Roost
2024
2 - 6 players
15 - 60 min
From BoardGameGeek
Roost is a card game about strategy, memorisation, alliances and, most importantly, birds. Players must avoid being at the bottom of the pecking order and stay aligned with the flock to fly away to overall victory. Roost features a modified rule set for 2-3 players and comes with 36 additional cards that can be swapped in to bring new dynamic twists to the game. Your goal in Roost is to have the lowest score at the end of the game. Players start the game by only knowing half of their hand and must use abilities, alliances and memory to ensure they win each round. On each turn, a player can either pick up a card from the: Unknown Pile - the player may view it privately. Then, they must choose to either place it directly onto the Discard Pile OR replace 1 of their own cards with it OR place it on top of an opponent's face-up card. Discard Pile - the player must replace 1 of their own cards with it. At any time, players can match cards onto the top discard pile card. Most birds contain abilities where you can switch, steal, discover, enact revenge, boost your final score or FLIP cards. Flipping cards means that players can now, at any point, stack birds onto the face-up cards of an opponent, creating some massive point hauls if not dealt with promptly. Some other abilities involve play direction changing, collecting specific bird breeds, and even taking a significant point hit to enact an ability in the following round. Event cards introduce one-time game cards, which can be extraordinarily crucial in certain circumstances and give players who are losing miserably a chance of a comeback. A round of Roost ends when a player calls 'Roost', with all other players getting one more turn. If the player wins the Roost, they get a point deduction bonus; otherwise, they get harshly penalised. Beware of Roosting too early, as some cards specifically penalise jumping the gun. Roost is played over multiple rounds, with the game ending when a score threshold is reached for the amount of players playing. -description from the designer
Watch first
Which Roost video should I watch?
Roost has 4 videos from 2 creators: 1 review, 1 how-to-play guide, 1 unboxing and 1 other video. They date from 2023 to January 2025.
To learn the rules, start with "How to Play Roost (Playthrough)" by Roostgame, which runs 12 min.
For an opinion before you buy, start with "Roost Card Game - Kickstarter Preview" by The Tabletop Times.
If you like it, try Trio, Triplock, Silver or Moustache, which share several of its mechanics.
All videos
Creators who cover this
Roostgame
3 videos of this game
The Tabletop Times
1 video of this game
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About Roost
From BoardGameGeek:
Roost is a card game about strategy, memorisation, alliances and, most importantly, birds. Players must avoid being at the bottom of the pecking order and stay aligned with the flock to fly away to overall victory. Roost features a modified rule set for 2-3 players and comes with 36 additional cards that can be swapped in to bring new dynamic twists to the game. Your goal in Roost is to have the lowest score at the end of the game. Players start the game by only knowing half of their hand and must use abilities, alliances and memory to ensure they win each round. On each turn, a player can either pick up a card from the: Unknown Pile - the player may view it privately. Then, they must choose to either place it directly onto the Discard Pile OR replace 1 of their own cards with it OR place it on top of an opponent's face-up card. Discard Pile - the player must replace 1 of their own cards with it. At any time, players can match cards onto the top discard pile card. Most birds contain abilities where you can switch, steal, discover, enact revenge, boost your final score or FLIP cards. Flipping cards means that players can now, at any point, stack birds onto the face-up cards of an opponent, creating some massive point hauls if not dealt with promptly. Some other abilities involve play direction changing, collecting specific bird breeds, and even taking a significant point hit to enact an ability in the following round. Event cards introduce one-time game cards, which can be extraordinarily crucial in certain circumstances and give players who are losing miserably a chance of a comeback. A round of Roost ends when a player calls 'Roost', with all other players getting one more turn. If the player wins the Roost, they get a point deduction bonus; otherwise, they get harshly penalised. Beware of Roosting too early, as some cards specifically penalise jumping the gun. Roost is played over multiple rounds, with the game ending when a score threshold is reached for the amount of players playing. -description from the designer
Publisher
Self-published
Mechanics