It's Alive! (card game)

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It's Alive!

Game in progress
Designer Yehuda Berlinger
Publisher Reiver Games
Players 2 to 5
Age range 12 and up
Setup time 5 minutes
Playing time 20–45 minutes
Random chance Medium

It's Alive! is a light set collection and auction board game designed by Yehuda Berlinger published in 2007 by Reiver Games in English. Players assume the roles of mad scientists racing to create a monster from body parts and bring it to life.

It's Alive! can be played by two to five players and takes around 20 to 45 minutes to play.

[edit] Gameplay

Players take it in turns to choose a card and then play it. The game ends when one player cries out It's Alive! after collecting the eight body parts needed to bring their monster to life.

First a player must choose a card by either:

  • Turning over the top card of the deck, for free;
  • or, buying the top card out of a player's discard pile (known as their graveyard).

Once a card has been chosen they then have three options:

  • They can buy that card at it's face value, buy paying money from their stockpile of cash to the bank;
  • They can sell that card to the bank, adding it to the top of their graveyard and taking half the value of the card from the bank;
  • Or they can auction it to the other players, saying what they are prepared to pay, and giving each player one chance to out-bid them.

In addition, there are two special cards the coffin, which is treated like a wild card, and can be used instead of any body part card, and a villagers' uprising which represents irate villagers who need to be appeased by paying them off.

[edit] Strategy

Strategically, It's Alive! requires the players to manage their limited funds to get as many body parts as possible while denying their opponents cheap access to body parts that they need. Because buying an auctioned part from another player provides them with income, paying over the face value leads to another player gaining more benefit than the purchaser.

Since a player can only gain funds during their turn (by selling or auctioning a card), spending money during your turn can be a dangerous tactic, potentially leaving you unable to take part in auctions until your next turn.

Also, player's need to be aware that drawing the villagers' uprising can be very expensive if provisions haven't been made to meet their price.

[edit] External links