Monsoon Market Art Preview


Here's a quick preview of the art in Monsoon Market, the game of fast fortunes on the Indian Ocean. It's a time of peace and profit! There is abundant trade between East Africa and China, and whoever runs a port city can get rich quick. The game is a race is to get fifteen seals of approval from Zheng He, the Chinese Imperial mariner visiting every port on the Monsoon Market.


You earn seals by using Gems, Books, Peppers, Silks, Leathers, and Wood to fulfill orders as they come into your port. The first four goods come in quantities of 1, 2, 3, or 4. Several of the 1s are actually hybrid cards, which may be used as either of two goods, but still only a quantity of 1. Leather is always in a quantity of 3 and Wood is always a quantity of 4, but no orders ever specifically call for these basic commodities.


There are three levels of accuracy with which you can complete an order.
  • For the gold rate, you must spend the exact types of goods in at least the quantity noted on the order card.
  • For the silver rate, the types of goods don't matter, but they must still be separate sets and in the minimum quantity.
  • For the bulk rate, they can be any goods in any mix as long as their total quantity is at least the total quantity on the order.
As you can see on the cards, there are different rewards for each rate depending on the card. Some bulk rate orders give you permanent bonus goods. This would be a useful way to spend some of that leather or wood building up in your storeroom.

In addition to completing the order, you also get to do one of four special actions noted on the order card. Chaining orders together to maximize your turn is the key to winning Monsoon Market!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Graphic Design and Typography Tips for your Card Game

Image
Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has
Read more

Low-High Dice Game

Image
A dice game inspired by the stock market (and playing lots of Martian Dice). Roll a bunch of dice and choose which sets to keep. Choose your strategy wisely! Stuff You Need Two-to-Six PLAYERS A PENCIL and PAPER to keep score Thirteen standard six-sided DICE How to Play The shortest player takes the first turn. On your turn, first roll all thirteen dice. Several dice will have matching results. These are called SETS. (A single die result is a set, too.) You must choose a set to keep. For example, your first roll results are 111124445555 . The sets are four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, and four 5 s. After keeping a set of dice, lock them up in a row. This is called the GOOD TRACK. For example,  you could keep the set of four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, or four 5 s . You decide to keep the four 1 s and line them up in your good track. After keeping a set, you may end your turn or re-roll the remaining unlocked dice. When you re-roll, immediately set aside any results that ar
Read more

The Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge

Image
UPDATE: The submission period has closed and here are the entries. If you're an entrant, continue sending pics or vids of people playing your game. The first step to a game lasting a thousand years is for people to play it today. UPDATE 2: And here's the winner! To support games designed for longevity – that can be learned, played and shared for hundreds of years – we offer this challenge to any game designers, artists and imaginative people who also share this desire. Challenge Create a game. The game can be of any theme or genre you desire, but there is one restriction: You're creating a "new classic," like Chess, Tag or card games. So, create a game to be enjoyed by generations of players for a thousand years. Prize $1,000 to the winning entrant, to be announced and awarded January 1, 2012. Entry Deadline Entries must be submitted before midnight July August 31st, 2011. ( Update ) Entry Guidelines Enter by posting a comment below with a link
Read more