Tsuro: The Game of the Path

If there is such a thing as the perfect board game, then Tsuro is it. Tsuro: The game of the path has beautiful artwork, rules that you could explain in the time it takes to go up three floors on an elevator, and is fun to play even when scaled between two players, or eight. Competitive or relaxing, you bring the atmosphere to the game with your friends, and it is always fun!

Photo courtesy of Wired.com

When you open this game, it has incredibly lovely art of a Chinese red dragon across the box and board, and carved little stone markers. You also have 35 tile markers that will shape the path for you and your fellow players, and a single Dragon tile. Before playing, you already feel like you should be sipping some green tea and spouting provincial wisdom, a la Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The goal of this game is to create / follow the path for as long as you can without being directed off the board, or running into another player.

The set up is incredibly simple. Shuffle the tiles while everyone takes a marker and places themselves at one of the white lines on the outside square of the board denoting a starting point. Everyone is given 3 tiles face down (that they can look at at any time, just not to be shared with other players), and the rest of the tiles are set aside as a pile to draw from. Got it so far?

Here are the super crazy rules. In each players turn (the oldest at the table goes first, then go clockwise) first play one tile in their hand directly in-front of their marker, they move their marker to the extend of the path that has been created for them, and they draw another tile. Let the next person go.  That’s it. No dice, no special conditions, just lay out the path and follow it.

Now don’t mistake the simplicity of the game for it being dull, because you can make this game as hard and mean for your fellow players as you are willing to risk! Remember, you can shape the path of others should the intersect with the tile piece you lay down – so if you time it right, while you’re playing a mellow game where you’re BS’ing with your friends and they suddenly realize that you have directed them off the side of the board and they are out? Your game just got a whole lot louder and funnier. 10 minutes later when you’re into round two, be prepared for much more attention to be paid to your piece and watch how quickly you might be directed to a not so leisurely path. You can also follow more complex rules, like you get a point for every time you cross your own path, or every time you make a circle and at the time everyone has been removed from the board, those with the most points will win.

Not only is this game incredibly simple, it’s easy to determine who has won, and it’s something you can  play in 10-15 minutes per round. If you don’t want to play the next round, it doesn’t change any of the rules as long as there is a minimum of 2 players! This is a game that I have brought with me to PAX Prime to kill the time when waiting in epic queue lines with the strangers around me, or great ice breaker for people to jump in and out of a game while drinking beers and sharing a table with strangers at the International Beer Festival.

Bottom line is, you’ll have fun with Tsuro. It isn’t the slapstick funny of Cards Against Humanity, but it’s a game that lets you be competitive, lets you have other conversations while playing, all while enjoying the game of the path.