A Gentle Rain (Saturday Review)

The lake was very peaceful and still. Its surface was covered by countless lily pads from eight different varieties. These lilies were extremely rare. Seeing all of them bloom at once was a very special moment. It only ever happened when there was A Gentle Rain by Kevin Wilson from Incredible Dream Studios with art by Chris Bilheimer and Wiktor Kozyra.

A Gentle Game

I think the introduction to this tile-laying game immediately gives you a sense of how calm and cosy A Gentle Rain is to play. The rulebook underlines this feeling. Not only is it very short, but the first thing it tells players to do is to get comfortable.

The game wants you to change into loose clothing, put on some soft, calming music, like the playlist at the bottom of this article, and get a warming drink, like tea or a hot chocolate. That’s not all though. Next, you’re asked to stand up and stretch, to loosen your shoulders and get rid of all of your stress, then take some breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Only now are you allowed to begin.

The rulebook ensures you remain calm after this first step.

Setup is really quick and very easy to follow. You shuffle the deck of tiles and place one face-up on the table. You also prepare the eight bloom tokens.

The gameplay itself is not much harder. It consists of drawing a tile and adding it to those already on the table in Carcassonne fashion. Each square tile shows half a flower of a different colour. You need to match the half of the flower of the tile you’re placing with the flower halves of the same colour on the other tiles you’re connecting to.

If you manage to complete a 2×2 grid of tiles, you place one of the eight bloom tokens in the centre, which is an open circle due to each square tile having a quarter-circle notch cut into all four corners.

Your goal is to place all eight bloom tokens before the tile deck runs out. That’s it. That’s all there is to it.

A Cosy Rain

A Gentle Rain is the first game I have played that told me to chill out before I was allowed to begin – and it really works as well. You quickly realise that you have to relax if you want to do well. The more relaxed you are when you play, the better you are at spotting how best to place the tiles so that you can put out another bloom token. Conversely, the more you play the game, the more you automatically relax, as you focus on finding the best location for each of the tiles you place.

Chilling out and forgetting the stresses of the day becomes second nature when you play A Gentle Rain, so much so that every time you set up the game, you automatically relax. The illustrations by Chris Bilheimer and Wiktor Kozyra also really support the feeling of calmness.

What makes the game even more interesting is that you don’t have to play it as a solo game. It also works really well with other people. I certainly enjoyed playing it with my wife, taking turns drawing and placing tiles. I’m not sure at what player count the game would become too much, but it certainly works with two of you.

It’s really fascinating how both of you start to relax and chill out as you play and place the bloom tokens. You almost enter a meditative state. Just make sure to allow everyone to make their own decisions. I think an alpha player who tells the other players what to do would certainly ruin the calmness that A Gentle Rain creates. However, if you all take your turns in quiet and take your time to make your decision, you will all very quickly feel how calming the game is.

A Great Game

What’s also really good is that A Gentle Rain is basically a stack of 28 tiles and 8 bloom tokens, making it really easy to put in a small bag to take with you anywhere. It also doesn’t take up too much table space, so you can play it on most surfaces. My wife and I even played it in a park, pushing two chairs together and using the seating space as our game table. The tiles are pretty robust and don’t blow away too easily. It really worked surprisingly well.

The pattern-matching mechanism is something that really appeals to me, but because A Gentle Rain isn’t competitive, even though in theory you’re aiming to beat your own high score by having the most tiles left in the stack at the end, it removes the stresses and pressures you face in other similar games.

What Kevin Wilson has created here is like a precisely raked Zen garden with carefully placed Bonsai trees and boulders. On the face of it, it’s all very simple, but as you follow the raked lines and look at the detail on every tiny tree, your mind is focused away from the day-to-day stresses and worries. Every time you draw a tile, you have to look at the whole pond of tiles to find the best location to place it. You need to switch off your mind and concentrate on the game. A Gentle Rain is a gentle game with a lot of power.

Useful Links

• A Gentle Rain: https://kinfirechronicles.com/pages/a-gentle-rain
• Rulebook: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/267886/a-gentle-rain-2023-rulebook
• Rules video: https://youtu.be/K_G7XQkx-ik?si=jw1xPmnYXi2N8aTJ
• Incredible Dream Studios: https://www.incredibledream.com/
• BGG listing: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/334011/a-gentle-rain

Videos

Transparency Facts

I feel that this review reflects my own, independent and honest opinion, but the facts below allow you to decide whether you think that I was influenced in any way. Please also read my Ethics Statement for more information.

• I bought and paid for the game myself.
• At the time of writing, I have not received financial support from the publisher or anyone working on their behalf.

Audio Version

Intro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot (https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/)

Sound Effects: bbc.co.uk – © copyright 2025 BBC

Music: “Bird Meets Dog” provided by mobygratis.

Playlist

These are the songs I listened to while I was writing this review: