The Flavor of Rocketville There seem to be an endless string of games named after cities, particularly cities with an ancient pedigree, or along the spice road. I wanted to get a flavor that contrasted with the relentless barrage of ancient wonders and eventually settled on Rocketville, the city of the future. In particular, what I wanted Rocketville was a retro vision of the future, a chrome plated look forward from the 1950s. That look was masterfully achieved by Peter Whitley, Joe Chiodo, and Dan Calavito. Robots The Robots in Rocketville add a hidden element to the scoring. Because of them, you never know exactly how many points an opponent has. There are 21 Robots that offer popularity boosts -- if you meet the listed requirements. Some of these challenges are easy to meet and earn only one or two points. Others are hard to meet or expensive in terms of popularity, and will earn you more points. Of course, Robots received early in the game tend to be worth more than those received later because the recipient has more time to meet the listed condition. Optional Variety in Rocketville: Endorsers Something I love to do with games is tweak the rules, from chess and bridge to a game just designed yesterday. These changes add life to a game, as player's old skills, while still being useful, need to be rethought in light of the new variation. Injecting a touch of this into a game is second nature to me, though I have never done it in quite the way it was done with Rocketville The optional rules allow players to reveal a single endorser card, out of twenty in the game. Each one has a special rule, an advantage or disadvantage for the player who has that endorser. The endorser is always given to a player who chose Campaign Planning when no one else did. In a four-player game, for example, if three people play campaign promises (numbers) and one person plays Campaign Planning to draw a card, that one player gets the endorser, for better or for worse. Each Endorser is, in effect, a slightly different game -- one that will change what is a correct play in sometimes surprising ways! Because only one endorser is used per game, it will be at least 20 games before you are forced to repeat -- and if you are like me, by then you will be designing your own Endorsers! Would you like a quantity discount? Please See Discount Schedule