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Raccoon Tycoon
Historically speaking, auctioning off animals forced to wear suits and cocktail hats bursting with frills to sociopathic railroad barons has, typically, gone poorly. It also, I dunno, sounds illegal? Good thing Raccoon Tycoon don’t give a sh*t about the law or PETA’s opinion cause buying up these adorable critters is the name of the game.
Now, I teach a lot of new games to a lot of new people. Actually, no. That’s a lie. I teach the same awesome games to a lot of new people. Sometimes I suffer a catastrophic stroke that causes me to whip out Terraforming Mars or Food Chain Magnate to Bananagrams lovers – but that’s as rare as discovering joy in Monopoly. Usually, I grab the tried and true, the always successful, always fun, and always interactive titles. And in the middle of that Venn diagram is Raccoon Tycoon.
Raccoon is a great gateway game for a number of reasons. First, a big part of the game is getting money, and no American needs to be told that “GET CASH WIN GAME” is a strategy. They were born knowing it. Second, the adorable art will draw in any empathetic soul. And thirdly, the rising and falling commodity prices keeps players focused during the turns of others.
Gameplay
Raccoon Tycoon is a stock market game about getting rich so you can acquire railroad cards (With artwork of adorably dressed animals) during auctions. You want to obtain identical animal cards – there are 4 of each animal and bigger sets score more VP. There are five different actions; on your turn, you will perform one action. Either:
- Play a Production Card from your hand to both gain commodities and raise the value of several commodities.
- Sell as much of ONE commodity for its listed price, then lower the price by an amount equal to the amount you sold (This is done after you have received your pay).
- Purchase a building. Buildings offer asymmetrical powers and can be pretty costly.
- Purchase a Town Card with commodities (Not money). Town cards score a small amount of points, but score even more if you are able to pair them with a railroad card.
- Begin an auction for one of the available Railroad Cards (It is important to note that the amount of cash each player has is secret). In continuous clockwise order, players either offer a higher bid or bow out of the auction. The highest bidder pays the amount they bid and collects the card. The VP value of the railroad card is determined by how many of that set they have collected – meaning each card is worth a different amount of VP to each player. One key rule to auctioning – if you don’t win an auction you started, you get to take another turn! But you did just give another player VP.
The flow of gameplay is simple, quick and fun. Players are usually gaining or selling commodities, depending on the prices. Buying a building is just as quick – spend money, gain the tile. All of this is broken up when one player starts an auction. Whether you join the auction or sit out, you are still invested because you hope someone bids a ridiculous amount of money so that there is little competition during a future auction you want to win.
The Hook
Looking for Big Payouts
When I teach Raccoon Tycoon, I often suggest that players buy a building early to give themselves a special power, or I might advise them to spend a few commodities on a town card which will give them early points. Or, if they want a railroad card early, I would support their decision to begin an auction. Unfortunately, not one piece of sh*t at the table is listening to me since they are staring stone cold at the rising and falling commodity prices. Though buying a building is often a player’s first move, there is no denying that the only thought in their newbie brain is “I am soooooo f*ck*ng poor.”
It’s the hook sinking in – a need to hawkishly watch other the player’s card play. The production cards (The ones that give you commodities AND raise prices) are one of the two mechanics that drives the overall action. When you play a card, that same card also raises prices – so you can’t raise prices AND sell on the same turn; those are different actions. And it feels like total bullsh*t since the sap next to you might sell at the sky price you just created. Now, obviously you will want to play cards that raise prices of the commodities you receive, but it still incentivizes the other players to sell before you get a chance.
This interaction – raising prices while gaining resources and selling prices that others have raised – is the main conundrum that blows up the beginning of Raccoon Tycoon. And that conundrum skippity-paps you all game long. Who will outsmart who and get rich off another player’s move?
The Turn
Auctions Popoff
Though auctions can legally begin early, few players are braindead enough to initiate more than two. It’s cause winning an auction early means you end your turn poor as a hobo. One does not simply Railroad-Baron into Mordor with pennies! And so auctioning takes a backseat to getting rich. The opening turns sit in a roundabout with no driver brave enough to exit – gain, sell, gain, sell – But then! One player derails from the road like a monocle-wearing bat out of Hell and a barrage of auctions signals the turn.
This pulls back the curtain your imagination had created. You have been guessing who is the richest at the table – counting higher and higher each player’s earnings as they sell, grabbing tens and twenties from the bank. But once an auction begins, you will suddenly realize Johnny or Tammy was not as poor as they should have been.
This phase of the game is a thrilling roller coaster as people duck out of auctions quicker than you expect, they bid higher than any sane person should, and you go through highs and lows as you bid, pass, and suddenly gain a huge chunk of money from a massive sale of commodities. But you still can never truly tell who has all the money. There is a lot of confidence, followed by embarrassing doubt, followed by making your own huge scores.
This phase is the most fun and fastest moving part of Raccoon Tycoon. You get to enjoy your building’s powers while honing the winning route – Will it be dogs? Skunks? Bears and cats?! The end is far away even as auctions happen again and again. So even if you feel like you are losing now, you will have time to win by the game’s end . . . right?
The Bite
"How Many Cards are Left?"
Raccoon Tycoon ends IMMEDIATELY if either the railroad or town deck is emptied. Around the time the game is two-thirds of the way done, one of these piles experiences a sprint to depletion. It’s like a going-out-of-business sale, but instead of buying sh*tty chairs and blenders, you’re abducting foxes and raccoons as soon as they appear. You know, railroad baron type sh*t.
This bite stings if you hesitated and are now holding a large pile of commodities, or a fat stack of dollary-doos. They may get you cards, but they aren’t worth sh*t as far as victory points. They are only used to BUY the points. So you better get to spending! The most common trigger for this phase is one psychopath auctioning off railroad cards (The animal set collection deck) they don’t want in order to flip the one they do. They’ll auction a cat, then a dog with no intention of winning the auction before HOLY MACKERAL IT’S THE 4TH BEAR! This is the rabid nature of anyone who has acquired the 3rd card of a set. The 4th is often worth so much that they will curb stomp to collect the rest.
The bite has a wild west feeling since there is literally no way you have the slightest f*ck*ng clue how much money anyone has. Players bluff to no end in the final rounds – Just act rich, and everyone will think you are the dangerous one. Players might let others fight for a set that’s split between two players, or one worth little points, in order to get their own, more valuable, complete set. It’s a race to the bottom of the deck to find the rest of that stupid fox family you invested in 20 turns ago! The other cards that give you points (The town deck) are also going crazy because no auction is needed to buy them – you just have to have the listed resources. If you have commodities and little money, that becomes your new end game.
The end causes everyone’s eyes to swing back and forth between the two decks. Raccoon Tycoon rarely becomes boring and never slows down. Decisions may be tough, but it doesn’t take long to admit which is the best option for you. Hopefully in the end you won’t get stuck with a lot of unspent cash or a warehouse full of commodities. Otherwise you’ll end up as a wealthy railroad baron with plenty of goods to show off … and yet, somehow, still a loser.
