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Paint the Roses

Cooperative garden deduction in Wonderland: build the Queen's perfect garden with secret orders you can't simply announce.

Paint the Roses is a cooperative deduction game set in Alice in Wonderland, where you are the Queen of Hearts' newly appointed gardeners and the last thing you want to hear is "Off with their heads!" Each of you holds secret cards describing how the garden should look, but you may not just say it out loud. Instead you build a hex-tile garden together and pass hints through the tiles you place and the clues you're allowed to give. As soon as one whim is satisfied, a new one lands in your hand, and the game quietly adapts its difficulty to how well you're doing. Think Hanabi-style limited talking, but with a garden to shape. Best with four.

Secret whim cards, limited talkingShared hex-tile garden in WonderlandDifficulty adapts as you play

Who it's for

You like cooperative puzzles where reading your teammates is the real challenge, and an Alice in Wonderland theme is a bonus.

Not for you if…

You want to compete against each other or hate limits on what you may say. Here, you win only if everyone reads everyone right.

Vibe's take

Quietly tense and chatty in a restrained way. You squint at tiles, over-read each other's hints and cheer when a whim finally clicks.

#1,626 on BGG

of over 30,000 ranked board games

Published 2022 · 4 years ago

newer than 67% of games

In 5,156 collections

collected more than 59% of games

2–5 players · ages 10+

Best with 4 · publisher: 11+

50–70 min

longer than 70% of games · typical 30–90 min

Complexity: medium

One warm-up round · 2.4 out of 5 · heavier than 67%

Opinions: usual spread

A normal range of ratings

Language: little text

A few terms, easy to look up

Play style: cooperative