Game: Box Office

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shfinfrock — 2008-09-03T03:20:34+00:00

Box front

Thread: Monopoly with some extra concepts thrown in

Imperious — 2007-08-12T15:51:11+00:00

The long and short of it: Anyone who has played Monopoly knows what to expect from a game of Box Office. It's long, progress is primarily determined by dice-rolling, and is probably best thought of as a family game.

Components: Box Office boasts a fairly conventional Monopoly-esque board, with spaces to move on around the edges and places for cards in the middle. It also has four types of cards: artists (directors, actors, and so forth), plays, cards that determine audience turnout (as a percentage of theatre seating capacity), and "chance" cards. The cards are sturdy enough to bear up under reasonable play. Finally, like any good Monopoly game there is fake money. The fake bills are small and thin, and can be somewhat difficult to manage. Dice and pieces for moving about the board are included.

Basics of play: The goal of the game is to put on profitable plays. Each player starts with a stable of artists, a selection of plays, and some money. Plays require certain types of artists (i.e., one may require only a director, a producer, an actor, and an actress, while another may also need a choreographer and a supporting cast), and can only be put on when one lands on a space whose color-coding matches that of the play.

At the start of his or her turn, the player rolls two dice and proceeds clockwise around the board that many spaces. If the destination space is of the same color as one of the player's plays, and the player has the requisite artists (and enough money to pay the setup costs), the player can put on the play. If the player cannot or does not choose to put on the play, he or she draws a card from a pile which includes more artists (and eventually more plays).

To put on a play, the player pays the required up-front fee, chooses the artists involved, and draws a card to determine how full the theater was (each space represents a theater, and has the number of available seats listed). Gross income is calculated by multiplying the number of full seats by the ticket price for the show (given on the play card). Some larger plays also require that one discard one or two of the participating artists. Finally, the play itself is discarded to the same pile as the artists.

While moving around the board one can acquire "chance" cards and "pass go" to earn money (thematically described as grants for the arts).

Impressions: This game falls into an uncomfortable middle ground between Monopoly and, well, anything more complicated than Monopoly. It plays a lot like Monopoly, as one rolls around the board trying to make money. However, there's a distressing amount of bookkeeping for so simple a game; Monopoly isn't improved by math (even if the math is, admittedly, quite simple). The game might end up without much of a playerbase, a bit complicated for small children (though perhaps it has some merit as a teaching tool) but far too simple (and long) for a group of adults.

The game does recommend itself with its sense of humor, missing no opportunity for a play on words. Actors have puns for names, and plays are cheerfully silly spoofs of real productions.

Overall, the game is clearly a product of its time. It's clear that a lot of effort went into the game--it's funny and the caricatures used on the artist cards are well done. The mechanics are what they are--those of a family game from the mid-1980s. If you're looking for a game of this general type, Box Office is a good choice.

The ideal audience: Parents looking for something a little more involved than Monopoly to play with their children.

Thread: Box Office - a short review

jdesmond — 2007-07-28T01:09:29+00:00

If you have some theater buff friends, who have "greasepaint in
their blood", find a copy of _Box Office_ and bestow it upon them.
It's a well-produced game, the cards are well-printed on glossy
cardstock, the mechanics will remind them of Monopoly, the Artist
Cards have funny 'homage to Al Hirschfeld' illustrations, and
mayhaps they can identify the caricatures.

If a game designer today were to design a game on 'producing
plays', 'twould be shorter, less luck-dependent, have more player
decisions, and be more fun. In short, you'd have something like
_Show Manager_ But this is a game from two decades ago - an era
gone by.

Play begins with each 'producer' getting four 'Play' cards,
listing the title and synopsis of a play ("The Sound of Mucus" - A
musical about allergies... ), the cast required, and the size of
theater it will require, then roll dice and move around the board
edge. You can land either on 'Make or Break' squares (ie: draw a
"Chance" card) or on a theater square, where you can either draw
another 'Artist' card, or produce a play.

Big theaters require big plays with large casts and big production
costs, and you must discard two of the 'Artist' cards from the
cast afterwards. Little theaters welcome plays with minimal
production costs and small casts, all of whom stay with your
company afterwards, but offer less potential reward.

For when you produce a play, you line up the 'play card' and the
cast, and draw a 'Box Office' card, telling you what percentage of
the seats were sold - ranging from 100% to none. Did I say this
is a very luck-dependent game?

It's possible to trade Artist Cards between players, or 'borrow'
an actor or director if you land on a theater and are short one
cast member. There is, it should be noted, no reason not to
'lend' an Artist Card to another player, if the agreement provides
you some certain return and the borrower agrees to return the card
- unless you're trying to keep the leader from reaching the
'winning amount'.

Players start with $100,000. In our first game, we played for an
hour and a quarter, at the end of which the average gain was about
25%. Rules say "you collectively decide to play until one of you
has amassed a personal worth of, say $500,000. Beginning players
may decide to play until someone has earned $100,000. Important:
When calculating your winnings, do not inclide the $100,000 with
which you begin the game."

So, _Box Office_ is an old game with outdated mechanics, a long
game, a heavily luck-dependant game, but with high 'production
values', and a theme which some folks may find irresistable. If
you're one of them, or know someone who is, grab a copy; if not,
leave it alone.

"The _Box Office_ theatrical board game has been developed
(copyright 1985) by Canadian Cultural Consultants Corporation
(1693 West Seventh Ave, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6J-1S4) as a fund
raising tool for Canadian and American theaters."

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drmabuse00 — 2007-02-20T15:32:33+00:00

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drmabuse00 — 2007-02-20T15:32:05+00:00

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drmabuse00 — 2007-02-06T15:24:33+00:00