Paleo is a co-operative adventure game set in the stone age, a game in which players try to keep the human beings in their care alive while completing missions. Sometimes you need a fur, sometimes a tent, but these are all minor quests compared to your long-term goal: Painting a woolly mammoth on the wall so that humans thousands of years later will know that you once existed. (Okay, you just think the mammoth painting looks cool. Preserving a record of your past existence is gravy.)
What might keep you from painting that mammoth? Death, in all its many forms.
Each player starts the game with a couple of humans, who each have a skill and a number of life points. On a turn, each player chooses to go to one location — possibly of the same type as other players, although not the same location — and while you have some idea of what you might find there, you won't know for sure until you arrive, at which point you might acquire food or resources, or find what you need to craft a useful object, or discover that you can help someone else in their project, or suffer a snakebite that brings you close to death. Life is full of both wonders and terrors...
At the day's end, you need food for all the people in your party as well as various crafts or skills that allow you to complete quests. Failure to do so adds another skull on the tote board, and once you collect enough of those, you decide that living is for fools and give up the ghost, declaring that future humans can just admire someone else, for all you care.
Paleo includes multiple modules that allow for a variety of people, locations, quests, and much more during your time in 10,000 BCE.
- nominated for the Spiel des Jahres (kenner spiel) in some years
- looks like a strong cooperative experience
- needs read of rules before play
- not yet played by the narrator
- cave people era
- prehistoric cooperative exploration
- cooperative tableau/engine-style
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- cooperative deck-building / tableau building — Cooperative game about shaping tableau to survive prehistoric challenges.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a full-time successful job for me
- the newest macbook pro line is significantly faster
- i'm in a much better headspace about the numbers
- i'm not sitting there thinking that a three video per week plan is sustainable
- there's a lot of evidence to show that putting out more videos is not necessarily better for me
References (from this video)
- Vibrant, colorful artwork with intuitive iconography
- Strong cooperative feel and thematic cohesion
- Modular modules add replay variety and longevity
- Rulebook not very intuitive; some rules require teaching
- Stand to assemble and the card/deck layout can be fiddly
- Solo mode not formally defined; requires adaptation for single-player experiences
- Neanderthal/early human tribe survival with cave-painting tiles
- Prehistoric era; cooperative survival and exploration
- thematic/cooperative with modular scenarios
- Robinson Crusoe: The Lost Expedition
- Seventh Continent
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Boss/depth progression through artifacts — Artifacts and mercenary heroes provide additional options and end-game scoring opportunities
- cooperative play — Players work together to survive and accrue five victory points before five skull tiles appear.
- Drafting/selection from top of deck — Each round you pick three cards from the top of your deck and decide order of resolution.
- Modular decks (A-J) and scenarios — Modules alter how you gather resources and what strategies you pursue; adds replayability
- Resource gathering and building — Actions yield wood, stone, food, and allow building inventions or camp improvements.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a great game beautifuls all get out i love the look of the board
- the crux of the game is pretty straightforward
- i'm not the biggest fan of this art style it's just not for me
- this is basically a bidding game for those who love bidding—it's quite cool
- the rulebook is not great with this one
- iconography is not intuitive in this game
- the stand with the coins is fiddly and annoying
References (from this video)
- cooperative tension
- campaign-style progression
- punishing for new players
- Gloomhaven
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Cooperative — players work together with a shared deck to explore and survive as Paleolithic ancestors
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is like the pinnacle of board gaming awards that we know of
- paleo is really really punishing
- chaos pure chaos
- not a game for first-timers
- decrypto is so good
References (from this video)
- Strategic Game of the Year Nominee
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- if the game you like doesn't win then this was all just some big popularity contest and everything is rigged
- games are super gross so wash your hands