Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
Analog Posts
I feel like sending postcards to loved ones is a bygone practice. I remember, as a kid, my parents would send those handwritten snapshots on every trip they took, filling me in on their activities while abroad. Nowadays, postcards have been replaced by social media posts, but they still evoke that familiar feeling of envy when seeing the picturesque adventures of someone else’s holiday.
Postcards, from designers Eric Dubus and Simon Kayne, aims to bring back that old vacation tradition, sending players around France as they collect the sights of the European landscape.
Players may recognize Eric Dubus from his previous works, Encyclopedia and Museum: Pictura, both of which play with the theme of cultural exploration through the art of gaming, all with gorgeous art to boot.
Cartes Postales
Postcards plays over a series of turns until one player has shipped off four postcards. Once that happens, the player with the most points wins.
On a turn, players play three cards from their hand, using them either for their color to fill in a stamp on their postcard or for the card’s action. When players collect the required number of stamps, they travel by bike to the postcard’s location and ship it off to friends and family back home, netting points and a gift card. More on those later.
When cards are played for their action, players can travel to adjacent regions, collect a new postcard from the market, or camp at their current location. Camping places a tent on a souvenir symbol on the board. If that symbol is present on one of their postcards, they can cover it to gain a free action, which can be a movement, an extra card play, or another stamp action.
Players also receive gift cards, which either provide immediate bonuses or add set-collection multipliers to end-game scoring.
Wish You Were Here!
Though Postcards is a mild time at the table, it’s a low-stress game that is both easy to teach and short enough for a post-dinner apéritif. The hand management gives players just enough strategy to think about, and the racing element adds a touch of pressure to accomplish as much as you can before someone ships off their fourth postcard.
But don’t we all strive to have a little stress on our vacations? Sure, but here the experience feels more like an activity than a game. There may be some jockeying to scoop up specific postcards, as each player is given an itinerary card that grants end-game points for sending off postcards from specific regions. However, the free market wipes before selecting, making it fairly easy to find what you’re looking for.
While we are all biking around the French countryside, we are hardly riding over anyone’s toes. Postcards is very low interaction, and there’s not really a way to slow down another player’s progress. That makes sense thematically, though. This is a simulation of a shared experience exploring France, not The Amazing Race.
There are opportunities to set up neat little combos, matching souvenir symbols with camping bonuses to squeeze extra actions out of each turn. And in a game where the end trigger is a race to four postcards, every extra bit counts.
Outside of fulfilling postcards and gaining gift cards, the only other way to gain points is by claiming all of the campsites in a region, which gives points equal to the number of sites placed there. This tactic ends up being a lot easier at lower player counts, where it becomes less of a land grab. Because of this, Postcards actually feels a tad better with two or three players versus a full four.
It’s a mildly pleasant time exploring one of Western Europe’s finest destinations. Even if the gameplay is nothing to write home about, or in this case, write home on a postcard about, the art is absolutely stunning. Each postcard features a different landmark or town in France, illustrated in a minimalist style that could easily be mistaken for an art print. Honestly, I’d almost toss the rest of the game, frame the postcard pieces, and turn them into a little art collage on my wall. Much applause to the artist, Crocotame.
The gameplay loop is simple and welcoming, which worked especially well when I introduced it to my non-gaming mother. She picked up the rules quickly, enjoyed herself, and even won, perhaps due to her son playing easily. Maybe. Either way, that’s a testament to the cozy, casual allure Postcards provides.
It won’t make waves in the gaming world, but I don’t think it’s trying to. Postcards is more interested in giving players a pleasant little ride through the French countryside than in creating some grand, table-shaking experience. The warm aesthetic does a lot of heavy lifting, providing plenty of smiles around the table, especially if you’ve been to France and can point at the cards while saying, “Oh, I’ve been there!” It’s light, breezy, and charming in the same way a postcard itself is charming: small, simple, and more about the feeling it leaves behind than the amount of information it carries.
By the end, I wasn’t thinking about brilliant strategy or dramatic turns. I was thinking about the art, the cozy pace, and how nice it was to play something that didn’t ask too much from anyone at the table. Sometimes that’s enough. Postcards may not be a must-play game, but for the right group, it’s a sweet little souvenir. Just don’t forget to mail those postcards to loved ones!
Postcards details
- Designer: Eric Dubus, Simon Kayne
- Artists: Crocotame
- Publishers: 999 Games, Arrakis Games, Elznir Games, Fenrir Games, Synapses Games
- Release Date: 2025
- Player count : 1 - 4
- Age range : 10+
- Time range : 30 - 45 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Set Collection
- BGG Geek Rating: 6.77291 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 3.5.
- More articles about Postcards.
