Minigolf Designer Game Review

Setup

• Randomly draw one Mr. Client and one Mrs. Client card. Put the remaining client cards back in the box.
• Each player selects a color and takes the components associated with that color. they place their personal score sheet and par cubes off to the side; they place their entrance gate in front of them in their play area.
• Deal three land cards randomly dealt to each player. They will select one of these and put the rest back into the deck. The deck is then returned to the box.
• Place the pond and stream tiles to the side in a pile where everyone can get to them if needed.
• Place the three racks in the center of the table. Put the player pawns on the topmost rack in a random order.
• Place a number of random minigolf course tiles on the second rack equal to the number of players plus one. Do the same for the third rack. Note: the tiles all have a number on the back of them (1-13). When placing tiles on a rack, draw them one at a time from the bag and place them face down (number side up); the tiles are then sorted into numerical order from lowest to highest with tied tiles placed in the order in which they were drawn.
• Decide if you want to play the family version, or the advanced version. Place the common scoreboard off to the side with the chosen side up.

If you are playing the advanced game:

• Place a number of client visit tiles into the bag based on the player count (2 in a five-player game, 3 in a four-player game, 4 in a three-player game, or 6 in a two-player game).
• Each player places one or more of their promise cards and places it under their personal score sheet as a secret objective. The rest of their promise cards are placed in a face-down draw pile. If and when client visits take place, the player will be selecting more promises indicating things they have assured the clients will happen.

You are ready to begin!

Game Play

Turn order is determined by the order in which the player pawns are positioned in the top-most rack. Players move left to right.

On a player’s turn, they may either select a tile from the second rack, place their player pawn in the spot where that tile was located, and play the tile in their minigolf course; or they may pass and place their player pawn on the park-bench at the far left of the rack. If other players are on the park bench, each new passing player goes to the leftmost spot on the bench.

When playing a tile, the tile must be placed into a space that is orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to a space they already have a tile, or in relation to their entrance gate (the water features do not count).

Once all players have taken their turn, move the now empty top-most rack and place it into the third position. Remove any unselected tiles from the new top-most rack. Place new tiles on the third rack. Put the unselected tiles back in the bag. The tiles the players took in the previous round (and/or their position on the park bench) will determine the player order for the next round.

In the advanced game, a tile might show up indicating a visit from the clients to check on your progress. If this happens, stop and resolve it before continuing. When it arrives, each player has the option of selecting one or more of their unselected promise cards and placing them under their personal score sheet.

Each promise card has an element of the final scoring, be that having a popular golf course (popularity is measured by how many people are pictured on the tiles placed in the course), completing the course on time (when a player fills their land, they will begin collecting minigolf course tiles as time tiles indicating the number of turns they completed prior to other players), and so on. So when the clients visit, if you think you are ahead or doing well in an area, then go ahead and make another promise to them. Otherwise, it might be wise to just pass on this.

Game Play: The End Game

Once a player has filled all of the spaces of their allotted land, the end game begins. Each round after that, all players who have filled their allotted land or have decided to stop will draw a tile (in player order, they cannot pass) and place it beside their course. This is a time tile and it is worth bonus points at the end of the game. Each other player must decide at the end of each turn if they wish to continue. They can stop at any time, but cannot change their minds once they do. Once all players have either filled their allotted land or called it quits, the game is over and it is time to score.

Winning the Game

Scoring the minigolf courses is a pretty straightforward affair. To start, each of the player pawns is placed on the common score sheet to the left of the 1-point spot. Each player (if they have not already) assigns each hole of their course a number (using the hole markers) and placed par cubes on their personal score sheet indicating the par of each hole (par is determined by flags that appear on many tiles; sum the number on the flags in a hole to get the par number). Then you can begin scoring.

Basic Scoring (for the family game) is the same as it is for the advanced game, only the promise cards are not used. Basic scoring is as follows:

• Fun—each player receives 1 point for each person pictured on the tiles within their course.
• Fast—each player who received time tiles scores 3 points for each time tile they acquired.
• Whims—each player scores bonus points for meeting the whims of Mr. and Mrs. Client. Each client has different expectations (from the length of holes, to the use of flowerbeds, to the number of dogs that come to their golf course, and so on). Depending upon the client, different elements of the course can be scored.
• Par—each individual hole should have a par of 3-5; for each hole that falls in this range, the player scores 2 points. Also, a minigolf course should have a total par of 36 for all nine holes. Each par above or below this target causes the player to lose -1 point. You will know how far you are below the target by the number of par cubes you had left over; you will know how far you are above the target value by the number of black par cubes you had to use to fill in your personal score sheet.
• Land—each land card has a value on it, usually 15-20 points. You score this many points automatically. However, you lose 1 point for each missing space within the allotted land, and 3 points for each tile that is outside the allotted land.
• Circuit—you will want hole #1’s tee, and hole #9’s putting green to be next to the entrance gate. Each other hole, you will want the putting green to be orthogonally adjacent to the tee for the next hole. For each of these conditions you meet, you get 2 points (for a total of 20 points, if you have a perfect circuit).
• Playable—You need nine holes; for each hole above or below this, you lose -10 points. Each hole needs a tee and a putting green; for each malformed hole, you lose -3 points. Tiles need to align with one another; for each tile that has a play area attached to a non-play area, you lose -3 points. Some tiles are directional (they can only be played in one direction because they have a ramp or some other feature that does not work the other way); for each tile going in the wrong direction, you lose -1point.

If you are playing the advanced game, you also need to score the promise cards.

• Promises—For each promise you made, you need to know how well you did compared to the other players. If, in that area of the game, you were the best, you score 10 points. If you were not, however, then you lose points based on how many players there were and how poorly you did. In four and five player games, you might score 1-2 points for second place. But if you come in last, you are losing -10 points. Thus, in a two-player game, a promise is either +10 points, or -10 points.

Score up each condition. If a player goes over 100 points, they place a score tile 100-points side up. If a player goes over 200 points, they flip their score tile over to show the 200-point side.

The player with the highest score wins.