I’m always slightly wary of board games that exist purely as movie tie-ins. They often seem to be developed quickly and cheaply to cash in on the film’s popularity rather than having any real effort applied to the game mechanics. This was my fear for Catching Fire: Seeds of Rebellion, the latest board game from the Hunger Games franchise; but there is quite a bit more to this game than first meets the eye.
The first thing you might notice about this game is that the box–and indeed the board, playing pieces, and everything else included–features no artwork from the film franchise. Instead the game builds on the story in the books rather than the glossy Hollywood adaptation. There is absolutely no mention of Katniss, Peeta, or even the Hunger Games themselves in the game’s instructions. Instead the game focuses on the rebellion that is growing in the background of the main story throughout the second installment of the saga.
In Seeds of Rebellion you are cast as a rebel leader attempting to set up secret bases across Panem. Missions are distributed across all twelve districts and you are tasked with collecting the different resources (food, medicine, information, fuel, and people) required for each one. Acquiring all the resources for a mission allows you to complete it and place one of your colored bases in that district. Each mission is worth a number of rebellion points depending on the difficulty–the number of resources required to complete it–and the player with the most points when a mission is completed and cannot be replaced from the stack is the winner.
Of course there are a number of obstacles standing in your way. Players can send Peacekeepers to different districts, each one increasing the number of resources required to complete nearby missions. Whenever a player completes a mission they draw a new one from the stack to replace it. Each mission is specific to a district and every mission on a district must be completed together. That can mean that as you are about to complete a set of missions, a new one is added to that district forcing you to start collecting something else and stopping you from completing those already there and placing your base.
As well as obstacles that hinder you, the game also provides opportunities for bonus points to be gained. Each player is assigned a number of strategic objectives at the beginning of the game. These are cards that highlight a number of specific districts within Panem; establishing a base in your strategic objective districts awards you bonus points. You can also gain bonus points by becoming an expert in completing certain kinds of missions or by being varied and completing one of every kind of mission.
The game mechanic itself is very simple: collect cards with symbols on that represent the various different resources available, and, once you have enough, discard the cards to complete the missions. However this simplicity could be a huge boost to the game. Not only is it simple enough for non-gamers to pick up and play quickly, the game could also be inserted into a larger campaign game as a mechanic for gathering resources and establishing bases. The tiny board (no really, this is the tiniest board I have ever seen) is again very simplistic with just the district symbols marking out each region, so it could easily be incorporated as a map in a larger RPG or even a LARP game looking for a simple way of committing resources across an area.
It’s great to see a spin-off game whose developers have really thought about what the original story is about and designed the game to become part of that world. Winning Catching Fire: Seeds of Rebellion sets up the rebellion so that the events in the final book of the series, Mockingjay, have a chance at being successful. Lose and the Capitol will probably be victorious; honestly this game really should have been a co-op. There probably isn’t an enormous amount of replay value here so the price could be a little steep but if you’re looking for a game that really ties in well to its fictional universe or need one to play with family on Christmas Day then there are far worse choices.
GeekMom received this item for review purposes.
