Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister! is the 2014 Kinderspiele des Jahres (Children’s game of the year) winner from designer Brian Yu and is an excellent game for 2-4 players. It is great for teaching children teamwork, turn taking, and other essential social skills. The game also features an advanced version that makes the game entertaining for all ages. While the game lacks some strategic depth, it works well for younger kids. If you’re a collector looking for a unique addition or find yourself needing a great game to play with children, I highly suggest Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister.
So Spooky!
In Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister each player takes the role of a young adventurer. The goal is to retrieve 8 jewels from the haunted house before it is overwhelmed with ghosts. In an advanced variant, the jewels are numbered and must be retrieved in numeric order. The advanced variant also hides the values of the jewels until an adventurer enters the same room as the jewel. In all versions of the game you roll a dice to see how far you can move. If the player rolls anything but a 6, a card is drawn and adds more ghosts to the rooms indicated on the card (with a mechanic similar to Pandemic) or locks certain doors (if playing the advanced version). If you end your turn in a room with a ghost, you can roll the ghost-fighting die. Roll a ghost face on the die, you can remove a ghost. If there are any other adventurers in the room with you, they can roll too which means teamwork and coordination are key. If a room fills up with too many ghosts they will turn into a haunt which will impede movement through those room and will require two adventurers to work together to remove it. Work together and you will leave with hands full of treasure, fail to do so and you might be trapped!
Ghost Dice!
Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister is an excellent introduction to board games, specifically cooperative board games. The game’s artwork is beautiful and the figures are adorable. The basic game is an excellent learning tool for children, allowing them to practice counting, teamwork, and communication skills. With the advanced version, even adults can be entertained bumping up the difficulty and creating several different strategies for removing the gems. Do the players split up to cover more ground and reveal more gems or do you stick together to fight off ghosts efficiently? The game does a great job of increasing the stress of the game as the players near the end. The ghosts will inevitably pile up and turn into haunts, making them harder to remove. Though my overall impression of the game is positive, the game has some downsides. The roll and move aspect of the game means that sometimes player turns can be fairly useless (which isn’t usually fun) and can lead to all players losing due to low dice rolls. This happens less often due to movement around the board being shortened via going through rooms, but it is frustrating when it does happen. Luckily, the game doesn’t take too long, so if players lose they can always have another go at trying to win. Another negative is the fact that there are no English rules included and the game is sold solely in Germany as of right now. Luckily, English rules can be found on Board Game Geek and Amazon.de will ship internationally (just be prepared to pay international shipping rates).
Ghosts!
In short, Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister is a great game for those who play games with children or for a gamer who is looking for a unique piece to add to their collection. It’s been really fun to show off my growing game collection and have people instantly point this game out off of the shelf. It really does catch the eye, both with the cute name and the equally as charming artwork. If you’re looking for something to fill one of those two categories, take a look at Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister.
Garrett
| : 2-4 : 8+ : 30 mins | Amazon.DE |