The Johari Bazaar, in case you didn't know, is a world-famous jewelry market in Jaipur, home to dozens of merchants practiced in the art of holding gems in their outstretched hands, and in Carlo Lavezzi's Johari you see whether you can earn more prestige than your fellow gem-holder-outers. Lookout Games will soon announce a release date for the German version of Johari in Europe, and Mayfair Games, which owns Lookout, should have Johari available at Gen Con 2014 in August as part of a Spiel 2014 preview for titles from Lookout. (Stephen Herminghaus' Gold Ahoy! should also be available for purchase and demo at Gen Con 2014.) I don't yet know whether other titles in Lookout's 2014 line-up — summarized in this BGGN post — will be present.) Here's an overview of how to play the game:
Each player chooses one of the seven action cards in hand, then they resolve them in order of who has the most gold. They then do this twice more, getting discounts now for the cost of taking certain actions. The action cards let you earn gold, take all the cards from one store or bazaar booth, hire a noble, swap gems, protect yourself for inspections in case you have fake gems, copy your previously played action, or (most important of all) sell gems.
In addition to points from nobles and prestige cards, most of your score will come from gems that you sell — but you need to sell the right gems in the right way. When selling to a jeweler, you need to sell four different types of gems (or three types and gold), but you score only for one of the gem cards sold; when selling to a collector, you sell gems of only one type, but you have to hold the most gems of that type and you score only the difference between what you hold and what the player with the secondmost gems of this type holds. Status matters in the collector community!
Whoever has the most prestige points after ten days wins.
• Peek: Look at any one face-down card.
• Switch: Switch the position of any two cards.
• Shuffle: Have someone shuffle the two cards in front of you, then look at one of them.
• Declare: Declare you know where two cookies are, choosing a card that you have or a card in the center of the table only if you can choose both of them. Secretly look at those cards, winning if you're correct and getting from the game if you're not. Find the cookies and you win!
GodZ takes place on a modular, hexed board that is built up by players as the game proceeds. Victory can be achieved in different ways: controlling regions, conquering cities, fighting, building, or being adored by huge amounts of followers.
The heart of the game is the action system, based on a mechanism that allows players to perform miracles and actions, and even to directly score points, choosing your priorities carefully each turn: the more powerful your actions, the fewer points you will score when your followers pray to you.