In past Privateer Insider blogs, I’ve written about the Bodgers Games and how our goals for these games are a bit different than for WARMACHINE, HORDES, and LEVEL 7. Bodgers also have vastly different balances of skill, strategy, luck, and social interaction. For folks who play a lot of Privateer Press games, this keeps things fresh and helps provide a wide variety of gaming experiences. Whether a particular friend or group of friends is into hobby miniatures gaming, family gaming, or board game experiences that fall somewhere in between, Privateer Press offers something for everyone.
The upcoming Bodgers Game, BodgerMania, fits into the Bodgers paradigm of being easy to learn and having a lot of social elements, but it also stands out in a few ways. One element that sets it apart is the number of players. There are already several great Bodgers Games for two to four players, so we knew from the start we wanted this one to allow five or even six players, all competing to win each hand. In games of five or six players it becomes critical to find the right mix of cooperative and competitive gaming spirit. Without some support and cooperation your chance of winning multiple hands drops to almost nothing. If you give away too much of your own support, you can wind up playing right into an opponent’s hand instead!
The foundation of BodgerMania gameplay is a trick-taking game embellished with the bodgers’ zany hijinks. As with other trick-taking games, players receive a hand of cards they ultimately use to take the most individual tricks—but the bodgers’ twists really keep you on your toes.
In BodgerMania, the trump suit isn’t chosen by a bidding process or by simply having a particular high card; it’s a voting process. Trump can even be different for each trick during the same round! Not only does this voting process determine the relative values of your cards by assigning the trump suits to each hand, it also determines which cards the players have remaining to use to take those tricks.
The bodgery twists don’t end there! The players’ cards shift as they make card selections for their hands and vote for trump color. The trump suits for individual tricks change constantly, and players earn prize cards throughout the game. These prize cards can be used to modify other cards in the player’s hand during The Main Event, an explosive final round with the most twists and tricks of all, ultimately leading to just one champion.
BodgerMania releases next month, but if you’re going to PAX East come visit the Privateer Press booth to try it out and pick up an advanced copy!
-DC
