One of the best aspects of the board gaming hobby is the sheer variety of themes you’ll encounter. In the last few columns alone, I’ve written about games that cast players in the roles of intrepid explorers, Japanese art students, investigative psychics, and Roman senators.
So it only seems fitting that we’re taking a look at Morels today, a game about going mushroom- picking in the woods. In Morels, you and your opponent — it’s a two-player only game — are traipsing through the woods in search of the best (the tastiest) mushrooms. Finding and cooking sets of these mushrooms earns you points, and whoever has the most points wins. When setting up the game, you’ll lay eight cards out in a row to represent what you can find in the forest.
Most of these cards are mushrooms, but you’ll also find baskets (that increase your hand size), pans (that you’ll need to cook, i.e., score them), butter and cider (that can score you bonus points if you add them in when cooking your mushrooms). On your turn, you can choose to take one of the first two cards in that line; and, when you’re done, whichever card is closest to there’s something you want from there, you’d better move fast — not only can your opponent nab the decay right out from under your nose, but the decay can only hold four cards (when a fifth will be added, you discard the four that were already there).
Each and every turn is an agonising decision in Morels.
Which of those two cards do you want? Or, often, which of those two cards can you not afford to leave for your opponent? Do you want to spend foraging sticks (a resource you can earn) to grab something you really want from further up the line? Should you take the decay now, or gamble that your opponent won’t take it on their turn? Oh, hang on, curses, it’s going to reset before it gets back to you, isn’t it? Argh! And all that’s before I’ve even gotten around to mentioning the Destroying Angel. Not all mushrooms are good ones and the Destroying Angel is particularly nasty.
If you happen to take one, you’re forced to discard half your hand. But it must be easy enough to dodge, right? Just let it sit in the decay until it goes away, and nobody has to deal with it. Sure...what if you really want one or two of the other cards in the decay? That’s when you start thinking that perhaps it isn’t so bad, and you can live with losing some cards, but is it worth it?