| Players: | 2-4 |
| Recommended Age: | 10+ |
| Our Recommended Age: | 6-8+ |
| Cost: | $19.99 |
| Play Time: | 30 minutes |
| Company Site: | www.rnrgames.com |
Gobblestones is one of those games that can be played on some level by all ages…unless you put things in your mouth…those people shouldn’t play this as there are a lot of little parts. It is great for family game nights, kid game nights and there is even an alternate way to play that makes it more fun for teens and adults.
Gobblestones is recommended for ages 10+ but the Geeklings were 7 and 9 when we took pictures and the DIva played at 6 just fine. You know your kid(s) better than anyone so if you feel they will get it give it a try. You can always help. If you have littles who are not at risk of putting the pieces in their mouth you can always use it as color recognition.
Just let them put a color down and then as many as they can in a row that matches those colors there. Less focus on the points and more on matching the colors in a row as per instructions. Eventually they will do this on their own both learning colors and how to play the game. It grows with them. I love games like this and R & R Games has quite a few whether it is intentional or not.
The boards are made of chipboard and the bag is soft and feels nice which is a good quality I feel when you have a game where you have to stick your hand in the bag a lot.
The squares are plastic but not the sharp kind and have stickers on top for the colors. Normally I don’t like this but these seem to be on pretty well and have yet to show signs of coming off after several play throughs and shakings in a bag.
The box is a standard lift top lid type and maybe a bit bigger than it needs to be for the parts but that doesn’t affect the game at all. Overall the game is built well which is what we’ve come to expect out of R & R Games, well made games that are fun for a broad range of ages. Enough about all that, let’s learn to play!
Objective:
Your goal, and I love this, is to eat as much as you can to become the fattest goblin (most points) to win! My kids like to make NOM NOM sounds sometimes…which is hilarious…until it isn’t.
Setup:
First thing you do is randomly select sides of the 9 boards that come with it. You will use all of them in a 3×3 grid. We like to flip them and use the side it lands on sometimes…sometimes we just place them and flip every other one. The goal is that no one picks sides cause that is a battle no parent wants ever…you just envisioned it didn’t you? Sorry…
Everyone gets a tile rack and draws 5 tiles from the bag and puts them on their tile rack. Someone keeps score..usually the person most responsible and with good math skills. Write names on the score sheet and the youngest player goes first.
Play:
During the very first turn the player has to use the center square but after that they can place a tile wherever as long as it follows the rules. The Diva is always the youngest player so she likes that rule in this game but sometimes she passes because she doesn’t always like that you have to put a tile in the center first. Reminds me of Scrabble.
You have to play a tile that is the same color as the space you are putting it on, you have to play one that is adjacent to one already in play and your tiles have to be played next to each other in a row (orthogonally) so no spaces. Think Pac Man, he wouldn’t eat dots by skipping one…same idea..ish.
You can never play a tile so that you create a square with 4 spaces. Each stone you cover is one you ate and you immediately score the points for them. Choose to play 0 – 5 tiles but remember that when you gorge yourself you get slow. If you play 5 tiles you don’t get to draw any tiles at the end. However, if you play 0 tiles you get to draw 5. There is a chart in the instructions so use that. Play continues to the left.
Winning:
The game ends when a player cannot draw tiles needed. So if someone plays their last 5 tiles they wouldn’t need to draw and the player to their left gets to go and so on until someone cannot draw the tiles they need. If you have tiles left you get 1 point for each of those. Add up your scores and hope the scorer player was paying attention! The player with the most points wins!
The instructions have another variant, which I love it when games do this, that you can play if you want more of a challenge. All the tiles are played FACE DOWN but you still want to match the colors on the board….or perhaps you just want the other players to THINK you did that!
Yep, you can bluff! Players can challenge your play though and you turn all the tiles face up and either gain points still and the challenger loses the same amount if you played correctly OR if you bluffed and they called you out you lose your points and the tiles go back in your hand.
We are about to start playing this way with the kids as they have recently learned about bluffing in games and how it isn’t lying…that is a tricky thing hehe.
We use Gobblestones in our homeschooling since we incorporate games into our lessons. This one helps with strategy and planning ahead as well as setting small goals. It can also teach them to bluff but that may or may not be a skill you want them to learn just yet hehe.
For kids who are learning or need to reinforce colors and counting simply remove the points part and focus on helping them play one where they want to and then seeing if they can add more nearby. They still “play” on their own but learn how to play in a row and matching colors. In this way they learn the game and it grows with them.
Show us your fattest goblin! @MyGeeklings #Gobblestones @RnRGames
