KOCHI: As wish-fulfillment goes, Tobago is right up there with any other game I’ve played. Want to have a reason to explore it? Why not chase after some of these mysterious treasures? Great, but how do I actually get around the place? How about these magical ATVs that can traverse mountains and lakes with equal ease? You get the picture.
Going hunting for any of the four treasures in Tobago essentially consists of two phases. In the first, you and the other players will be playing clue cards, which are effectively rumours that you’ve heard about the possible locations of each treasure.
For example, you might play a card that says that the black treasure is next to one of the native villages on the island or somebody else might say that the brown treasure is somewhere in the largest mountain range on the island. As more cards get played, the potential sites for each treasure will dwindle until, at last, there’s only one place on the entire board where the treasure could be. That kicks off the second phase of the hunt, which is basically an all-out sprint to be the first to get there and actually dig it up.
You see, treasures are divided amongst every player who contributed to its discovery — either by playing cards that helped to zero in on its location, or by digging it up. The more you contributed, the bigger your cut. And so, when you’re playing those cards, you’re also trying to ensure that the final site of that treasure is as close to your ATV as possible so that you can nip over and pick it up before your erstwhile comrades.
So those are the two main activities you’ll be occupied with during Tobago — the almost cerebral logical puzzle of eliminating potential treasure locations one by one, followed by the frantic dash to pick up that treasure. And those would be engaging enough just as they are, but Tobago’s best moments happen immediately after a treasure is found.
This is where Tobago becomes a giant game of chicken. Every player who’s going to get a share of the treasure is given some information about the cards that will be in the pot, so to speak, and they can and will use that to mess with everybody else. If you see a friend grab a 3-value treasure eagerly, you might think that he hadn’t seen anything better so you might be inclined to pick up a 3-value yourself. On the other hand, he might’ve seen a 6-value and he’s just trying to convince you to get out early. Or, even worse, he might’ve seen a curse card.
You didn’t think you were going to get away with this treasure scot-free, did you? Curse cards immediately hit every player who’s still left in a treasure hunt, forcing them to lose their most valuable treasure. And that’s why a player grabbing a low-level treasure card early will set alarm bells ringing — is it a feint? Or is something bad lurking in that deck?
You’ll never know for sure, and that’s why Tobago is an absolute delight. It’s a blast racing around a lovely tropical island, trying to keep up with the other wannabe Indiana Joneses around the table.
(Arjun is a gamer, book lover and an all-round renaissance man)