Pick a Pen: Gardens

If you enjoy games that blend light strategy with the visual satisfaction of filling out sheets, Pick a Pen: Gardens will be your new obsession. The premise is simple and charming: you need to organize colorful gardens using colored pencils that act as the game's 'dice'. Each round, the active player rolls five colored pencils. From there, a drafting system kicks in: everyone picks a pencil and uses the symbol shown on the tip to mark spaces on their personal sheet. The main challenge here is the adjacency rule. You can't just color anywhere; new spaces must be connected to what you've already drawn. It's a spatial puzzle that forces you to plan your next moves carefully, balancing the desire to complete single-color gardens for bonus points with the need to diversify to maximize your total score. The game is highly dynamic and flows smoothly, as everyone plays almost simultaneously after the pencil draft. What I found coolest is the difficulty progression. The game comes with three levels of player sheets. The more advanced sheets introduce elements like flowers and trees, which completely change how you score and add an extra layer of strategy that keeps the game fresh. It's the perfect type of title for a group that enjoys a mental challenge without needing to spend hours reading complex rulebooks. The game ends when someone fills all their gardens or fails to mark spaces five times — which adds a nice bit of pressure toward the end. If you like 'roll-and-write' games that are fast, beautiful, and make your brain work just the right amount, Gardens is a solid choice. The quality of the components, especially the pencils, adds a special touch that makes the tactile experience very satisfying. It's a game that fits in a backpack, is easy to teach, and always leaves you wanting 'just one more game' to beat your own high score or your friends'.