Bus & Stop is a card game in which you compete as bus drivers to bring passengers to their desired destinations, while avoiding overcrowding.
On a turn, you either pick up or drop off. To pick up, choose all of the passenger cards of one color from the row waiting at the bus stop, then place them in your bus — that is, the area in front of you, which can hold at most ten cards. Senior citizens aren't going far, so you score them immediately instead of placing them on the bus.
To drop off, choose a group of passengers on your bus that match one of the available destination cards — for example, all men, all girls, or one passenger of each color — then remove these passengers from your bus and place them under the card. You score points for each card depending on how many people you delivered at once, so aim for large groups. Whenever a player drops off, everyone else can make one of their matching passengers skedaddle, removing them from the bus and placing them in a personal scoring pile with their senior citizens.
When the bus stop can't be refilled with passengers or only a certain number of destination cards remain, the game ends. Tally your score, earning 1 point for each single card and the listed points for each destination card. If your bus is empty, congratulations! You earn a depot bonus for not stranding passengers on your bus. They will thank you for not doing that...
5 New Card Games - Reviews
- clever, simple to teach
- strong thematic feel and quick plays
- great social interaction with lots of player observation
- reliance on luck can dominate some turns
- might play out differently with larger group dynamics
- urban transportation, everyday decisions, group dynamics
- Urban bus stop with passengers and a signaling system for collecting riders.
- light, humorous, scenario-driven card drafting with push-your-luck elements
- Parade
- Scout
- Sea Salt and Paper
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- color-draft / color-collect — Players must take all cards of a single color from the middle (the bus stop) each turn.
- endgame tension — The game ends when the scoring deck runs low or the deck is depleted, creating a timer-like pressure.
- scadaddle — When a trade is made, players may flip unwanted sets into a separate pile (scadaddle) to adjust their bus composition.
- Set Collection — Collected cards are traded for scoring cards to contribute to end-game scoring.
- Set collection for scoring — Collected cards are traded for scoring cards to contribute to end-game scoring.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- scadaddle
- this is one of my favorite games of the year
- it's one of these super clever card games
- this goes right on that shelf with parade and Scout and sea salt and paper
References (from this video)
- Host tends to enjoy Sashi games
- New to the UK market
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Drafting — Players are trying to pick up cards or draft cards and then play them in different sets.
- Set Collection — Playing cards in sets of the same color or same kind.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- So, I don't know why this one really um kind of grabbed my attention since I saw this one. It does sound like a complete random luckfest, but it does seem to have a certain charm and appeal to me.
- You know, I tend to like deduction games, although I do think it's an oversaturated genre of games, but this one sounds different enough to stand out and stand away from the pack.
- So, I'm quite proud of myself that I didn't jump straight into getting that one when I first played Concordia because I played the the base game alone quite a few times now. So, I think I'm ready for an expansion.
- And I always thought it was quite or these lists are quite funny because I go in with a plan, but I'll come back with a a random arrangement of completely different games, no doubt.
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Send help, please.
- My shelf of opportunity. There are a few games on here that I want to bring.
- This bag is already full and I haven't even gone out to the board game room.
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Send help, please.
- My shelf of opportunity. There are a few games on here that I want to bring.
- This bag is already full and I haven't even gone out to the board game room.
References (from this video)
- Very easy to teach
- Surprisingly strategic
- Cute art
- Engaging 'Scadattle' mechanic
- Commuting
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Hand Management — You can only fit 10 people in your bus.
- pickup and deliver — Take a bunch of people of the same color from that bus stop and add them to your bus, or play a bunch of people from the same type from your bus for points.
- Set Collection — You want to have a whole bunch of different types, but the types and the colors do not match. So, you're picking up people that you don't want along with people that you do want.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- So today we are talking about 10 games that we would recommend for playing at a picnic.
- first of all, they've got to have a small enough box that they're going to be easy to take to a picnic.
- Second, they've got to actually fit on a picnic blanket.
- And third, we want them to be at least a little bit safe from the wind.
- If you haven't heard us mention them, go check them out. They are great backpack games.
- This is one of these games that I'm like, I why didn't I think of this? This is so smart.
- So, you're just like constantly like trying to trick each other.
- So, once you've got two of those, you're so scared of taking the upside down card.
- It feels a little bit like Bomberman, where you set off these bombs and then they're going to blow up sometimes like in all directions.
- The tiles are pretty neat. They're like this like thick paper cardboard that have this great texture.
- We do talk about this one a lot, but it's so good, especially for this, especially when you're teaching this to new players.
- I've not taught this to someone who hasn't gone out and bought it or even bought it while we're playing it.
- It is really tricky to manage that limit of 10 because most well, all of the groups will score more if you have more of them.
- I just I love a game like this that you can teach like I taught you the whole rules.
- This does play excellently for picnics, especially if there's not a lot of wind because you are playing cards down to the ground.
- To win by tragedy, which is probably the most fun way, you are trying to cause different characters to die, and they're going to die in all different thematic ways.
- it makes it really tricky to draft cuz every time when you draft cards, your opponent plays first, giving them the opportunity to possibly win.
References (from this video)
- Accessible and quick to learn
- Pleasant family-friendly vibe
- Less depth for heavier gamers
- May rely on player count for best experience
- urban transit and passenger types
- Bus passengers with various archetypes
- light, casual, family-friendly
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Drafting — Draft from a row of face-up cards by color/type.
- Tile Placement — Fill a 2x5 bus grid with assigned passenger cards.
- tile/grid placement — Fill a 2x5 bus grid with assigned passenger cards.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Galileo galile oh my goodness such a fantastic game it is
- I could probably see myself getting into the collection
- I am a huge fan of garel games
References (from this video)
- Charming theme
- Short playtime
- Rules may be simple
- Light strategy around bus stops
- Urban transit environment
- Casual
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Drafting — Draft cards to build routes or bus stops
- Set Collection — Collect types to score
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- we play all these games so you don't have to
- it's a very beautiful cover
- Ace Attorney inspired thing
- we're going to play them tomorrow
- thank you for arriving and meeting us at Spiel