Product: This favorite from Alan Moon and Bruno Faidutti has received a stellar makeover from Gryphon Games. Part of the Bookshelf Series, Incan Gold, a game for 3 to 8 players, includes five temple cards for the game board, 16 player cards, eight tent cards, 30 quest cards, five artifact cards and 110 blue, black and gold plastic gems. Also included are a color rule booklet and a thoughtfully designed plastic insert to store the game’s components.

Gameplay: Incan Gold is all about brinkmanship and a player’s ability to withstand the pressure of impending disaster long enough to attain greater wealth.

In essence, players are exploring an ancient ruined temple, looking for treasure and artifacts. Each player has a Torch or Camp card and secretly chooses one or the other during each round. The Torch card is used to indicate venturing deeper into the temple, the Camp card means the players is leaving the temple.

Every round, a new card from the Quest deck is turned over to reveal a treasure, artifact or hazard and placed in a path near the temple. The value of a Treasure card, represented by a number, is represented by plastic gems and divided among the players, rounded down. The remaining treasure, if any is left on the card. If an artifact is turned over, it is left in the path, waiting for a cunning adventurer to grab it. There are five different hazards, with three cards each. When one type of hazard is revealed, nothing happens. However, if a second matching hazard is turned over, all of the players are scared out of the temple and have to forfeit the treasure they’ve attained.

The key is to leave the temple before a second matching hazard card is flipped, thus keeping your treasure. If there is an artifact in the path and you are the only one to leave the temple that round, you snatch the artifact and its bonus points for yourself.

The player with the most treasure at the end of the game wins.

Marketing: This game is as Indiana Jones as it gets! It’s easy to learn, and the excitement that the game can generate in the players is often surprising. It is appropriate for kids as young as seven or eight, and is just as engaging for adults too. Children love to press their luck, risking it all in the hopes that they get huge rewards. Adults play a more nuanced game, second guessing their opponents and themselves.

Gryphon Games’ edition of Incan Gold has great components, including folding tents to conceal your treasure hoard from the other players. There are hours of fun contained in this tiny box.

Often overlooked are lunchtime activities at school, work or home. Incan Gold is the perfect lunchtime game. A full game can be played in about 30 minutes and it doesn’t require moving a lot of pieces, thus allowing players to eat and play at the same time. This is precisely the sort of introduction that could convert non-gamers or get youngsters interested in playing games.

Stock the rest of Gryphon Games’ Bookshelf Series, such as Looting London or Roll through the Ages. These are all accessible games that can become favorites and offer much more than Monopoly and similar games.

VITAL STATS

Product: Incan Gold

Publisher: Gryphon Games

Stock No.: 101171N

MSRP: $25

Availability: FRED Distribution

BOTTOM LINE
Accessible to pre-teens through adults
Exciting game of daring and risk management
Great introduction to Euro-style games