Get painting with Bob Ross: Art of Chill

Are you ready to paint some Happy Little Trees?

Or perhaps you’d rather paint some Almighty Mountains.

Well, you can do both of those and many more in Bob Ross: Art of Chill by Big G Creative.

I’m pretty skeptical of board games based on pop culture references. Many times these publishers seem to rely on just the popular theme for success rather than quality game play.

So when I heard about a board game based on Bob Ross, a PBS art show and personality from the 80’s, I was very skeptical.

It turns out that Bob Ross: The Art of Chill was my most-surprising game played at SaltCon earlier this year.

I played it a couple times while at SaltCon and immediately put it on my board game wish list.

I’ve had a great time playing it!

And now I’m excited to tell you all about it.

 

How to play Bob Ross: Art of Chill

Bob Ross: Art of Chill is all about earning Chill Points by painting landscape features of paintings, learning special techniques, and gaining bonus points along the way. The first player to reach the end of the Chill meter is the winner.

At the core, the game is a set-collection game where players exchange sets of cards that match the colors of different features on paintings. Yet there’s also a number of other game play elements that make it unique and tie it very well to the Bob Ross painting theme.

To begin, players shuffle the Chill cards, Technique cards, and Art Supplies cards. The Chill cards deck is placed face down on the central Chill board. The top 4 cards of the Technique cards deck are placed face up next to the deck. Players are dealt 3 Art Supplies cards for their starting hand. And then the top 4 Art Supplies cards are placed face up in a row next to that deck.

Each player takes a Palette and the 3 matching colored markers and wooden cube. Everyone places their colored cube on the starting space of the Chill meter.

Lastly, a random painting is drawn and placed on the easel and the Bob Ross piece is placed at the left side of the painting on the easel shelf (first space of the Bob Ross track).

Each Painting has 3 main features that players (and Bob Ross) are working on painting to earn Chill Points. The possible features are Fluffy Clouds, Almighty Mountains, Wondrous Water, Charming Cabins, and Happy Little Trees.

On a player’s turn, they roll the die and do what it indicates then they complete 3 actions of their choice.

Rolling the Die

The six-sided die has 4 possible results:

• Palette — The player may play one card from their hand to their Palette.
• Card + — The player may take 1 Art Supplies card from the top of the deck
• Hand — The player may perform a free action of their choice.
• Bob Ross — The player draws the next Chill card and places it face up in the Chill card space on the board. Face up Chill cards remain in effect until they’re covered by another card. The player then moves Bob Ross one space to the right on the easel. If he moves onto a space with a feature, he paints that feature. Players who complete that feature after Bob Ross does won’t score bonus points for it. If Bob reaches the last space on the track, he finishes the painting.

Possible Actions

Players then perform 3 actions. They may perform the same action multiple times and perform them in any order.

• Draw an Art Supplies Card — The player takes an Art Supplies card either from the top of the deck or from the row of face up cards. If they take a face up card, it’s immediately replaced with a card from the deck.
• Apply Paint to their Palette — The player plays one card from their hand to either paint area on their Palette with the paint side as the top of the card. They must choose to place in the A or B area. Each area can hold 3 cards. Once 2 or more paints are in an area, they are considered “mixed” and cannot be used, separated, or removed individually.
• Wash their Palette — The player removes all cards from one area of their Palette (area A or B).
• Sweep the Art Supplies Cards — The player may discard all 4 face up Art Supplies cards and replace them with 4 newly drawn Art Supplies cards.
• Earn a Technique Card — To earn one of the cards, the player must discard from their hand 2 cards that match either the color or brush that they are claiming. When earned, the player immediately scores 2 Chill Points and places the Technique card face up in front of them where it will remain the rest of the game. In addition, for the remainder of the game, that player will earn 1 bonus point each time they paint a feature with that color or brush.
• Paint a Feature — To paint a feature of the active painting, the player must have the required colors on their Palette and the required brush in their hand. The paints can be in either area A or B, but the player may not separate colors that are mixed. Thus any required colors that have been mixed with incorrect colors may not be used for that feature. The player discards the brush from their hand and the required colors from their Palette. They earn Chill Points equal to the number of colors required for that feature. They then place one of their Markers on the board in the first space below that feature. If they are the first to paint that feature, they earn 2 bonus points. If they are second, they earn 1 bonus point. In addition, if Bob hasn’t yet painted that feature, the player also earns the bonus points indicated in the painting on the Bob Ross track. Players may paint any feature even if other players or Bob have already painted it.

Finishing a Painting

As soon as one player has painted all 3 features of the active painting (or Bob has done so – by reaching the last space on his track), the painting is considered finished. The game is paused (even if in the middle of a player’s turn) and the following occurs:

1. If it finished because a player completed their third feature, they earn all their points for painting the feature (and any bonuses).
2. Remove the Painting from the easel.
3. Draw the next random Painting and place it on the easel and place Bob Ross at the start of the track.
4. Return all Feature Markers to their respective owners.
5. Resume the turn of the player who was taking their turn.

As soon as one player reaches the end of the Chill Points meter, the game immediately ends and that player is the winner!

 

Can the whole family enjoy Bob Ross: Art of Chill

Bob Ross: Art of Chill is a great family board game!

We don’t know why the recommended age listed on the game box is 12+ because it’s certainly suitable for young kids as well.

As you can tell from our description of the game play, the rules are very simple and straightforward. Players collect color cards, play them to their Palette, and then use them along with a brush from their hand to paint features on the active Painting.

At its base, it’s as simple as matching the right colors.

However, it’s also not as boring as that.

Since players can gain bonus Chill Points in various ways, players also need to take other things into consideration while playing.

You can get bonus points from painting a feature before Bob Ross does. You can gain bonus points by being the first or second player to paint a feature. You can gain bonus points from using a Technique card in front of you. You can also gain bonus points from Chill cards in play.

With all these bonus points available, timing will have an impact on getting the most points.

And that’s what we love about the game.

Many people have compared Bob Ross: Art of Chill to Ticket to Ride — where players collect sets of cards to build train routes on a map. While there are some similarities, there are many more differences. One of the biggest differences is that players must first put their paint cards onto their Palette and commit them to one of the two areas where they get mixed.

This essentially telegraphs to the other players which features (based on the colors you have out) that you’re working towards. It gives a fun competitive aspect to the game. But it also isn’t too cutthroat because players don’t get cut off from painting the same feature.

In Ticket to Ride, if I complete a route between two cities, others players can’t do so. But with Bob Ross: Art of Chill all players can paint the same features. The only catch is that the first ones to do so get bonus points.

We’ve also played the game with a twist on the rules that we find helpful when playing with younger kids. The simple rules adjustment is to not “mix” paints on the Palette. When painting a feature, this allows players to pull cards from anywhere on their Palette.

Playing this way also essentially eliminates the action of Washing their Palette. If players can pull from any spot on their Palette, they won’t run into situations where they’ll need to Wash their Palette. So when playing with young kids, this simplifies things quite a bit.

We found that it also means players will be very close in points throughout the game. Which is also actually good when playing with young kids.

However, when playing with teens and adults we don’t make this adjustment. That way there’s a bigger challenge in managing paints played to their Palettes. And timing has a bigger impact on the game play. So players need to do a bit more planning throughout the game.

Another fun part of the game is reading the Bob Ross quotes at the bottom of all the Chill cards. They don’t impact game play at all, but they sure add to the theme of the game and relaxed atmosphere while playing.

 

Ode to Bob Ross

I remember watching The Joy of Painting show when I was young. I always liked drawing and wanted to be an artist when I grew up. I recall watching with wonder how quickly Bob Ross would turn a canvass into a sweet landscape.

That’s why I’m amazed an artist from an 80’s PBS painting show has had a resurgence in popularity over the last few years. (The show ran from January 1983 to May 1994.)

When I mentioned Bob Ross, my teenagers already knew who I was talking about. It totally surprised me.

Then all of a sudden it seemed I was seeing Bob Ross stuff everywhere. I’ve seen him on t-shirts at the high school. I’ve seen Bob Ross pajamas, Bob Ross Funko Pop figures, and even Bob Ross Pez dispensers. And I heard him talked about on one of my favorite podcasts, “The Way I Heard It”, by Mike Rowe this summer!

That was a cool episode to listen to because I had no idea about Bob Ross’s background. That’s when I learned Bob Ross was a Master Sergeant in the US Air Force. He quit at age 38, moved to Florida, and vowed never to raise his voice again. If you’ve ever watched Bob Ross’s show, you’ll know he’s one of the most calming voices there is. If you’d like to hear it as well, it’s Episode 106: Keep Your Voice Down.

 

How does Bob Ross: Art of Chill score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Bob Ross: Art of Chill scores very high on our “let’s play again” game meter. Not because there’s a ton of variety in the game, but because it’s a simple game to pull out and play.

The set-collection aspect of the game and the short time to play also add to the game’s draw for getting it to the table.

Personally, I also love looking at all the Bob Ross paintings. I enjoy pretending that I’m drawing the Fluffy Clouds or Charming Cabin in the woods.

If that sounds fun to you too, then grab a copy of Bob Ross: Art of Chill.

We’d like to thank Big G Creative for a review copy of Bob Ross: Art of Chill.