When people think of stock market games they think of big, heavy, train games a lot of the time. Now there are some lighter games in that genre, but a lot of them still have a lot of moving pieces to them. Vegetable Stock is a stock market game, but a very light filler one about the prices of vegetables. Is this a filler game that is worth hunting down and adding to your collection?

How To Play Vegetable Stock

Vegetable Stock is a simple game of drafting and vegetable market manipulation. It is played over six rounds, and the veggies you draft, you want them to be worth the most at the end of the game. Each round a number of the player plus one. In turn order players draft a card with three vegetable symbols on it.

The last card, the one not drafted, is what determines the market. It pushes the vegetables on it higher in price. But if you push too high, the market crashes and resets. But don’t worry, it can climb up again. After the six rounds, players multiple their number of veggies by the current value of those veggies and the person with the most valuable vegetables wins.

What Doesn’t Work

Just minor nitpicks here. Firstly, this is a game that is nearly impossible to find. I ordered it from Taiwan Boardgame Design and had it shipped from Taiwan. That is the only way that I could find it. So if this game looks fun, know that it’s a bit of work to get it. The price isn’t too bad, though a bit higher than if you could get it locally, for what is basically a deck of cards.

The other thing is that I wish it came with a score pad. Yes, it would add to the box size, possible. But there is room for more in the box, though the box is small. Give me a score pad and let me do the scoring on that. My math skills are good from playing board games and just decent in general. It is a lot of numbers to hold in your head to multiply one veggies times three then count up another group of veggies to multiply by four and then add those two numbers together. A score sheet would make it simpler.

What Works

As for what works, I think the core of the game is solid. The drafting is very nice because it is a choice, but the choices are limited. On your turn you do one thing, you draft a card. So turns are quick that way. But as the game progresses you start to think about what card you are leaving behind. The decision space is small, but there are decisions to make in the game.

The stock market works as well. This goes into that decision that you make. When it’s your turn to pick, you think about what you are leaving behind and how it will influence the stock market. Because sometimes you might have a lot of a single card and if it crashes that would ruin your score. So drafting more of that is good, but you other times need to let it crash, maybe early, so you can push it back up again.

And the time frame of the game is great. A two player game takes 10 minutes. More players, sure it takes longer, but the turns are snappy. And if people know how to play, a lot of the judgments on what to take and leave can be done more quickly, especially early in the game.

Who Is It For

This is a filler game through and through. I think for more casual gamers it might fit into that category with games like Skip Bo or Uno. Where the idea is play a short game and enjoy that experience. But for gamers, I think it is also a good filler game. There is more going on than a lot of fillers. You manipulate that stock market. It is a decision versus some fillers which are just actions for the sake of filling up time. So I think that Vegetable Stock can work for a lot of people.

Final Thoughts – Vegetable Stock

This is a fun filler game. It is one that plays well with a wide range, 2-6, of players. Now, there is more randomness with more players because at six you only control the final card one time. But it’s such a fast filler that I think it’s a moot point for the most part. You hope that how you manipulate and how cards come out that it’ll end like you want. And at lower player counts there is more control and thought put into it.

And it is a game that I’ve found I shuffle up and play again when I play it. The game is so fast that it’d work for a lunch time game with co-workers, between classes, or at a restaurant waiting for your food to come. And once a game is done, I play again because I have more time. Which to me is a sign of a good filler. You want it to fill the time, but not to over fill the time. And some filler games might give you 30 minutes of light game or a random amount of time. Vegetable Stock doesn’t do that. It is a set time that works well.

My Grade: B
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: B+

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