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Twenty-Five Short Plays: Selected Works from the University of North Carolina Long Story Shorts Festival, 2011-2015
Book
In the fall of 2011, The Long Story Shorts One Act Festival was launched featuring performances of...
Solitaire City (Ad-Free)
Games and Entertainment
7.0
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Play all your favorite solitaire games such as Klondike, Double Klondike, Spider, FreeCell,...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Tatorship in Tabletop Games
Feb 18, 2020
The world of politics and democracy is definitely a complicated and confusing place. Finding your way through all the jargon and political processes can be mind-boggling. Enter Tatorship – the card game specifically designed to teach you about democracy and politics as you play!
Disclaimer: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this preview. This is not the finished product, so some of the components may change in the final printing. -L
Tatorship is a card game of hand management and bidding in which players are racing to complete their secret political missions before their opponents. To set up the game, place the 6 Rights in their respective piles in ascending order. Each player randomly selects a Tator, Top Secret Mission, Bottom Secret Mission, and Executive Mission, as well as Action cards and a Bluff card. The Tator is your character, and provides a unique Executive power. The Mission cards (Top, Bottom, and Executive) each refer to specific Rights in the play area. Action cards provide resources necessary for interacting with the Rights, and for use during the Election.
On your turn, you interact with the current Rights on the table. The Rights in play act as the ‘rules’ for the current round. For example, one Right tells you how many Action cards to draw each turn, and another tells you what your hand limit is at the end of your turn. During this phase, you will also have the opportunity to ‘erode’ (remove) Rights from play. To erode a Right, you must pay the resources displayed on the Right card. Each Right has 4 cards, and the bottom-most card must be showing for that Right to be considered to be completely eroded. Your secret Missions require you to erode specific Rights in play, so you must strategize how to use your resources to best benefit your Missions. After all players have taken a turn, the game moves to the Election phase. During the Election, players are casting votes (the # of resources on the Action card is the # of votes it is worth) in an effort to elect a player to be the Executive for the next round. The Executive goes first in the next round, and gets to assign Roles to all players. In order to complete your Executive mission, you must have the Executive card at time of completion. You can vote for an opponent, as well as yourself. Cast a vote with your Bluff card, however, and your votes do not count! Trick your opponents into thinking you’ve voted for them, but reveal the Bluff and get those votes back. Didn’t win the Election? That’s ok! Take a Backstab card as a condolence. Backstab cards can be played at any time and can negatively affect your opponents, or could give you a leg up over opponents. Play continues until one player has completed all 3 of their secret Missions.
If you are confused at all by the rules/gameplay overview above, I have to admit that I am too. The rules provided with this game are extremely vague and confusing to understand. Not even a rulebook, these rules are compiled on 3 separate playing cards. The text is sparse, ambiguous, and contradictory. For example, one card says that each Right is followed once per turn per player, but in any order. But one of the Rights pertains to the Election phase, which I believe only happens once per round? Or does it happen on every single players’ turn since each Right is supposed to be followed by every player on every turn? The ambiguity of the rules bleeds over into other cards as well. Some cards say to ‘discount’ a Right, but nowhere does it say what ‘discount’ means. Do you immediately erode that Right by one? Or do you just pay one fewer resource to erode? There is no clarification anywhere, and that made this game frustrating to play.
Another qualm with this game is that it is supposed to be educational, but I do not think it achieves its goal. I do have to commend the creators for their efforts, but I think they fall flat. Every Action card has small text at the bottom that details the political concept addressed on the card. Here’s the catch – the text is educational, but it is so small that it can be easily ignored. It also has no bearing whatsoever on the gameplay, so I have to admit that I almost never read any of that extra text.
In theory, this game could be fun and educational. In actuality, though, it falls flat. The ambiguity of the rules meant that we played differently nearly every time. We tried interpreting the rules in several ways, but ultimately we just got frustrated by not knowing how everything actually works. With some serious rules work, this game has the potential to be something good. But in its current state, it feels more like a half-baked potato.
Disclaimer: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this preview. This is not the finished product, so some of the components may change in the final printing. -L
Tatorship is a card game of hand management and bidding in which players are racing to complete their secret political missions before their opponents. To set up the game, place the 6 Rights in their respective piles in ascending order. Each player randomly selects a Tator, Top Secret Mission, Bottom Secret Mission, and Executive Mission, as well as Action cards and a Bluff card. The Tator is your character, and provides a unique Executive power. The Mission cards (Top, Bottom, and Executive) each refer to specific Rights in the play area. Action cards provide resources necessary for interacting with the Rights, and for use during the Election.
On your turn, you interact with the current Rights on the table. The Rights in play act as the ‘rules’ for the current round. For example, one Right tells you how many Action cards to draw each turn, and another tells you what your hand limit is at the end of your turn. During this phase, you will also have the opportunity to ‘erode’ (remove) Rights from play. To erode a Right, you must pay the resources displayed on the Right card. Each Right has 4 cards, and the bottom-most card must be showing for that Right to be considered to be completely eroded. Your secret Missions require you to erode specific Rights in play, so you must strategize how to use your resources to best benefit your Missions. After all players have taken a turn, the game moves to the Election phase. During the Election, players are casting votes (the # of resources on the Action card is the # of votes it is worth) in an effort to elect a player to be the Executive for the next round. The Executive goes first in the next round, and gets to assign Roles to all players. In order to complete your Executive mission, you must have the Executive card at time of completion. You can vote for an opponent, as well as yourself. Cast a vote with your Bluff card, however, and your votes do not count! Trick your opponents into thinking you’ve voted for them, but reveal the Bluff and get those votes back. Didn’t win the Election? That’s ok! Take a Backstab card as a condolence. Backstab cards can be played at any time and can negatively affect your opponents, or could give you a leg up over opponents. Play continues until one player has completed all 3 of their secret Missions.
If you are confused at all by the rules/gameplay overview above, I have to admit that I am too. The rules provided with this game are extremely vague and confusing to understand. Not even a rulebook, these rules are compiled on 3 separate playing cards. The text is sparse, ambiguous, and contradictory. For example, one card says that each Right is followed once per turn per player, but in any order. But one of the Rights pertains to the Election phase, which I believe only happens once per round? Or does it happen on every single players’ turn since each Right is supposed to be followed by every player on every turn? The ambiguity of the rules bleeds over into other cards as well. Some cards say to ‘discount’ a Right, but nowhere does it say what ‘discount’ means. Do you immediately erode that Right by one? Or do you just pay one fewer resource to erode? There is no clarification anywhere, and that made this game frustrating to play.
Another qualm with this game is that it is supposed to be educational, but I do not think it achieves its goal. I do have to commend the creators for their efforts, but I think they fall flat. Every Action card has small text at the bottom that details the political concept addressed on the card. Here’s the catch – the text is educational, but it is so small that it can be easily ignored. It also has no bearing whatsoever on the gameplay, so I have to admit that I almost never read any of that extra text.
In theory, this game could be fun and educational. In actuality, though, it falls flat. The ambiguity of the rules meant that we played differently nearly every time. We tried interpreting the rules in several ways, but ultimately we just got frustrated by not knowing how everything actually works. With some serious rules work, this game has the potential to be something good. But in its current state, it feels more like a half-baked potato.
For the Love of Old: Living with Chipped, Frayed, Tarnished, Faded, Tattered, Worn and Weathered Things That Bring Comfort and Joy to the Places We Call Home
Book
This stunning volume focuses on the qualities of the old things in our homes (the patina of an old...
WGT Golf Game by Topgolf
Games and Sports
App
The #1 free 3D golf game, by TOPGOLF Media, as seen on NBC Sports, Golf Channel, DIRECTV and Fox...
Tour de France 2016 - the official game
Games
App
The Tour de France + VUELTA 2016 official game! Requires an Internet connection and iPhone 5, iPod...
Indian Train Simulator
Games
App
1. Available stations: Chennai - Bengaluru - Mumbai - Borivali - Surat - Bharuch - Vadodara - Anand...
Sheets & Giggles Game
Tabletop Game
The Sheets & Giggles Game is a party game for adults with 4 rounds of hilarious, inappropriate,...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Cryptocurrency in Tabletop Games
Apr 2, 2020
Money. Who knew that paper bills and small metal coins would hold such an important role in our society? In today’s day and age, though, with so much reliance on technology, we’ve managed to create digital currency called cryptocurrency. By buying, mining, and trading various cryptocurrencies, you just might turn yourself into an overnight millionaire! That is, if you’ve got the strategy required to outwit other traders…
You are the CEO of a fin-tech startup company. Leading a team of specialized experts, you will evaluate, trade, and mine different cryptocurrencies. Strategy is key, as you must stay ahead of the trend to maximize your earnings from the market. Can you solve the right algorithms and manipulate the network to help create the most wealth for your company? Or will you be scammed into buying worthless cryptocurrency? Play to find out!
Disclaimer: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This game is available to purchase, so the components seen in the pictures are what come with the game. I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook in this review, but rather provide the basic ruleset and general gameplay overview of the game. Feel free to pick up a copy of the game directly from the publisher or your FLGS! -L
Cryptocurrency is a game of commodity speculation, action points, trading, and a little push your luck in which players are trying to amass the most amount of money over 5 rounds. To setup the game, place the Cryptocurrency Info Boards in the center of the play area, and place the Market Board next to them. Prepare and distribute the Rumor cards, and create the Ongoing Transactions deck. Each player receives a player reference card, 3 Intern Expert cards, and a total of 6 Wonga (the currency of the game). The game is now ready to begin! Each round is broken up into 4 phases: Prep, Action, Upkeep, and Rumor. During the Prep phase, each player (in turn order) must draw a Rumor card, and may hire a new Expert or take a loan. Experts are hired (purchased) from the Job Seekers pile, and often provide special abilities or increased Action Points. Hired Experts must replace one Expert from their existing team. Your team can only have 3 Experts, so choose wisely who to hire and fire! A loan can be taken to immediately gain 8 Wonga, but interest must be paid for the loan later in the round. After each player has performed these actions, play moves to the second phase.
During the Action phase, players take turns performing one of two actions: Mining or Trading. These actions are performed by spending Action points – each Expert offers a certain number of points to spend. Once you use an Action Point, that Expert is exhausted and can no longer work in this phase. To Mine, players choose one of the 4 available cryptocurrencies to mine (research), and will either Succeed or Fail in this endeavor. If you succeed, you create and earn coins from that specific cryptocurrency, as well as any extra money earned from completing ongoing transactions. If you fail, your turn immediately ends. To take the Trade action, players will either Buy or Sell coins to/from the Market. You are only allowed to buy/sell the same cryptocurrency each turn, and you may buy/sell up to 4 coins each turn. For every 4 coins bought, the Market Board shifts to increase that currency’s price by 1 Wonga. For every 4 coins sold, the Market decreases by 1 Wonga. Once every player is out of Action Points, this phase is over.
In the Upkeep phase, players refresh all Experts, pay interest on any Loans, or completely pay off a Loan. The final phase, Rumor, moves in counter-clockwise order. Players take turns adding their secret Rumor card to the Rumor Track of one of the 4 cryptocurrencies. The market values are adjusted based on the Rumors played, and any face-down Rumor cards will affect the end-game value of the currencies. Play then returns to the Prep phase, and continues until 5 rounds have been completed. Players determine which cryptocurrency was a scam, sell any remaining coins, and then count up their money. The player with the most Wonga is the winner!
I have to admit that Cryptocurrency surprised me. After reading the rules and getting the game setup, I was feeling a little overwhelmed. I was prepping myself for a complicated, quasi-educational game in which I would be relatively unengaged and going through the motions each turn. What I got, however, was the complete opposite. Yes, there is a lot going on in this game, but it offers so many different mechanics and strategies for success that you’re always thinking one step ahead. There’s the aspect of bluffing when it comes to Rumor cards and manipulating the market through those means, there’s drafting of new Experts and shedding your hand of lesser-powered cards, there’s push your luck in the Mining action as the more Action Points you spend, the more opportunity you have for success. There’s not one sure strategy to win, and you are changing and adapting on every turn. You also have to be paying attention to your opponents! Although there’s not really any direct player interaction, everything you do on your turn could throw a wrench in the plans of your neighbor. Can you figure out how they’re trying to play the Market? Or will you try to fly beneath the radar and throw them off your trail?
My biggest issue with this game has to do with components. The cryptocurrency boards and the market board all work together, but they are all their own separate components. So it just makes set-up/tear-down a little more involved because instead of laying out 1 big board and adding components to it, you have to lay out and populate 5 individual boards. It just makes it a little more tedious than I would like, but honestly it has no bearing on the gameplay at all. The quality of the components is pretty good overall, the artwork is tech-influenced and fun, and the cardboard coins are nice and sturdy. So all in all, a pretty good production quality.
So what are my thoughts on Cryptocurrency? I actually liked it more than I thought I would. It’s engaging and strategic, yet relatively simple enough that it doesn’t feel like too much of a brain burner. I am no cryptocurrency expert by any means, but I feel like after playing this game, I have a better understanding of it and how it works. So mission accomplished, Captial Gains Studio – you have a fun AND educational game here. Is it one I will pull out at every game night? No. But it’s one that I am looking forward to playing again in the future. Purple Phoenix Games gives Cryptocurrency an economic 8 / 12.
You are the CEO of a fin-tech startup company. Leading a team of specialized experts, you will evaluate, trade, and mine different cryptocurrencies. Strategy is key, as you must stay ahead of the trend to maximize your earnings from the market. Can you solve the right algorithms and manipulate the network to help create the most wealth for your company? Or will you be scammed into buying worthless cryptocurrency? Play to find out!
Disclaimer: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This game is available to purchase, so the components seen in the pictures are what come with the game. I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook in this review, but rather provide the basic ruleset and general gameplay overview of the game. Feel free to pick up a copy of the game directly from the publisher or your FLGS! -L
Cryptocurrency is a game of commodity speculation, action points, trading, and a little push your luck in which players are trying to amass the most amount of money over 5 rounds. To setup the game, place the Cryptocurrency Info Boards in the center of the play area, and place the Market Board next to them. Prepare and distribute the Rumor cards, and create the Ongoing Transactions deck. Each player receives a player reference card, 3 Intern Expert cards, and a total of 6 Wonga (the currency of the game). The game is now ready to begin! Each round is broken up into 4 phases: Prep, Action, Upkeep, and Rumor. During the Prep phase, each player (in turn order) must draw a Rumor card, and may hire a new Expert or take a loan. Experts are hired (purchased) from the Job Seekers pile, and often provide special abilities or increased Action Points. Hired Experts must replace one Expert from their existing team. Your team can only have 3 Experts, so choose wisely who to hire and fire! A loan can be taken to immediately gain 8 Wonga, but interest must be paid for the loan later in the round. After each player has performed these actions, play moves to the second phase.
During the Action phase, players take turns performing one of two actions: Mining or Trading. These actions are performed by spending Action points – each Expert offers a certain number of points to spend. Once you use an Action Point, that Expert is exhausted and can no longer work in this phase. To Mine, players choose one of the 4 available cryptocurrencies to mine (research), and will either Succeed or Fail in this endeavor. If you succeed, you create and earn coins from that specific cryptocurrency, as well as any extra money earned from completing ongoing transactions. If you fail, your turn immediately ends. To take the Trade action, players will either Buy or Sell coins to/from the Market. You are only allowed to buy/sell the same cryptocurrency each turn, and you may buy/sell up to 4 coins each turn. For every 4 coins bought, the Market Board shifts to increase that currency’s price by 1 Wonga. For every 4 coins sold, the Market decreases by 1 Wonga. Once every player is out of Action Points, this phase is over.
In the Upkeep phase, players refresh all Experts, pay interest on any Loans, or completely pay off a Loan. The final phase, Rumor, moves in counter-clockwise order. Players take turns adding their secret Rumor card to the Rumor Track of one of the 4 cryptocurrencies. The market values are adjusted based on the Rumors played, and any face-down Rumor cards will affect the end-game value of the currencies. Play then returns to the Prep phase, and continues until 5 rounds have been completed. Players determine which cryptocurrency was a scam, sell any remaining coins, and then count up their money. The player with the most Wonga is the winner!
I have to admit that Cryptocurrency surprised me. After reading the rules and getting the game setup, I was feeling a little overwhelmed. I was prepping myself for a complicated, quasi-educational game in which I would be relatively unengaged and going through the motions each turn. What I got, however, was the complete opposite. Yes, there is a lot going on in this game, but it offers so many different mechanics and strategies for success that you’re always thinking one step ahead. There’s the aspect of bluffing when it comes to Rumor cards and manipulating the market through those means, there’s drafting of new Experts and shedding your hand of lesser-powered cards, there’s push your luck in the Mining action as the more Action Points you spend, the more opportunity you have for success. There’s not one sure strategy to win, and you are changing and adapting on every turn. You also have to be paying attention to your opponents! Although there’s not really any direct player interaction, everything you do on your turn could throw a wrench in the plans of your neighbor. Can you figure out how they’re trying to play the Market? Or will you try to fly beneath the radar and throw them off your trail?
My biggest issue with this game has to do with components. The cryptocurrency boards and the market board all work together, but they are all their own separate components. So it just makes set-up/tear-down a little more involved because instead of laying out 1 big board and adding components to it, you have to lay out and populate 5 individual boards. It just makes it a little more tedious than I would like, but honestly it has no bearing on the gameplay at all. The quality of the components is pretty good overall, the artwork is tech-influenced and fun, and the cardboard coins are nice and sturdy. So all in all, a pretty good production quality.
So what are my thoughts on Cryptocurrency? I actually liked it more than I thought I would. It’s engaging and strategic, yet relatively simple enough that it doesn’t feel like too much of a brain burner. I am no cryptocurrency expert by any means, but I feel like after playing this game, I have a better understanding of it and how it works. So mission accomplished, Captial Gains Studio – you have a fun AND educational game here. Is it one I will pull out at every game night? No. But it’s one that I am looking forward to playing again in the future. Purple Phoenix Games gives Cryptocurrency an economic 8 / 12.