2018 Releases Kickstarter Campaign
“In each of the coming weeks we will announce a new title for release at Spiel 2018. In this press message, we would like to present the first of three upcoming releases. This game will be number 22 in our Masterprint Series and is called Raiatea. This game along with the other two will be available in our Kickstarter Campaign, launching early August.
Raiatea
We hereby introduce our first new release for Spiel 2018, Raiatea. The game is situated on that island in French Polynesia, depicting six typical locations. In each action round, players in turn order choose one of these locations. Each player may execute the associated actions, but the leading player (Kahuna) at that location receives a bonus. After fixed numbers of action rounds, ceremony rounds take place.
In a ceremony round, players get the chance to execute rituals, providing major benefits. However, this is much harder than it looks, since rituals are only executed in order of increasing mana value, consuming mana from a shared pool. For compiling this shared mana pool, players each put in a single blind bid. Do you put in a lot of mana, increasing the chances that your high cost rituals are executed, but that you also implicitly help other players. Or do you try to take advantage of your fellow players by bidding hardly any mana? In the end, some WIN, some lose…
The author of Raiatea is Jan Schmidt, the game plays from 3 to 5 players and takes about 60 – 120 minutes. The game is illustrated by Franz Vohwinkel, who has a large history in illustrating board games. Here is an excerpt from the back of the box:
“In Raiatea, players act as members of the Arioi, a secret Polynesian religious society. Over the course of the game, the Arioi will build colossal To’o statues in attempt to win the favor of their god, Oro. In the game’s action rounds, players will take turns leading the group to various action locations. In ceremony rounds, players will call upon the gods for help in building the massive To’o. Construction may fail without these gods’ help, so players must plan their Rituals carefully and know how much mana to sacrifice in order to accomplish their goals. At the end of the game, the player who has collected the most victory points will guide the group as their new High Priest!”
The rules for Raiatea can be found on its game page. Please send an email to info@quined.nl if you would like to receive this text in Dutch, German or French.
This game will release at Spiel 2018, and is available on Kickstarter, launching early August.”
