Octoraffe Games’ Brick & Mortar Kickstarter Preview

To be successful in a Brick & Mortar business, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.

Setup

1. Place the game board in the center of the table where all players can reach it.
2. Separate the resource cubes into piles according to their color. Place the piles next to the board.
3. Place the month marker on January
4. The phase marker on the “Building” space of the Phase Board.
5. Place the game-end marker on the 45 space of the point track (35 in a 4-player game).
6. Arrange the money
7. Debt Tokens in piles next to the board.
8. Separate the Starting Stores8from therest of the Store Cards. In a 2- or 3-playergame, remove any Starting Stores with a player count that is greater than thenumber of players.
9. Shuffle the Market
10. Store decks,then place them near the game board
11. Each player chooses a color. Place each player’s point marker on the “10” space of the point track.
12. Choose a starting player and, in clockwise order, place each player’s turn marker12onthe game board in the section marked “Turn Order.”

Give each player the following:

• • Building Board (13)
  • Bidding Dial (14)
  • Screen (15)
  • $15 (16)
  • 5 Market Cards (17)
  • 4 Store Cards (18)

19. Deal 4 face-up Store Cards19next to the Store deck. These will be public stores available during the “Building Phase”.
20. Then, flip over one more Store Card and set it on top of the dec

Play Summary

After setup, you will have a screen, a Bidding Dial, $15, and a hand of Market and Store Cards. The game is played in rounds. Each round has 7 phases:

• Building- Players may open a new store and/or close any number of stores.
• Advertisement- All players simultaneously play 2 Market Cards, then drawback to 5 cards. These cards add to the available supply when stocking stores and dictate which items players can sell this round.
• Supply- Gather the Supply Cards and add the depicted items to the market. Players stock their stores with items from the market, bidding for them if necessary.
• Sale- Flip over the Demand Cards to determine the demand for each type of item. Players sell items from their stores, placing them onto these cards. If there is insufficient demand, players must bid to sell their items.
• Inventory- Move all items down one shelf, discarding any that fall off the bottom shelf.
• Utilities- Players pay their stores’ utility costs.
• Investment- Each player may buy up to10 points or sell any number of points.

Month End

If the current month is December or if someone reached a game-end trigger, the game ends. Otherwise, move the Month Marker to the next month and move the phase marker back to “Building.”

Game End

Two conditions trigger the end of the game:

• A player reaches the game-end marker on the point track.
• It is the end of December.

Game-End Marker

The moment a player reaches the game-end marker on the point track, remove the marker from the board. This is now the last round—even if the player who reached the marker sells their points or otherwise loses them.

In most games, this will happen around July or August, but it is possible for players to rush the ending or draw it out.

Final Scoring

After playing out the final month, take the value of your point marker and add any points from your stores. Then, subtract the indicated points for each empty slot on your Building Board. Finally, subtract 1 point for each Debt Token you have.

Turn order does not change during final scoring.

In the case of a tie, the player who is further ahead in turn order (closer to 1) wins.

First Impression

It’s weird, but I’ve always wanted to be a shop/business owner. As a kid, I wanted to own my own business, but had no idea what. But now with Brick & Mortar I can live my childhood dreams without the hard work & risk.

Yet with Brick & Mortar Stores often failing before the first year is out. Will this game succeed where others have failed? We will see.

Game Play

Brick & Mortar could really be used to help give people a broad understanding of business management, as some of these themes & mechanics take me back to my Year 10 Business class. It is so strange how it give you a great understanding of economic & the way it handles supply & demand is quite brilliant.

I sat down with my Isolation BFFs, my new neighbours, to play Brick & Mortar. One of which actually has just started an online business & after we played through once, she was hooked….. and beat use for the next 3 games.

I love so many things about the game play. Yet the bidding mechanic has to be my favourite. I love that fine line between pushing too hard, undercutting too much & then missing out to not pushing hard enough & missing out on maximum profit. Just the way this is handle with the screens & dials, is so simple, yet so ingenious. It helps raise tension within the game & pushes players to really think.

Yet, you don’t want to win all the time, as demand is another big mechanic in Brick & Mortar. As stock rotation can be a killer & eat into your profits. You don’t want that, do you?

I love the way stock rotation is handled. On your store cards there are literally just shelves, and stock moves down. It is such a simple & clever design element that is so effective. I couldn’t think of a better way to show this.

Brick & Mortar is challenging, strategic & a hell of a lot of fun…..not to mention, feeling like you own multiple businesses & making them all profitable really makes Kid Dez very happy

Art

When I first showed this game to my housemate, her first comment was, ‘I like that, it reminds me of Polly Pocket.’ & weirdly, now that is how I see it.

My sister was obsessed with Polly Pocket & I remember her playing with one & it being amazingly detailed & contained in it’s small little shell, yet could be added to other shells & become something amazing.

That is exactly how the art of Brick & Mortar feels. Each store has so complete, filled with life. Yet so beautiful blends with the other stores to really feel like you are making something special.

I’ve seen many games that try to over detail the art, and make it so realistic that it starts to take away it. Where Brick & Mortar illustrator, Tristam Rossin, has used a more delicate hand, he has gone with simple design. Allowing a main colour & basic item shapes to speak softly and succinctly to you. Stunning, simply stunning.

Final Thoughts

It is weird, I first thought this game would be a simple game, with a fun art & theme. Yet what we got was a well thought out, challenging game that actually inherently teaches you a lot about business. Add in the clever and simple ways of handling quite complicated mechanics & you have a real hit on your hand!

Brick & Mortar is the first published game by Octoraffe Games & if this game is anything to go by, they will be a company to watch in the future

If you would like a copy of Brick & Mortar, head over to their Kickstarter page here. It has already been funded & has 7 days to go.