Raccoons get a bad rap.

With their bandit-mask look and stealthy scavenging in the dark, they’re so often portrayed as nefarious creatures.

Well, Forbidden Games decided to shake up that portrayal and create a family board game about enterprising raccoons instead.

Enter Raccoon Tycoon!

And it’s not just the raccoons – Cats, Dogs, Skunks, Foxes, and Bears all get in on the action in this light economic board game.

They’re all just going about their business of building railroads, establishing towns, constructing industrial buildings, and influencing the commodities markets.

Now, doesn’t that sound like a fun way for critters to spend their time?

 

How to Play Raccoon Tycoon

The goal in Raccoon Tycoon is to get the most victory points from Town cards, sets of Railroad cards, and Buildings. Players get Town cards by turning in the required commodities. They get Railroad cards by purchasing them in auctions. And they get Buildings by simply purchasing them for their set cost.

The setup is very straightforward. All of the commodity resources start at their lowest price on the board. The Town cards are shuffled and one is placed face up. The Railroad cards are shuffled and two are placed face up. And 4 random starting Building tiles are placed face up with all the regular building tiles in a face down stack. Each player starts with 3 Price & Production cards and $10 in cash. The start player gets 1 commodity of their choice for free, the second player chooses 2 commodities, and so on around the table. Then the game is ready to begin.

On a player’s turn, they take 1 of the 5 possible actions:

Production: The active player plays 1 of their Price & Production cards. First, the player increases the price of each of the commodities shown at the top of the card. If a commodity type is shown twice, they raise it $2. Then they take 3 of the commodities of their choice shown at the bottom of the card. Some cards show 4 or 5 commodities and the player must choose just 3. The player then draws another Price & Production card to their hand.

Sell a Commodity: The active player returns as many commodities of one type of their choice from their stash to the general supply. They earn money equal to the current price of that commodity multiplied by the number of units they returned. Then they reduce the price of that commodity by the number of units sold.

Auction a Railroad: The active player chooses one of the face up Railroad cards and starts an auction by stating how much they would pay for that card. They must start with at least the listed price on the card. In turn order, the other players may increase the bid or pass. The auction continues until all but one player has passed. That player pays the cost and places the card in their personal play area. If the player who purchased the Railroad card isn’t the active player, the active player still gets to take an action. They may do any of the other actions or start a new auction.

Purchase a Building: The active player pays the cost of one of the face up buildings and takes it to their play area. They get to use the benefit of this building for the rest of the game. These benefits may include extra production, extra income, keeping more cards in hand, requiring less resources to buy a Town, and other special abilities.

Purchase a Town: The active player pays the commodities shown on the face up Town card to the general supply. They place the Town card face up in their play area.

After a player has taken their action, the next player takes their turn.

Play continues until either the last Town card is purchased or the last Railroad is auctioned. After that occurs, players finish the current round and then total up their points:

• Town cards are worth their listed victory points.
• Railroad cards are scored based on how many of each type the player has.
• Every Town / Railroad pair is worth 2 victory points.
• Buildings are each worth 1 victory point.

The player with the most points wins.

 

Can the whole family enjoy Raccoon Tycoon?

Raccoon Tycoon is a board game most family members can enjoy playing. Being an economic-type board game (with fluctuating prices and auctions), it’s not going to appeal to everyone.

But having played many economic board games, Raccoon Tycoon is definitely on the light side. The auctions are very simple and the commodity price movements are super straightforward as well as what it takes to buy a building (money) or a town (commodities).

The recommended age for players listed on the game box is 8+. However, we’d put that closer to age 10+. That’s because there are still many choices players need to consider when taking their turns.

We love that turns are super quick because each player just takes one action on their turn.

If you want to sell commodities, just turn in your tokens, take the money, and adjust the price of that commodity downward. Boom, you’re done and on to the next player.

As such, the game flows very smoothly and quickly.

The fun challenge comes in the timing of the actions you choose to do. For example, you may be interested in one of the Railroads on display. However, to get in on the auction, you’re going to need money to bid on it. And to get that money you may first need to sell some of your commodities. Will you be able to do that before the Railroad goes up for auction?

There are 4 of each type of Railroad and players earn incrementally more points based on the number of Railroads they have of each type. For example, having just 1 Big Bear Railroad is worth 3 points. If you have 2 at the end of the game, you’ll get 7 points. With 3 you’ll get 13 points. And if you manage to collect all 4, you’ll get 21 points.

If you do miss out on a Railroad auction for the one you want, you may still be able to buy a Building instead – which can be a great benefit!

The starting Buildings include commodity bonuses that let you gain an additional commodity when you do the Production action. For example, if I have the Wheat Field, every time I do Production, I’ll get 1 wheat in addition to whichever commodities I take from the market.

The variety and abilities of the Buildings are super helpful. They let you gain extra commodities, store up more commodities, earn money when other players sell certain commodities, perform extra production actions, earn commissions from all the auctions, increase the price of a commodity right before you sell, earn extra victory points, and more.

The only downside to the Buildings is that you may miss out on some great buildings just due to the timing of when they come out. Because there’s just one of each type, if a new building comes out that’s super helpful, it may be purchased before your turn comes around. And then you’re just out of luck for that benefit. You’ll just have to hope that the luck plays in your favor on another building.

Another great thing about Raccoon Tycoon is that almost all the information is open (except for the money and production cards). Players keep all their collected Buildings, Railroads, Towns face up in front of them. And players can always see all the commodities that other players have collected. The rules state that players may keep their money in a stack so other players don’t know how much you have. And of course, the Price & Production cards are kept secret in a player’s hand so you won’t know what other players have to choose from for raising commodity prices. You’ll just have to find out when they take a Production action.

The only big head-scratcher for us is why the game is named Raccoon Tycoon. Because the only thing that pulls the name into the game is that the Railroads have animal artwork on them (of which Raccoon is only one set). That’s it.

And while we play, we don’t think about animals at all. Instead, we’re focused on the commodity production, their pricing, and how much it will cost to get a Town or buy a Building or bid for a Railroad card in the set we want.

To be honest, that’s not much of a gripe because the game play itself is great. We can set the tacked-on theme aside and just enjoy playing.

 

How does Raccoon Tycoon score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Raccoon Tycoon scores well on our “let’s play again” game meter. Everyone we’ve played it with has enjoyed it and talks about what they’d do differently the next time we play.

With the quick set up, quick turns, easy to remember game play, and interesting choices, Raccoon Tycoon is a solid family board game to keep in the collection.

If you’re looking for a light economic type board game to play, Raccoon Tycoon is a great one to grab.

Great Family Board Games

The Board Game Family would like to thank Forbidden Games for a review copy of Raccoon Tycoon. 

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