The best part of camping is roasting marshmallows over the campfire. In Toasted or Roasted, from Education Outdoors, you are building the campfire and trying to toast marshmallows without them becoming roasted. Toasted or Roasted is for two to four players and is recommended for ages 6 and up.
Game Components
4 Firewood/Campfire Disks (two-sided)
4 Toasting Stick/Toasting Fork Disks (two-sided)
10 Fire Starter Cards
16 Marshmallow Cards
16 Toasted! Cards
8 Roasted! Cards
2 Rain Cards
2 Strong Wind Cards
1 Picnic Table Board
Gameplay
Game setup includes giving each player one Firewood/Campfire Disk, and one Toasting Stick/Toasting Fork Disk. The cards are all shuffled together and each player is dealt four initially. The Picnic Table Board sits in the center and has the draw and discard pile as well as a place for extra fire starters.
There are several objectives to complete in Toasted Or Roasted. First, each player needs light their campfire by playing a Fire Starter card. Once you play a Fire Starter card you flip your Firewood Disk over to the campfire side. Then, each player needs to try and toast 3 marshmallows.
On their turn, players draw a card, bringing their hand to five. If they have a fire starter card they put that down to light their campfire. Then the player flips over their Firewood Disk to the campfire side. However, if another player has a Strong Wind card they can play it immediately to prevent you from lighting your campfire. If they can not light their campfire, the player discards a card.
Once your campfire is lit, on your next turn if you have a marshmallow card you place that on your toasting stick. Other players, on their turns can play a Roasted! Card to ruin your marshmallow or play a Rain Card to put out your campfire. There is a balance on each turn to thwart other players verses working on toasting your own marshmallows, since you can only do on action on your turn.
Toasted or Roasted also has an interesting twist. Once you successfully toast your first marshmallow, you can flip your Toasting Stick over to the Toasting Fork. The Toasting Fork allows you to put two marshmallows on. The only downside is if both your marshmallows become roasted, you must flip the Toasting Fork back to the Toasting Stick side.
The first person to successfully toast three marshmallows wins.
Family Gaming Assessment
Toasted or Roasted is a great light family game. The game has minimal reading so it can easily scale down to players even younger than the recommended 6 years old. My five-year-old plays quite easily, and it could scale down even to 4 year olds. The only caveat is the young players need to understand they will get marshmallows roasted, and they need to be able to handle it if someone “spoils” their marshmallow.
Toasted or Roasted is great family game for younger players, but for older children, this is a bit on the simple side. As a game for multiple ages it works nicely since there is a mix of luck of the cards and strategy.
Conclusion
Toasted or Roasted does a great job at replicating some of the fun of cooking marshmallows over the campfire. For a simple game for younger gamers or a way to recreate the fun of camping it is a great choice.
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