Have you ever dreamed of being a studio executive with millions to spend on movie that will likely be really, really bad? A new game, currently raising funds on Kickstarter, lets you live out that fantasy.
Buy the Rights is a party game for 3-10 players. It’s extremely simple to learn and is sure to generate plenty of laughs.A pledge of $25 gets you a copy of the game. The campaign ends in about a week, so don’t delay.
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Disclosure: I was sent a prototype of the game to review.
Components:
- 400 cards divided into 4 decks: Genre, Hero, Hero Descriptor, and Plot
- Play money, in $5 million, $10 million and $20 million denominations
Game Play:
The game has a bit of an Apples to Apples feel: each player is dealt a hand of 3 cards from each of the four decks. One player is designated as the first producer. Each of the others then constructs a movie pitch from her hand by selecting a genre, hero, hero descriptor and plot. Then, the producer goes around the table and each player “pitches” her movie. After that, the producer distributes a total of $20 million to the players who had the best (funniest) pitches. Everyone draws new cards, the next player becomes the producer, repeat. The rules suggest that you go around the table until everyone has been producer twice, but also notes that you can really decide to keep playing as long as you want. The winner is the player who ends up with the most money.
Verdict:
When I brought this game out on Thanksgiving weekend, my family was a bit unsure about it. Fortunately, it only took everyone looking at the choices in their hands to start having fun.
As with all games like this, you get out of it what you put in. My family immediately started embellishing their pitches by naming the heroes and movies (an optional rule requires movie titles, but you’re likely to go ahead and do it anyway), pitching in different voices (my mom was hilarious pitching her independent French film in a faux-French accent), and then basically begging the producer to throw at least some money their way.
I should point out that there are a few cards with topics that might be awkward for younger audiences. My ten-year-old pitched a film with a pole dancing hero because whatever that was sounded funny, but us trying to figure out how to explain what a pole dancer was was perhaps even funnier, so it all worked out in the end. Of course, it’d be simple enough to go through the decks and pull out any cards you wanted to avoid.
With its easy rules and quick game play, along with the laughter it’s sure to generate, Buy the Rights is really a great game. I’ve backed it on Kickstarter, and I’d urge you to as well.
Thanks for the kind words!