Ra (board game)
Cover of the Rio Grande edition
|
|
| Designer(s) | Reiner Knizia |
|---|---|
| Illustrator(s) | Frank Vohwinkel |
| Publisher(s) |
Alea Rio Grande Games Überplay |
| Players | 2 to 5 |
| Age range | 12 and up |
| Setup time | 5 minutes |
| Playing time | 45 - 60 minutes |
| Random chance | Medium |
| Skill(s) required | Auction |
Ra is a board game for two to five players designed by Reiner Knizia and themed around Ra, the sun-god of Heliopolis in ancient Egyptian culture.
Originally published in Germany, it was republished in an English language translation by Rio Grande Games. Subsequent English language editions have been published by Überplay and again by Rio Grande Games. The last of these increased the number of players from the original 3-5 to 2-5, but otherwise all editions have used the same rules. Ra won the 2000 International Gamers Award and placed 2nd in the 1999 Deutscher Spiele Preis.
Ra is an auction game, where the players are all competing for the same resources. The game is played in three rounds, called Epochs, reflecting the history of ancient Egypt. Players use their sun tokens to bid against each other on auctions for tiles. At the end of an epoch, points will be scored for the number and types of tiles a player managed to win. The price of the tiles is determined by the players bidding for them, and values can shift rapidly.
Players are faced with a constant balance between "what should be done eventually" and "what can actually be done now", which is a hallmark of many of Knizia's games, and of German-style board games in general.
Ra was published in 1999 by Alea in Germany. In an interview with Funagain Games, Knizia explains how he created the game : "Ra actually has a good story behind it; it was the first game I did after my retirement. Two or three weeks after my retirement I said, 'Okay, now let's get started.' That's the time, when I do a big game, that the world around me stops. I concentrate on this game and nothing else. And since I had more time, this concentration became even more extreme. For four to six weeks I did nothing but work on this game. "
...
Wikipedia