Open Season: Review
Information:
Player Age: 10+
Player Count: 2 - 4 Players
BGG Weight: 2.00
Time to Play: 20 - 40 Minutes
Year Published: 2024
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the VR Distribution.
Introduction:
Being a dungeon master, your dungeons get filled with the remains of failed adventurers and like a good hunter, you don't want those trophies to go to waste. Open Season is about not only collecting the heads of the fallen adventurers but also creating structure and elegance out of them. Players are organising the heads in a particular manner to score the admiration of their fellow dungeon masters. Players will be collecting heads for their board that details what they do and don't want in their stash/accolades. At the end of the game, it's not your board that scores, but what you have deemed important enough to score in your accolades.
Game Anatomy:
Face Cards (People):
Across six different species there are 5 attributes, each appearing five times throughout the deck, Earrings, Tattoo, Sword, Eye Patch, Crown.
If you are unable to play a face during the game, it will be played face-down for a negative five points at the end of the game.
Game Board:
There are two sides to the game board; one for a standard game and one for a faster game. This review will focus on the standard side. These boards have a LOT of information on them when you first play.
Essentially, there are bonuses granted on certain spots that depend on the round in which the face is played here. These can grant trophy tokens, wild tokens, a penalty tile, or an improvement to the set of attributes tile. There are two important underlines on the board; the green underline that says the species have to be unique, and the gold underline that says faces have to be of the same species. If a task is achieved, a bonus will be gained.
There are three rows on the board.
The top row will activate bonus abilities if a matching face is played into the stack.
The second row focuses on a few things; collecting three of the same species to gain a bonus five points (last 3 positions), end-game scoring for any attributes matching in the accolades (far-right face, image below) and negative points for any matching faces in the accolades at the end of the game (two left-most positions).
The last row is bonus points at the end of the game for any of the same species appearing in your accolades, For example the image below will score the player 8 points at the end of the game (2 times 4). The far-right space will award 10 points if you have majority of the chosen face.
Top Row Abilities:
Bonus abilities will occur for players if they have a face matching the species of one played into the first row. Players can perform multiple of these abilities on a turn but cannot repeat an ability on the same turn. Starting from the left side of the top row and going to the right, the abilities are; taking the top card of a player's stack into their own (this can activate another ability and the other player will replace this card with one from the inn or the top of the deck), moving a trophy token from the top row to the bottom row, draw two cards from the deck to put one on your stack (this can activate another ability), and reserve a card from the inn for a future turn.
Tokens:
There are numerous tokens that you are able to gain by placing them in certain sections of certain rounds. In the example below the player will gain 2 trophy tokens in rounds 1 and 2, 1 wild token in rounds 3 and 4, and 1 trophy token in rounds 5 or 6.
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A trophy token is allowed to be played at the end of a player's turn, but only once per turn. A trophy can either activate an ability (not previously activated this turn) by being played on the top row, or can count as an extra face in your accolades by being played on a bottom row card.
A wild token can be used at the end of the game to change the attribute of a face on your wall or accolades.
The penalty tile will score negative points for the amount of lowest appearing attribute in your accolades. For this purpose zero can count as the lowest.
The attribute series tile will enhance the end game scoring amount of each set of five unique attributes in your accolades, from 4 points each to 7.
Once you are experienced with the game and want an extra layer of challenge, there are personal bonus tiles you can add in. With this mode each player will select four at the start of the game.
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These will have end-game bonuses, ongoing abilities, or instant abilities. The tricky challenge with these bonus tiles is they will only activate if the column underneath them is full and has the same attribute on all those faces.
Setup:
- Shuffle the face deck and reveal five to create the inn.
- Place all tokens in a general supply.
How to Play:
Players will play out 11 rounds, going in clockwise order. There are six steps to a turn; the first three are refilling the inn back to 5 cards, moving your stock of faces into your face-down accolades pile, and selecting 2 cards from the inn.
Players will then have to play one card onto their board, adhering to any restrictions that exist. This is then followed by playing a card on the top of your stack and activating any abilities in the top row triggered by this face card.
End-Game Scoring:
After the 11 rounds, the scoring will occur. There will be negative points for any cards face-down on the board (-5 points), any card in your accolade matching the two left-most faces in the middle row, and negative points based on the lowest occurring attribute in your accolades (if you gained the penalty tile during the game).
The positive points present much more opportunities. Certain faces and attributes in your accolades will score you points based on the cards you played in the bottom row and the right-most card in the second row. 5 points is awarded if the three species above the gold underline are the same in row 2, and lastly players will score each set of 5 different attributes in their accolade. Each set will either be worth 4 or 7 points based on whether the player gained the bonus attribute tile throughout the game.
Final Thoughts:
- Easy gameplay but plenty of tough choices as you play out the rounds and lock up your board state.
- Advanced rules are included to drastically change the planning and increase challenges.
I am always keeping an eye out for what Sit Down Games release as their games are easy to learn but often very unique. Open Season is no exception. Players constantly need to be thinking about two layers of drafting at all times, cards entering the accolades for end-game scoring and those being carefully placed on the player board. This is quite tricky as you tend to want everything but early on you need to consider how you are going to fill your board. In this game, it is crucial to determine the order you want to fill your board as certain bonuses can only be gained if you meet the requirements in or before certain rounds. However, if you don't place in the top row early enough you will miss out on effectively activating the abilities. These choices become more challenging when you are limited by the five faces of the inn. This is a very puzzling game but one I enjoyed thoroughly. Open Season is earning a Go-To Golden Seal and will be staying securely in my collection.
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