My Beautiful Bias: Lantern

We all have that one game we are slightly biased towards. The one we defend a little too irrationally. For me, that game is Lantern.

Lantern was one of the first print and play games I ever tried, and looking back, it might have been the moment everything in my PNP journey clicked into place. You print a single sheet, grab six dice and a marker, and suddenly you are venturing into a dark forest, hunting down antagonists that stand between you and the burning horizon. That first play gave me the chills, no exaggeration. I lost the game, but came really close to defeating the final boss.

The standout for Lantern has to be its dice mechanisms. You get to flip a die to its opposite face, rotate it, add or subtract numbers, and even re-roll your pool. You get only a few chances to do these things, which makes every decision critical. It is clever without being complicated, which is why I always recommend it to those who are new to PNP games or anyone looking for a comfort game to resort to.

Lantern also awakened the crafter inside me, because this game begs to be customized. I built a custom board for it with indentations for dice and instantly fell in love with it. Also, the black and white version is essentially an invitation to color it out. My colored version is up on the BGG page for free, and hundreds of players have already downloaded it.

545 downloads to be precise. That still blows my mind!

All in all, Lantern takes five minutes to learn, ten minutes to play, and somehow gives you the punch of a much bigger game.

If you have never dipped your toes into print and play, let Lantern be your starting point. If you are already a PNP fan, this one deserves a spot in your regular rotation. And if you are a crafter like me, get ready for the rabbit hole.

So, start your adventure. It is free, and it just might become your bias too!