Paleo

Readiness

ready (confidence=0.73, rules=0.75, fun=0.70). BGG rank: 233; year: 2020; weight: 2.66; playtime: 60 min

Core Loop

A cooperative survival game where 1-4 players are tribes in the Stone Age. Each player has a personal tableau and a deck of "day" cards. Each round, every player simultaneously draws three cards face-down from their personal deck (without looking) and chooses which one to resolve. The cards are encounters: woolly mammoth, river crossing, predator, food source, weather, etc. Each card lists prerequisites — if you can pay (with resources or skills), you succeed and gain rewards; if not, the tribe takes consequences (HP, hunger, lost members).

The team's shared goals: survive several days, gather resources, complete a "cave painting" project (5 puzzle pieces among the team) by collecting specific drawing tiles. Each missed mission card adds a skull; 5 skulls = team loses.

Modules add new card decks for variant scenarios (woolly mammoth, drought, etc.).

Turn Structure and State

• How-to-play transcript is present; useful for teach order and confusing steps.
• BGG description anchor: Paleo is a co-operative adventure game set in the stone age, a game in which players try to keep the human beings in their care alive while completing missions. Sometimes you need a fur, sometimes a tent, but these are all minor quests compared to your long-term goal: Painting a woolly mammoth on the wall so that humans thousands of years later will know that you once existed. (Okay, you just think the mammoth [...]

Win Condition and Arc

Complete the cave-painting goal (collect required drawing pieces) before accumulating 5 skulls. Plays 45-60 min per scenario. Arc is brutal: bad cards stack, players have to coordinate without knowing what's in others' hands.

Decision Primitives

BGG mechanisms: Action / Event, Cooperative Game, Deck, Bag, and Pool Building, Memory, Scenario / Mission / Campaign Game, Simultaneous Action Selection, Variable Set-up

Memory-derived primitives:

• Cooperative parallel-deck card resolution
• Hidden-information card reveal (face-down draw → choose to play)
• Resource gathering (food, wood, hide)
• Skill-check encounter cards
• Modular scenario decks
• Loss condition: 5 skulls = defeat

v4 controlled primitives: event_deck_seeded_threat, cascading_failure, feeding_pressure, variable_setup_per_game, escalating_threat

Top iOS archetype fits: coop 5.6, balatro 5.3, cozy 4.2.

Why It Is Fun

The face-down-draw mechanic injects real chaos. Cooperative decision-making about which encounter to skip vs face is tense.

Friction and Failure Modes

• Treat Sonnet-memory edge rules as draft until confirmed by manual, BGA, or transcript.

Translation and Design Hooks

• Use this card to ask: which primitive carries the fun if theme/licensing is removed?
• For iOS, look for short-session compression, clear state visualization, and a digital-only twist.
• For new tabletop design, look for the tension source and decide whether to preserve or invert it.

Edge Rules and Gotchas

• You draw 3, see them, choose ONE to resolve (the others go to bottom or discard depending on rules).
• Some cards "wait" — if not played this round they return to your deck.
• Tribe members can die; losing your last member loses the game.
• Night phase: tribe must be fed (one food per member) or take damage.
• Cave painting pieces are spread across modules; the active scenarios determine which decks you fold in.
• Specific tools (axe, bow, basket) unlock card branches.
• Cooperative restrictions: limited communication during the simultaneous-draw phase.

Sources Used

[
  {
    "kind": "youtube_transcript",
    "path": "data/youtube_transcripts/300531.txt",
    "quality": 0.7,
    "note": "how-to-play transcript"
  },
  {
    "kind": "llm_memory",
    "path": "data/llm_memory_sonnet/300531.md",
    "quality": 0.65,
    "note": "sonnet-self-rated-7"
  },
  {
    "kind": "tabletopia_overview",
    "path": "data/tabletopia_overviews/300531.md",
    "quality": 0.3,
    "note": "Tabletopia overview; not a rules authority"
  }
]