Modern Art

Alan, Joe, Todd, Jamie and I played our first game of Reiner Knizia's Modern Art Friday evening. Just so you're not under any suspense: Alan won. As usual. One of these days I'll play a game with Alan and actually beat him.

Modern art is a card game with an auction mechanic. Each player plays an art dealer, and auctions off various paintings by one of five (fictional) modern artists: Lite Metal, Yoko, Karl Gitter, Christin P., and Krypto. The game takes place over four "seasons." In the first season, each player is dealt a certain number of painting cards; more cards are dealt out in the second and third seasons. Player take turns auctioning off cards to other players. The auctioneer also takes part in the auction. The player that wins the auction pays the auctioneer, unless the auctioneer wins the auction, in which case the auctioneer pays the bank for the painting.

Each painting card has a different type of auction associated with it. There are open auctions, in which anyone bid in any order; once around auctions, in which each player gets one bid going around the table clockwise; sealed auctions, in which each player offers a bid in secret; and fixed price auctions, in which the auctioneer sets a price and the first player (again, going around the table clockwise) to accept it wins.

A season ends when a fifth painting by any artist is played; this painting is not auctioned. The paintings that were auctioned are then sold for an amount depending on the popularity of the artist. The paintings of the most popular artist, i.e. the one with the most paintings auctioned, are worth $30,000. Those of the second most popular artist are worth $20,000, and those of the third most popular artist are worth $10,000. Those of the two least popular artists are worth nothing.

The value of the paintings is cumulative over the four seasons: so if Karl Gitter was the most popular artist the first season, the second most popular the second season, and the third most popular in the third and fourth seasons, his paintings will be worth $70,000 at the end of the fourth season ($30K + $20K + $10K + $10K). So for the first couple of paintings the first season, you don't have any idea of what paintings will be worth, but after that you have some informations.

Like in most auction games, you win not by getting good deals (paintings that are worth more than what you paid for them), but by getting better deals than your opponents. Furthermore, since it is usually one of your fellow players that you will be paying for the painting, you don't want to pay so much that your opponent makes more than you do on the sale. For example, if you think a painting will be worth $50K at the end of the season, and you buy it for $30K, you've potentially made $20K on the painting - but your opponent has made $30K on the sale.

This was how Alan won the game. He hung back and let other players overpay for paintings; in particular, paintings that he sold.

The painting cards themselves are beautifully designed. It would be nice to have paintings from actual modern artists on the cards (I'd suggest Picasso, Modrian, Dali, Rothko, and Lichtenstein), but I'm sure that would make the game a lot more expensive because of copyright fees. The only complaint I have about the components is that money comes in denominations of $100K, $50K, $20K, $5K, and $1K, but no $10K. I played banker, and it would have been much easier making change if I had some $10K chips.

I hesitate to put a rating on the game just now, since I think that this game may well improve if all the players have played before. In an auction game, having just one player who overbids can throw a big element of randomness into the game, and we had several players doing that in this game. I look forward to playing it again with a group all of whom have played it before.