The world of bartending and making drinks is where Mixologists from all around compete to showcase their talents. Making cocktails can be more fun than drinking them and today we are all going to see what that is like as we compete to be the best in the land.
On the Rocks is published and designed by Michael and Christina Pittre of Pentree Games and is also distributed by 25th Century Games. It plays 1-4 players in 60 mins.
Overview
In On the Rocks players are competing to be the best Mixologist making drinks and serving them for money and for additional tips but be on the lookout for rivals trying to spill your ingredients. Three rounds of making a variety of drinks will lead you to the Last Call where players will determine who has the most sales and tips to be the winner!
Gameplay
Players set up the Bar, Mixing Area and Order Area to start. Each player has a Bar in front of them and the jigger bowls are placed in the Mixing Area with the shaker bag full of the ingredient and special marbles. The Order Area is where all the cards are placed along with the bonus coins. All players begin with either 3 or 4 drink orders to begin. Then play is ready to begin!
Drink glasses and the current round indicator is on each player’s board along with places to place their completed orders, tips, discarded tips and complaints. There is also some room for extra ingredients here as well.
On the Rocks is played over three rounds of drink orders. On a player’s turn there are a number of actions that must be completed that are optional and mandatory based on the action. The actions are as follows:
1-Tip Cards
2-Complaints
3-Roll
4-Draft
5-Mix
6-Select and Place
7-Save
8-Resolve
9-End Turn
Tip Cards are available to use at any time on a player’s turn. They can be pass, share or keep cards. How and When you use these cards will effect not only your game but also those of the other players. Complaints are handled only if another player has passed one on to you. These must be resolved now on your turn if you have gained them from other players on their turn.
Roll allows you to roll both of the dice and possibly a player may use manipulation to flip a die to its opposite side if you discard one marble from any drink on your board. Draft is when you will pick up the amount of dice from the bag based on the die roll and then move to Mix where you will take those dice and one by one place them into a bowl in a clockwise fashion starting with the empty one from the last player. Players will then select a bowl and place those marbles on their boar dot move them into the drinks. Any remaining marble ingredients can go on the shelf if you have room and any others must go into the bag.
Resolve takes place before the end of a turn where players will resolve any special marbles they have. These are the premium ingredients, the spill marble which gives you a spill card and you can complete a recipe card. These completed cards go into your completed drinks toward the order. If you finish an order, you will start your next drink order and draw 3 or 4 recipe cards. Then play moves to the next player.
The game progresses like this until Last Call when a player has placed their 3 Lemon round markers. Now all other players will have one more turn to try and complete their drink orders. Final scoring is done where players add up the money from their completed drinks, tip and any bonus coins they received. You lose two dollars for every drink not completed. However has the most money is the winner!
What I liked:
-Theme. This is the first mixology game I have ever played and I love the style and theme it throws on the table. It all makes sense and throw you into the world of mixing drinks and competing with others around the table. The spills are a fun way to slow someone down as well or push your own luck towards maybe grabbing too many ingredients at once. It all fits and flows and I love that about this game.
-Art style. The design and art on this is perfect. The drinks pop off the cards and even the main bar board each player has is just a good looking piece of work. I appreciate the style and really enjoyed getting this one in front of other players to show them how great it looked.
What could be better:
-Alternative version. I would love to see something that would take this same style and maybe make coffee/tea/boba drinks or anything that would remove the alcohol part of theme for families that would prefer that. I am perfectly fine with it but I totally understand how someone would feel that way and I would hate for them to miss the awesome aspects of this game just because of that.
Overall Impressions
On the Rocks is exactly the game that it set out to be. It is a fun, thematic experience with marble drafting and order fulfillments set on a beautiful canvas. It is a game that even the most green gamer would enjoy-you could jump right into it and understand how to play with just a few mins of explaining. Seasoned gamers will appreciate what it brings to the table-a competitive experience with quite a few decision making trees that will keep you jockeying around the table with your opponents.
The marbles are the star of this game-they look great and they really lend to a new way to use them in a game. This isn’t Potion Explosion or Gizmos-it is doing something different with these marbles in a way that you will enjoy with the way you draft them and assign them out into the rondel of jigger bowls. I have enjoyed this one at all player counts and love to get out to play with the family.
Overall this game is one that is bound to be an evergreen in my collection and is in the running to be one of my favorites of 2021. It is a fun experience at the table and one that I can’t wait to get back out again soon. So mix up a drink or two for your your friends and get ready to see how you compete against them at who can be the best Mixologist in town at your next game night!
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