Parks & Potions review - Woodland mixologists needed!

Not every game in my collection is a combo-filled, euro behemoth. Every once in a while the wife and I need a good mid-week cozy game that satiates the need to game, but respects our tired brains. 

Parks & Potions is a brand new game from designer Chris Eastridge and publisher Moon Saga Workshop. In Parks & Potions, 1-5 players take on the role of park rangers who collect and mix potions needed to heal sick wildlife in nature. Games will progress through a series of rounds with the players rolling dice, treating drafted animals, and collecting sets of creatures to score points. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Gameplay

Gameplay is relatively simple. Each round, four dice are rolled and players will simultaneously draft two potion tiles featured on the dice faces. At any time during the round, players can combine or discard potions keeping up to six at a time on their player card. Player cards feature a special power that can be used once per game such as picking up extra potions from a dice roll or choosing a specialty color to be used as a wild potion. Potions come in three different bottles and 9 different colors. The three circle bottle primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) can be combined to make the three secondary triangle bottle colors (green, purple, orange). Two triangle bottles can be combined to make one of the three specialty square bottles (white, gray, black). Two of these specialty square bottles can be combined into any potion. As another added touch, each of the colors features a unique symbol for those unable to distinguish colors. 

After three roll and draft phases, players will spend potions to complete any of the three animal or experiment objective cards featured in front of them. After the objective is fulfilled, cards are added to a player’s menagerie tableau. Each card features a victory point value and animal cards feature a biome symbol. Some cards will also earn players extract tokens that can be turned into potions of their choice or saved for end game scoring. Once objectives have been fulfilled, players will refill their objective row back up to three cards. The first player token is then shifted to the next player.

At the end of 5-6 rounds, depending on player count, players will score their tableau to figure out the master ranger. There are four scoring conditions starting with the printed values on completed animal objectives. Next, each animal in a biome past the first one will score one point. Each set of three unique biome cards is worth two points. Finally, each experiment card will multiply the printed value by the number of saved extract tokens. The player with the highest score will win!

Variants

The game includes some variants to the basic gameplay as well. 

Draft Variant

The first is a competitive draft mechanism. Instead of rolling dice, the first player will draw two potions per player from the included bag. The first player will draft and then work clockwise around the table with the last player drafting two and working counterclockwise back to the start of the order. The process is repeated three times per round.

Cooperative Variant

The cooperative variant has players working together to heal the entire animal deck or making sure there are no critical animals after 5 rounds. Players are doled out three objective cards as usual, but the right most card is turned to the side and labelled as “urgent” and the other two cards labelled as “sick.” The rolling and drafting phase happens the same as the normal game, but the big changes come in healing the objective cards. Players choose one biome to treat and can try to heal any animals from that biome from any player. If two players choose the same biome they can trade potions and extracts with each other. Any unhealed “sick” animals turn urgent and any “urgent” animals that go unhealed get labelled as “critical” and are sent to a central area with a level three experiment on top. To heal these animals, players must spend the potions on the experiment. 

Solo Modes

The solo mastery mode uses the rules from the cooperative variant with the player choosing two biomes to heal per round. The solo mode challenge uses the rules from the base game, but provides a list with four levels of challenges for the player to strive for.

Overall Thoughts

The overall production of Parks & Potions is great. The artwork from Alan Gomes and graphic design by Ammon Anderson make the entire experience inviting and whimsical. Each of the animal illustrations is based on real endangered creatures with some fun twists added in. The rulebook has a nice linen finish and is easy to read and follow the different rulesets. There is even a section that gives information about each of the animals featured in the game. The central play surface is an illustrated neoprene mat that rolls nicely into the box. The box itself has a nice insert that holds all the elements of the game securely. The only downside of the production is that the included bag frayed along one of the edges in the first couple of plays. It was easily sewn up, and is only used for the drafting mechanism, but was a bit disappointing. The potion tiles are also ripe for wooden token upgrades.

The gameplay is exactly what I’m looking for in a cozy game. The game scales well to the group that is playing. The basic rules are easy to pick up and do a great job of introducing newer players to strategic decisions and tableau/set building as players decide which objective cards to pursue. The gameplay variants give more experienced players a bigger challenge and the cooperative mode is pretty challenging and adds some length to the game. Some of the other editors agreed that it was a great little strategy game, even though I crushed them in the scores. My wife also enjoyed the playthroughs and added it to the family approved stack for future get togethers. This game will go into the filler category for me as it probably won’t have the staying power to take off the deep strategy edge, but I know that other members of my extended family will love it.