I had the chance to play Rival Restaurants, a board game with Rajat and Sai during my Amsterdam visit. It’s a very complex game, with recipes, ingredients, chefs, restaurants and power-ups, the aim is to collect 20 recipe points before other restaurants (opponents). You are given dishes to make for which you need to collect recipes from different markets. You are given a restaurant and a chef at the start of game. Different chefs have different power some of which are — can replace an ingredient with another, get’s to take extra ingredients per market round, can steal ingredients from other restaurants etc. The same holds for different restaurants (Italian, Chinese) i.e different power-ups for different restaurant type. The allotment of restaurant and the chef primarily encompass the “luck” element of the game. The actual game is mostly strategy and skill, luck playing a smaller factor during the gameplay.
The cool thing about this game was that there is no global best strategy to win the game. Of course there are some strategies which are beneficial long term (for example upgrading your daily allowance from 400 to 600 at the start) but much of the actual strategy depends on the two cards you have got — the restaurant and the chef. Your chance of winning will be highly dependent on whether or not you are able to synergise your power-ups provided by the restaurant and chef. Will you play to your advantage or will you copy someone else’s strategy? Following someone else strategy won’t yield you the benefit since you don’t have those cards.
I found this game dynamics reflecting a lot about life. The game challenges us to embrace our individuality. Life, too, throws us a set of cards — our innate talents, circumstances, and opportunities. Success, then, is not about blindly replicating someone else’s journey but rather about understanding and leveraging our own unique combination of strengths and circumstances.