YORKTON - In a rather short time The Meeple Guild has become fans of Canadian game designer Sébastien Bernier-Wong.
Bernier-Wong caught attention with the fine two-player card game Masters of Maple Syrup, and held it with yet to be reviewed Downstream another solid two-player card game.
And then Reforest: Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast hit our table.
This one made fans with The Meeple Guild rather quickly, starting with the cards in this one which players 1-to-4.
To start the cards have a fine linen finish which means this one should last.
The artwork by Janine van Fram is excellent, giving a plant species identification book feel.
The iconography is fine, albeit a tad small, and while the line of general knowledge information on each plant in indeed tiny, it’s still a plus you can gain education by playing this one – that’s a general plus in a game.
In Reforest you gather cards from what is a pretty general card game ‘market’.
With their collected cards players compete to grow the healthiest forest ecosystem by arranging a synergistic tableau of plants, each with their own unique traits and abilities.
Via the designer; each introduced plant earns you points and contributes to a growing ecosystem of interconnected abilities. At the end of each round (when the plant deck is emptied), an animal visitor card will be earned by the player who's plants best matched the visitor's habitat preferences (most flowers / fruit / etc).
The game ends when all visitors have found a home. Each player's forest is scored for the value of their plants and for the visitors they host.
“Reforest is a completely card based tableau-builder with engine building elements,” said Bernier-Wong via email. ”You’re growing a forest through its various stages of succession, starting from humble herbs and growing over them with taller and taller species until you have a canopy of trees . . .
“I wanted to make a game that could teach folks about the plants in our area. Something the educators and guides here could bring on their multi-night backcountry trips without taking up much space or adding weight to their bags. It had to be engaging enough to warrant multiple plays throughout a trip, something you could sink your teeth into if you were socked in with bad weather. So the guiding principle was to make a game that could be played in a tent, but still had that classic tabletop depth. Moreover, I wanted people to recognize the plants they’d seen along their journeys and give them a chance to learn about them through their in-game mechanics and uses.”
The mechanics take just a bit to understand, but the learning curve is far from daunting. In fact, this one plays quite smoothly, and there are enough in-game score options to try that replay is solid too.
Bernier-Wong said options are a strength of the game.
“I’ve tried to pack as much depth as I could into a deck of cards. Lots of the feedback from players has been that they’ve found new ways to play each game and are constantly discovering alternate paths to victory,” he said. “I feel like Reforest has succeeded in being a tabletop game you can fit in your pocket.”
The designer said he hopes the variety within Reforest shines through.
“Each plant has unique growing requirements; nutrients, sunlight, elevation, etc. They also each have a unique effect, a reason to play them. As in real forests, some support the growth of other species while others make use of the forest’s available resources to thrive, or in this case, earn you points,” offered the designer.
“This is a puzzley game about mapping out your plan for growth more than it is about hindering your opponent’s. Although, you will be competing to meet the needs of different animal visitors who will help you score big and can definitely swing the game!” My favourite aspect of the game is the unique plant effects. Each have their own ability with different triggers; some when grown over, others immediately when played, a few when certain conditions are met and so on. What these allow is for players to form an interconnected ecosystem of triggers where playing certain plants will begin a cascade of effects that let you play additional plants, store energy in your soil and ultimately take more actions than a normal turn should allow.”
Overall Reforest, while being a game with a small footprint (a deck of cards) plays big – so big it might make some year-end top-game lists. Check it out at firestarter.games
