It's Alive! is a light set collection and auction board game

Board game

A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

 designed by Yehuda Berlinger published in 2007 by Reiver Games in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. A second edition, also by Reiver Games, with both English and German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

rules was published in 2008. 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.

Gameplay

Players take 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 players then have three options:

• Buy that card at its face value, by paying money from their stockpile of cash to the bank;
• 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 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.

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.

External links

• It's Alive! homepage at Reiver Games