FORMOSA TEA - Experience the early years of the Taiwanese tea industry
☕ If you want to support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/rollthedices
❤️ To support the project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tbdgames/formosa-tea/description
⭐ Website: https://www.tbd-gaming.com
In Formosa Tea, you and the other players are striving to become the owners of the most prestigious tea farm. Wisely deploy your workers to pick the most suitable tea leaves, produce tea while upgrading your tea processing technology, and sell to domestic and international markets.
Specifically, in each turn, your workers may take one of 5 possible actions:
* Send a worker to harvest tea leaves
* Send a worker to a tea factory to process tea leaves
* Retrieve a worker from the tea factory after tea processing is completed
* Send a worker to sell tea in the domestic market
* Send a worker to sell tea to international merchants
How is this different from other worker placement games? Well, a couple of particular mechanisms stand out: One we like to nickname “worker push-ment” - that is, when more workers (from any player) are sent to harvest tea in the same row, the tea masters on the corresponding tea processing track can take additional processing steps. These processing steps improve the quality of the tea and are the actual steps taken in the real-life tea production industry.
The second mechanism is that when their tea master is pushed, players have a choice to take those additional steps to improve the tea’s quality or send their tea master to the end and rush the production so that their tea master is available to take more actions in the same round. As a result, some players may take more actions than other players, potentially trading off higher tea quality for quicker production cycles (i.e., more turns).
As a result, players need to plan ahead on the type and quality of tea they plan to make. While high-quality tea is worth more points, there is a market available for everything - good tea and below-average tea!
❤️ To support the project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tbdgames/formosa-tea/description
⭐ Website: https://www.tbd-gaming.com
In Formosa Tea, you and the other players are striving to become the owners of the most prestigious tea farm. Wisely deploy your workers to pick the most suitable tea leaves, produce tea while upgrading your tea processing technology, and sell to domestic and international markets.
Specifically, in each turn, your workers may take one of 5 possible actions:
* Send a worker to harvest tea leaves
* Send a worker to a tea factory to process tea leaves
* Retrieve a worker from the tea factory after tea processing is completed
* Send a worker to sell tea in the domestic market
* Send a worker to sell tea to international merchants
How is this different from other worker placement games? Well, a couple of particular mechanisms stand out: One we like to nickname “worker push-ment” - that is, when more workers (from any player) are sent to harvest tea in the same row, the tea masters on the corresponding tea processing track can take additional processing steps. These processing steps improve the quality of the tea and are the actual steps taken in the real-life tea production industry.
The second mechanism is that when their tea master is pushed, players have a choice to take those additional steps to improve the tea’s quality or send their tea master to the end and rush the production so that their tea master is available to take more actions in the same round. As a result, some players may take more actions than other players, potentially trading off higher tea quality for quicker production cycles (i.e., more turns).
As a result, players need to plan ahead on the type and quality of tea they plan to make. While high-quality tea is worth more points, there is a market available for everything - good tea and below-average tea!
Category
📚
ÉducationTranscription
00:00 Hi there, I'm Jerry from TBD Games.
00:05 Hi, I'm Hui, the founder of SoSo Studio, the publisher of Formosa Tea.
00:10 Years ago, we published Formosa Tea, an innovative work of placement board game about the history of tea making in Taiwan.
00:18 It was well received at S&P 2019, and we quickly sold out the first print run.
00:23 But then the pandemic happened, and we decided to hold off on printing more, until now.
00:28 So, Hui, what is this game all about?
00:31 Let me explain.
00:34 In Formosa Tea, we play as tea makers.
00:37 We send our tea farmers to collect tea leaves, process them to the desired level of quality,
00:42 and then sell them to the domestic and international markets for profit.
00:46 While everyone runs their own tea production engine, the game's core is about the interaction between players.
00:52 There is both competition, for the best tea leaves, and cooperation, as players can make the same type of tea
00:58 and help each other advance along the tea production track.
01:01 There is also tension between the choices.
01:04 Do you try to start the production process first, so other players might help you move forward?
01:09 Or do you try to gather the best tea leaves first?
01:12 Do you try to create the best quality tea you can?
01:15 Or do you cut the process short to take more actions?
01:18 These decisions are at the heart of the game.
01:21 Now, besides the interactive gameplay, we've also taken care to build authenticity into the theme.
01:27 In 2017, to help better understand Taiwan's tea-making process and history,
01:33 we went to visit some tea farms and museums in northern Taiwan to experience true tea culture.
01:41 We also hired a tea expert as our consultant to ensure the game's processes reflected real tea-making processes
01:49 and incorporate Taiwan's tea production history into the game.
01:54 So, this isn't just a game, it's a labor of love supported by those in Taiwan's tea industry
02:00 with the intent to share our tea-making history and culture with the rest of the world.
02:06 Now, given the pandemic, we've had more time to hear feedback from our players and make revisions before our next print run.
02:13 So, we are creating a couple mini-expansions as add-on modules to increase replayability.
02:19 But as a small publisher in Taiwan, we have limited resources to make this happen.
02:23 That's why we are launching this crowdfunding project to bring Formosa Tea back to life.
02:29 We need your help to make the game better known, and through this, help more tea lovers and board gamers experience Formosa Tea.
02:36 We believe the combination of innovative gameplay and the rich history of Taiwanese tea production make Formosa Tea a worthy addition on your shelf.
02:45 So, pour yourself a cup of tea, explore the rest of our campaign, and select the pledge that works best for you.
02:53 Thank you for your support.
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