(Currently in the planning stages of the cards prior to prototype)
Idea: players are monks brewing beer and trading it for books to read and then re-trade for other books, growing their knowledge in a race to become an expert in any one subject.
Mechanisms:
Set Collection
Engine Building
Trade Negotiation
Asymmetrical starting resources
Each player starts with asymmetrical knowledge and a stack of books they have already read. Each Subject is 13 volumes, so maybe 2 each of 3 subjects with less than 4 rarity, balanced but asymmetrical. total of 6 books to trade.
Travelers come to visit wishing to trade and drink beer. You can trade a book one for one with a beer toss in, or buy it with beer (it costs more, the number of beers must equal the rarity of the book. maximum of 4 difference... after that beer isn't enough.), Read a book and consume its knowledge/ copy it and also brew beer (get more to trade).
I really want this to have quick turns... Kind of like Ticket to Ride players really only have two choices every turn:
Turn Choices:
Create/Brew Beer and Read a Book (which book to consume?)
Or
Trade with a traveler (Which books to acquire with Books and Beers combos.)
Players bid against each other to acquire the travelers books. Based on what they value in subjects. Travelers would turn up looking for beer and a swap. There would be a number of subjects. Each traveler would value those subjects differently.
Each Traveler card would have a picture. A list on the left of the books he's carrying and then a list on the right about the subjects he's interested in by order of preference. Rarity would be the tiebreaker between people trading.
Keep track of gained knowledge on a chart. (Maybe on paper with a picture of a brain or a book shelf cross divided for each subject and rarity in sections. Then players could color in the acquisition to mark it as read)
Game ends after 2 years or 24 months/rounds. Each round consists of new travelers, and either Trading or Reading/Brewing. Each month you can brew beer based on your knowledge of brewing too. The more you know the more beer you can brew.
Subjects:
Beer/Brewing
Flowers and Herbs
Poetry/Art
Literature/Classics (Harder to collect, maybe have more of them. 12 books.)
Cooking (have two books that count as both cooking and hunting)
Carpentry/Building
Hunting/wildlife/
History (easier to collect lots of them. No top end bonus)
Travelers: each would have a name and occupation and list of books they have as well as a list of subjects they are interested in:
Example:
Kyle Devermous:
Hunter/trapper
Subjects interested in:
1. Hunting/wildlife
2. Cooking
3. Flowers and herbs
4. Literature
Has for trade:
Hunting vol: 4, 6, 10
Cooking Vol: 2, 7
Literature Vol: 1, 2
The higher the number the more rare the book. Travelers will only trade straight up with a beer toss in within 2 numbers of the rarity of the book desired or obviously more rare. E.g. They will trade a cooking 5 for a 3,4,or higher. If it's a Hunting 10, only an 8 or 9 would be accepted the number of beers you give them will make up the difference. You can package a 2 for 1. Pairing a 2&5 =7. Or a 4&5 plus a beer =10
Brewing: Each player starts with the ability to brew 2 bottles per month. (Not much) for each different book on brewing you read that increases by 1. Top levels 11,12,13 increase by two.
Obviously if more than one offer they take the more rare book. Players will bid for the travelers. The traveler takes the best offer. The other players must then seek a different traveler. There will be one more traveler than players in a game.
With 52 travelers cards. In a 2 player game of 24 rounds 2 per round that's 48 or 3 per round so 72 cards so twenty will come back around again. Shuffle after deck is exhausted, then the randomly drawn travelers come back for more.
Maximum efficiency has 11 turns to acquire and 11 turns to read. Min 22 rounds to collect a complete set. So it will be hard to get total expertise. The winner will be the person who gets closest.
End Game scoring is based on set collection on a head to head basis. The player with the most complete set on a subject consumed (read) wins. If there is a tie it goes to a 2nd most read subject. If still a tie add up the rarity on both two subjects at the higher total rarity wins.
Advanced rules; in the more rare books you can actually create things for trade (10s,11s,12s and 13s). But only if you have consumed 4 books as well on the same subject (like a working knowledge).
E.g.; carpentry= advanced whittling=toys. Cooking=food. Hunting=clothing made with skins. Etc. a bonus for acquiring the knowledge and using it for trade. But only if the traveler has that subject at the top of his wishlist. This really gets into the engine building
Also I think I want some crossover at the upper levels. Brewing vol 11 and Herbs level 10 might be the same book. Carpentry and Hunting might be a crossover book. History of Cooking could be crossover book. good for both subjects.
Ways to curve values: Increase/decrease the number of books available at all levels. Make the avg desire for the subject higher or lower. (Harder/easier to trade)
(Alternate Theme "Beer Authors" could be creating books from practical knowledge gained from travelers talking and stories. Writing it down and then creating the book? Which then could be copied and then traded.)
Alternate names: Brewers Library; Literary Libations; Books a Brewing, Brewing Books,
The fun: Is in the set collection and the trading what you have to get what you need. Or blocking some else's acquisition. Plus the decision to trade or consume every turn makes it a quick turn rather than long ones. Each turn should take no more than a minute. Plus each set of travelers wants different things so having a spread to entice them can be key to success
