Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Easier to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Light strategy
Luck-sensitive
How it plays
How does it play?
Race upstream through a modular river, manage fatigue, and outmaneuver rival salmon while bears, eagles, and currents threaten the run.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Deck / Bag Building
Add new pieces during play to improve the cards, tokens, or dice drawn later.
Modular Board
Build the play area from interchangeable sections that vary between games.
Race
Compete to reach a destination, threshold, or objective before opponents.
Grid Movement
Move pieces between adjacent spaces on a regular grid.
Hand Management
Time and sequence a limited hand of cards to preserve future options.
Hexagon Grid
Use a hexagonal map where each space connects evenly in six directions.
Read the full game description
Salmon Run is a fast deck-building race in which each player guides a salmon upstream toward its spawning ground. Movement cards send fish across a modular hex river, while obstacles, currents, waterfalls, bears, and eagles make the shortest route risky. Every strenuous move can add fatigue to a deck, so a strong swimmer must balance speed with recovery and use special cards to slow nearby rivals. The first salmon to reach the spawning pool wins, with adjustable boards and hazards letting groups tune each race.
