If there was ever going to be a board game about essential oils, you would probably want that to be helmed by masters in the field. Well, you are in luck because that has now officially happened. Aroma: A Game of Essence was created by Organic Aromas, a group of passionate, experienced engineers, artists and business professionals with the primary goal of creating the world’s best method for diffusing pure, organic essential oil.
They have created a board game to celebrate the world of essential oils and educate those on the amazing notes and benefits they have to offer. This is a board game, it has winners, losers and rules, but it is more of a world expanding experience than a fight to find who will be victorious. This is an experience that will broaden your appreciation of life and the different elements that make it up.
You, for example, take one of these mystery bottles and must determine different aromas. Is it rosemary, eucalyptus, lemon, lavendar, pine, clary sage, grapefruit or one of the others? Being able to take in and work to identify each of these scents will help you appreciate the world more because you will start to take in all the individual components that make up an experience. Take food, instead of tasting a dish, if you can envision and appreciate each of the ingredients, and what they have to offer, you are going to appreciate the overall dish more. You cannot build a house unless you understand the bricks.
If you are looking for a great strategy board game, this is not the first place you should look, but if you are looking to broaden your horizons in an area that affects many thing, this is such a great guided way to do so that is fun and will keep you intrigued.
This game is a collection of four different mini games that you can play that each have their own goal and instructions. There are Discover, Survive, Revolve and Collect game variants.
GAME 1: DISCOVER
Goal: Identify your five aromas faster than your opponents, but be careful because there is a second way to win.
How To Play: The starting player selects an oil from their tray, smells and identifies the aroma without reveling it. They then select another player to challenge with the statement “this is [insert aroma name]”. They can agree or disagree with correct answers pushing them a space up on the board, but they could also guess correct when the answer is wrong to move an additional space. Play moves clockwise in a race to who can move to the center of the board first.
GAME 2: SURVIVE
Goal: Eliminate players by naming all of their aromas. Be the last standing to be crowned the sole survivor.
How To Play: Players know what aromas they have but they are covered from the other players. The starting player “attacks” another, picking up one of their mystery aromas and identify it. If they are correct, they get it and if not it stays put. After this happens, it is know the attacked players chance to take a turn. They do they same thing continuing the process. If you lose all your aromas, you are out and the last player standing wins.
GAME 3: REVOLVE
Goal: Smell and pass the oils around. Identify the most aromas under pressure and you will be victorious.
How To Play: The game involves all players at the same time. Round 1 begins with each player selecting an oil from their tray and identifying the aroma using the ID Token to mark their answer. Players pass and repeat. The oils are sniffed and the scent tokens are placed down. Everyone flips together and players move forward one space for each correct guess. The winner is the player who advanced the most spaces after four rounds.
GAME 4: COLLECT
Goal: Find all the aromas that belong in your category. Once you bring them home, you win the game.
How To Play: The starting player chooses a player and selects an oil from their tray. They smell the oil and return it to the chosen player. They guess the oil and say the name out loud. If they are correct, and it belongs in their category, the oil belongs to them and it put in it’s tray with a cube next to it. If it is not their’s, they at least get to go again. A wrong answer ends their turn and play continues until a player gets all the oils from their category.
This is such an interesting niche thing that you should not think of this in terms of good or bad, but your interest level. If this is a subject that you are intrigued by even a little, this is a great apparatus to help fane those flames. If you are not, you probably will not enjoy this either. Organic Aromas deserves a lot of credit. The gamification of using real essential oils seems impossible, but they have been able to put rules and stakes in place that make it interesting and fun.
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