Fossil Canyon (2022)

About this game

Fossil Canyon is a competitive, lightly-strategic set-collection card game developed in collaboration with the Field Museum of Chicago. You are a fossil-hunting paleontologist with the goal of constructing complete dinosaur skeletons that attract visitors to your museum. Each dinosaur skeleton has a different point value (represented as visitors per year) and may consist of two, three, or four unique fossils. On each turn, you dig fossils from the dig site (scattered face-down fossil cards), initiate trades with other players, take a bonus dig if you manage to complete a skeleton for your museum, and rearrange your fossil cards so that all but three are visible to other players. Strategic choices include deciding which fossils to expose and the number of increasingly expensive trades you perform to try to complete a skeleton or win a research award. Random events, such as erosion, may force you to alter your strategy. Fossil Canyon uses a unique jigsaw-puzzle scoring method, where each skeleton or research award is represented by a puzzle piece with a length proportional to its value. No adding victory points or moving pawns on a board; the length of your puzzle-museum indicates your standing in the game. Fossil Canyon is a family-oriented STEM game. Adults will appreciate the beautifully-illustrated cards and the unique set-collection mechanics that make Fossil Canyon a fast-playing, lightly-strategic game. Children will love the dinosaur theme and the tactile jigsaw puzzle scoring, turning the game into a race. -description from publisher

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Works with 1 to 6. It has a designed solo mode.
• Rules load. At 1.5/5 this is a light game — explain it in a few minutes, good for a table that has not played much.
• Age. The publisher suggests 8 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.