Tulip Bubble

After nearly ten plays with this group, Tulip Bubble still has that useful ability to make everyone lean towards the market. With the right people around it, it is simply epic.

The centre of the game is the market. Cards determine the stock exchange and the arrivals, while you try to read what is coming before the next swing catches you out. There is nowhere particularly safe to stand when tulip values can redraw the whole situation in a moment.

Nor are you merely playing against the cards. You watch the other players, notice that everyone wants the same opening, and wait to see who is left holding the wrong thing when the market turns. That is where the bite lives: a good game becomes a compact economic duel.

When the flow is balanced, that volatility is precisely why I want it back on the table. The market upends plans, decisions matter, and the table has every reason to regard itself with suspicion. It does not need much more than that.

Updated session

A later five-player game did not find the same balance. The stock-market and arrival cards fell so badly that the game became one-sided very quickly, something I had not seen in more than ten plays. It ended promptly, but this feels like an exception rather than a reversal of the verdict: Tulip Bubble is still excellent with the right group, though its market can occasionally become wilder than it needs to be.