Money makes the world go round. Well actually that’s physics. The pursuit of money drives humanity. We may wish that wasn’t the way. At its very worst money brings out our base natures. It shows us to be venile, egotistical and obsessed with status. High Society knows this and revels in it.
Designed by Dr Reiner Knizia, High Society is a game that keeps getting reprinted. I picked up the recent Osprey Games version but it has been out in one form or another since its release in 1995. This one has wonderful art deco style art from Medusa Dollmaker. It evokes a period of French decadence perfectly suited to the themes of this game.
High Society sees each player looking to show off how fabulously wealthy they are. This is achieved by bidding on a series of auctions for everything from perfume to holidays. Each of these items is worth a certain amount of status and if you have the most at the end of the game you win.
All these auctions are open and bid on with the money you hold in your hand. Every player starts with not only the same amount of money but the same denominations of money: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 25 thousand franc cards.
As you go round bidding you must always bid more than the previous player. This pushes valuations higher and higher until people start passing. When you pass you take all the money you bid back into your hand and have nothing further to do with this particular auction. Eventually one person is left. Paying up they take the points, and lose the money from their hand for the rest of the game. They also get the first bid on the next item.
You can already see the space this game has for duplicitous action and fine calculation. Sure this item may not be one you want, but you can see how far you can push the price up before noping out. Maybe you pushed too far and ended up with less money, and points, than you wanted. Bargains can be had if you don’t push far enough. It is a fine line to walk.
The spread of denominations makes these calculations increasingly difficult as your supply dwindles. Every bid becomes a finely honed prediction of what you’ll need in the future against what you can sacrifice now. You’ll find gaps opening up in your numbers, sometimes forcing you to bid much more than you want. Maybe you can turn that to your advantage?
The game ends when the fourth of 4 green backed cards comes out. You don’t even bid on the fourth card, it just appears and wraps the game up. 3 of those are prestige cards that are lovely multipliers enabling you to double your points at the end of the game.
The fourth of these is a Scandal! This halves your final score. Now surely no one would bid on such an item? About that.
There are 3 Disgrace cards in the game that have negative effects on your final score, Scandal being one of them. As they appear the rules of the auction change slightly. Now rather than bidding to win a card, we are bidding to not take the card. The auction happens as normal with increasing bids. The first person to pass must take the card. Everyone else pays up.
The auctions for these Disgrace cards can really turn the game on its head. They allow someone in a weaker position to catch up, forcing others to spend money to avoid the negative effects. It can also mean that the leader on Status who might be a bit cash strapped, can be brought back down to earth with a thud. After all, everyone in high society likes to revel in a fall from grace.
There is one final twist this game imposes on the calculations of the players. When the game ends we count up all our status and declare a winner. Just before we do that though everyone empties out there wallets to show how much money they have left. The poorest player, or players if there is a tie, don’t get any points. They are cast out from high society for not being able to afford to be rich.
Dr. Knizia has a way with rules and emergent play. High Society seems like a simple game. As you engage with it, the game reveals itself to be entirely fiendish, and devilishly fun. There is a combination of restricted denominations, the nature of the auctions, an unpredictable end point, and avoiding elimination. Each part connects viscerally to the others, making every decision feel tight and interesting.
High Society is a game that has become a firm favourite for me. It shows how an amazing experience can be crafted and honed from as few mechanisms as possible. It is easy to teach, engages quickly, and reveals its depths as you play. More than that, it lampoons our greed and mocks our capitalist trophies. As an expression of the ‘just enough’ school of design I can think of no better example.
I bought High Society with my own money.
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