Camden

About this board game

Camden is a 2–4-player tile-laying game played in about 20 minutes, where cards become tiles in a highly abstracted street market.

Players draw and lay cards to create stores, with remarkable freedom over placement. Cards can be played almost anywhere on the board and in almost any orientation. They may touch at corners, while the corner of one card may touch the side of another, creating an unusually flexible market layout.

Players advance by purchasing stores formed by the cards. At the beginning of each subsequent turn, those stores generate revenue based on their quality. However, rival players can continue adding tiles to alter an existing store, making every growing market a potential target.

• Lay cards in almost any position or orientation.
• Purchase stores formed by connected cards.
• Collect revenue from stores at the start of later turns.
• Use card symbols that can destroy or empty the largest store, or provide bonus payouts.
• Race to become the first player to reach 50 points.

This combination of building and interference gives Camden its cutthroat, mind-bending character. The quality of your stores can produce valuable income, but other players are always able to reshape the market and threaten your plans.

Released in 2002, Camden was originally published as Agora, with a theme centered on an ancient Greek marketplace. It is part of Cheapass Games’ Hip Pocket Games series and stands out for the open-ended way its card tiles can connect.