In Food Truck Champion, you are the owner of a new food truck, out to make a name for yourself. As the owner of a new food truck, you’re eager to make your mark with great food and fast service. Hire staff, shop for ingredients, take customer orders, prepare tasty dishes, and earn critical awards. At the end of the day, only the most popular truck can be the Food Truck Champion!
Game cards can be used for 3 distinct functions: Staff Action, Order Ticket, or Ingredient. Clever hand management and action selections will be key in using your game cards to help you win the game. You'll also need to time actions so that you can gain cards from the Marketplace (center card pool) that benefit you the most!
On your turn, you can either do Market Research (draw 2 cards), Take Charge (draw your Owner/Wild card), or initiate an Action Round by playing a card from your hand as a Staff Action. Use Staff Actions to move cards to and from different zones (the Marketplace, your Hand, Player Board) in an effort to complete Orders Tickets.
There are 5 different Staff Actions:
Driver: Move a card from the Marketplace to your Fridge as an Ingredient.
Cashier: Move a card from the Marketplace to your Plating Area as an Order Ticket.
Manager: Move a card from the Marketplace to your Hired Staff for a bonus Staff Action in future turns.
Prep Cook: Move a card that is an Ingredient from your Fridge to an Order Ticket in your Plating Area.
Exec. Chef: Play a card as an Ingredient from your hand onto an Order Ticket in your Plating Area.
When you complete an Order Ticket, you'll take a Popularity Token from 1 of 3 stacks. Add that token to your Food Truck board to upgrade (level up) your abilities!
The Action Round is where a lot of tough decisions and game play will take place. If you initiate an Action Round, all other players will get a chance to follow your Staff Action by either playing a card from their hand or relying on one of their Hired Staff.
Be careful, because a player can take several of the same action by following you! For example, if you lead with a Driver, your opponent can have a Driver in their Hired Staff and still play a Driver from their hand to take that action twice! Timing is everything if you want to serve up a hot meal and be the cream of the crop.
Besides fulfilling Order Tickets for Popularity Tokens, there are 2 more ways to gain bonus points:
- Flavor Profiles: Each food truck has a Flavor Profile that will help you get 5 bonus points for a set. Add Order Tickets to your Awards when a Critique token comes up. This set collection mechanic seamlessly layers in added game play and strategy.
- Signature Dishes: Each Order Ticket has a food truck logo on it signifying that it is one of that food truck's Signature Dish. Try to match Order Tickets that have your food truck logo on them to get a bonus point at the end of the game.
The game ends when 2 out of the 3 Popularity Token stacks are empty. Players take equal turns, then count up their Popularity on tokens they've gained throughout the game, bonus points for sets of Flavor Profile icons in their Awards, and bonus points for Signature Dishes. The player with the most Popularity becomes the FOOD TRUCK CHAMPION!
Components
- 1 Active Player Truck Token
- 5 Food Truck Boards
- 5 Owner Cards
- 5 Starting Order Cards
- 95 Game Cards
- 24 Popularity Tokens
- 6 Critique Tokens
- 1st Player Card
- 1 Rulebook
- 1 Beautifully Illustrated Box
