Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/7769466/a-gentle-rain

Designer: Kevin Wilson
Publisher: Incredible Dream Studios
Artists: Chris Bilheimer, Weronika Kozyra

A Gentle Rain is a relaxing and enjoyable tile laying game for one or more people. The ultimate goal is to get the eight lilies on the lake to bloom and still have as many tiles left as possible.

From what I can tell and what I’ve experienced, the main idea for this design was to be a chill, Zen-inducing gaming experience. The first step in the rule book is to “get comfortable” meaning comfy clothes, soft music, tea, stretch, destress, etc.

The actual game play is very straightforward. The lake tiles get shuffled then formed into a stack. The first tile (which becomes your starting tile) gets turned face up and placed in the center of the play area. On each subsequent turn, you draw a tile and connect it to your existing lake tiles. The tiles must be placed so that at least one flower on the edges of the tiles is completed. If you are able to play the tile, you must, but if you can’t, it gets discarded.

Each time you manage to complete a square of four touching tiles, a blossom opens between them. Based on the four completed flowers on the adjacent tile edges, you select one of those colors and play an unplaced blossom in the hole between those tiles. If all blossoms matching the colors of the surrounding flowers have bloomed, then no blossoms get added. As soon as the eighth blossom opens, the game ends and you calculate your score based on the number of blossoms plus the number of leftover lake tiles that remain unplayed (the discarded tiles do not count). If you happen to run out of tiles before the eighth flower blooms, then you just count the number of blossoms.

While the game plays quickly, is mechanically easy, and is overall fun and soothing, there is still some strategy involved. Toward the end of the game, you really have to consider which color blossoms to place so you don’t waste any potential blossom locations, but otherwise, it’s just a beautiful game that takes you away from technology and reminds you of the pleasantries and gentleness of nature (even if you’re inside).

I greatly appreciate that the box is small, and the price was right for this game. It’s easy for any person to pick up, enjoy, and travel with. Even with the lower price point, the production is great – the tiles are well designed and of good quality and the blossoms are thick and chunky. Overall, everything about the game is simple yet beautiful.

As a person that wants to optimize board games with each play, there is still a little mental stress trying to maximize the puzzle, but that is self-inflicted, and pretty minor. I appreciate the design and desire for it to be something that can be played anytime by anyone anywhere.

As Brandon Sanderson states and A Gentle Rain expresses, this game embodies journey before destination, and how can you not love that?