It’s been a while since I’ve seen a game with as much table presence as Pebble Rock Delivery Service! This game has my kids running to the table to pick up and deliver crates all around Pebble Rock. 

If only they could be as excited to pick up and deliver their toys to their rooms as well!

How do you play Pebble Rock Delivery Service?

In Pebble Rock Delivery Service you’ll guide your boat through the sea to make cargo deliveries to islands around Pebble Rock. 

The game plays over the course of 10 rounds, with players each having a chance to travel around the island once each round. 

Players have the option to roll either the red “risky” dice that gives them a higher chance of moving fast but also attracting enemies like pirates and sharks, or to roll the green “safe” dice to move slower without attracting threats. 

Deliveries are determined by cards that are flipped out showing a specific location on the board and the number of cargo crates players need to deliver to earn points. Players move their boat to those locations. If they get there first and have enough cargo, they complete the delivery and move around the score track. To refill your boats with cargo, you must return to the center. Players can also attempt to collect treasure chests for even more victory points. 

Players also have the option to visit shopping islands where they can get equipment to upgrade their boat or get special moves to aid them throughout the game. 

Along the way, players will have the opportunity to go fishing — rolling the fishing die to catch fish. These fish can be spent to move a players boat extra spaces after their dice roll is exhausted, a crucial help in completing deliveries. 

At the end of the 10 rounds the player with the most points from completed deliveries, treasure, and left over fish wins. 

What do we think?

We have given Pebble Rock Delivery Service (PRDS) quite a few plays and after spending many hours with this game, we have some mixed feelings on it. 

Let’s start with what it does well

Theme and Components

PRDS looks absolutely fantastic on the table. 

The table presence is off. the. charts. I love everything about how this game looks — from the circular board to the beautiful artwork, this game just pops.

This means that when this game comes out, everyone wants to play it. That’s exactly what I want in games for kids. 

Our kids love the ocean theme. They’re all way into Octonauts right now and the PRDS art really speaks to them. It’s also just a great theme for kids — they always make fun boat sounds as they move around the map, make the shark chomp on fish, and use pirate voices when stealing treasure. 

As for Components everything is made of top quality cardboard and feels very sturdy. The dice are also really well made. Nothing feels or looks cheap inside this box.

Also: I LOVE that PRDS comes with cardboard standees rather than miniatures! 

Why? Because this allows the box to stay small. If this game would have included miniatures, not only would they have been unnecessary, but they would have both increased the size of the box AND the price. 

As it stands, you get this giant game for $25! Fantastic!

The one minor complaint I would have is with the text on the cards. I wish this was a bit bigger or omitted for iconography. Because the game is so large, it can be difficult for the players on the far side of the table to read the cards on the other. You’ll just have to help those who maybe can’t see them.

As far as visibility goes, we also found it easier to play without the island standees on and preferred to lay them down. This helped our kids, more eye level with the game, see across the board better and improved their play experience.

Straight Forward Rules with Choice

PRDS is a pretty straightforward game – you pick up crates and deliver them around the map. While the game looks big, the rules aren’t too much so that kids can’t handle them. And there’s just enough decision making involved so it doesn’t feel like a roll and move.  

I also appreciate the elements on the board that allow players to increase their odds of completing deliveries. You can go fishing to catch fish which you can spend for more moves, navigate through whirlpools to move further, or chase after treasure for additional bonus points rather than completing a delivery.

Giving players the chance to choose whether they want to take more of a risk on their turn and roll the two red dice or play it a bit safer and roll the green is also another great element of choice found here. Our kids tend to switch it up and alternate between the safe route and the riskier route — thinking through their decision based on their placement in the game. 

It’s also nice that if you’re behind in points, you are automatically allowed to roll one each of the green and red dice. This is the perfect built in catch up mechanism and works really well. In fact, there’s some benefit in being last to give yourself the ability to do this. As long as you don’t fall too behind, you can use this as a strategy to sneak up and win.

None of these decisions are exceptionally difficult, it’s just nice that kids have to work through them. 

Where We Feel it Misses the Mark

Not Enough to Reel You Back In

While PRDS is a great stepping stone for kids as they progress their way to more difficult games, there’s not a ton here to keep you coming back again and again. 

As mentioned above, while there are choices to make, none of them are particularly crucial or exciting. The game feels pretty much exactly the same each time you play with little to no variety or reason to change your strategy. I worry that it would lead to the game feeling stale quickly. 

We really wish there would have been more cards like the passenger cards included in the game. Those by far were our favorite cards to complete. With these, rather than just boating to an island, you had to go to a specific island, collect your passenger, and then deliver them to another island. These help break up the monotony of the standard delivery cards. If there would have been a few more special cards similar to the passenger (there are only 4 total passenger cards) I think it would have helped make the game more interesting. 

Playtime is Too Long

The playtime is probably the biggest miss for me of the whole game. The game just takes too long to play. 

From set up to tear down, you will be playing PRDS for well over 1 hour. 

Every single game of ours took 45-60 minutes. Again, we’re playing at a full player count here, so if you’re just playing 2 you could come in around 30 minutes. However, where the time of the game sneaks up on you isn’t just in playing it, but it’s in setting it up and tearing it down. It takes about 10-15 minutes on each end to get everything out and back into the box. (Yes, I timed this.) 

While this may seem nit-picky, let me assure you it’s not. One of the top things I look for in a kids game is a quick start. That additional 10-15 minutes of set up time really eats into everyone’s enjoyment of the game once you cross that 30 minute mark and realize you’re only halfway through your 10 rounds. If PRDS was a solid 30-40 minute game start to finish, this would be a much easier recommend.

When it comes to games that take an hour plus to play, I really want them to offer a bit more for kids to work through than PRDS provides.

Do We Recommend It? 

So with such mixed feelings, do we recommend Pebble Rock Delivery Service? YES! 

Because of the stellar table presence, the light rules with choice, and the perfect price point, we don’t have any problems recommending this one. If the playtime seems too long for your family, we recommend playing one or two fewer rounds.

PRDS would make an excellent gift for a kid’s birthday or for a family that may not have a ton of experience playing modern board games. It has plenty here to excite players and help kids get ready to play more modern games without being overwhelming. 

Even as a family with a lot of board games, I still think this is a fun one to check out. Our kids all love it and enjoy playing it together. It feels big without being too much. I think it’s a fun game to get, play for a few months and if you decide you’re done with it after that, you’ve for sure gotten your money’s worth. 

If you’d like to pick up a copy of Pebble Rock Delivery Service click here. 
For all our top game recommendations check out our Amazon Storefront. 

A special thank you to our friends at Skybound Games for sending us a copy of Pebble Rock Delivery Service for review. As always our thoughts and opinions are our own. 

Game Info:
Title: Pebble Rock Delivery Service
2-4 Players Ages 8+
Designer: Tristam Rossin
Artist: Tristam Rossin
Publisher: Skybound Games

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