“Play cards to utilize the abilities on a unique set of ceremonies.”
Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/322195/kokopelli
Playing Time: 40-60 Minutes
Weight: Light
Genre: Tableau Manager
Designer: Stefan Feld
Players: 2-4
Kokopelli is… an oddly difficult game to describe. It’s a tableau builder, I suppose, but with a twist. Players all start with identical decks of cards (3 each of 10 cards and 6 wilds – or 36 cards) from which they draw their playing hand. Every card that you play on your own tableau will grant you unique powers – more powerful card draw, or victory points for odd things, for example. So you try to build an engine from whatever is available.
The catch is that your neighbors can’t play the same card that you have close to them in a tableau. For example, the player to your right can’t play any card that you have in your right-most two slots. What they CAN do is place another card on your stack (you can do that as well!). If four cards are ever on the same stack, the stack is discarded, whoever played the last card gets a bundle of victory points, and you lose your power.
The end result is a highly interactive game, with a lot of goofy power and a lot of ability to screw over your opponents, but at the same time, you rarely leave a game with anyone’s feelings bruised. There’s a lot of value in a game that does that. And while there are only 10 cards per deck, there’s a lot more in the box, which creates entirely new combo potential and a ton of replay value.
This game is probably one of Stefan Feld’s least known games, and frankly it’s a lot less showy than his other work. But Kokopelli is one of the most requested games in my game group when it comes time for a filler game, and that’s always the sign that a game delivers the goods.
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