Bebop: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Dice Placement, Area Control
Player Age: 14+ Player Count: 2 - 4 PlayersTime to Play: 45 - 60 Minutes Game Designer: Robert Hovakimyan
Player Age: 14+
Introduction:
Bebop is a uniquely themed area control game where players are booking agents trying to fill the seats of a jazz music festival. This area control is mainly done by placing the fans in seats next to their family (friends count as family) and next to the instruments (featured acts) they want to listen to.
Game Anatomy:
Dice:
The dice represent the fans (the people you are trying to pack the seats with). There are five families of dice are green, aqua, purple, red, and yellow. Each die has the three music symbols appearing twice; keys, brass and percussion.
Seats:
Each player will have a total of 16 seat tiles; 11 basic and 5 special. The special tiles each have a different ability but can also be used as a standard tile instead.
- The V.I.P. seat allows this seat to be placed in the special V.I.P. spot on the board.
- The backstage pass can be placed on a stage in the event that the stage has already been scored.
- The boot has two features; it can return any player's open seat on the board (not V.I.P. or backstage) and it cannot be booted from a seat.
- The double claim seat allows the player to immediately take another ‘claim-a-seat’ action after playing.
- The Insta-book seat allows the player to immediately take a book-a-seat action after playing.
Board:
There are two boards included in this game; a starting board and a more compact map where players will need to play their VIP seat and backstage seats carefully. Each board has specifications based on the player count that creates a closer area to fight for control. The board will also contain locations for seats and stages that are sized at 1-3 features.
Feature Tokens:
The feature tokens are placed during setup and will determine what music the band is playing once activated. The features will determine how the players aim to place their seats and dice throughout the game.
Advanced Star Feature:
There is an advanced star feature that will act as one feature type during the game. At the end of the game during family scoring they will act as wilds, meaning that they will count as all instrument types at all times.
Setup:
Game Setup:
- For two players: return six of each colour die and five of each feature token.
-For three players: return three of each colour die and two of each feature token.
- Place the dice that aren't placed in the box in the dice bag, draw and roll the dice and place them in the booking queue equal to the player count shown on the board.
- Place the biggest family tokens next to the board for each colour.
Player Setup:
- Place the score marker on the zero point on the score track and keep the second point tracker until the player passes 50 or 100 points.
- Each player draws and rolls three dice.
How to Play:
Turns are quick and snappy. On a turn perform one action, either claim a seat or book a seat.
Claim a Seat:
Place a seat then on one of the empty hexes on the board (remembering V.I.P hexes require the V.I.P seat). If there are currently three open seats in your colour, a seat will have to be booked instead of claimed.
After claiming, one dice owned by the player can be re-rolled to make the placement easier on a future turn.
Book a Seat:
Each player will have three dice at all times. Players can use this action to book one of their already claimed seats with one of these three dice, keeping the symbol the same. This die will now be replaced with any die from the queue or one randomly from the bag, then the queue is replenished from the bag. In a two-player game, the dice are kept hidden behind the player's shield. The game will end when all players have filled all their seats.
Scoring:
Three instances during the game will result in scoring; adding a die to a family, when a stage is scored, and when the largest family scores at the end of the game.
Filling a Seat (Adding to a Family):
A family is a group of two or more connected dice of the same colour. This ignores which player owns which seats and simply factors in the colour of the dice. When a die is added to a family, the active player will gain one point for the die placed, and any connected die in that colour that matches the symbol on the die. For example placing one of these aqua dice will score the player three points.
Band Performing:
If all the regular seats (non-V.I.P.) around a stage are claimed and booked then the band on that stage will now perform. Each player will determine which of the dice are theirs that shows the same instrument symbol adjacent to the stage or part of a family. For each feature, players determine who has the majority.
That player will then gain the feature (instrument) token and score points based on where that feature currently is on their track. Once the feature scores the track will move down one and the instrument will be worth less and less as the performances continue.
Family Majority Scoring:
At the end of the game the largest family of each colour group will score. Each symbol in the family will have a majority leader determined who will score the feature town tokens they have that match this symbol. In the example of the aqua family the blue player wins keys and the white player will score brass and percussion.
These players will then score the feats they have gained during the game. That means the white player will score four points and the blue player will score three points.
Final Thoughts:
- Unique theme.
- Multiple layers of area control and careful placement.
- Scoring can be complicated so an initial play of the game is required to help understand.
Area control games have been catching my attention lately as the newer ones I have played seem to have very unique themes and even more unique mechanisms. Bebop is the latest area control game that fits this description. Throughout Bebop you are a booking agent trying to book jazz festival seats and then fill them with the correct fans. This is vital when it comes to scoring points. The players score points during the game when they add a die to a family, scoring one point plus one for each matching face in that family. These larger families help players to gain control of the feature token and score the majority when the band plays. Since players are fighting for the majority of matching symbols to the feature in direct adjacency and dice connected via families, scoring this far is easy to plan for, with the trickier scoring coming at the end of the game. This is where the largest section of each family will score based on the majority of each face symbol. The tricky element to this scoring is that if players win the majority they will score one point for each feature token matching the symbol that they have in front of them. This means that players have to target certain features throughout the game to gain tokens, while making sure they have the majority of these features in the largest of each family. This scoring puzzle is what has me most intrigued in this game. If you enjoy area control games then I think this is an easy addition to your collection, with its fun theme, quick gameplay, and interesting area control puzzle.
Comments
Post a Comment