Self-published last year, Bargain Quest turns players into shop owners in a fantasy town, where they compete to attract business from well-heeled adventurers. The shop owners hope to provide the adventurers with the equipment they will need to face the monsters that continually threaten the town. In the game, the players draft cards to stock their store shelves, then choose which goods to display in order to attract business. If a player equips a hero well enough to defeat a monster, they gain points. But if the monsters win the fight, they will attack the town, stealing gold and damaging the shops.
Bargain Quest was created by Jonathan Ying, lead designer of the Game of Thrones Trivia Game and DOOM: The Board Game. It features illustrations by his sister Victoria, whose credits include work on the films Tangled, Frozen, and Big Hero 6. Ying ran a Kickstarter campaign in August, 2017 to fund production of the game, attracting $54,558 from 775 backers for the first print run (an average of $70.40 per backer) and a more impressive $392,045 from 6,297 backers for a reprint and expansion set earlier this year (an average of $62.26 per backer).
Renegade’s edition of the game will include 190 cards, 167 tokens, and 6 folding shop boards. The game is intended for 2 to 6 players, ages 8 and up, and takes less than an hour to play. MSRP is $40.00.
In October, the company is releasing another economic-themed game called Passing Through Petra (see “Build a Trading Empire in ‘Passing Through Petra’”). On a more light-hearted note, it will also release a game based on the first Ghostbusters movie this autumn (see “‘Ghostbusters: The Card Game’”).
View Gallery: 1 Images