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In a distant future, scientists were able to build small alternate Earths. Exactly 504 such Earths have thus far been built. The scientists programmed each of these Worlds with an individual set of laws and rules which the residents strictly follow and consider most important for their lives. These may be exploration, consumption, economics, military, etc., and each is unique. You can visit all of these 504 alternate Earths to experience how the people are living, and decide which of these worlds harbors the best civilization. On which World do you want to live? Explore them all and decide! 504 is a game that creates 504 different games out of one box. The game consists of nine modules: Module 1: Pick-Up & Deliver Module 2: Race Module 3: Privileges Module 4: Military Module 5: Exploration Module 6: Roads Module 7: Majorities Module 8: Production Module 9: Shares In each single game, you take three different modules from the nine available and assemble them in any order you like to create a new game. (504 = 9 * 8 * 7 = the number of distinct permutations of three items from a set of nine. The order of the three game modules is significant, and modules cannot be repeated.) For example, you can play: a racing game that expands through exploration with technology improving the racing or exploration (World "253"). an 18XX-style stock game with network building for income and production sites to provide workers for the road building (World "968"). a war game with a pick-up and deliver economy and bonus scoring from majorities ("World 417"). Each single game takes from 30 to 120 minutes to play.
| Year | 2015 |
|---|---|
| Designers | Friedemann Friese |
| Artists | Harald Lieske |
| Publishers | Stronghold Games, Edge Entertainment, Korea Boardgames, Swan Panasia Co., Ltd., Arclight Games, 2F-Spiele |
| Players | 2–4 |
| Time | 30–120 min |
| Status | Previously owned |
| BGG Rating | 6.1 |
| Categories | Economic, Territory Building, Animals, Industry / Manufacturing, City Building, Travel, Exploration, Farming |
| Mechanics | Area Majority / Influence, Auction / Bidding, Dice Rolling, Set Collection, Race, Take That, Tile Placement, Modular Board, Commodity Speculation, Grid Movement, Hexagon Grid, Network and Route Building, Stock Holding, Enclosure, Point to Point Movement, Variable Phase Order, Area Movement, Pick-up and Deliver, Player Elimination |
| BGG Rank | 4965 |
| Complexity | 3.46 / 5 |
| Language | No necessary in-game text |
| Date | Location | Duration | Qty | Players | Scores | Winner | |
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2018-10-19 | – | 1 | – | – | – | |
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2018-10-11
Details
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My BGG Comment
The concept has so much potential... and then I started reading the rules. And the rules never stopped and still they appear to be full of holes and I don't have the time to dig through the net for errata for every one of the 27 modules (each of the 9 base modules is modified depending on the position it is on 1, 2 or 3). While the games I played so far were easy (123 and 456) understanding the rules was everything but. I was frustrated after trying to understand only 6 modules on 1 position each. If this game taught me something: for me a game can be either abstract or themed but not this "abstract game posing as a themed game" style. If I find a lot more time to finish reading the rules, this might be something of an exploratory game I'd try every once in a while. But with the incredible amount of material understanding the rules for a game takes an hour and setup another half while the actual game takes maybe 30-40 minutes. I just don't have that much time on my hands. Too expensive for the lesson it taught me.