Recovered Art

Though I hadn't played my copy in years, the board game Modern Art has made an appearance a few times in the last month with my regular gaming crowd.

It's an auction game, which doesn't usually seem to go over smoothly with us. The learning curve in auction games can be awkward, as the first question everyone finds themselves asking is, "what are these things worth?" and the answer is usually an unhelpful "they're worth whatever the group seems to think they are." About halfway into a game, players inevitably find they've made ghastly evaluations of things, and then it's a figurative roll of the dice to see whether they feel like embarking on the journey another time with that knowledge.

Modern Art neatly skirts around the issue by having a mechanism that informs the players what things should be worth. The paintings of five different artists can be sold in every round, and the most-purchased three of those will pay dividends to their "investors" when the round ends. There's a fixed price for first, second, and third (that can grow throughout the game, according to past performance), and the knowledge of that price tells players, "expect to get this much, and plan how much you're willing to pay accordingly."

Paintings can be auctioned in a variety of different methods, each having their own strategic advantages and disadvantages. The strategies are overt enough for me to see they're there, but subtle enough that I'm not sure (after just a few recent plays) when to apply what. The theme even works pretty well, which is usually a hit or miss element of a Reiner Knizia game. (Yes, this is another one of his works.)

It turns out this is rather more fun than I remember it being, and I think I'd like to start playing it a little more regularly.