First Impressions of Spellbook from Space Cowboys and Phil Walker-Harding

A few months ago I attended an expo in Toronto that was primarily for distributors to connect with stores for purchasing products. As a lone media member invited, I was given the same access as these stores received, even going behind the curtain to look at a few games. After looking at Disney Dixit I was given a brief look at an upcoming game called Spellbook. Honestly, while the presentation and the explanation of the game was top notch, the concept seemed a bit dull to me. How would a game about making spells be fun?

Fast forward to a few days ago. A box arrived from Asmodee Canada, and as expected, inside was a copy of Spellbook for review. I set it aside, promising to do it later. After creating content for a few others games I was working on, I decided to unbox the game so I could post an unboxing article (LINK PREVIOUS ARTICLE) and create an unboxing video.

If you want to see how Spellbook plays, please watch the video below!

The concept was intriguing enough, so when my father-in-law came over to play games after dinner, I decided we would give Spellbook a try. I’m glad I did, as Spellbook was the perfect late night game – not too much thinking to understand how the game worked, but still fun enough and challenging enough to warrant spending 30-45 minutes playing. What I loved about Spellbook, aside from being able to learn how to play in less than 5 minutes, was just how quick and snappy the gameplay was. There isn’t a ton to think about in most cases.

Playing the base game, at a maximum we had 3-4 options for our morning decisions, 2-3 options for our midday actions, and 2-3 options for our evening actions. Once you understand the spells in front of you, everything comes together and the game plays so quickly. We played with only two players (it can be played with 4 maximum) so our complete experience was finished within 30 minutes. However, even with 4 players, I cannot see this going over the suggested playtime of 45 minutes. It moves very quickly, and I LOVE that about this.

We will have more thoughts on Spellbook in the near future, so be on the lookout for that.