Pick a Pen: Reefs

About this board game

Pick a Pen: Reefs is a route-building roll-and-write game for 2–4 players, with games lasting around 30 minutes. Players roll and draft colored pencils to chart routes through reef dive locations, seeking treasures and coins while managing the symbols shown on each pencil.

On each turn, the active player rolls all five colored pencils, then chooses one and uses it on their individual sheet. The other players draft a pencil in turn and use it as well, making every roll an opportunity to shape your own routes.

Each pencil has a color and symbols on its different sides. The symbol on the chosen pencil determines how many steps you can color in and whether your route must continue straight or can develop more freely.

• Start a route at an empty dive location when you do not yet have one of that color.
• Extend your existing route when you already have a route in that color.
• Color treasure chests and coins reached by your routes to gain bonus points.

You can have only one route per color, so every pencil choice affects how your reef develops. The game ends when one player has colored a certain number of treasures or all of their coins, bringing the route-building challenge to a close.

Pick a Pen: Reefs includes three difficulty levels of player sheets. Sheets 2 and 3 add vortices and propellers that can hinder or help you while coloring routes, giving the same pencil-drafting system different challenges to explore.