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Masala Lab

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Masala Lab

Masala Lab

2024

Designed by XOtoXO Design Studio

Published by XOtoXO Games

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Description

Masala Lab has not 1, not 2, but 3 games inside, all of them based on delicious Indian food! Inspired by the best-selling book Masala Lab by Krish Ashok, you will prep and serve various Indian dishes while trying to rack up the highest score. Game 1 - Tiffin, is a set-collection game, where you have to collect food "Items" to make your "Prep", in a way such that the Items match the recipe of the Prep. An interesting card-overlap mechanism means you need to collect the Items in a particular sequence shown on the recipe. The game ends when the one player collects 7 Prep cards, but the winner is the one who scored the highest! Watch out for penalties for incomplete Prep. A game lasts 20-30 minutes. Game 2 - Sadya (pronounced sadh-ya, meaning "feast" in Malayalam), kicks things up a notch, and you're competing to serve the best meal at the feast, on banana leaves, as is traditional in some parts of India. The rules build upon Game 1, and add a few more rules and mechanisms to it, namely engine-building and worker-placement. You have access to a "Pantry" in this game, which you access with your workers. Once you've made your "Prep" with "Items", just like in Game 1, you can use your Prep and your Pantry to "cook and serve" Dishes on to your leaf. Making "Prep" builds up your engine and you can re-use this Prep for several dishes. Prep and Dishes, both score you points. The first player to reach 40 on the score-track triggers the end-game. Resolve any penalties for players, and the highest scorer will win! A game lasts 45-60 minutes. Game 3 - Dessert, is played with the reverse side of the playing board, and the "Dish" cards held upside down! This is a pattern-building game, that will evoke a slight tinge of nostalgia for fans of Tetris. In this game, you're in charge of serving a bunch of fussy guests, each of whom places an order for 4 dishes. But they will only accept your order and give you points, if you place their orders in any of the 5 Tetris shapes! This is a 2 or a 4 player game, that takes about 30 minutes. —description from the publisher

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Game data sourced from BoardGameGeek, used under their API terms.