Wouter & Ymke 
Heroes. Brave, noble, selfless? Yeah, right. In your dungeon, they’re nothing more than an ongoing nuisance. Kicking down doors, stealing your treasures, and generally making a mess of the place. You’ve had enough. It’s time to take matters into your own hands.
So, instead of letting these so-called adventurers run wild, you’ve decided to put them to better use. Now, they’re trophies. A glorious collection of heroes from all walks of life, mounted neatly on your walls like a proper dungeon master’s gallery. But even a trophy wall takes careful planning. You’ll need to arrange your collection wisely, optimize your scoring, and keep a close eye on your opponents because in Open Season, you’re not the only one looking to build the most impressive display.
Sharpen your organizational skills and maybe your claws. It’s time to curate the ultimate wall of shame.
👥 2-4 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 15 minutes/player
📝 Designer: Amélie Assié & Romain Lisciandro
🎨 Artwork: Jean-Baptiste Reynaud
🏢 Publisher: Sit Down! (review copy provided)
How to Play – A Trophy Hunter’s Guide
The game plays out over eleven rounds, and each round you’ll add one new trophy to your collection. The goal is simple: build the best display of captured heroes while making sure your opponents don’t outdo you.
Each turn starts with a visit to the inn, where you’ll pick two hero cards. One of these cards goes straight to your stockpile for later, while the other is immediately added to your wall. But placement isn’t random. Each space on the wall has specific rules. Some require different hero types on either side, while others reward you for placing matching types together. A few spaces even offer bonuses if you manage to fill them in the right round.
After placing both cards, it’s time to see if you’ve triggered an action. If the card in your stock matches one of the heroes in your upper row, you get to activate its effect. Some actions let you draw an extra card. Others let you steal a card from an opponent’s stock and claim it for yourself, which can be both satisfying and very annoying, depending on which side of the theft you’re on. Another action lets you reserve a card for next round, while the last one allows you to move trophy tokens, which help with end-game scoring.
At the start of your next turn, the hero in your stock moves to your accolades, which is a fancy way of saying they’re now safe from being stolen. This is important because while you might be focused on your own strategy, your opponents are definitely looking for ways to mess with it.
When the game ends, your accolades determine your final score. The heroes you’ve collected will score based on their placement in your second and third rows. Some spaces on your board grant extra points, while others come with penalties. A couple of spots award points based on how many of a specific hero type you’ve collected, and one particularly valuable space gives you ten bonus points if you’ve gathered more of that hero type than any of your opponents.
There’s also a separate scoring mechanism for hero attributes. Each hero card features an attribute such as crowns, daggers, earrings, tattoos, or eyepatches. Sets of these symbols will earn you points, and if you’ve managed to place a hero with the right attribute in the designated scoring space, you’ll get even more.
At the end of it all, the player with the most points has built the most satisfying wall of heroes. Or, at the very least, the most effective one.
Our Thoughts – A Fun Puzzle with a Sharp Edge
Open Season, from Belgian publisher Sit Down!, is an easy-to-learn game that takes about five to ten minutes to explain. The artwork is fantastic, the components feel solid, and the theme is fun and well integrated.
At its core, this is a puzzle game. Each player is trying to build the most optimal wall while making sure their accolades line up for maximum points. But there’s also a take-that element, and whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends entirely on your taste in games.
While you’re busy optimizing your board, other players can and will steal from you. It’s not a game-breaker since you’ll always be able to draw another card, but the player who stole from you may get an extra action, which can set off a chain reaction. If no one stops them, they’ll be able to keep gaining extra cards and stacking up advantages. It’s one of those mechanics that makes you pay attention to what your opponents are doing instead of just focusing on your own strategy.
If your group enjoys a bit of friendly sabotage, this is a great fit. If you prefer games where you can execute your strategy without interference, it might be frustrating.
Luck vs. Strategy
Since the inn is an open display, you always have some control over what you take. But there’s also a lot of cards in the deck, and sometimes you’ll be waiting for a very specific hero type with the right attribute that just refuses to show up. Each combination appears six times in the deck, so theoretically, they’re out there. But in practice? Good luck finding them when you need them most.
Game Variants – The Designers Knew You’d Want More
To mix things up, Open Season comes with a few different ways to play. The double-sided wall boards offer two game modes. One is the standard experience, while the other plays slightly faster.
Then there are the expert tiles. At the start of the game, each player gets seven double-sided tiles and chooses four to place above their columns. These tiles activate when a column is filled with identical attributes and can grant special bonuses. Some let you draw extra cards or swap heroes on your board. Others provide permanent effects, like altering scoring conditions or adjusting penalties and rewards.
It’s a nice addition that keeps things fresh and gives players more room to experiment with different strategies.
Final Verdict – A Fun Challenge (Unless You Hate Getting Robbed)
I love the puzzle aspect of Open Season, the way you set up your own scoring conditions and then try to execute them efficiently. But for me personally, the take-that mechanic keeps it from being amazing. Just when you’ve got everything lined up perfectly, an opponent swoops in, steals a card, and poof, your grand plan goes up in smoke. It’s the board game equivalent of someone casually knocking over your house of cards and acting like it’s no big deal.
If you love a bit of controlled chaos, where outsmarting your friends is just as important as optimizing your own strategy, this game is a treat. If you prefer a nice, peaceful puzzle where no one touches your stuff, Open Season might feel like a rollercoaster you didn’t sign up for.
One thing’s for sure. Heroes may come and go, but a well-curated trophy wall? That’s forever.
📝 We received a copy of Open Season from the publisher, Sit Down!, but all lovingly taxidermied heroes are entirely our own.
