Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale

Product Information

As these cards are flipped, the players will draw the features onto their maps in any way they wish, keeping in mind the variable scoring criteria that are laid out at the beginning of every game. While this scoring scheme is borrowed almost wholesale from the fabulous Isle of Skye, I'm okay with it, because that is part of what makes Isle of Skye so fabulous. Thunderworks Games didn’t HAVE to provide me with pencils and I’m grateful for the fact that there are some included in the box, but you’re going to want to invest in some higher quality pencils if you plan to play the game very often.

In this game you are trying to draw a map over the span of four seasons, each season keeping an eye out for two of four victory point cards. Each game includes one objective from each of four types, corresponding to types of terrain and a general pattern card, and each objective type has four options. Some cards have two shapes, one which is smaller but has the benefit of getting you a coin if you choose to take it. For instance, Spring will score for whichever cards are beneath A and B while Summer will score for whichever cards are beneath B and C.

Knowing that each round is going to be scoring based on certain conditions creates a very interesting decision space. In solo mode, I’ve been averaging 40 minutes for each session, but once one gets used to the game I’d say 30 minutes is the average.

The digital version was also listed as one of the best 2020 board game applications by Ars Technica. If one of the shapes has a gold coin next to it and you decide to draw in that shape then you’re going to get to color in one of the coins on your map sheet (we’ll get to this momentarily).You start the game with two adjacent islands connected, and at any time, you can spend a coin to connect another adjacent island. I took a few liberties when I presented the story at the beginning of this piece because the story in the book really doesn’t make a lot of sense. The campfire burning not too far away and the snow collected here and there really sucks you into the scene and you can already imagine the chill in the air. Also, during my second game as I was furiously erasing a feature that I didn’t like the placement of, the eraser portion of my pencil broke off. The season continues until the value of the revealed cards equals or exceeds the number on the season card.