I live in Colorado, which is home to fifty-eight 14ers. What is a 14er, you ask? It’s a mountain that rises over 14,000 above sea level. We have the most 14ers in the United States, and they’re very popular with hikers who want to test their skills. And now there’s a game about them!

14ers is an upcoming 1-4 player game designed by Zach Sullivan to be published by Grazing Bear Games. It’s a card game where players are trying to build their hiker’s skills by conquering 14ers. The game is coming to Kickstarter in October.

The game comes with 60 tarot-sized. 39 of these are climb cards, each showing a different peak and divided into Classes I-IV. These are all shuffled separately, then stacked with Class I on the top, followed by Class II, then III, then IV on the bottom. Three are drawn and placed in a line next to the deck. A random accolade is chosen, which gives a scoring condition for the player who gets the most of a particular thing. Each player gets a hiker card, and you’re ready to play.

On your turn, you’ll first revel a new climb from the deck so there are four to choose from. You’ll then choose one of the cards based on how many boots and axes you have versus the requirements of a card. Some cards have hazard requirements, which are just an extra condition you have to meet beyond boots and axes. You’ll then tuck your chosen card under your hiker, but you tuck it in such a way that only one side is visible.

• If you tuck it under the bottom of your hiker, you’ll be using it as a training card, which will give you more boots and axes to use on other cards.
• If you tuck it on the left side of your hiker, it’s now gear which gives you extra benefits and rule breaking abilities.
• If you tuck it on the right side of your hiker, it’s now a plan that gives you extra point-scoring opportunities.
• If you tuck it under the top of your hiker, it’s a capstone that scores a flat number of points.

If you really want a card and can’t afford it, you can always discard a previously taken card to hire a guide. This allows you to ignore one requirement of a card – either all boot and axe requirements, the hazard condition, or the current weather effect (if you’re playing with weather cards). Guides are put in a personal discard pile, because those with cameras get you an extra point at the end of the game.

The game last nine rounds, which means each player will end up taking nine cards. Then you will score – determine the winner of the accolade points, then add all the points you got from plans, capstones, and camera guides. The player with the highest score wins.

There is a variant of the game where a different weather effect takes place each round. These could make climbs harder by increase their cost, block certain sides from adding climbs, or do nothing. The game also has a solo variant with an automated hiker you’re competing against, and more advanced hiker options.

As I mentioned, I do live in Colorado. I’m not a native (but, as the bumper stickers say, I got here as fast as I could). I’ve also never done a 14ers – not in NEARLY good enough shape for that. But I am really glad to see a game about these fabulous mountains, and was really excited to check it out.

My play of this game was on Tabletop Simulator rather than with a physical copy, so I can’t speak entirely to component quality. The art was nice, being provided by Hinterland Outdoors, a company that makes all kinds of gear based on the Colorado 14ers. Graphic design seemed pretty good, though it’s really hard to tell on TTS with all the zooming in you have to do. It can be a challenge to design stuff in this type of tableau building through tucking game, but I think things are laid out pretty well. The game comes with some cards that can be used to help track how many boots and axes you have available, and though these are optional, they can be helpful.

Thematically, I think the game makes a lot of sense. I think it’s important to realize that the game is not about climbing 14ers, it’s about upgrading your hiker so you can summit the harder peaks. You’re basically gaining experience with each climb, and that gives you more skills you need to finish off the Class IV beasts. The only thing that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me thematically is the weather variant. I’m not saying weather isn’t a factor in summiting a 14ers, because it absolutely is. I am saying that it’s a little strange that you know exactly what the weather will be for every round (which is apparently over the course of two months). Having lived in this state for nearly nine years at this point, I can say with absolute certainty that only thing predictable about Colorado weather is how unpredictable it is. This variant might be a little better thematically with a weather deck of some kind (possible expansion idea there).

The game has fairly simple mechanics. Basically, on your turn, you draft a climb card, then you tuck it somewhere on your hiker. You have to decide whether you want it to improve your hiker (training or gear), or for points at the end of the game (plans or capstones). It uses a tucking mechanism based on games like Glory to Rome and Innovation, which are two of my favorite games so I’m all for that. All four sides of the card have the potential to do something different, and where you tuck the card determines which side is visible and will activate.

With being able to include four uses of each card, the game has a very minimal aesthetic, which again is a good thematic choice – one thing I know about hikers is that they don’t want to carry any more than they absolutely need. As such, this game doesn’t take up a lot of space either on the table or in your pack. It’s a tableau builder, but not one of the sprawling ones like Race for the Galaxy. Your tableau is your hiker, and all the cards are getting tucked under him/her. Plus, you’re not going to have more than ten cards with your hiker by the end (and possibly fewer). Card count is low, with only 39 climbs included. All in all, it’s a nice small game.

Luck is going to play a role in the game as you don’t know exactly what climbs are going to come out and when. All cards are used in the four player game, but not with fewer, so you don’t know precisely which cards are in play. And because they come out in random order, it’s hard to strategize in advance. At least you know that the Class I cards will come out before the IIs, and so on, so you can work on building however you wish to prepare. Still, luck of the draw can affect things.

The game is quite light. Mechanics are easy to understand, the game plays quickly, and the strategy is fairly light. It makes sense for the kind of game it is. I do wonder about long-term replayability, but it’s a game that presents itself different depending on how the cards come out, so I don’t think that would really be an issue.

IS IT BUZZWORTHY? I enjoy 14ers as a quick and light experience. It’s really nice to have a game about some of the stunning topography in Colorado, and I think the game works very well. If you’re looking for a quick small-footprint tableau builder, I’d say check it out. The game should be going up on Kickstarter in October, so check out the page and follow to know when it goes live.

Thanks again to Zach Sullivan for guiding me through a playthrough, and thanks to you for reading!