The world of gaming run deep in coffee circles. And I don’t just mean that gamers drink coffee to stay awake during marathon sessions, though that is also true. I mean that lots of baristas are also big-time gamers. I remember tucking out early from an Expo afterparty to attend a midnight Magic: The Gathering session featuring enough USBC champions and Finalists that they should have sold tickets to it.
Thus it was only a matter of time before card-game loving baristas made their own barista-themed card game. Barista Brawl is a trading card game “built by real baristas” and “drawn by real artists.”
Barista Brawl is similar to other popular TCGs like Magic, Pokemon, and One Piece. The primary difference, other than the content, is that Barista Brawl is cooperative as opposed to head-to-head. Designed by the folks a Reno, Nevada gaming cafe Coffee n’ Comics, Barista Brawl looks to mimic the service flow of working an actual coffee shop (hopefully), where two players team up to survive a shift and the many orders and customers that it brings, culminating in a showdown with the Boss Customer. Another way in which the Barista Brawl strays from the traditional format is that there’s an app component that dictates part of the gameplay.
There is currently a total of 150 hand-drawn cards, each “rooted in something that actually happened to us or to one of our baristas.” As the game grows, coffee professionals from around the world can nominate new cards to be created based on their own experiences or cafes (which can be done via their website). In true TCG fashion, you can get a ready-to-play 36-card starter deck that comes with everything you need to get playing. There are booster packs that can strengthen your deck, with the chance at some rare pulls. And for the deck builder, there are full-on booster boxes.
After a successful Kickstarter over doubling their $5,000 goal, Barista Brawl is looking to go live in November of this month. And though the campaign is closed, it now serves as the pre-ordering mechanism for those looking to start (first) cracking some packs. You can get everything from a set of three booster packs for $22 and two starter decks for $44 all the way up to two starter decks, two booster boxes, and eight booster packs for $420.
I for one would like to nominate the coffee writer card. It’s a customer card that requires underpowered baristas to make five shots of espresso instead of the one ordered because they are trying to make it perfect; higher level baristas know they’re no different than any other customer and serve them the first shot they pull.
For more information, a full break down of the rules, or to order you own decks and booster packs, visit the Barista Brawl official website.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
