I didn’t realize how cut-throat the food truck business actually was until I laid my hands on this game. “Truck Off – The Food Truck Frenzy”, a game that’ll be launching on Kickstarter in February 2017, is designed for 2-6 players and takes about 30 minutes to play. While the goal of earning the most money at the end of the game might sound simple, you’re going to be going up against competitors (other players) looking to seize the opportunities before them and put you out of business. I’d like to thank Adam Rehberg from Adam’s Apple Games, LLC for providing me with a prototype copy for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you read about in this article (including the rules) subject to change.
My prototype copy came with:
- 6 Location Cards numbered 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20.
- 6 Die: D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20
- 6 Sets of 6 color coordinated Truck Tokens numbered 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20.
- 6 sets of 9 color coordinated Action Cards: 3 Rerolls, Move your Truck, Move another Players Truck, 3rd Truck, X2, Truck is Shutdown, Location is Shutdown.
- Money tokens, or pencil and pad for scoring
Note: There is a two-player variant listed on the back of the rulebook that changes the way you’d normally play. To keep the preview moving, I’ll opt to cover the standard 3-6 player rule-set.
To set up the game, players place location cards and corresponding dice on the table in ascending order within accordance to the player count. There’s a grid in the rulebook for specifics on that. Each player receives their color coordinated action cards and matching truck tokens (each of which match locations on the table). Players can either use money tokens for scoring or a pencil & paper, whichever they are more comfortable with.
The game itself plays over five rounds. The player to have last eaten from a food truck goes first and receives the first player token.
During a round:
1. Each player secretly selects two token trucks. When finished, everyone reveals their trucks simultaneously and places them next to corresponding location cards.
2. Players roll each location die, the values of which represent the payout at that location.
3. Next, players simultaneously select any number of action cards they want to play this round and add them to their hand.
4. Beginning with the starting player, players execute actions (one at a time going clockwise).
5. All active trucks at each location earn money equal to the number of customers split equally by the number of trucks present.
After five rounds, whoever has the most money is the winner, with ties being broken via dice rolling. Keep in mind that I didn’t cover all of the rules found in the prototype manual, but the above should give you an idea as to how the game is played.
“Truck Off – The Food Truck Frenzy” is fairly simple and family-friendly as games go. It’s like a more simplified version of “Lemonade Tycoon”…that is, without the need to buy stock and set prices. Here, you’re picking locations and hoping that a LOT of customers show up at said locations. While a lot of this sounds like luck (and it is), you do have some pull with your action cards.
The reroll action, for example, can help bring customers to a location you’re at or if you feel the location to be a lost cause, you can move an active truck entirely to a different site. If you don’t want the competition on a busy location, you can move one of your opponent’s truck’s elsewhere. If you’re sure your truck is going to rake in a ton of profits, try the X2 card to double your score after the split. A 3rd truck can be helpful in a pinch should one of your others be stuck somewhere not all that appealing. Or, if you want to be really mean, you can shut down an active truck or a site completely.
If you’re part of a casual gamer family like me, then by all means give “Truck Off – The Food Truck Frenzy” a look.
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1921968316/truck-off-the-food-truck-frenzy
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