| Pyramid Magazine
Andy Vetromile
October 2002
USA
Considering its impressive track record of developing
fast-playing games that are easy to learn but still
demand a lot of the players' noggins, Out of the Box
Publishing Inc. doesn't have far to go to strike gaming
gold. As such, it may seem hopelessly redundant to name
a game Gold Digger.
The object of the game is to be the player with claims
in the most valuable mines. Everyone else will want
to fight with you for the productive ones, or will try
to fill those mines you claim with a lot of worthless
fool's gold.
The game -- suitable for two to five players -- starts
with six Mine Cards, each a different color. Each player
gets three cards from the deck and three Claim Tokens
(each player has a different color of Claim Token, but
only so you can tell which claims are yours; there's
no connection between your token color and the mine
colors). On his turn, a player must play one of his
cards. This can be a Character Card, a Gold Card, or
a Fool's Gold Card. Like the mines, the Character Cards
are color-coded, and must be played above the Mine Card
of the same color; each mine has five characters of
matching hue. If a player places one of these cards,
he will have the option in the next step of staking
a claim there (you cannot stake a claim on a mine unless
you played a character there this same turn).
If you prefer, you can play a Gold or Fool's Gold Card;
these go under the Mine Card of your choice. Each mine
can only have five cards under it. The Gold Cards are
worth from one to eight points (each card has little
bags of gold to show how much it's worth), but a Fool's
Gold card is worthless, and some of those will doubtless
take up a few of those five precious slots.
After playing a card, a player may stake a claim. You
may place a plastic Claim Token on a Mine Card if you
played a Character Card there this turn. You don't have
to place a claim; you could wait for a more valuable
mine to start piling up bags of gold, or, if you think
too many people will vie for the high-scoring spots,
you may try to claim a smaller mine whose profits you
don't have to share.
You have to be careful with your tokens; once spent,
you cannot claim additional mines. Playing a token too
early lets your opponents know which mine to fill with
fool's gold. If you wait, though, you may not get to
place all your Claim Tokens; there's no guarantee you'll
get a matching Character Card on a mine with a decent
output.
At the end of your turn, you draw back to three cards
and play passes to the left. When the last of the 66
cards is on the table, the game ends and you rack up
points. If you have the only Claim Token on a mine,
all the points therein belong to you (assuming it's
not brimming with fool's gold). If multiple players
have placed a token there, the points are totaled and
divided evenly among the claimants (fractions are discarded).
So a mine with cards picturing five bags of gold is
worth five to one claimant, two points each to two miners,
and only one point to three, four, or five claimants.
Add all your mine totals together, and the high score
wins.
There's not much to dislike about a game like this.
The colors are bright and vibrant, John Kovalic's cartoon
pictures (each Character Card has a name, like Donna
Partie or Mannin Black) are oh-so-delightful, and you
can take in the whole layout in a glance. It can require
a lot of calculation and forethought, but play still
seems to be pretty fast with all but the most fastidious
players. It's a tightly woven game, and there's plenty
of noodle scratching as players try to balance out all
the strategic considerations.
Like many Out of the Box products, the simple setup
makes it feel like you're paying a good bit of money
for not much product (it's the sort of product Cheapass
Games may sell for half the price) but when the homestead
is on the line, you're down to your last token, and
your fortunes rest on grabbing that mother lode, somehow
such factors fade into the background. Gold
Digger hits a rich vein of fun.
--Andy Vetromile
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