Pixie Queen

About this board game

Pixie Queen is a worker-placement game for 2–5 players that takes about 120 minutes. Across a maximum of seven rounds, players direct mischievous pixies while trying to satisfy a tyrannical Queen and finish with the fewest points.

The only points earned during the game are penalty points, so avoiding the Queen’s displeasure is essential. Reward points arrive only at the end, and different kinds of rewards call for different approaches: charm the Queen with a golden ring, make additional offerings, or promote pixies into her faithful servants.

Each round follows five phases:

• Steal food: Gather honey, apples, and bread in Truro, the nearest human village.
• Perform actions: Use four action disks to increase profits and gain more goods. There are no fewer than 21 possible actions, and most require two action disks unless a pixie can be enlisted to help.
• Offer to the Queen: Simultaneously bid gold, silver, or food with the other players. The Queen accepts only the food she craves that round.
• Receive rewards: Promote pixies to faithful servants or improve your trading position to obtain gold or golden rings.
• Assign penalties: Pixies that have not achieved enough according to the Queen receive penalty points.

With its unusual lowest-score objective, flexible action system, and shifting demands for offerings, Pixie Queen challenges players to manage scarce opportunities under an unforgiving ruler. The pixies may be small, flying, and naughty, but serving their Queen is no simple task.