good to see another game with the all to often overlooked rug theme.

The concept is superb. The Gorey-esque art is fun. It's just a shame that these weren't met by an equally good game. I think a more strategic, and less neighbor-stabbing game using the transparency would be excellent. You just try to depress your living, and then kill them — or possibly kill your opponents' living before they can get depressed — first, hoping that other players don't undo your progress, or even cheer up your dead. Yes, you read that correctly.

Spot on reason to keep this game. I've been even considering to frame some of the cards.

I'm impressed with the treasure chest rendering of the (1st edition) Jamaica box. While there are parts of it that aren't the most functional choice (the rules, for example, are printed on a huge poster that folds up to provide a picture of the chest contents - a pile of doubloons) the whole presentation is quite lovely.

I find El Grande's board to be both attractive and functional - it's very clean, it is easy to distinguish between the different regions and easy to see the scoring values.

I'll also call out Nuns on the Run for failure in the artwork - specifically the doors. The board is nice looking and very well done, but the doors are a pale brown that does not stand out among the colors of the rest of the board. Aesthetically it looks very good, but doors are really important (they block line of sight) and I've had a couple of games where it goes "Okay, you see me. I'm right there." "No, there's a door here - I don't see you." "Oh, uh, nevermind..."

The gameplay was compromised to make the board look a little nicer.