Zestrea is a marriage negotiation game, for 3-6 players, inspired by ridiculous Romanian traditions.
Work hard, secure your dowry (Zestre), and match spouses wisely! This particular village is plagued by silly yet somewhat historically accurate catastrophes. From foreign invaders to State imposed highways in your yard, from Chernobyl to communism, who knows what destiny will throw your way? Fortunately, the Fate cards have your back, giving you powers to turn your villagers into rich musicians who can improve wedding chances, to cause bar fights and eliminate competition, or simply make (and drink) traditional moonshine liquor! Survive the Hard Times and become the richest Boyar of the land!
Gameplay
You earn money from working the Land, but you also get new babies that turn into villagers that need feeding. When villagers produce too many kids, you should try to marry them off to turn them into productive couples or risk selling Land to pay for their food or even witness them starving to death.
Marriage is consensual: roll the dice to see if the villagers want to get married, and use Fate cards to improve your odds (example: Bad Eyesight - improve wedding chance), or reduce them on your competition (example: The Village Idiot - reduce wedding chance). Various Fate cards also have interesting, highly interactive effects on the game: players must congratulate you by paying money when you play the Just Married card, other times they can Steal The Bride, and even break couples using the Trouble In Paradise card. If you make enemies, you can Unleash The Dogs to eliminate a villager from another player (or yourself when having trouble feeding them...), and then the Village Preacher may gain some income if someone dies.
Print and Play
The Zestrea Print and Play version delivers ready-to-print PDF files with all the Zestrea cards:
* 80 Zestre/ Land cards (double sided)
* 84 villagers (Lads and Maidens)
* 35 Fate cards
* 3 Good Times cards to ease you in
* 14 scary, intriguing or hilarious Hard Times cards
* 6 Boyar cards that also serve as Quick Play turn cards
You will need a regular 6-sided die. Due to Etsy limitations, the manual is not included, but it can be downloaded from the official website, www.zestrea.net. You will also find several video manuals and carefully curated music playlist to accompany your playtime.