Pick-Up and Delivers

My group just played Merchants of Venus and I think our plan is to record a podcast on the title. It's really a very deluxe pickup and deliver game, and with the potential for a recorded discussion I opted to look to see what other "P&Ds" are at the top of the heap in order to compare and contrast.

But I bumped into a problem. In the attempt to get a short list of such games via BGG's Advanced Search capability I got just a crazy set of titles that are marked pickup-and-deliver, when they really aren't. Their database has become so encumbered with information from likely well-intended but not terribly well-informed individuals that I can't really pull the five or eight other games that I should be considering, even though I've likely played most of them. I've played some of the titles that come up in the search results and can't for the life of me figure out how they use pickup-and-deliver in their play. Someone checked the box for an arbitrary reason at some point, and now they junk up the list.

So here's the question -- for Pickup-and-Delivers, what are the five (or so) mainstream, benchmark games that I should be considering from a discussion perspective? Let's set train games aside as I can more or less include them en-masse as a single title. What are the well-regarded, well-known games in this particular part of the tabletop gaming space?

- Roads & Boats

- Traders of Genoa

I know you said "just put all train games in one bucket", but 18xx isn't PU&D, nor are any of the cube rails games I've played (nor Ticket to Ride). I think there are just two main families of train games that are PU&D, and I think it's worth talking about them separately (partly because I honestly don't think there are that many seminal PU&D games):

- Age of Steam/Railroad Tycoon family

- Crayon Rails games


As far as I'm concerned, that's kind of it, in terms of lineages. There are plenty more, of course: Firefly, Merchants & Marauders, Xia, Outer Rim... But ALL of those feel clearly like DIRECT descendants of Merchant of Venus, but with other options in case you don't like PU&D...which is maybe exactly what you're looking to talk about.

I don't consider (Age of) Steam P&D. You don't really transport anything, you just construct a link and then it goes there. For me, P&D involves a process of moving the item, which presents issues of its own.

As said, it's hard to separate M&M, Xia, Outer Rim, and others from MoV, but those are my go-tos. It's a genre I enjoy, but I like MoV and Xia so much I don't have anything other than them. I'd rather just play them. A shorter one would be nice.

I like Great Heartland Hauling Co a lot, for a much shorter/lighter p&d option. I've always wanted to Cinque Terre in that lighter space too but it went oop and sells for $$$ so y'know.

Star Wars Outer Rim should get a nod.

Xia
Merchants and Marauders
Firefly
Merchant of Venus

Return of the Heroes

I would disrecommend Firefly. Maybe it's just me but I found nothing appealing about the "game". It felt very much like a repository of catchphrases and references. Strip them away and the P&D game you're left with can't touch most others.

But would recommend Black Fleet.

That's the heart of the conversation, isn't it? Within the genre, which titles work, which don't, and why not? The recognizability of each is what puts them onto the table for discussion be they good or bad. But thank you for the opinion, that's the kind of thing that makes the recording work.

Here's a prototype of the kind of discussion we hope to have on such things. If anyone wants to listen and provide feedback on content I'd appreciate it. Sound quality is a little rough on this first pass, but it's the kind of discussion we're hoping to generate.

www.dropbox.com/s/yz81hwsubkjuqe8/Primordial%20Soup.mp3?dl=0

Here are a few where I think the PU&D is kind of central that havent been mentioned already

Horrified (co-op)
Bus (interesting as well because i've seen it described as one of the first worker placement games as well)
Auf Ausche (classic old school german euro)
Caravan (new, but feels ooooolld in a good way)
Serenissima (I've only played the new one which is not great, but worth a shout maybe in a discussion)

(sorry, forgot the mainstream part, although arguments could be made, maybe not Caravan which is great but not a hot game).

Was gonna say Perry Rhodan Cosmic League, but it's too niche. It's a fine game but even in Germany almost nobody knows of its existence.

Auf Achse is a stone cold classic, as is Alaska (1979!). These were common family games in 80s Germany, because through Ravensburger distribution you got them from regular toy stores.
You should at least mention them if you want to talk about the history of the mechanism.

One could make a point for Survive, too, bc. it's so good.

Ive played Auf Achse, haven't even heard of Alaska. I'll have a look, thanks for the tip!

Oh another good recent pure one - Fast Sloths.