Sea Salt and Paper Card Game Review: An Origami Ocean

Pandasaurus | 20-40 minutes | 2-4 players | 8 and up

Welcome to the world of Sea Salt and Paper with amazing origami artwork depicting folded paper depictions of creatures, ships, and other nautical characters. Come for the charming artwork, but stay for the interesting and tactical race they’ve managed to pack into this simple deck of cards. It’s packed with interesting decisions and clever play. It’s one that might just become the family staple that you shuffle up every time you want to go head-to-head.

What is Sea Salt and Paper Game?

Sea Salt and Paper Game is a set-collection card game with a few twists that make the game quite tactical and more interesting than your average card game. It was published by Pandasaurus Games and designed by Bruno Cathala, known for his work on Kingdomino, Sobek, and 7 Wonders Duel, along with Theo Rivere.

The artwork features images of nautical-themed origami, including fish, sharks, boats, octopi, mermaids, and seashells I wouldn’t say there is really a theme behind it, but the artwork is extremely unique and charming and is one that will draw people to the table.

The objective is to score the most points, which is accomplished by forming sets of cards. A player who currently has 7 points may choose to end the round, but the mechanics of that add a lot of intrigue to the end game, which I’ll explore below.

How to Play Sea Salt and Paper Game

The game is played over multiple rounds and the goal is to acquire the number of points required to end the game – 40/35/30 points for 2/3/4 players, respectfully. Players score points when they collect sets of cards from the deck.

To get started with a round, shuffle up the 58-card deck and take the top two cards of the deck forming two face-up discard piles. Something that is unique about this game is that you don’t start with any cards in your hand. At first, that felt awkward, but I love it and wish more games would do the same. It means that I don’t have to base my strategy on the cards I’m dealt, but can instead build my hand, strategically, myself. A pretty refreshing change of pace.

Each turn a player will add one card to their hand, either by taking the topmost card of either discard pile or drawing two cards from the deck, selecting one to keep and one to discard.

Players can then choose to play any pairs from their hand, which may allow them to take additional action. Let’s explore how that part of the game works.

Play matching pairs to gain additional actions and score points

In the game there are a variety of matching pairs, called duo cards, you can collect. When you Play matching pairs from your hand, players score one point and allow you to take additional actions, which vary depending on the cards. For instance, fish allow you to take the topmost card from the deck, crabs allow you to search the discard pile for a card, boats allow you to take an additional turn, and sharks and swimmers allow you to take a card from another player.

Players score points by collecting sets

Players also score points by creating sets of like cards, like seashells, octopi, anchors, and penguins. The more you have, the more you score per card. There are also multiplier cards that give additional bonus points for each, say, penguin or anchor you have.

Players are also trying to collect cards by color, which will score them an additional color bonus if they manage to snag any mermaid cards.

There are four mermaids in the deck and if you manage to collect all four, the game (not the round, the game) ends immediately and that player wins. This is…unlikely. But an interesting rule that makes these cards more valuable and pretty much always worth hanging onto even if they don’t exactly complement your strategy.

Ending the round

Another unique thing about the game is how the end of a round is triggered. First, if there are no more cards in the deck to draw, the round immediately ends – but that almost never happens.

Instead, once a player has acquired seven points, in the cards they’ve played in front of them and the cards in their hand they can choose to end the round. They can either say “stop” which means the round ends immediately and everyone tallies up their score, or they can declare “Last chance,” meaning everyone else gets one more turn before scoring.

If they pick Last Chance they are betting that they will have the highest score, and if they do, other players will only score points for their color bonus and not for their sets. If they don’t, then they only get to score their color bonus while everyone scores their whole hand.

It provides a nice little tension at the end of each round and puts some pressure on the players to not simply play their own hand but to actually pay attention to what other players are doing, so they have an idea of what they might score.

Because you never know when the round will end, you have to do the best you can on every turn and can’t hope that a grand strategy will come together. Keeps the game really tight and tactical, which I like.

Most points wins

Once scoring takes place, players will count up all the points from their duos, sets, and color bonuses. If the player who ended the round is called the last chance, any scores that are ineligible to be included are removed from the calculation and scores are recorded. If any one player has reached the score triggering the end of the game, then whoever has the most points wins. Otherwise, collect all the cards and shuffle up, creating the deck and discards for the next round.

Game Design and Components

The design gets the highest marks, from me, here. I love the artwork and theming of this and think that it matches the complexity level of the game well. It’s very easy to get people to play this game once you show them the cards.

High-quality paper for a tactile experience

The cards have me a bit torn. They are.. hefty. Really thick, which is probably a good thing for longevity, but I challenge anyone to shuffle these cards. It’s almost impossible to get the deck to bend enough to do so. I end up overhand shuffling and plan to sleeve my cards to make that a bit easier.

I’m torn because I like a high-quality card and these do have that quality, so I want to acknowledge that. Most card games feel disposable, but this is built to be played a thousand times like any good family card or board game really should be. It just bothers me a little bit that they are so difficult to shuffle. Small thing, but hey, just get some sleeves and forget about it.

Sea Salt & Paper adds a unique twist to family card games

This game is a little deceptive. The first time I played it I was expecting a quiet, meditative game, where people mostly kept to themselves. Perhaps I was influenced by the whimsical art and how quick it is to learn and play.

But in reality, this is a little cutthroat masterpiece. I think, when it clicked for me was when I realized that it is, in its simplest form, a race. The first player with seven points has a lot of power and a big decision to make, so getting there first is a big deal. When that part clicked, the game opened up to me and my playgroup. It’s extremely tight and requires that you pay attention to other people and your opponent’s turns.

It’s perfect for families like mine that like to make some clever plays, be a little mean, and push for the win. All in good fun, of course, and the rounds are so quick that everyone will get a chance to make some good plays.

Portable and Easy to Table

Sea Salt and Paper Game comes in this tiny blue box that you can put in your back pocket and take with you anywhere. It doesn’t take up much table space and can be played with tweens, teens, grandparents, and anyone in between.

The teacher takes a second because you do have to cover scoring and the way you assemble your hand to end a round. Another challenge with the teacher is that, because you don’t have any cards in your hand to guide your strategy, your first couple of plays are not obvious if you haven’t played the game before. I usually just do a quick open-hand round, making quick choices for all the players. As soon as they understand Duos and sets, I cover how the end of round works, and then score whatever we have down. Takes less than 10 minutes and people get it.

Then shuffle up and you are ready to actually play.

Extra Salt Expansion

There is a small expansion of the game called Extra Salt which is a pack of 8 new cards that add some cough spice to the base game. Starfish make duos into three-pointers (though you forfeit the effect) and seahorses are a wild that is scored in place of a card in a set, like a seashell or octopus. Lobster and Crab duos allow you to look at five cards and pick one, which is really strong and always handy. Jellyfish and swimmers can be combined to prevent other players from putting down duos that round and limiting their card draw. And they added the much-needed 1 point per crab played card, which, honestly, felt like an oversight in the base game.

All in all, fantastic little expansion. Adds a bunch of variety to the game, without diluting the original. The lobsters make it so you still can get the cards you need and resist the urge to add a ton of cards. In this case, 8 is plenty.

The jellyfish are probably the weakest of the bunch, in my opinion – don’t care for their effect much. But all the other additions are great, and, if given the choice, I would never play without the crab bonus card or the Seahorses, even when teaching the game. Those both feel essential to me and should have been in the base game.

The starfish and lobsters add an interesting decision space, but they definitely feel like something you would add after having played the game quite a bit to get some variety.

It is not necessary, but I’d say, if you like the game, pick this up. The only thing I don’t like about it is that, when you add these cards, the game doesn’t fit in the cute, tiny box anymore. Not a huge deal, because I put all my favorite card games in my Gamegenic Lair, but it is worth noting if you were relying on the original box.

Conclusion

Sea Salt and Paper: a game of sea life, strategy, and skill

This is my favorite recent card game and one that I bring to any gathering where games might be played. It is so flexible and so easy to teach and the artwork and aesthetic draw people in. It will get people to the table.

The game is likely at its best with a consistent group of Sea Salt & Paper players that can develop their own meta around which cards are valued by which players and you start to anticipate and counter each other’s moves, racing each other, pushing their luck when ending the round. That level of play probably won’t reveal itself on the first couple of passes, but that doesn’t matter.

Even as a meditative set collection game, it’s a lovely experience. All I’m saying is that there’s a tactical slugfest lying underneath that is all kinds of fun.

Sea Salt & Paper is a great little game that I predict will become a classic and would do well in anyone’s collection.

Also Read: Best Board Games for 12-year-olds.

We also recommend this game as one of our favorite Card Games Like Uno. Check out our other recommendations in that category

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