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* This is a recreation of my unboxing of Trinket Trove *
Me: Oh, look at the adorable mice characters! Look, there is a Bernard! You know, like from the Rescuers! And a Brisby, from Secret of N.I.M.H. Aww...Templeton! Like from Charlotte's Web. Nimbus? Well, he looks more like a rat, so maybe another shout out to Secret of N.I.M.H.? Quite honestly, I'm surprised there isn't a Ralph with a motorcycle....Wait, the Wanderer really kind of looks like the classic illustrations of Runaway Ralph. Wanderer might be a Runaway and he could have a helmet in his Bindle...
COR! Penfold! I've found my forever character. He's the greatest. He's Fantastic. He's the strongest, he's the quickest, he's the best.
Jessica: Uh, you know there are no variable player powers.
Me: (Quietly to myself) He's the ace, he's amazing....He needs a little blue suit. Can we collect little blue suits in this game?
You know how Board Game Geek has a “Best At X number of players” suggestion? Trinket Trove is the poster child for best at 4 to 6 players. I would actually suggest that is the only way to play it, at the very least for your first few games. Because, if you do play it at two or three players, you won't see it at even close to its best.
Trinket Trove is a set-collection game where you will be acquiring more cards by bidding on them...with the cards from your hand. As with most auction games, it is much better with more players.Part of the reason having more players works so well in Trinket Trove is that the cards you bid with become part of the pool of cards available to choose in that auction.
For instance, in a five player game, you deal out five cards from the deck into separate piles. Then you put two cards from the “timer deck” onto the first two piles so that they have two cards. These are the cards you will be bidding on. But, when the first player bids, their cards become part of the pool of cards available to draft as well. The Turn order of the draft is determined by the quantity of cards the players bid, with ties being broken by the total trinket value of the bid cards. And you can bid zero. This means that you aren't required to bid with cards out of your hand (You might want to do this if you don't want to break up a set you already have assembled in your hand). Instead, you flip your character tile over to the 0 side and pull the top card of your deck as your bid. A zero bid is a “lesser” bid than any bid of actual cards from other players hands, so you will likely be drafting cards much later in the round. Once everyone has bid, the highest bidder takes two piles of cards followed by the second highest bid and so on. The only caveat being you can't take the cards you bid this round.
The Zero bid and the fact that you can't draft the cards that you bid make Trinket Trove a step up in “difficulty” from a standard cute-animals-in-human-clothes set collection title. After a few plays, it becomes second nature and you'll likely be checking the box to see if this is a Knizia game. Because it is that elegant and deceptively simple. Remember the “timer deck” I mentioned? Once the last two cards are pulled from this, you know the final round has arrived. It's a great on-the-table visual reminder of how much of the game remains.
As I said earlier, Trinket Trove is the poster child for “Best at 4 to 6 players.” You can play it at two players but it requires the use of Nimbus, who represents a blocker type character. When drafting, he takes the most cards/highest value of everything on offer. This reduces it to a puzzle...and not a particular interesting one. Nimbus bids with two cards off the top of the deck when it is their turn. You know you will also need to bid at least two cards if you want to draft ahead of him. But, more importantly, he is going to remove the cards he drafts from the game. If another actual player takes those cards, at least there is a chance they will spend them during a following round to bid. Since Nimbus bids from the top of the deck, there is no way for the cards he takes to re-enter the system and this also means his bids are completely random. Playing with three players lets you play the full game but it only hints at how good the game can be. There are 112 trinket cards in the deck so, you won't see near the number of cards as you can with a high player count.
As you can imagine, 112 cards also means it also can be a beast to shuffle. Thankfully, this is only done at the beginning of the game, so you can split the deck amongst the players, have them all shuffle a portion and then reassemble the deck for play. The only other “awkward” part of the game is adjusting the card bids as they happen. There will be lots of sliding cards and player tiles around as players outbid or underbid each other. You can put each player tile under their bid or, as I tend to do, put the tile on top of their bid so you are only moving one “pile” when the bids come out.
Trinket Trove includes two full sets of every item that you can collect, which at least makes it feel like you have a good chance of pulling a full set during the game. Some item sets also have staggered point values. Like the Gems will give you 10 points for having one card of the set and 25 for having two cards. A third gem adds zero points to the set, still only scoring 25 points. But if you manage to get a fourth Gem, the set jumps to 60 points. This adds a layer of risk/reward to the set collection.
Trinket Trove is a simple game with surprising depth and strategy that needs to be played with four or more players to be truly appreciated. Small Box, small price tag, but a large dose of fun. Sandra Tang's illustrations are delightful...even if Penfold is lacking a cute blue suit. Now, you tell me, is Gouda really Monterey Jack from Chip N' Dale's Rescue Rangers?
A review copy of this release was provided by the publisher. Therewillbe.games would like to thank them for their support.
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