How to play Kelp - Shark vs Octopus | 2 player asymmetrical game | with designer Carl Robinson

2 player asymmetrical game | 45 - 60 minutes | ages 12+
Coming soon to Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
In Kelp, players take on the roles of either the Octopus or the Shark, with each player having a unique path to victory. The Octopus sneaks around on the board by playing cards and managing their hidden and revealed pieces, while the Shark patrols their territory and tries to hunt down the elusive Octopus by rolling dice and using special abilities to mitigate their luck.
Deckbuilder meets dice bag builder.
Hide and seek meets bluffing and manipulation.
A game by Carl Robinson.
Art by Weberson Santiago.
#boardgames #kelp #howtoplay

[@spuddytrash441]

This looks so good! I'm definitely going to get this to play with my girlfriend. Only 11 minutes of rules for an asymmetric game 🤯.

[@wonderbowgames]

😊 on conventions, we need round about 15-20 minutes to teach, with questions. It’s doable 😅

[@spuddytrash441]

@wonderbowgames i guess its only an overview but I get the gist of it in 11 minutes, try doing that with Root 😊

[@wonderbowgames]

@@spuddytrash441 true story

[@Flip5ide]

Im the annoying one on the FB page asking all the questions, just wanted to say this looks awesome, cant wait to back the game tomorrow!

[@dustinallan3362]

This is really cool!

[@wonderbowgames]

Glad you like it!

[@apuji7555]

This looks really good! The art style is super cute, and the game play looks fun, though I probably have to watch it a few times to really understand it. I think there should definitely be a more in-depth look at how the game works, I'm a little confused still. Maybe play a game with another person and explain what actions and things they do as they play? A great game, hope to one day play it!

[@WhizzletheWise]

I love everything about this, looks really interesting! Balancing these style of games always strikes me as an extremely tough challenge. Has the 'advantage pendulum' swung around plenty in development?

[@carlrobinson3703]

Hi, designer here. We’ve got over 200 playtests under our belt at this stage, and we’re confident it’s balanced. Interestingly, if both players are new then in that first game the shark has a slight advantage statistically, as the octopus player can make a more costly error in that first game which could lead to their demise. After that, the octopus gets a slight advantage statistically for a couple of games, as their next level of strategy is easier to understand. And after that, it’s balanced at around 48-52% octopus-shark, according to the playtests we’ve recorded. Hope that reassures you!

[@munteanucatalin9833]

@@carlrobinson3703 How you can balance this game with only 200 playtests? That is not enough to even determine the correct starting hand size. Just reading the rulebook and this seems pretty unbalanced towards the shark. From my point of view, the shark can only lose if they get bad dice rolls, no matter how well the octopus plays.

[@Wylie288]

@@munteanucatalin9833 200 is a very high number for board games.... You've haven't even player your favorite game 25 times. And very easily. No one is complaining about it being unbalanced on TTS. Have you played the game even once?

[@potentpossum1]

Backed today! Haven’t seen a play through of an octopus winning by eating all the food though.

[@Shelfishgamer]

Well, now I have yet another game to convince my wife that I need to review on my channels and add to my shelf😅😂😅

[@joshyaks]

I hope this eventually hits retail here in Canada because it looks right up my alley! I love small, tactical, relatively easy, asymmetrical, 2-player games like the Mr. Jack series of games, Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, Raptor, Steam Torpedo: First Contact, King & Assassins, Shadows in Kyoto, Perry Rhodan: The Cosmic League, Super Motherload, Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault, Wings of Glory WWI, etc.

[@wonderbowgames]

@joshyaks we hope so too! We’ll first take the Kickstarter route later this year (worldwide) but hope the project has enough support that we can go to retail later on!

[@piotrgwizdaa3570]

Instant wishlist game - love to have. I hope it will be at the end of the year on KS, because till then I am out of cash for board games :D Stunning gameplay, it can easliy replace So, You've Been Eaten, which was disappointing - through my games it seemed that game is not balanced well...

[@wonderbowgames]

Yay 🎉 we are planning the Kickstarter for end of October/November. Please follow the KS page to be notified

[@piotrgwizdaa3570]

@@wonderbowgames great :) I hope shipping cost will not destroy it ;)

[@carlrobinson3703]

Kickstarter is launching Nov 7th!

[@ThePhobosMusic]

Looks very fun!! Any idea when the campaign will start?

[@carlrobinson3703]

November 7th!

[@RoryMag]

Any idea on what the price will be when released?

[@ianschultz2489]

Rules question: In the kickstarter pdf rules, it says something along the lines of any dice you don't use automatically goes onto the energy track. So if you roll a 1 on a red or a yellow then they have to go to the track and once they track is full you HAVE to spend them to buy a card. What if you have 3 1 pipped dice on your stored energy and nothing is that cheap? Do you get the cheapest card or get nothing and still place a die on the hunger track?

[@y4damp]

What happens when the shark uncovers a trap? Also, why would they take a bite out of the shells and what happens then?

[@carlrobinson3703]

It depends on the trap, but usually something bad like they lose a current die from the board, or get moved back to a den. One of the traps allows the octopus to hide 2 blocks. Taking a bite out of a shell can happen when the strike without searching first. Sometimes you’re incentivised to do it as the shark, especially if time is running out for you!

[@McBehrer]

Is there any chance you could make the game with the pvc cards, like in Radlands? They're super durable waterproof, can't be creased, you don't need to shuffle them, and really satisfying to shuffle

[@matthewmccord]

Hi @wonderbowgames is this the only available instruction? My game box did not come with any explanation or instructions inside.

[@matthewmccord]

Looks like it's supposed to come with a rule book but mine didn't. Also my board is a folded piece of glossy paper instead of the thicker material shown. All the cards and dice look correct though. I bought it on amazon from a seller called ZheLiXinXi that has since disappeared.

[@adri3t]

I bought from the same seller and mine is also missing instructions and has a ton of typos/misprinted pieces :/

[@465shay]

Yes mine is also a piece of paper. No rule book.

[@nickschwartzers7918]

The real game isn't out yet, you got duped. This is why we can't have nice things.

[@Its_me_Stolas]

I wonder if it is possible to make 2v4/ 4v2. Like a lot of octopuses and two sharks for sharks feeding frenzy or some tricky race for sharks where only two sharks or two octopuses can win. Would need a bigger board though. And maybe different shark figures. Rules I think may remain practically the same

[@McBehrer]

6:23 die* dice is plural. die is singular. "A dice" doesn't exist

[@Wylie288]

Literally everyone but you says dice singular.

[@dickherber19]

Pretty disappointing that your board is advertised as a hardy cardboard, but the actual board is just printed paper

[@dickherber19]

Looked into it more when trying to learn to play became frustrating and it turns out there is an issues they're having with counterfeits. You are not supposed to be able to buy a copy on Amazon as it stands, so don't make the same mistake I did.

[@emersonblais5043]

This is a scam. I ordered mine and waited weeks. When it arrived, there were no instructions on how to play, the pieces were different than shown, much cheaper, and the board was a flimsy piece of paper. On top of that, the playing cards are all misspelled, as if written by a child. Amazon fully refunded my order, and they have removed it from their marketplace. DO NOT BUY.

[@ShadowParalyzer]

The game isn't even out yet. It won't be out until October of this year for backers on kickstarter. There has been counterfeit circulating on Amazon, so you, specifically, got scammed. Everyone who backed it on Kickstarter did not get scammed because they knew that this game shouldn't be out yet. Furthermore, the company is well aware of the counterfeits out there and has reached out to Amazon to deal with it. They encouraged people to spread the word about the counterfeits. So the game is legit and the amount of support far surpassed their expectations. I suppose it's to the point where the game is worthy enough for conmen to create counterfeits to trick people. You would think that conmen wouldn't bother with games that nobody would care about.

[@Wylie288]

You bought a counterfeit copy of a game not that hasn't even be produced and doesn't get shipped to anyone until the end of this year. What the hell were you expecting?

[@eugenieus]

The instructions r on the back bruv