to be the power die and another to be the deviation. You move the number of spaces of the power die in a straight orthogonal line. Then, you move at a right angle a number of spaces that’s the difference between the two dice.
If the dice are the same value (so the difference is zero), you get bonus points. There are rules for bouncing off walls and rocks. If you land on gems, you get bonus points. And you can skip the die rolls and putt one space.
Oh and you automatically lose if you go over six strokes.
This is not the simplest golf board game I’ve played. That’d be Par Out Golf. It’s not even the second simplest. That’s Paper App Golf. But Goblin Golfin’ is still pretty simple.
Like so many Alexander Shen experiences, Goblin Golfin’ skates the edge of just barely being enough to be interesting. Collecting gems and the deviation rules gave me some fun for the three or four minutes it took to complete a sheet.
I can’t help but compare Goblin Golfin’ to Paper App Golf. It’s honestly a better game. Three dice and pick two compared to roll one die and that’s what you get alone makes it better. However, the fact that Paper App is, be design, a minimalist design to be shoved in your pocket it will still get some play from me.
If you like Alexander Shen’s games, you will have fun with Goblin Golfin’. If you don’t, you won’t.
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