Trinkit is a lighthearted, 'tongue-in-beak' card game for 2-4 players about crows competing to give the best gift to their favorite human by any means necessary.
Trinkit is built to be easy to play and quick to set up! It's equally at home on a dining room table, a light rail car, or a picnic blanket. The rules are simple and light, but don't be fooled! The strategy can get both surprisingly deep and compellingly hilarious.
Setup:
First, find a trinket to use as your game piece. As a crow, you’ll want to grab something shiny and interesting from your surroundings!
Next, each player should choose a quadrant of the board (as marked by each of the four overlaying colors) and place their game piece on the leftmost tile of that quadrant.
Shuffle the Trinket Card deck and pass out three cards to each player. Shuffle the Trait Card deck and slide a card into each of the three provided sleeves then place them face down on the board in the marked 'trait' slots.
Now you’re ready to play! Whoever interacted with a crow most recently is the first player. After their turn, proceed in clockwise order around the board.
Order of Play:
Start play by rolling the included d6 (or grab a shiny 6-sided math rock you already own if you’re fancy like that).
Move your token the indicated amount of tiles clockwise around the game board. Note the icon on the tile you land on. It could be Steal (steal a card from the player whose quadrant you're in or from the porch), Observe (take a peak at one of the human's traits to learn their likes or dislikes), or Find a Trinket (pull a Trinket Card from the deck).
Choose one, then end your turn:
Perform the action shown on your tile.
Alternatively, you may choose to place one of your trinket cards face-up on ‘the porch’ (the circular center of the game board). This is how you'll score points, assuming your trinkets are still yours by the end of the round and their traits include something the human likes.
Or, choose not to perform an action.
And that's it! Simple until you include the bluffing necessary to keep the other crows off your tail, or need to determine if another player put that Trinket Card down as a trap (have they seen more Traits than you?), or until you find the perfect trinket only to have it plucked from your beak by a sneaky thief (too bad you discarded that CAW! card last round to make room for more shinies).
We've play tested Trinkit at game stores and meetups all over Portland, Oregon and the variations in strategy we've seen from first time players has been just as delightful as the enthusiastic strangers that sat down to play with us. We know you'll find the same level of fun and engagement at your table and we can't wait to hear about your time with Trinkit.
We've worked hard over the past six months, taking Trinkit from a blue sky idea in a small tea house to a 100% complete and wonderfully detailed game, and we knew that we didn't want anything to delay the printing and shipping process once the campaign funds. To that end, we've decided to offer two straightforward pledge tiers and forgo any complicated stretch goals that might cause our labor of love to take any longer to reach your table.
Tier 1 - The Game
You'll get Trinkit, not so plain and simple-enough. The box includes the rules, a 6-sided die, a folding game mat, three card sleeves for the Trait cards, and all the Trait and Trinket cards with their wonderful illustrations and light-hearted (and maybe a little absurdist) flavor.
Tier 2 - The Game Plus a Hand-Printed Game Board Bandana
In the spirit of Pocketopia we've decided to make our little game even more travel-worthy by hand-printing a limited run of game board bandanas featuring Diana's wonderful art reinterpreted and carved by themself as a linocut. The bandanas are 22"x22" and are 100% cotton. They're also exclusive to backers of this campaign and won't be available in regular retail environments. Forego the box and take Trinkit wherever you go, tucking the cards away in a pocket and literally wearing the game board around your neck, your dog's neck, your head, or fashionably tied to a stick and slung over your shoulder!
For Pocketopia we'll be collaborating with A Week with Frog and Rabbit by the incredible Côme Martin, creator of Green Dawn Mall, Two Summers, the recently funded Three Punk Games, and more! Back both of our games at the physical level and you'll receive an extra story for Frog and Rabbit featuring a crow and an opossum (our Chuzdud Games mascots) as well as an exclusive linocut patch of Frog, Rabbit, Crow, and Opossum drawn, cut, and printed by Diana of Chuzdud Games and inspired by the beautiful artwork of Francois Maumont. We'll also throw a frog trinket into the box for use as a game token!
Trinkit is already 100% complete on our end. The art and design is all finished and the game has been playtested thoroughly. Once the campaign ends, we'll be sending everything off to be printed and then it'll be a waiting game until it all comes back to us and we can put it together and start shipping the game to our backers.
We'll be using PirateShip to mail Trinkit to you, most likely using USPS priority mail for US backers and PirateShip's 'Simple Export Rate' for international backers. Shipping and handling will be calculated and charged through Backerkit once we have the product back from our printers and we can weigh the final version of the game.
FOR US BACKERS: Based on the playtest versions we shipped to friends, we're guessing costs will be somewhere between $13 and $20, probably solidly in the middle, but that's subject to change.
FOR INTERNATIONAL BACKERS: PirateShip's Simple Export Rate has been a great choice for us in the past, shipping TTRPG zines, and we think it will also make shipping Trinkit internationally possible. Weighing our test game, our international shipping estimate is somewhere between $20 and $30 USD, currently at the lower end. This is subject to change over time, obviously, but it's far better than the $50+ quote we have shipping USPS alone. *Note that you might be subject to import fees and duties beyond shipping costs (depending on your country's rules) and you may have to pay these fees at your post office before receiving your game. Please realize this is beyond our control and if you have any doubts about international shipping rates and the duties your country may impose we encourage you to pass on backing Trinkit.*
Chuzdud Games is a venture of Diana and Ryan, partners living in Portland, Oregon who wanted to take their love of making art and playing games together and share it with like-minded folks. Trinkit was inspired by watching (and feeding) the crows in our neighborhood and conceptualized over a steaming pot of tea on a drizzly afternoon in the PNW. If you're like us and can't take a walk without filling your pockets with bugs and rocks, or you're constantly bringing home shiny trinkets that reminded you of your person, then we think you'll love Trinkit! We hope you'll add our first little card game to your stash of shinies!
