Mottainai Plus Wutai Expansion Mountain Bundle (Kickstarter Special) Asmadi Games

Board Game Geek Rating: 6.59
Board Game Geek Avg Player Rating: 7.08
Players: 2 to 5
Published: 2018
Content Notes: Kickstarter Edition of Mottainai Mini and Wutai Mountain expansion. Please note: unless otherwise stated paid add ons from the Kickstarter Campaign are not included.

“Mottainai” (pronounced mot/tai/nai or like the English words mote-tie-nigh) means “Don’t waste”, or “Every little thing has a soul”. In the game Mottainai, a successor in the Glory to Rome line, you use your cards for many purposes. Each player is a monk in a temple who performs tasks, collects materials, and sells or completes works for visitors. Every card can be each of these three things.

You choose tasks to allow you to perform actions, keeping in mind that other players will get to follow up on your task on their next turn. Clever planning and combining of your works’ special abilities is key, as is managing which materials you sell.

Mottainai (もったいない) — Don’t waste, use everything: every little thing has a soul.

Mottainai is a card game, a new spiritual successor in the Glory to Rome line. It packs deep gameplay with all the things you would expect from a Carl Chudyk game into a small package. Our goal was to create a very satisfying and short game. Something you can play dozens of times, with different results and experiences on every occasion! 

Each player is a worker in a Buddhist temple, creating works to display and sell to the visitors and tourists who come by. These works are made of materials of varying value — determining both the difficulty to complete the work and its worth to you. Completed works can be displayed in your Gallery to train your helpers, or in your Gift Shop to allow you to make sales. In the end, the winner will be the player with the most valuable completed works, sales, and backorders. 

Mottainai is a quick, but deep, game experience.

Mottainai: Wutai Mountain contains 54 new cards, designated as Om works. While in your hand, they behave like works from the base set, and are completed in the same way. Once completed, Om works have one special mechanic that sets them apart: you can tuck helpers, materials, and sales directly underneath them, instead of under your temple mat. Each Om work’s effect uses these Om-helpers, Om-materials, and Om-sales in its own special way.

Any time you complete an Om work, you may immediately tuck cards from your hand under it. Additionally, any time you would tuck a helper, material, or sale under your temple mat, you can choose to tuck it under one of your Om works instead. Finding clever uses for these new works brings a whole new set of strategic and tactical decisions to Mottainai.

You can download a full print and play (PDF) and also the rules for the expansion (PDF).

— From the publisher

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