Yams! A Game of Power and Glory in the South Pacific

A strategy card game for 2-4 players. Players take up the roles of island chieftains in the Trobriand Islands in the Southwestern Pacific in the 1890s; chieftains are competing to become the new Paramount Chief of the islands. Over the span of several harvest seasons they gather followers and land, harvest yams which serve as the currency of the islands, host dramatic feasts, organize trading expeditions and use magic and deception to undermine each other. The game ends when the cards run out and the winner is determined by a counting of "prestige points," which are acquired through having worker or yam plot cards (worth 1 point each), winning feast cards from other players (3 points each) or kula cards which represent the legendary pieces of jewelry acquired on trade expeditions (worth 5 points each). Yams! is based on the ethnographic works of legendary anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowksi working in modern-day Papua New Guinea in the 1910s.