by ElectroMonk

I already liked Kellia: The Risk of the Desert from the same authors and enjoyed Koinobia even more.

Koinobia is a cooperative game with a sophisticated and intersting mechanism. It is a great family game that focuses on values such as caring for others and and the need for forgiveness and healing.

The game setting is a group of people in 3rd century Egypt, trying to live together in a communal way, similar to real christian groups of the era and focuses on fulfilling the needs of all villagers as well as the fact that this does not work out all the time.

Each of the 3-6 players represents one person living in the village, who spends their day trying to fulfill their needs and to contribute to the group as a whole, enabling both survival and the competion of a piece of art. Gameplay lasts four "seasons" with six rounds each.

In each round, players have to collect cubes from a map by following a route each player plans independent of the others on a minimap hidden behind a player screen.
The first player entering a map segment harvests all cubes from that segment, players entering the segment later will find nothing - which may cause them hurt.

If a player hurts too much, the community has failed.

Fortunately, hurt can be healed, using capacity that otherwise could be spent on bulding the art piece that is a winning condition.

We especially like:
* planning our ways simultaneously on our personal minimaps
* focusing on how to ensure everones needs are fulfilled (without even knowing them) as opposed to focusing on damaging others as in so many other games
* the period of silence built into every round and the conteplative and relaxed atmosphere this creates
* the positive values promoted within the game (being exactly what our times need)
* the many different "scenarions" offered for gameplay enhancement


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