Thanksgiving Day prep is often a whirlwind of foils and follies, where the best-laid plans crumble under the pressure of time constraints, mishaps, and unpredictability. Once safely in the oven, the turkey suddenly hogs all the attention, with people suddenly remembering it needs more butter (and there isn’t any!) – or worse, it gets burnt. Side dishes that seemed simple enough get forgotten in the chaos, while the table somehow managed to be missing a few settings, or the kids’ table is left out entirely. And just when you think you’re all caught up, your cousin hastily informs you that you’re out of toilet paper… This mix of chaotic surprises coupled with moments of unexpected help and small victories is exactly what Bobby Doran’s Turkey Day seeks to emulate, giving players the chance to experience the time management and unexpected challenges of getting everything ready before the holiday feast.

In addition to Turkey Day, Bobby Doran has designed and illustrated quite a few lightweight games over the years. Many of them are available to download as print-and-play (a.k.a. “PnP”) games. For those who have never heard of or played with a PnP before, the concept is fairly simple and self-explanatory. These types of games are typically downloaded, printed, and assembled at home, sometimes with additional components – like meeples or dice – being found around the house. Many of these games, including Turkey Day, are free, while others can be purchased online through platforms like Etsy or directly from game companies’ webstores. In the instance of Turkey Day, all of the files can be found on Board Game Geek in PDF format and include everything needed to play except for the necessary “glass beads” or other similar objects to mark off spaces on the board as you progress through the game.

After printing the game board and cutting out the cards, we recommend sleeving the cards for extra stability and durability. To set up the game, start by shuffling the Thank Goodness and Dag Nabbit cards into a combined deck. Once shuffled, set this deck off to the side, as it will be drawn from throughout the game. Next, the player needs to gather any beads, cubes, tokens, or other markers that they’ve opted to use to track progress and actions. These markers should also be placed off to the side. In our games, we used meeples of various colors but, after several plays, found that laminating the game board and using a wet-erase marker worked easier. With everything prepared, players are all set to tackle the Thanksgiving chaos and see if they can pull off a successful feast!

The rules for Turkey Day are very light and accessible, making it great for gamers young and old to pick up and enjoy. Each game takes place over 12 rounds, referred to as “hours,” representing a portion of Thanksgiving Day. Each hour comes with 3 actions to spend. These actions can be used either to cook, prep, or deal with the Dag Nabbit cards. At the start of each round, the player moves the hour tracker forward by one to signify the passage of time. Then, they will flip over a card, which will either present a new challenge to overcome, offer a set of helpful hands (extra actions for the turn), or provide another beneficial boon. After addressing the card’s effect, the player will spend their action points to either cook the Thanksgiving meal, overcome unexpected obstacles, or set the table. The game ends when either all the red spaces on the board are covered, signaling that the Thanksgiving meal is complete, or when the 12th hour has passed, marking the end of the day. At that point, players can compare their scores to the chart in the rulebook and assess whether they’ve managed to pull off a successful feast or if Thanksgiving is a bit more chaotic than anticipated.

Though touted as a solo game, we found Turkey Day to be surprisingly flexible in player count. We were able to set this up for the kids and let them play together. It became a great opportunity to build teamwork, as they discussed how best to spend their actions each hour. The cooperative element of deciding how to tackle each task fosters communication and strategic thinking. Additionally, it teaches them how to manage their time wisely, balancing the limited actions available to accomplish the most possible within the constraints of each round. For older groups, we still enjoyed playing the game together, but it does seem to work more smoothly as a solo experience. Our only real complaint was that the rules do not specify how many markers are needed to play the game, but, again, we solved this by eventually switching over to using a marker to track our progress. The game only takes 10 minutes or so to play through, but does an excellent job of capturing the need for time management while remaining light and fun. Overall, we found Turkey Day to be quick to set up, easy to jump into, and offering just enough challenge to keep things engaging without being overwhelming.

All photos for this review were taken and edited by Krista unless otherwise specified.