Paint the Roses
Designed by: Ben Goldman
Paint the Roses is a co-operative game where the players are all trying to discover the whims of the Queen – from Alice in Wonderland – in regards to how she would like her garden, which we are collectively planting.
The board shows the garden and before the game starts eight garden tiles are added to it. Each tile has both a flower colour and a suit shape on it, and these are key components of the game: players each have a whim card that shows what the queen currently demands – they might be easy difficulty (x colour adjacent to y colour) medium difficulty (colour to colour or shape to shape) or hard (colour to colour, shape to shape or colour to shape). On your turn you’ll be adding a tile to the garden, and then all players have the option of placing clue cubes on it. The clue cubes can only be placed on the tile that’s just been added, and they say whether or not that tile satisfies the particular whim card you have. For instance: if my card demands diamond adjacent to spade, and the tile you add fulfils that whim, I’d put a clue cube on it. If you’ve added a diamond adjacent to two (or more!) spades, I’d put two (or more) cubes on to recognise that.
The duplication (and accuracy!) of clue-giving is important: players are working together and at the end of every turn must try and guess at least one whim card. If they’re correct, they move their collective scoring piece along the track around the edge of the board. However! The violent, demonic queen is forever in pursuit and moves as well: her movement speeds up during the game anyway, but any wrong guess on a whim doubles her movement for that turn…
The players goal, then, is to finish the garden before the queen catches them (and chops off their heads, in the tradition of Wonderlandian punishment). Assuming they do, they win! But if they’re caught, they lose. Badly.
Sam says
This is a rather canny deduction game that works fine for two, but is probably better with more players: more whims to work on (and solve) more conversation, more progress, more fun. It is quite mathematical, however, and if you’re after theme, adventure, dice-chucking etc you might find it a little abstract and thinky. But we enjoy it – there’s a genuine tension in how you’re being chased by the queen, and the easy-to-solve whims just don’t offer enough progress along the track, so you’re forced to take on the harder puzzles. A potential miss for some, but a bona fide hit for others, really depending on your gaming preferences.
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Take That!
None. Players work together to figure out each other's secret whim demands.
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Fidget Factor!
None if players are engaged, as everyone is involved at all times. But it does rely on everyone at the table enjoying the kind of logic/puzzle/deduction experience on offer.
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Brain Burn!
The rules are actually very light. The burning here is about working out solutions, but the game does provide you with pads to keep track of progress.
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Again Again!
If the sweeping brushstroke of Paint the Roses doesn't change much from play to play, the inherent randomness of the tiles and cards means it's never 'solved' - and the challenge doesn't get any easier!
