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Review of board game Special Delivery by Pevans

Special Delivery is a well-produced family board game published by its designer, Kevin Rolph. I think that about says it all. Oh, you want to know more?

The game's theme is delivering parcels and it comes in a square box designed to look like a brown paper parcel. Inside is a good solid board which shows a road network connecting lots of towns and villages. Although the map is fictitious, it uses the names of real English places - Inkpen, Sheepwash and Ugley, for example. Clever use of shading disguises the fact that it is only monochrome. There are also two small packs of cards, three dice, 8 large playing pieces, 8 small ones, a whole load of counters and two copies of the rules (a nice touch).

This is a game played in teams, with each player delivering parcels around the map. The first team to deliver its quota of parcels and return to its home town wins the game. Kevin reckons the game is at its best with three teams of two people each, but it will cope with anything from 2 to 16.

On the Move

Movement around the board is done by rolling the dice (two for a van, three for a motorbike) and moving that number of places along the roads. For every 6 rolled, a parcel (a brown counter) is also placed on the map - its location decided by turning over a Town card. Whenever you arrive in a town with a parcel, you can pick it up (1 parcel on a bike or 2 in a van). You then take a Town Card to find where to deliver it.

On reaching the parcel's destination you take a Delivery Card. This will say that the parcel has been delivered successfully or unsuccessfully, or that there's a delay. You may also get to move one of the nine obstacles scattered about the board blocking the roads either completely or partially.

As you can see this is a simple game. It was quite fun to play once, but I don't think I'll be playing it again. It will get a better reception as a family game, but the limited production run of an independent game does mean that it is a bit expensive. Which is a shame as we would like to see ventures like this succeed.

Special Delivery was designed by Kevin Rolph and published in the UK by Kevingston Games. It is for 2-16 players and takes about an hour to play. Pevans rates it 4/10.
This review was originally published in Games Games Games 87, December 1994/January 1995 and then in Games & Puzzles 12 (March 1995)..

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