Modern Art

(image by nrihtar2 @ BGG)

I could never survive in a barter economy and I've never tried to play the stock market. I'm terrible at evaluating the worth of things and in all honesty it stresses me out a bit. Which is no surprise that Modern Art and I have had a rocky relationship.

Modern Art is an auction game in its purest form. Players buy and sell art in while trying to predict which artists will be the most lucrative. Each player starts with a hand of cards that represent a piece of art from one of five different artists. On your turn you play a card which you are putting up for sale. An auction occurs, the winner pays the seller and places the work of art in front of them. Once the fifth piece of art from a given artist is played on the table the round is immediately over. The top three most popular artists - those with the most purchased paintings wwwwall players - are given values of 30, 20 and 10 for that round. Then players collect money for the paintings they purchased that round. Purchased cards are removed and a new round begins.

There are two things that make Modern Art work. First, artists accumulate worth over the course of the game. If Krypto places first in round one, his art is worth 30 per card. Round two Krypto places second making his art worth 50 per card (30 from round one plus 20 from round two). Round three Krypto doesn't place, meaning for this round his art is worthless. Last round Krypto places in second place again, meaning his art is now worth 70 each(30+20+20). When you purchase and sell art you are trying to predict which artists will place each round and where they will place. An artist tracking for first will rake in more cash than one that isn't looking to place.

Second, there are several types of auctions in the game. Each card has a symbol showing the type of auction that occurs when that card is put up for sale. The types are:

• Open - Your standard auction. Players call out bids until nobody wishes to raise the bid further.
• Once Around - Bids go around clockwise once starting with the player to the right of the auctioneer.
• Sealed - A blind bid. Each player puts an amount of money in their hand and reveal simultaneously. Highest bid wins.
• Fixed Price - The auctioneer sets the bid price and in clockwise order have a chance to buy it at that price or pass.
• Double - A double auction card lets you put down a second piece of art for sale and the form of auction is determined by the other card played with it.

(image by creech @ BGG)
Combine these two things and you have a game that is all about trying to read your opponents and figuring out the best timing for an auction. Throwing out a double auction can rake in a lot of cash. Likewise a well-timed sealed auction might have people over-bidding to make sure they get that piece of art. The catch is, of course, that you never want to pay too much otherwise you are giving an opponent a lot of money and not making much profit for yourself. As you would expect, the key is to buy low and sell high. Most importantly, though, your hand of cards gives you some inside knowledge about what the market looks like and allows you some control over the course of the game.

My first few plays of Modern Art were rough. As I said, I'm not good at evaluating the worth of things and that's pretty much all you do in this game. When you first play you really have very little understanding of the general price trends and it's easy to overpay or sell something for far too cheap. Experienced players will wipe the floor with you. That's what happened with me and I really came to dislike the game.

One night, though, things finally clicked. I decided to play a game without buying a single piece of art; all of my income came exclusively from sales. This let me watch how everyone else bid and allowed me to better focus on the trends; that game gave me a lot of insight on how Modern Art works and how to read the group you're playing with. I came in an extremely close second without purchasing a single piece of art.

(image by Moviebuffs @ BGG)

That's when I realized that Modern Art is truly a great game. There tend to be general price guidelines you'll follow each game once you understand how things place and the impact that'll have on their worth; there's definitely a general pacing to the game. Yet two matches will play the same as each match takes on the mindset of the players and you have to understand how to gauge the impact that'll have. I highly suggest you take a similar approach during your first game: sit back, watch how others play and make money off of your sales. You probably won't win but you'll gain a real understanding of how the game works.

After my initial hatred for the game I've actually come to enjoy it quite a bit. Odds are I'll never recommend we play Modern Art but I'll no longer complain about my dislike for it. Modern Art is a very simple board game with some serious replay value. I do think the game could grow stale if you play too often with the exact same group of people. Still, it's a great game to close off a game night.

On a side note, be sure to have a set of poker chips to use in place of the cheap plastic coins that come with the game. They are a pain to handle and people just like holding poker chips.