Description

Return to the 19th century for the glorious birth of the novel!

In this game take the role of a new book publishing house, seeking to sign quality authors and publish their best works. By publishing best sellers and creating a diverse library of works you can not only make money, but achieve the trust and confidence of the bookreading public.

Mechanics

The design employs innovative dice placement mechanics. Players must overcome difficult dilemmas in a framework that avoids complicated rules and analysis paralysis. Each turn begins with a die roll. Where this roll matches the players' dice, they activate, bringing in authors, books and money, or moving books further along the publishing pipeline, earning sales along the way. (This is akin to games like Machi Koro, but here the player gets to decide what the matching number is, and over time the numbers erode.)

Activated dice always reduce their value by one, and are eventually removed, so the player's holdings and situation are always in flux. Players must constantly evaluate where they stand and decide how best to place their new dice, not only with respect to their own tableaus, but also those of the opponents.

Players interact, not merely competing to create the best selling books, but also by signing away others' authors, and even their books.

Other features

In the end the winner is the player who not only made the most money, but also the one with the most best sellers and with the widest stable of authors, giving players additional fodder for their decisionmaking.

Along the way players can remember the wonderful novels they have surely enjoyed over the years, each card bearing a delightful original illustration of its storyline. They can even learn a little bit about the publishing process along the way.

The game has been extensively developed and tested so as to complete by the 45-minute mark when there are up to four players. It comes in a small package that is easy to take along as well.