The Board Game Celestia‘s Latest Edition Doesn’t Quite Soar

The current captain rolls anywhere from two to four dice, based on the number of dice shown on the next cloud. After the roll, any other player still on the ship can choose to get off, taking the top treasure card next to the cloud where the ship currently sits, or stay on and hope for a higher treasure card on a later turn. The captain then reveals if they have the cards; if so, the ship moves to the next cloud with every player still on it. If not, they all crash, none of the remaining passengers or the captain gets any treasure, and the ship returns to the first cloud to start a new journey. Either way, the captaincy moves to the next player after each cloud unless the captain is the only player remaining on the ship. In that case, that player can continue as far as they wish, and can choose to stop and take a treasure card before any dice roll.

The rewards increase as the ship moves up through the clouds, ranging from one point cards on the first cloud to 25 points on the last one, although some clouds in the middle have a little uncertainty in how many points you’ll get. Moving up the cloud chain gets difficult, however, because players don’t draw new cards every turn; when the ship crashes, or when a journey ends because everyone got off, each player gets just one new card. Thus as the game goes on, everyone’s hand size will vary widely, and journeys might get shorter just because players don’t have that many cards for a spell. Once a player reaches 50 points, you finish that turn (not the entire journey) and the game ends.

The basic deck of cards that players use as captains comprises just five card types—one for each hazard and wild cards that can be used for any hazard. There are some optional power cards in the base game that players can (and I say should) include, allowing them to jump off a crashing ship, or to push someone else off the ship, or to force the captain to re-roll any dice that come up blank. Existing expansions & promo cards allow players to do even more things, like jump back on the ship if they discard the treasure card they just picked up, or eliminate two hazards with one card. Anything that spices this game up is welcome, because the core game itself is very much lather, rinse, repeat; the only uncertainty or variance at all is in whether the captain has the right cards, and there isn’t really any hand management here because you must play matching cards if you have them. It’s playable for kids 7 and up, and can handle up to six players, with play times around a half an hour. It’s a fine game but I have other push-your-luck games that execute that mechanic better.

Keith Law is the author of The Inside Game and Smart Baseball and a senior baseball writer for The Athletic. You can find his personal blog the dish, covering games, literature, and more, at meadowparty.com/blog.