You’ve seen those movies where some outcast manages to infiltrate a rung of the social ladder they have no business touching, right? Like, we’ve all had that little dream about 1920’s high society. The slick hairdos, the glittery dresses, the cigarette holders, the dazzling parties. Then along comes some guy who says the wrong thing, dances like a div, farts at the dinner table, and they all love him for it. Except in my version of this made-up film, I wouldn’t be some shocking wunderkind embraced by the hoity-toity, and simply be regarded as a disgrace, cast to the streets and shunned by all. Oh well, never mind, at least there’s a game where I could pretend to leave the riff-raff life behind!
High Society is an auction game where rival socialites frivolously spend wealth to acquire luxuries that elevate their social status, while avoiding reputation-ruining scandals. At the end of the game, each player scores all status cards they’ve won at auction, and the player with the highest status score wins. But beware the catch - whoever has the least money left in their pocket is cast out of High Society and can’t win the game! I mean, that’s me stuffed. The money in my pocket seems to levitate out of its own accord and float towards the nearest craft store where it disappears and becomes a variety of papercrafts, pens, paints and whatnot that then populates the very table where I often dream of playing board games again. But I digress…
Allplay, publisher of board games like River Valley Glassworks, Mountain Goats, and Container, has released High Society. The game is a new edition of the well-acclaimed auction game, originally released in 1995. Three to five players compete in auctions to gain points, earn point modifiers, and avoid negative cards. The player that bids the most across the entire game is eliminated; the remaining player that scores the most points wins.
While the core gameplay is largely unchanged, three new cards have been introduced in Allplay’s edition. These cards allow you to double your money before elimination or return money cards from the discard pile. The cards were designed by the original creator, Dr. Reiner Knizia. “The things I'm happiest about are: the inclusion of a player aid that new players will find helpful, the three amazing advanced cards that really shake the game up, and the better coding for end game cards, status cards, and scandal cards,” said Joe Wiggins, COO and Co-Owner of Allplay.
If you enjoy auction style games and haven’t played High Society yet, then this edition is an ideal opportunity to try it for yourself - games don’t keep receiving new editions for no reason.
Simple to learn but with strategic depths to uncover, it works best if your gaming group roleplays it a little and acts a bit livelier than the miserable bunch in the auctions do on Bargain Hunt. Tip your imaginary hat, flash people a suspicious wink and make them wonder what you’re up to…
About the Author
Steve is currently a freelance board game blogger, but often dreams of life as a pirate, or as a ghost herder in the Lake District, or as an evil estate agent who sells haunted houses for his own dark pleasure. Instead of figuring out how to do these jobs in real life like a normal lunatic, he tries to write about them instead, and releases the resultant books upon the unsuspecting world via famous digital bookstores. More books are bound to follow. Find this peculiar entity here: www.instagram.com/positively.board
