Skip to main content
Stone Garden box art

Stone Garden

Game ID: GID0305052
Game Info
Year
2014
Players
2-4
Age
10+
Playtime
75 min
Collection
Your Tier
Loading…
Mechanic profile
Not enough video data yet
Vibe profile
Not enough video data yet
Description

A Japanese rock-garden tile game where gardeners place sand and stone tiles to build the most aesthetic karesansui

Description

A Japanese rock-garden tile game where gardeners place sand and stone tiles to build the most aesthetic karesansui

Ask a Rules Question
All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 2
This page: 2
Sentiment: pos 1 · mix 1 · neu 0 · neg 0
Mentions per page
Showing 1–2 of 2
Video Mjz97g_iYow Getting Games Playthrough at 0:03 sentiment: positive
video_pk 92178 · mention_pk 326637
Getting Games - Stone Garden video thumbnail
Click to watch at 0:03 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
  • Beautiful components and artwork
  • Gorgeous stones and game visuals
  • Encourages aesthetic garden design
  • Engaging, strategic tile placement with multiple paths to scoring
Cons
  • Expensive to acquire (around $100-110) and long shipping time
  • Hard to find/import (Japanese import)
  • Some language dependence on cards (English text) but mostly language independent
  • Complex scoring with many patterns; can be heavy for new players
Thematic elements
  • ornate garden design with patterns
  • garden-building with stones and moss
  • instructional playthrough with rule exposition
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • boat stones — Boats score bonus points at end if on bottom row.
  • build stones with virtue costs — Spend virtue to place stones of various types (small stone for 1 virtue; reclining stone for 3 virtue; boats have special effects).
  • discard tile for virtue — Discard a tile to gain virtue, but costs one virtue.
  • draw top tile — On a turn, the player draws the top tile from the stack.
  • edge clash penalties — Edges can clash causing point penalties; avoiding clashes is beneficial.
  • Endgame scoring — Final scoring includes moss, largest rectangle, symmetry, whirlpools, stone types, reclining stones, and boats.
  • Master Gardener cards — Play Master Gardener card to gain virtue or other effects.
  • moss connectivity rule — Stones can be placed next to each other only if they are within the same connected moss area.
  • move monk — Move the gardener/monk on your board orthogonally to adjacent tiles; free move when building a stone in same column.
  • offer tile to opponents — Gifting a tile to a neighbor grants virtue points to the giver and possibly to the recipient.
  • Pattern Building — Aim to complete famous garden pattern; various patterns score end-game points; some patterns require matching specific stone types.
  • Pattern completion and scoring — Aim to complete famous garden pattern; various patterns score end-game points; some patterns require matching specific stone types.
  • place tile — Place a drawn tile on your garden respecting orientation and moss connections.
  • save tile — Save the drawn tile on your board to place later; up to one tile stored.
  • symmetry score — End-game bonuses for symmetrical rows along the middle axis.
  • Tile Placement — Place a drawn tile on your garden respecting orientation and moss connections.
  • Tile/Map Shifting — Save the drawn tile on your board to place later; up to one tile stored.
  • whirlpool and hemispheres — Tiles can create hemisphere or whirlpool patterns; points awarded for half/full whirlpools.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • Stone Garden this is a beautiful and somewhat hard to find Japanese import TI land game where you are trying to build a stone garden
  • this game is about making a pretty looking garden
  • gorgeous pieces and everything
  • it's a bit of a colle item to be honest with the gorgeous pieces and everything
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video WAQsPb8sx8g Getting Games Discussion at 8:53 sentiment: mixed
video_pk 91203 · mention_pk 326458
Getting Games - Stone Garden video thumbnail
Click to watch at 8:53 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
mixed
Pros
  • gorgeous components and aesthetic
Cons
  • scoring seemed illogical to the reviewer
Thematic elements
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • Railroad Evolution is super cool and I want to play that one more
  • there were many things I liked about the game and there were several things that I really didn't like about the game
  • I just think brass is a better game
  • the scoring for the way you put your stuff out seemed pretty illogical to me
  • I really enjoyed this game
  • it's like being a kid in a candy store
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Top
Showing 1–2 of 2