In the mood for diving?

We are taking a break from all those Gen Con titles to write a bit about Aquamarine, the newest PnP roll&write game from Postmark Games . Their Kickstarter ended while we were on holiday and I was excited to try this one out. 🙃 Their previous PnP roll&write Voyages was also really cool and unique.

In Aquamarine you have 24 hours (or turns) to do 3 dives 🤿 in order to get the most points by discovering more breathtaking creatures and objects underwater than the others. 🙂

You do this by rolling two dice 🎲 each turn. Everyone chooses one value and draws a rectangle 🔲 of that size. However if you choose the bigger number of the two dice, you have to cross off the value difference from your air tank. If your air runs out you have to end your dive.

👆 This means you have to balance your choices well: always picking the low number means you are too slow (since the 24 turns are for all 3 of your dives). But if you rush too much your air is out and you might end all 3 dives too soon. There is also a day-night cycle of 12-12 turns, with some changes in rules between day and night.

✏️ As you draw your rectangles you will try to go deeper and deeper into the ocean to find more incredible things. Every creature or object that you enclose can bring you points, but all of these have different rules. 🧐 Some examples:

🐙 Stingrays and Cuttlefish give you 5 points but only if you find them in the appropriate time of day.
🎐 Jellyfish get you minus points. You want to avoid them, just like in real life. 😂
🌱 Corals give you 2 points each but only if your rectangle doesn’t contain both types at the same time.
🐟 Fish give you more points the more of them are in your rectangle.
⛵ Shipwrecks allow you to unlock a bonus of your choice.
📡 Beacons only give you points if you got them as pairs in the same time of day.
🚩 Flags give a flat amount of points but they are hard to get to.

Aquamarine has surprisingly simple yet brilliant rules, that makes it fast but still thinky and satisfying to play 😁 - similar to Voyages. It’s also awesome when you back a Kickstarter and you get your reward immediately - in this case PDFs 😅 And additional maps will be added later.