Słony Okup

Game is loosely based on recent events that happen near the shores of Somalia were various ships were captured by pirates and were only released after multi-million ransoms were paid. In "Słony okup" players take on a role of managers of shady companies. On one hand they are hired by shipowners as negotiators trying to convince pirate groups to release hijacked tankers. On the other hand they are also in the pirate businesses themselves by controlling various bands that capture defenseless ships for ransom. But good days for these enterprises are coming to an end as more and more ships are taking longer routes avoiding dangerous Somalia's shores. Only if your company will convince the public of being the most successful in freeing hijacked ships you can count on being chosen as ONZ official ship negotiator providing you with endless profit possibility. But beware, competition is not going to give up easily ... more and more ships are being captured. "Słony okup" is an bidding board game in which during a round one player takes on a role of Pirate and the other players roles of negotiators. Negotiators bid for the possibility to free the ship using sum of three resources available in the game: money, prestige points and troops (anti terrorists). Winner of the bidding round presents his offer to a Pirate. He can either accept the offer gaining all the money proposed (that later he or she can use to free ships from other players) or he can rise the price by using troops (acting as pirates this time). If ship is freed negotiator gets prestige points otherwise the ships stays on a board and becomes more valuable as the public pressure rises. Now the next player becomes a Pirate. The winner is a player with most prestige points at the end of the game. The game won the contest for best prototype on Pionek (Polish board game convention)