Fossilis – First Impressions
Review copy provided by the publisher
Fossilis is designed by David Diaz, artfully crafted by Josh Cappel and Apolline Etienne, and then published by Kids Table Board Gaming—the same Canadian trio who are behind Burnt Island Games, a popular publisher responsible for hits like Endeavor: Age of Sail, In the Hall of the Mountain King, and the upcoming In Too Deep.
It’s a game for 2-5 players that comes in under an hour and is accessible to players aged 8 and up, though you could probably scaffold the rules and teaching of the gameplay to accommodate even younger children.
While the Kickstarter version of the game is understandably bling-ier than the retail version, it’s still a sumptuous game that will have you picking up all of the components and turning them over in your fingers—much like an eager paleontologist!
I’ve played through several of the Burnt Island Games and KTBG titles, so I was definitely intrigued by the design that David Diaz has accomplished and the polished product that Kids Table Board Gaming helped create.
Here are my first impressions (or fossils?) of this game that sounds like something said in Parseltongue…
What It Does
What would happen if dinosaurs from different eras were all lumped into one crazy bone graveyard covered in stone, clay, and sand?
Well, wannabe paleontologists from across the world would collide with each other in a mad dash to uncover those fossils and make a name for themselves. That’s what!
And in Fossilis, that’s kind of what’s happening. You are an architect of plaster. A master of digging. A patron of shifting sand. And a surveyor of bony protrusions in the ground. Players want to discover fossils, recover them with plaster, store them until the complete skeletons of dinosaurs have been found, and then display them in exhibits for the world to see. Paleontology isn’t sexy until it’s full of dino bones and there is a chance of an awesome museum piece. So make sure you’re ready to push aside your competitors and make the best showing at the dig site.
To be fair, though, the game is not that ruthless. You can have negative player interaction (or actions designed to affect other players in detrimental ways), but you can also filter those out when setting it up for a more amiable excavation atmosphere.
At the end of the day, we’re all here for some dinosaurs. And that’s a pretty cool part of Fossilis because all of the bones are distributed into the dig site and then shaken up until no player knows where the fossils are. Then you slide the site map (also the scoreboard) under the tray, lift the tray, and then construct two layers of stone, clay, and sand. The fossils are now hidden! And you’ll have to dig them out, expending energy to move around the site, excavate the earth, discover the fossil locations, and assemble your dinosaurs. All while passionate paleontologists around the table are trying to do the same thing.
It is an approachable game, but it’s got some really interesting things going on.
How It Does It
It’s not tile-laying or tile-placing. It’s tile-shifting. Players are trying to push the different sections of earth off of the fossil pits. In increasing order of exertion, sand, clay, and stone are all blocking your path. You need to find the right directions to alter the face of the site. And think about which tiles you want to move because when it’s knocked off of the site, the active player gains those resources—which is helpful in paying for Tools that provide one-time bonuses and endgame points.
It’s set collection. Players will use preliminary fossil finds to reserve dinosaurs in their lab. Fossils are worth a certain number of points when collected. Then, when attached to a dinosaur card, they’re worth even more. But… finish a dinosaur by getting all of the fossils (usually two or three) and you can get a perfect score on that card and get the most points possible. So you want to get whatever set of dinosaur fossils is on the card to maximize the value. That’s not all, folks! There is also set collection with the iconography on the dinosaur cards and endgame scoring can be greatly influenced by effective retrieval of certain icons.
And then you’ve got the action selection, mandated by a number of energy points that players can spend. Five energy, spread across movement, digging, gathering plaster, and other miscellaneous actions. Once you spend it up, you move on to the final phases of buying cards and reserving dinosaurs before play proceeds clockwise to the next player.
I’ve seen a lot of these mechanisms before but the way in which they interact in Fossilis is very… interactive. While it may have just been the small dig sit on our big dining room table, we were all actively standing up at times to peer into the fossil pits and see what was available. And pinching the little bones out of the recessed board space with white tweezers felt clinical and satisfying. The chunky components feel weighty and satisfying in hand when you push a tile off of the site map. Figuring out what Skills to permanently upgrade was exciting and using Tools to bend the rules a little while snagging extra points hits the dopamine button nicely.
Fossilis won’t blow your mind. It’s not there to be the next industry-shattering title that rakes in millions. It’s just a lot of wholesome fun and it’s built with clever ideas that meld together. David Diaz did a standup job and I’m going to enjoy introducing it to my son and showing him all the fiddly little bits of being a paleontologist.
Why You Might Like It
If you’re a gamer with kids, then you don’t have to sacrifice your love for the hobby by playing games diluted in complexity or uninspired in design. Fossilis offers an experience that will delight gamers of all ages and it can be modified to fit its audience.
There are some really interesting mechanisms on display here that I haven’t encountered before. Players may be intrigued by the fossil-hiding, tile-shifting board that feels very tactile. And the completion of fossils is a nuanced task when considering tools and other ways to influence the gameplay.
Why You Might Not
Thematically, a prospective player might look and think dinosaurs were the major part of the narrative and the game. Not so. This is about the fossils, the paleontologists, and the act of digging in a professionally competitive space. The dinosaurs are dead. Sorry if you were hoping for Jurassic Park.
There are ways to manipulate the rules of the game using Skills and Tools. Both of those are dependent on luck of the draw, so you might have games where players are getting advantageous cards or abilities that other players can’t access.
Final Thoughts
I had a blast with Fossilis and my kid wasn’t even playing with me. We were coming off a four-player game of Unfair and we transitioned to this dig-heavy gem afterward for a three-player session. I think it speaks to the mission that KTBG pursues that I enjoyed it to the extent I did. If a hobbyist gamer can pull something off of the shelf and derive just as much pleasure from it when playing with only adults as when playing with their kids, then it’s a game that will likely stick around.
I play Azul and Santorini with my son, but I’m not sure if my wife and I would necessarily own those games if it weren’t for my children growing up and wanting to play games with us. Fossilis, then, is special because it allows me to experience something fully as an adult while still being accessible to my son and provide an opportunity for bonding and fun.
While I didn’t think about it at first, the game plays like king-of-the-hill. Players want a prime position on the board that gives them access to the best tiles—which they want to push off to gain resources from—and also keeps them close to the right fossil pits for the dinosaurs they want to complete. Pushing the tiles, interfering with other players, completing dinosaurs, and discovering the most efficient route to victory is a thrilling little puzzle.
For ultimate longevity, I think it would be worth it to check out and use the extra mini-expansions that were introduced during the Kickstarter campaign, but that will be something for another day.
If there are any other gamers with kids (or really just people who are looking for a unique game that plays unlike most everything in their collection), then I encourage you to check out Fossilis from Kids Table Board Gaming. It’s a family-friendly game that can play in under an hour and appease a spectrum of tastes.
Have you played Fossilis before? Are you a fan of dinosaur games? Have you seen anything like the shifting tile-scape that sits above the fossil pits?
Let us know in the comments and give a recommendation for other games of which to share our first impressions.