Monsoon Market at UnPub May 10 at Atomic Empire in Durham

(Photo: Playtesting Monsoon Market with Alec Nelson, Jon Bolding, and Joanna Bolding)

Monsoon Market will be at the upcoming UnPub Mini at Atomic Empire in Durham, NC! I've got the core mechanics pretty much ready to go for the event, I just really need some play-hours to refine the point values and distributions.


The basic gameplay is pretty familiar to most trading game fans. You've got several types of goods in your display (your tableau) and in your storage (your hand). There is a central lane of three Order cards, representing boats who have come to port to fulfill orders. There is a central market tableau of goods cards, too. On your turn, you can:
  • Trade any goods cards from your display for an equal number of cards from an opponent's display.
  • Steal one goods card from an opponent's display.*
  • Buy goods cards from the central market. Discard a goods card. Its rank is the number of cards you can take from the market.*
  • Fulfill orders and take Order cards. There are three ways to fulfill an order, all require spending goods from your display and/or storage, plus any coin costs noted.
*Note: Your display must always be filled as much as possible. It has room for four cards. Your hand has room for five cards. If you ever lose cards from your display but have cards in hand, you must immediately fill that empty spot. If you buy multiple cards in your turn, you can decide which of the new cards will go to your display before ending your turn.


Fullfilling an Order:
  • Best: Spend the required goods noted on the Order card, in at least the quantities noted. So in this case, you'd need to spend at least 1 cloth, 1 pottery, and 3 coins. If you do this, you can take that order card into your score pile and turn it so the highest score is facing you.
  • Mediocre: Spend at least the required amount of any separate sets of goods. So in this case, you'd spend 1 of any good, 1 of any other good, and 3 coins. If you do this, you take the order card, but turn it so the medium score is facing you.
  • El Cheapo: Spend any amount of goods, regardless of the mix. In this case, you'd spend 2 of any good and 3 coins. If you do this, you take the order card, but turn it so the lowest score is facing you.
If you fulfill an order with Best or Mediocre options, you get some extra bonuses like extra actions. These include:
  • Keep a Card: Keep one of the cards you used to fulfill this order.
  • Draw a Card: Draw a goods card at random from the deck.
  • Steal a Card: Steal a card from an opponent's display.
  • Fulfill Another Order: Using whatever goods you have left, you can fulfill another order.
Some bonuses give you extra points at the end of the game.
  • 2 VP for each (City): The cities are famous ports visited by Zheng He. These are Srivijaya, Ayuthaya, Mombasa, Calicut, and Nanjing.
  • 1 VP for each (Good): For each particular type of good you have in your display or storage, you score 1 VP.
 And that's it! Presently I've set the game to end on the round in which the first player fulfills five orders, with everyone getting one last turn to score some extra points.

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