Seize the Bean

Description

"Seize the Bean" is a competitive cafe management game where overconfident baristas battle for reputation in Berlin. Key mechanics include: - *Customer serving* Players prioritize serving a line of thirsty customers with specific drink demands, risking bad reviews if out of stock. - *Action selection* Limited actions each turn to attract customers, upgrade decor, expand product lines, and restock resources. - *Customer abilities* Satisfied customers grant skills to manipulate the customer line, city elements, or rival players. - *Combo building* Form synergies between customers, upgrades, and products to claim reputation points from a central "city" pool. - *Endgame trigger* Depletion of the reputation pool ends the game, allowing one final serve step to maximize engines. Seize the Bean is a competitive board game where players, as ambitious ex-baristas, open rival cafes in Berlin to out-earn others in reputation from diverse customers. Starting with family and friends, players must first serve a demanding customer line each turn—fulfilling drink orders with sufficient stock to avoid bad reviews—before taking limited actions to attract more patrons, enhance decor, broaden offerings, and replenish supplies. Served customers unlock special abilities for line manipulation, city influence, or opponent disruption, while strategic combos of customers, upgrades, and products yield reputation from a shared pool. Pool exhaustion triggers endgame with a final serve phase, testing optimized cafe engines for victory.