Designers: Piotr Haraszczak, Ignacy Trzewiczek (51st State Master Set, Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, Imperial Settlers, The New Era, Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island, Stronghold, Stronghold 2nd Edition)

Artists: Mariusz Gandzel (Mage Wars Arena, The New Era, Star Wars: Rebellion, Stronghold, Stronghold 2nd Edition, Tajemnicze Domostwo, Tikal), Tomasz Jedruszek (Battle of Westeros, Britannia, Citadels, Condottiere, Dominion, Dominion 2nd Editon, Dominion: Intrigue, Fields of Green, A Game of Thrones: The Board Game 2nd Edition, A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, Imperial Settlers, Magic: The Gathering, Middle-Earth Quest, Neuroshima Hex! 3.0, Shadows of Brimstone: City of the Ancients, Shadows of Brimstone: Swamps of Death, Stronghold, Stronghold 2nd Edition, Tides of Time, Warrior Knights), Kwanchai Moriya (Catacombs 3rd Edition, Cryptid, Dinosaur Island, Duelosaur Island, The Game, In the Hall of the Mountain King, Kodama 3D), Michal Orasz (The New Era, Stronghold, This War of Mine: The Board Game), Darek Zabrocki (Alien vs Predator: The Hunt Begins, Mage Wars Arena, Mutant Chronicles Warzone Resurrection)

Publisher: Portal Games (51st State Master Set, Aeon’s End, Aeon’s End: War Eternal, Among the Stars, The Big Book of Madness, Blood Rage, Cry Havoc, Decrypto, Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, Diamant, Downforce, Ethnos, Ex Libris, For Sale, FUSE, Gizmos, The Godfather: Corleone’s Empire, Heroes of Normandie, Imperial Settlers, Inis, Istanbul, Istanbul: The Dice Game, Kanagawa, Legacy: The Testament of Duke de Crecy, Neuroshima Hex! 3.0, The New Era, The Others, Photosynthesis, Pixel Tactics, The Resistance, The Resistance: Avalon, Rising Sun, Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island, Root, Sentient, Stronghold, Stronghold 2nd Edition, Tajemnicze Domostwo, Tales & Games: The Hare & the Tortoise, Teotihuacan: City of Gods, Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization, Tides of Time, Underwater Cities, Welcome to the Dungeon, World’s Fair 1893, Zombicide: Black Plague, Zombicide: Green Horde)

Genre/Mechanisms: card drafting, economic, set collection, worker placement

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Pret-a-Porter is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total almost 7x the initial funding goal, with 4 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: heavy

Risk: low

What It’s About:  A heavy worker placement game themed around the fashion industry.

How It Works: Pret-a-Porter is played over 12 rounds, after which the player with the most money and victory points wins. After every two Working Rounds there’s an Exhibition Round, so this grouping occurs 4 times over the course of the game. Each Working Round is comprised of 4 phases: Planning, Action, Growth, and Upkeep. During the Planning Phase, players take turns placing their pawns on worker spaces in turn order. During the Action Phase, players resolve each location, beginning with the Bank, and ascending in location order. Locations generally result in players gaining more credit, a Contract Card, a Building, an Employee, a Design card, a type of Material and some quantity of Quality Tokens, a Public Relations token, a Trend token, or cash. During the Growth Phase, players may either train an Employee or upgrade a Building. And in the Upkeep Phase, players pay Upkeep based on their place on the Upkeep Track. Players can never choose to take a loan, but must take a loan whenever they can not afford to pay for an action.

Each Exhibition Round consists of 5 Phases: Prestige Exchange, Show, Awards, Sales, and Upkeep. During the Prestige Exhange Phase, Prestige Tokens are exchanged for VPs. During the Show Phase, players decide on a Collection to showcase in a Fashion Show; players can choose from any number of Design cards that share the same style and for which the player possesses enough of the correct resources to complete the card’s task. During the Award Phase, players receive Awards for the greatest number of Quality Tokens, Trend Tokens, Public Relations Tokens, and the number of Design cards in the submitted Collection. During the Sales Phase, players sell their collections for cash, then discard any remaining Quality, Trend, and Public Relations Tokens. During the Upkeep Phase, players again pay Upkeep, taking out additional Loans if they can’t pay off any previous Loans. After the 4th and final Exhibition Phase, the game ends and players score their totals.

Comparisons:  The somewhat unforgiving loan system brings to mind quite a few Martin Wallace games, like Brass and Age of Steam. But the worker placement mechanics, the tight design, and the complexity of the game make it very similar to Vinhos Deluxe (which also has a periodic “competition” phase), and less so The Gallerist and Clinic.

What Should I Pledge?:
$60 Fashion Industry Shark: copy of the game with all unlocked stretch goals.

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives:
Most of the stretch goals, including: custom wooden First Player Token, custom wooden Round Marker, 8 screen-printed Upkeep Markers, 12 screen-printed Player Action Pawns, all Resource Pieces screen-printed, 4 wooden Scoring Track Markers, cardboard pieces upgraded to 2.5mm thickness from 1.5mm, 10 additional cards by Ryan Laukat, 10 additional cards by Matthieu Leyssenne, 10 additional cards by Mihajlo Dimitrievski (The Mico), 10 additional cards by Tomasz Jedruszek, 10 additional cards by Piero, & 10 additional cards by David Cochard.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $60 for the Fashion Industry Shark pledge and $17 in shipping for a total of $77.

Pret-a-Porter completes its Kickstarter on Monday, July 22nd and tentatively ships in October 2019.