Time for another review of a Gen Con release. This time it is Trinket Trove. Now Trinket Trove is from the same company that did First-Class Letters which I reviewed last week. Does GameHead have another hit on their hands, at least for me? Trinket Trove offers bidding, drafting’ and set collection. I like all three, but is that enough to make it different from other games? Join me as I look at Trinket Trove.

How To Play Trinket Trove

Like I said, Trinket Trove is a game of drafting and set collection. You score points for the sets that you collect throughout the game. But, that is not where most of the game is. In Trinket Trove, it is all about how you draft.

At the start of the game players are dealt hands of four cards. Then a number of cards equal to the number of players is dealt out. A second card is added to the first card, so there is one stack of two, at lower player counts or two at higher player counts. Then in turn order players bid with cards from their hand to see who picks first.

Bidding

When you bid, you select a number of cards from your hand. This could be 0 or it could be all of them. The number of cards you select is your bid. So if you put out two cards, your bid is two. Now, other players can still bid two, since bidding is for turn order. When you bid you the same number as someone else you look at the numbers on the cards. In the case of a tie, the player who bid first is higher in turn order.

Now, I said you can bid zero. When you bid zero you flip the top card of the deck. That is going to be your bid. But you flip your token over to zero so that everyone knows your bid is zero. So even if you flip a seven and it looks like you have one card, you will not go ahead of players who bid one card.

Drafting

Players in turn order then select two groups of cards. The rules for selecting those groups of cards is pretty simple. You can select any pile, from those flipped or those bid. However, you cannot select the cards that you bid with. If you are the last player in the round and the card you bid with has not been taken, then you can select it.

Rounds

The new turn order is then set for the next round of bidding with the player who bid the most last time going first this time. This is a disadvantage to selecting first the previous round. The game continues until you play either six rounds or five rounds, depending on player count.

The game is clever in that it has you deal out six cards, in a six round game, into a separate pile. The extra card on the first card flipped out comes from that pile. So you use it as a mechanism to count down the rounds.

What Doesn’t Work

I think that the game is going to feel different between player counts. And I suspect that I am going to like it best at higher player counts. Why? Because there is a massive stack of trinkets in the game. Now, it is possible that you could remove some at lower player counts, but that would be a lot of work sorting cards. So instead when you play with two or three, the cards you see is going to be limited. That makes some sets hard to collect, or riskier anyways.

What Works

I love the bidding in this game. I think it is really clever. The idea that your cards, which you are collecting for your set collection are also what you bid with works so well. It reminds me in some ways how Biblios often times has you make tough decisions like that, how do you want to use your cards, for points or not? And it’s a slick system that is easy to keep track of.

Draftable Bids

The fact that you bid is also one of the piles that can be taken is interesting. I always hope to remember what people are taking and then toss out a low bid with something they want. If they take it, that is hopefully going to mean that something I want is available. And then when you bid big because there is something you really want, say two cards or maybe even three, then you know someone else is going to grab that. So do you want to do that.

But, at the same time, a big bid early is interesting. And yes, I know I’m talking a lot about the same thing. It is interesting because if I bid big early, then you might bid two cards so you can get my three. That means, though that I might get two piles or two cards that I like better than what I bid. So there is good strategy in the game.

Game Speed/Set-up

This is a fast game. The slowest element is the bidding and even that is not that slow. I think that someone could spend their time trying to figure out an optimal combination and bid to start. But most of the time, you want to bid as little as possible and not bid anything that would hurt your sets. So I think it is good game in terms of speed of play.

And the set-up is really simple as well. You shuffle up the cards, set 6 or 10 aside, deal out four, and shuffle up player tiles to determine order for the first round. That is it. Now, it is mainly a card game, so I expect the set-up to be fast. But it delivers on that expectation.

Artwork

I want to call out the artwork as well for this game. I think it is great and Sandara Tang, whom I knew first from Flame Craft, is back with some great cute artwork. And I like that the artwork on the cards is always slightly different. But they were smart from a usability standpoint with that art. If a shell is green on one card it might be blue on another, but the shape of the shell never changes. I like that as it allows me to recognize cards very quickly.

Easy Enough to Learn

Finally, I want to talk about how the game is easy enough to learn. I say it is easy enough to learn because I think there is a learning curve when it comes to the bidding. And there is a learning curve when understanding the likelihood of cards coming out of the deck. So while there is a thinky element to the game, overall it is not a complex game to teach others how to play.

Who Is Trinket Trove For?

I think people who like drafting and set collection are going to like the twist of bidding on this game. Mainly because it’s not that blind bidding and it’s not increasing bidding. Plus, it is a good filler style of game. And now, I play a lot of filler style of games, but this one is a good filler game for gamers. There is strategy to the game, but when two groups are playing longer games and one wraps up, this is a good game to keep the brain working, but won’t take too long.

Final Thoughts and Grade on Trinket Trove

Trinket Trove is a great game for me. I like it at lower player counts. And that is where I have played it mainly. I think there is a benefit to playing it with the maximum of six players. Now, it does come with eight character markers, so I wonder if there is a way to play it with eight, or if they plan a mini pack of cards that can bring it up to eight as an expansion.

I want to talk more about the bidding and how great that is. But in this section, I want to talk about how I think that is the biggest hook to the game. That bidding element is where you can really push for what you need, or potentially mess it up. If I were to pick an element of the game that I like best, it is the bidding. The drafting is good, but it is open drafting. And the set collection is interesting because not everything gains you points at the same speed. But that is still set collection. So the bidding is what makes the game.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B+
Casual Grade: B+
Strategy (out of 10): 6
Luck (out of 10): 6

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