Food Trucks Battle it Out in Truck Off: A Game of Simultaneous Choices, Special Actions, and Dice Rolls

Sell your food at breweries, concerts, and game conventions. Outwit your competitors to make the most money!

Published by Adam's Apple Games, Truck Off features simultaneous action selection, hand management and push your luck, as well as fries, barbeque, and sashimi.

Gameplay

Based on player count, you lay out four-to-six event tiles on the table. Each event tile has a different die associated with, it ranging from a four-sided die up to a twenty-sided die. Each player chooses a food truck company to play and takes the corresponding food trucks. Each truck has a number associated with one of the event tiles in the game (those associated with any tiles not currently in the game are returned to the game box). Everyone then takes a deck of twelve action cards, before returning the same two cards from each deck to the box. You can either agree which cards will be returned, or choose randomly.

The game takes place over five rounds. During the first phase of each round, players choose two trucks to send out to locations. Players make this choice simultaneously and reveal their decision at the same time. Trucks go to the locations whose number they match.

Once trucks are placed at their locations, the die at each location is rolled. The result is how much money will be paid out at the end of the round. Players then select action cards, placing the ones they wish to play face-down in front of themselves. Once everyone has selected their action cards, players take turns revealing one of their selected actions. Once players have started revealing their action cards, you cannot unselect a card, but you may choose to discard it without using the ability.

Action cards have abilities such as allowing you to reroll a die, move your truck from one location to another, double the amount of money your truck will earn this round, or even force a player to take back one of their trucks. Once an action card is resolved, it is discarded. Any action cards that you have not played by the end of the game earn you money.

After all action cards have been played, the payout occurs. The die result at each location is how much money there is to pay out. You must evenly divide this money between each player with a truck at that location. Any money that cannot be evenly distributed is discarded. Each player then takes back their trucks and a new round begins. Whoever has the most money at the end of the game wins.

There is also a Daily Special variant in which each round two daily special cards are drawn and played to the venue tiles indicated on the cards (if a daily special card is already at one or both of these venues, the old cards are discarded). These put special effects into play, such as adding $5 to the payout at the venue location or allowing you to skip your payout at a location in order to take back an action card you’ve already used.

Review

Truck Off is a game of trying to guess what other players are going to do and attempting to outmaneuver them, while using the action cards at your disposal to mitigate the bad luck the dice can throw your way. Simply because a location can roll a twenty, doesn’t mean it will if you send your truck there, and if enough trucks crowd a location, sending yours someplace with lower potential die results may be more worthwhile.

When choosing your action cards each round there is a lot to consider. How many do you use? You have five rounds, so you want to be careful not to burn through them too quickly. Also, action cards are resolved one at a time, going around the table, so it is possible that another player’s action may affect your own. Then there’s the fact that any action card you don’t spend is worth points at the end of the game. We really liked this element of the game and felt it added some extra strategy to counterbalance the dice rolls.

We also liked that, as you remove two cards from the action decks at the start of the game, you can tailor your experience to your game group. For example, not a huge fan of take-that gameplay? The rulebook tells you exactly which two cards you should play without. The Daily Special Variant is also a good addition, and is the ideal way to play as it adds more variety to your choices and the gameplay.

While the game does say it supports two-to-six players, the two-player game is more of a variant and not as enjoyable. It requires a third dummy player thrown into the mix and players are more restricted in the action cards they can select.

The theme is fun and unusual, not one you encounter all that often, and the game does a good job with it. There are lots of puns and clever names on the cards, and we liked the different themes for the food trucks and how each theme is also reflected in different flavor text on the action cards.

Truck Off is fun and thematic. It doesn’t bring anything very new to the table, but its elements come together nicely into an engaging game.

Pros: Fun theme and flavor text, action cards mix well with luck of the roll, Daily Special variant adds variety to gameplay

Cons: Two-player variant isn't as enjoyable, there is still plenty of luck in the gameplay which may frustrate some players

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.