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As british members of aristocracy, in a fascinating 19th century London, you have to set up the most amazing and impressive Chamber of Wonders.
In the british nobles' shoes, rich and bored, you are about to follow a new and bizarre fashion: the construction of a private "Chamber of Wonders", a small museum in your home filled with the most weird artifacts and natural wonders from all around the world.
It will be a race against your friends and rivals to see who will boast the best selection of the strangest objects. You will visit auction houses, do business with shady dealers, or search for unlikely artifacts in the shops of Piccadilly. Who will be able to exhibit the most impressive collection of wonders?
In this game, your objective is to set up the best Chamber of Wonders by collecting Wonder Cards by sending your Agents in London's various areas (using money, bids, etc.) and placing them into your Display Cabinet. Each player, with his actions, scores Fame points.
Chamber of Wonders is a special boardgame in the fact that the dynamic setup defines the set of rules that will be used in each game. Completely different game mechanics are added or removed to the game, either by using defined setups or by completely randomizing the game board - your choice. With more than 150 combinations of areas and contacts, each game feels different from the previous.
- easy to teach, approachable for casual players
- interesting drafting-style feel within a very light box
- overproduced relative to the game's simplicity
- not particularly innovative for a heavy box
- Set-collection flavor in a city-building context
- A lightweight, theme-assembly world with buildings and mini-games
- Light, casual, accessible
- Biblios
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Drafting — cards grant varied effects and scoring opportunities
- passion drafting / card activation — cards grant varied effects and scoring opportunities
- Set Collection — players collect cards to form sets for scoring
- worker placement / action draft — players activate different mini-games via board actions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the coolest thing about this game was that sometimes when you choose a card the cards that you didn't select would end up impacting damage on your ship which would end up costing you negative points
- grossly underrated I can't even believe this game isn't talked about is so well put together
- Woodcraft is my favorite game of the month
References (from this video)
- Fast-paced
- High replayability
- Varied board areas
- Short gameplay (20 minutes)
- Multiple strategic options
- Aristocratic artifact collection
- London, 19th century
- Competitive exhibit building
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area selection — Players send agents to different board areas
- Auction — Potential card auctions at Bank of England
- Auction / Bidding — Potential card auctions at Bank of England
- Set Collection — Collecting different types of wonder cards
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Players take on the roles of posh aristocrats competing in who will set up the most impressive collection of exhibits