FTW Staff Picks - Tsuro

When I was a not-so-wee lad attending elementary school, we would play BM Tron on the Internet Explorer browsers in the computer lab. BM Tron was basically a Flash-version of the light cycle game in the popular arcade game Tron. And while Tsuro doesn't have the same twitch gameplay as Tron, it certainly evokes a similar feeling when playing it. Think of it as Tron: The Turn-Based Game. 

In Tsuro, players build paths on a shared board, with the goal of being the last one standing. Each player plays as a coloured dragon token and is given 3 tiles to begin. The game begins with players selecting a starting position on the outside of the empty board. On a player's turn they must play one of their tiles, directly in front of their token. They must then follow the path in front of their token until it reaches an empty space. If the player's token follows a path that leads to the outside of the board, they are eliminated. If a player's token bumps into another player's token, they are both eliminated. Play continues until there is just one player remaining on the board, and they are declared the winner!

Tsuro makes for an excellent warmup for large groups. Most games that allow 6+ players are party games, but Tsuro is a lightweight strategy game that caters up to 8. Players can take their turns very quickly and It's got a fast overall runtime, allowing for multiple plays. 

Tsuro is kind of like a "diet"-strategy game. It's not mindless, but it doesn't require too much thinking. If you want, you can totally just play it as an adventurous wanderer. Although to other players you may be viewed as a wrecking ball on the loose. It's a game of preservation and exploration. And it has dragons.