#27/52. A game you can finish in under 15 minutes - Tsuro

A coworker has been fascinated by my board gaming hobby and has been asking me question after question about it. She seemed flummoxed when I told her about ConQuest Avalon that was held back in November. Since then she has continued to ask me about the types of games that I play so I finally brought one in to play with her at lunch time. The first game was Qwirkle. I wrote about that game here. The game I brought in today was Tsuro: The Game of the Path. This is perhaps the most zen game in my collection.

In this game each player is a dragon flying over the skies of ancient China. Each dragon starts at the edge of the board - where on the edge does not matter. Each player is dealt three tiles with varying paths on them. There is a grid on the board. You choose one tile and lay it on the grid before your dragon piece. Move your dragon to the end of the path before it. Then the next player goes. The object of the game is to avoid running into another dragon and to avoid running off the edge of the board. The last player remaining on the board wins.

Because there are several paths on each tile, planning which direction to lay your tile down can sometimes be a bit tricky. As the board becomes more and more crowded, the potential paths become longer and more complicated. It is even possible that a player can lay down a tile that will move more than one dragon at a time. It is possible for one player to run another player off the edge of the board. However, more often than not, a player will end up maneuvering themselves to the edge of the board to avoid the other dragon(s) and will accidentally run him/herself off the edge of the board. Colliding with another dragon will also knock both of the dragons out of the game.

This is a quick and easy gateway game to teach to just about anyone. I've taught this to non-gamers, young gamers, and my 95 year old Grandma - who subsequently beat me. I bought this game on the recommendation of a FLGS employee and have really enjoyed it ever since.