You have probably purchased dozens of gifts over the years. Sometimes you might get that traditional “thank you card” because it’s only polite for the recipient to send one. There also might be times that you receive a gift that left you thinking “What was he thinking when he bought this for me, it’s not me at all”, but you didn’t want to hurt his feeling. Well, the game of GiftTrap allows you to share your opinions of your friend’s gift giving abilities without being rude.
In this game, players are presented with a selection of gifts all within the same price range or theme. Each player must decide which of those gifts is the best gift for each of the other players. The trick is that there is one more gift than the number of players. You can only gift one gift to each player, you can’t give the same gift to two different players. This means in GiftTrap, you need to choose what you feel is the best gift from a limited selection. Think of it as going Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve just before the stores are all closing. You aren’t going to be able to get the perfect gift for each person, but must do the best you can based on what you know about their interests.
After each player chooses a gift that they will buy for each of the players, they each rate the gifts listed on the game board in the order that they want them. Each player ranks the top three gifts on the board that he wants, as well as labeling one gift that he would never want.
Once these decisions are made, the scoring is completed. Players get points for gift giving based on if they give gifts that match the ones the recipient wanted the most. Giving a gift that the recipient said he would never want to receive will result in your score being reduced. Each person also receives points if they receive gifts they marked that they wanted. These two scores indicate how good a gift buyer each person is, and how easy that player is to buy gifts for. In GiftTrap, the key is balance. To win the game, your token needs to reach the end of the playing field in both the gift giving and gift receiving track. The first player to reach finish in both is the winner. After playing a few rounds of GiftTrap, you might develop a new appreciation for the challenges others face when buying gifts for you.