Get Something In Your Chest

Given that I know nothing about Minecraft and find the voxel aesthetic repulsive, you may wonder why I picked Minecraft Explorers, that is, until you realize that I blindly acquire games in a disorderedly thirsty way. Besides, it was cheap, small, soloable, and designed by Matthew Dunstan, who seems to know a thing or two about game design.

Of course, the first thing I did was sleeving it. Then it doesn't fit into the box anymore, which is a pretty tight fit to begin with. This didn't matter, since in the box you split the deck of cards so the two halves lay side by side, something I hate as a storage solution (it gets all mixed up all the time). Besides, the cards are rather tall, so it was fortunate that I had a larger deck box that did the job just perfectly.

I had no real clue what was the game about when I first opened it. The goal is to fulfill a number of quests/contracts by filling chests with some specific items. In each game, you draw X chests to fill and must fulfill X-1 to win, with X depending on the difficulty setting. To find items, you must explore locations, which costs you food, of which you have 6 every turn. Some items (swords and pickaxes) may reduce that cost for you if the location allows it. You may also spend food to refresh the available locations, or to fight monsters.

Game set-up

You know how to win, but how do you lose? To refresh your hand of 6 Food, you must rest overnight - which spawns a creature. Worse, if the spawned creature matches a type already there, you need to spawn another creature - and so on until the added creature shows a new type. And you should dread this, because at the bottom of this devious deck lies a nasty "Game Over" card, acting as a somewhat random timer for the game.

The evil horde is filling up

That's about it. Each round, you gather your hand, spend Food, gain items (hidden under the location cards), use items, maybe fight some monsters, and if you're lucky, you'll find what you need to meet the victory conditions. It's really simple.

The crossbow is one of my favorite items

There are two things I like about this game. First, it's oddly thematic. Items have a clear function. The crossbow headshots two monsters. The pickaxe allows you to explore mine locations. The spyglass reveals what you will find in the locations you have yet to explore. The map is used for spotting a specific location (picking it up out of the deck). You meet villagers with silly demands (give me a furniture item and I'll grant you a sword!). It really clicks and I find thinking about the game in thematic terms rather than in mechanical terms, which I enjoy a lot.

The townfolk are needy today

The second thing is that it's fun. You have a tiny thrill when you find that missing ore you wanted to fill your last chest. You start panicking when all of a sudden monsters pile up in the horde. It's enjoyable, doesn't require any cognitive load (you play 6 food, spawn a creature, rinse and repeat), but still, the thematic nuances add variety to the core loop. It plays fast but doesn't feel pointless or too short.

Finally, the missing ore I needed to fill my last chest!

This is a rare game I wouldn't mind seeing expanding, by adding even more variety in the items, at the risk of breaking the balance, or losing its great portability factor (remember, it's just 110 cards). And I certainly wouldn't recommend it to a lot of solo gamers, because it's very light and probably not very replayable. But it succeeds exactly where I wanted it to succeed: in providing a short adventure in the time of a coffee break, with light rules but still meaningful decisions to take. It's a clever design all in all, with a smart timer/monster fighting mechanic, and I will certainly pick it over many other light adventurish games of its vein.