Games Unplugged
Oct/Nov 2000, Issue #3
Cherie Whitman
USA

Players in this card game are castaways on a deserted island. Each player bids for comforts such as fruit, a palm leaf, and coconut milk. The longer you hold out before buying a resource, the cheaper the price. The price is critical because each player begins with only 15 counters to use for bidding. The object of the game is to be the first one to reach either 100 points of the same colored resource cards, or 150 points of different colored resource cards. But the real fun is trying to predict what the other players will do. If you are intuitive enough, you can foil the plans of your opponents.

Each player has three "pass," two "stop", and one "strike" card. Every player lays one card face down. The players make a row with everyone's cards, and then another round begins. This continues until someone who played a Stop card calls stop. The cards in the last row are revealed to determine the winner: A Strike card beats a Stop card. A Stop card beats a Pass card. And a Pass card cannot win a bid. In the event of a tie, the previous cards are revealed and the player with the most Pass cards wins.

The game is easy and quick to learn. I had a lot of fun playing the game and will definitely play it again. The best part is playing a Strike card when everyone else played a Stop. There may not be enough strategy and too much luck to make this a game for the ultra-serious gamer. B+

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