PLAYED FOR YOU

Friends               

Alter                   

Spezial                

Mai-star

GEISHA LOOKING FOR HER SUCESSOR

At the peak of the Geisha era the famous and incomparable Mai-star wants to pass on her art. She names two conditions for a candidate: She must be independent of a sponsor and first prove her abilities before Mai-star will teach her. After a long selection process six candidates remain, one of them will be Mai-stars successor.

You are one of those geishas and play cards to enhance your prestige by advertisers or to earn money from accepting guests, money is the gauge for success at the end of the game. The value for the prestige of a geisha determines her fame and how high the demand is for her, her special abilities can be used only in a limited way without risking loss of prestige. Basically, players choose which cards they will use as advertisers for their geishas and which cards to use as guests. In your turn you can play a guest, advertise and draw a card, exchange two cards, swap an advertiser for a card on hand or draw a card. Special abilities of guests can be used anytime.

If a player runs out of cards on hand, the round ends: All players um up the income from their guests, cards remaining in hand deduct 2 points per card from your income of the round. If you have earned the most money after three rounds, your geisha is named Mai-star’s successor.

At heart Mai-star is a set-collecting game, you play cards from your hand according to special rules and use their special effects. The topic is what distinguishes this card game from others, especially for players that are interested in games from other cultures, offering a fascinating glimpse into an exotic world, nearly completely gone.

Players         : 3-6

Age             : 10+

Duration       : 30+

Designer      : Seiji Kanai

Artist           : Noboru Sugiura

Price            : ca. 15 Euro

Publisher      : Kanai / Japon 2010

Web             : www.japonbrand.gamers-jp.com

Genre          : Card game

Users           : With friends

Version        : jp

Rules           : en jp

In-game text : yes

Comments: Fascinating topic * good English rules * basically well-known mechanism of forming card groups and interaction

Compares to:

Other card games with set collecting

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance                1

Tactic                   3

Strategy__          0

Creativity            0

Knowledge          0

Memory               0

Communication   0

Interaction          2

Dexterity             0

Action                  0