Soul Tokens is an adults only, roll and play party game that we had the pleasure of playing this past week! The Game of Life meets Cards Against Humanity in this laughter filled, story telling board game. Will you be blessed with a life full of luck and riches, or doomed to one filled of misfortune? You’ll have to play to find out! After playing through the whole game a few times, we are happy to share our experience with you in this Soul Tokens review!
Soul Tokens is an adult rated, mature board game similar to the game of life. The board game spaces represent an age from 1-84. They are color coded to match the different life stages we go through, from childhood, young adult, adult, old age, and finally death.
Players take turns rolling the dice to move their meeple and select cards for the appropriate life stage. Cards will either reward them Soul Tokens (the key to victory) or lose them tokens and make them admit/do funny things!
Unboxing Soul Tokens
The design of the game is unique and stands out on our board game shelf. With a black background color and rainbow accents, it’s unlike most other game packaging. It has a simple, yet creative design which we loved.
The components of the game also differ from most other games with smaller square shaped cards. Not only is the board game beautiful, but one thing we really liked about it was how there were designated spots for all the cards used in gameplay. This made it so much easier to organize the game space by having the cards in the spot that makes the most sense for gameplay. It also removes the problem of having to find a spot on the table for them.
The instructions were short and straight forward. We did feel like there could have been a little more explanation and direction involved, but it didn’t hinder gameplay after we got going. The game took minimal time to set up, we were ready to play in just a few short minutes.
How to Play Soul Tokens
The object of the game is to be the player with the most soul tokens when the game ends. To start the game, each player picks one race card, one gender card and two wild cards.
Together these cards become, well you! The instructions say that you can give yourself a name, which we found super entertaining! After each player selects their cards, reads them out loud, and names themselves, they then choose a meeple and place it at the “birth” location on the game board.
Each turn, players will roll the dice, move their meeples, and take the corresponding card that matches the space they land on. The general theme of the card will depend on the life stage you are in.
For example, in the child stage, I picked up a card that said I was a bedwetter. I had to roll the dice, and if the number was greater than 4, I had to share the fact that I was a bedwetter with all of my fellow players!
Some cards will award you soul tokens just for picking them up, others will require you to perform an action to gain a soul token, and some are just funny additions to your in game life with no rewards.
Starting from the child stage, players make their way through the life stages until they eventually end up on death. During the life cycle, players obtain jobs and then eventually careers where they earn money. Money is used to pay off certain cards that are picked up, but didn’t seem to have any value at the end of the game.
Once you reach the end of the game board, you have lived out your life and have died. You finish the game by picking up a death card, which states your hilarious cause of death. (In one of our playthroughs, Hillary had an untimely death in her old age, picked up a death card and that card stated she was magically back to life! So just because you think the game is over, sometimes it isn’t! We thought that was a fun twist haha!)
After each player reaches the end of the board and “dies,” the instructions say you can each give yourself eulogies which is also hilarious! After the eulogies are over, players count up their Soul Tokens and whoever has the most, wins the game!
Keep in mind, although it is great to win and have the most soul tokens at the end, we think the game is more geared towards crafting your own story and being able to share your fascinating and unique “life” with other players.
Our First Play Through
The first few rounds were a little confusing for us. We kept questioning how to handle cards and if we were playing correctly until we realized that the cards direct all of the gameplay. Once we figured that aspect out, the game ran smoothly and we were really enjoying ourselves.
Right off the bat, we noticed that this game is definitely for mature players and we want to make it clear that it could be deemed sensitive for certain audiences. Although we found it to be lighthearted and comedic, the game does deal with aspects such as stereotypes, gender, and race that some people might find to be offensive and not funny.
Please use caution when playing this around sensitive persons as to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings or making anyone uncomfortable. We feel the game does not go out of its way to be offensive and uses these themes as a way to have a good adult laugh. If you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to the game developers on their social media pages where you can also see more previews of what the game entails.
The game played pretty quickly as we were playing with the minimum of 3 players. Each player’s turn didn’t take too long as the cards are easy and straightforward. Hillary proved to have more bad luck with her cards, losing soul tokens and money left and right, while Kait was on the luckier side, frequently gaining soul tokens.
As we mentioned above, Hillary experienced a sudden death followed by a resurrection all in the same turn, which we found hilarious and unexpected! Kait won the first play through, Branden came in second, with Hillary in last place.
Final Thoughts
After playing the game a few times, we all agreed that it was an entertaining and unique adult party game. Each game proved to be different than the previous, with the selection of new base cards and different life stages cards. We feel the replay ability of the game is great and we also feel it is a good game for larger groups looking for a good laugh during a more laid back game night.
We definitely do not recommend this game for anyone under the recommended age of 17, and want to stress that it is not family friendly, as it contains mature content. However if you are of age and looking for a good ‘adults only’ party board game to add to your collection, Soul Tokens is a great choice!
Soul Tokens is currently available on Kickstarter until November 19th and after being live for only four days, they have already reached their goal!! Click here for more info about the game and to check out their Kickstarter page!
