- Designer: Bruno Cathala & Theo Riviere
- Artist: Lucien Derainne & Pierre-Yves Gillard
- Photographer: Pierre-Yves Gillard
- Publisher: Pandasaurus Games
- Players: 2-4 Players
- Playtime: 30 minutes
- Ages: 8+
Sea Salt & Paper, designed by Bruno Cathala and Theo Reivere, is a small box card game from Pandasaurus Games. Designed for 2-4 players ages 8+, it plays in about 30 minutes. Sea Salt and Paper has a very unique art style, in which artists Lucien Derainne and Pierre-Yves Gillard created origami and then photographed them to create beautiful cards featuring beautiful sea creatures and ocean themes. My favorite card is the octopus, a card complete with a little octopus garden in the picture with some seaweed! It is worth mentioning that three of the cards are featured with permission from Tomoko Fuse.
What’s In the Box?
- 58 Game Cards
- 4 Game Aids
- 2 ColorADD Aids
- Rule Book
Setup
To set up Sea Salt and Paper, first give a Game Aid to each player. These Game Aids will give players the proper turn order and card matches. Additionally, there are 2 ColorADD Aids to assist those who have difficulties seeing color. This is especially important because color plays a big part in Sea Salt and Paper. After the Game Aids are handed out, shuffle all of the Game Cards into a deck. Place them face down in the center of the play area. Deal the top two cards face up next to the deck to form discard piles. Finally, choose a first player. Play will continue clockwise. You’re now ready to play Sea Salt and Paper!
Objective
Sea Salt and Paper is played in rounds. Play continues until one player reaches the required amount of points to win. Players earn points by using the effects on the cards to their advantage. To end a 2 player came, one player must earn 40 points, with 35 points to end a 3 player game, and 30 points to end a 4 player game.
Gameplay
On a player’s turn, they must add a card to their hand. A player can do this in one of two ways. For the first method, a player may take the first two cards from the deck. They will add one card to their hand and place the other card face up in the discard pile. Alternatively, a player may take the top card of one of the discard piles. Players may only choose one of these options. After a player adds a card to their hand, duo cards can be played. To play cards, players will place them face up in front of them and use the effects from the cards. The active player may trigger more than one effect during their turn. The player can end the whole round by reaching seven or more points.
If a player ends the round, they must reveal their hand and state either “STOP” or “LAST CHANCE”. If a player says STOP, all players reveal their hands and will score any points they have, both in their hand and on the cards they have played in front of them. This is a safe way to end the round. If a player instead states LAST CHANCE, they are betting that they have the best hand of the round. All players will take a final turn and are protected from any attacks.
If the player who triggered the end of the round has the higher number of points, they score their cards plus 1 point per card that they have the most color of. If the player who triggered the end of the round does not have the highest score, they lost the bet. They may only score their color bonus while the other players can score points as normal.
Scores from previous rounds are added together, and play continues to going clockwise until a player triggers the end of game by earning the correct amount of points. The player with the highest number of points at this time wins!
The only other way to win the game is if one player holds all four mermaid cards. If this happens, that player wins the game immediately.
Final Thoughts
Sea Salt and Paper was easy to pick up, and quickly became a favorite for our game table. There is enough strategy to keep turns interesting, with just a little element of luck added to the mix. Sea Salt and Paper also scores differently than most games that I have experienced in that your score is not just from the cards you have played, but also from the cards in your hand. This keeps each round a little tricky because you never really know how many points a player might be holding back. Izzie was able to beat me our first play through, even though it looked like we were tied, because she had a mermaid in her hand. The beautiful art work really adds to the cozy feel of Sea Salt and Paper, and the origami is stunning! Overall, I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a cozy card game or something entertaining with an ocean theme. I hope you are able to check out Sea Salt and Paper!
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