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The lightning in a bottle that was Wingspan is something that every publisher strives for. Stamp Swap feels like Stonemaier set out to try to recapture that magic with the premise of “What is something else that is incredibly geeky that we might be able to tap into?” Stamp Collecting certainly seems like it could hit that demographic. But, in my experience, where Wingspan brought birders out of the woods, Stamp Swap just showed that Stamp Collecting is true boomer deep geek that has declined like the art of actually writing a physical letter.
On the surface, Stamp Swap ticks all the boxes: It is incredibly beautiful, it is niche geek and it was riding the high of Paul Salomon's “Honey Buzz” when it was released. But it feels like it proof positive that, try as you might, you can't set out to produce a hit be following a formula.
Where plenty of games can be described as “You need a few plays to see this game truly shine” Stamp Swap falls more toward “You need a few plays for this game to truly work.” In the era where whatever is new/hot makes it to the table, Stamp Swap's stumbling pace means that it might not get the few plays you need to get really get the feel for it. Add in some less than intuitive goal cards and you get a release that has a lot to overcome to make it back to the table. Putting out the stamps that will be drafted in the orientation described on the cards felt like a real chore. You need to put out stamps/rewards based on the cards that you randomly deal out per round, with one per player, so it is more painful the more players you have. Lucky for me, my daughter actually enjoys putting out all of the various stamps, so I passed that joy/chore onto her in our later plays.
Player's take turns selecting stamps they want in the collecting phase and, once finished, they split those stamps into two piles and the other players then draft from those piles. Let's be honest, I really don't think that is how a stamp collecting convention (the setting of this game) works. The I split, you choose mechanic that works best when all players are striving toward a common goal, so it seems like an odd choice for this title. Sure, some goals are shared and you need to choose when to score them. There will be four goals but you will only score three of them during the game (along with the final goal). Once you score a goal, there is zero reason to keep drafting stamps that further that goal. So, you actually draft less stamps that everyone wants the further you get into the game. Rarely are you taking what a player has on offer because they absolutely have something you want. Instead, you are settling for the least painful thing to work with. I say rarely because you can draft a couple of stamps you know someone else is striving for, hoping they will take those when you split and leave you with the group that you really want. But, then again, it takes multiple games to get to that point of strategy. Instead, most of your first games is everyone drafting what they personally want, then being disappointed when another player takes one of their piles...and the person drafting being almost equally disappointed.
Stamp Swap mixes set collection with arranging the selected stamps on your personal player board. Sometimes the goal will be to group all of a like-type together or maybe leave gaps of different sizes on your board. The Color, size, and theme goals change from game to game, so the perfect personal player board layout one game will be drastically different from game to game. That's great for variety in repeated plays but can prove problematic for players who are looking for something comfortable to slip into.
My first few plays of Stamp Swap were pretty rough but, after returning to it over and over, we smoothed out the rough patches and I came to appreciate it. I just wonder if other players will give it that leeway. Even if you are fan of collecting stamps, the execution of the game doesn't emphasize that hobby. I'm not sure how many gamers are going to persevere though a game when the net result is that it's “Perfectly Fine.”
A review copy of this release was provided by the publisher. Therewillbe.games would like to thank them for their support.
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