No. Players: 2-6
Age: 8+
Duration: 45min – 60 min

I was introduced to the board game Fair Go at this year’s Toy and Game Expo, in Sydney. Its creator, Andrea Thompson kindly provided me with a copy for the LXG library and subsequently travelled up to Queensland to attend our Winter Retreat and demo the game.

What is Fair Go all about?

“Fair Go” is an industry based game that requires players to buy into different parts of industry sectors (IT, Agriculture, Telecommunications etc) and become wealthy. The board is reminiscent of Monopoly. It has a track that you move around in a clockwise direction. There are Industry spaces and Fair Go spaces (the latter lets you draw cards with positive and negative results). Sounds like a clone “Monopoly”? Not so; “Fair Go” goes beyond the formula of acquiring wealth and destroying your competitors. Instead, in order to win the game, you are required to use your wealth to help the broader community. The game’s mechanics make it a very different game from “Monopoly”. When you first buy into an Industry players who land on your owned space pay you the indicated fee. However, amassing money won’t win you the game. You can only do this by upgrading purchased Industries (by buying a ‘Ring’ playing piece). When you do this, you have to pay other players who land on your Industry!

You must acquire 4 industries with Rings to win the game, as well purchasing a piece called the Stand of Success. To complicate this, there are only two versions of each Industry (yellow and blue) and if one gets upgraded with a Ring then the other cannot be upgraded. Also, the Stand of Success can only be purchased by landing on a specific square on the board.

Contents

“Fair Go” is a beautifully produced game making use of vibrant colours and high quality card stock. The box is very solid and inside is an equally solid playing board. You get coloured “Fair Go” money in the form of paper notes and a selection of Fair Go cards and a number of cute players pieces, moulded in differently coloured plastics representing Industries (including a safe, a mobile phone, a shopping cart etc). The Rings and Stands of Success are also included as plastic pieces but these are more generic in shape and are not as impressive as the player’s pieces.

Appeal
“Fair Go” is a traditional family board game. Its mechanics are the familiar – roll dice, move your piece, land on a space and do the action. The game is simplistic and easy to learn but has a greater degree of strategy than games like Monopoly and Squatter. The luck element may not appeal to a seasoned gamer who enjoys the dice-less formats of games like “Settlers of Catan” or “Agricola”, however that is not the market that “Fair Go” is aimed at. It is a great game for families familiar with traditional board games as well as educators wanting to demonstrate ethical, positive elements of doing business. Certainly it promotes a more positive message about industry than its rivals.

Want a Copy?
Visit the web-site at http://www.fairgogame.com/index.html where the game is available for $49.95.