Tivoli is a family-friendly board game from Plotmaker Games themed around the famous Tivoli Gardens amusement park at the heart of Copenhagen. The 2-6 players earn points by going on Tivoli's various rides, classified according to their thrill level and you can go on a ride multiple times, placing a token out at the location each time, but when all the spaces for tokens have been filled, that ride is closed and is no longer available to players for the remainder of the game.
The actions you can take on your turn are determined by what you roll using the three custom six-sided dice. You'll need tickets to access a ride; some rides require just one ticket but others will demand two or three. You need movement arrows to move between rides. And again, there are some paths that require up to three movement arrows, tho', like the rides, those will earn you points, and you'll place tokens on them just as with rides and they too will close when all the spaces have been filled. Rolling a coin lets you buy cards. These can give you extra tickets or movement arrows, immediate points or set collection bonuses. Rolling the clock advances the clock on the board: when it reaches 12 o'clock, the Tivolo Gardens close and the game ends. The clock also advances when a ride or path closes because its spaces have all been filled.
Tho' players score as they go, the tokens you place out are important because there are potentially game-winning bonuses for having the most of each type of ride and path, and for having the most sets of cards.
We're not saying Tivoli is as much fun as a real-life visit to the Tivoli Gardens but Asger Johansen's game runs it a close second. It's an easy-to-play, family-friendly game that's attractively presented by Plotmaker Games and illustrator Snorre Krogh. You can play with just two but we've enjoyed the game most with at least four players to keep the board busy. Tho' there's a push-your-luck element, as there is in any dice chucker, the dice in Tivoli will almost always give you options, so this is a game where you can make your own luck.