Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Numerous vending machines are placed at a busy corner of the city. When pedestrians put coins into these machines, surprises await them as they open the packages.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Numerous vending machines are placed at a busy corner of the city. When pedestrians put coins into these machines, surprises await them as they open the packages. Strange Vending Machine is a fast-paced and light family game. Players choose which vending machines to buy food from in order to score points. If a player has no cash in hand, they can shake money out from a vending machine, so watch carefully and observe which vending machines have the most money! Strange Vending Machine comes with two rule sets: "Muscle Man's Purchase Challenge" and "Ingredients and Recipes of the Mysterious Wizard". The two games have independent rule sets and cannot be combined in play. In "Muscle Mans Purchase Challenge", each player has a vending machine full of food cards. During the player's turn, every one choose one of following actions to perform simultaneously: Buy a food card, stock a food card and take coins, take one coin from the supply. If the end condition is satisfied, the game ends. Score food cards in front of the players, and the total coins owned. The player with the most points wins. In "Ingredients and Recipes of the Mysterious Wizard', there are six vending machines placing on the game box. During a player's turn, the active player either buys a food card from one of the vending machines, or takes all the coins from one of the machines. Each food card is contained of an ingredient and a recipe. The recipes provide victory points in the end of the game, as the required ingredients are satisfied. Once a player purchases their fifth food card, all other players take one more action, and a Final Coin Shake occurs. Score the recipe points at the bottom of the food cards. Each ingredient may be scored multiple times. Each fake coin is worth negative 1 point. The player with the most points wins. -description from designer