Show me your stamp collection!

✉️ Stamp Swap is a tile-laying game centered around collecting stamps, which might be a topic close to many people's hearts. 🙃 The basic formula of the game is not new: As you play you collect different tiles, trying to arrange them on your personal grid in a way that scores you the most points. There are always multiple scoring conditions which are often mutually exclusive, and thus make drafting and placing tiles difficult - making the game engaging! Stamp Swap does put a spin on this formula, namely a huge dose of I-split-you-choose! 😉

The game is split up into 3 rounds, which doesn’t sound like a lot, though your personal boards will be quite full with stamps by the end. Each round starts by flipping up cards that determine what’s available to draft. There are stamps of different shapes and sizes, and also cards that give the owner useful abilities. Every stamp has a color, a theme, and a point value - all important for scoring. Scoring goals are determined each game by 5 unique cards! ☝️

Players take turns drafting until everyone has 6 items. But you can’t just place your items yet! 😶 Now comes the ever-heartbreaking and strategic part of I-split-you-choose. 😄 Players all reserve a single item each, then split their remaining 5 into 2 groups, and they start drafting groups from each other. Whenever a group of items is chosen from you, your other group gets locked in, so you only ever lose half your drafted stuff. There are also facedown stamps that complicate decisions.

At the end of each round, you place your stamps on your grid and score one of the scoring cards. You can only score each card once, so your goals and strategies shift with every round. You might need to group colors or themes in specific ways, or place stamps to neatly line up corners - it all depends on the scoring cards, which change every game.

💬 Stamp Swap is one those games where you know you are in for a good time even if you haven't played before. While it doesn't reinvent the genre, the I-split-you-choose puts a neat spin on it and it keeps the game engaging from beginning to end. 🙂