
- BGG rank
- BGG #793
- BGG rating
- 6.9
Kingdom Builder
- 2–4 players
- 45 min
- Complexity 2.1/5
- 2011

2016
Rules assistance for Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

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Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge is a board game released in 2016 for 2–5 players, 60 minutes per game, and ages 21 and up. It was designed by Seth Roback and its main mechanics are Hand Management, Area Majority / Influence, and Network and Route Building.
You and your fellow voodoo spirits have traveled back in time to poke a little fun at the hepcats of the 1950s cocktail culture. Your mystical influences will link these lounge-goers into social cliques that give you access to the coolest party-people that all the hipsters want to be near. Mix a few drinks, rack up the magical monkey points, and crown yourself king of the Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge. Score monkeys to hang on your martini glass by adding Jivecat contacts to your clique and claiming Trend cards through skillful manipulation of your lounge contacts. Be the player with the most monkeys at the end of the round in which a player scores their fifteenth monkey and be crowned the winner! Players are dealt a hand of four cards and on their turn use those cards for their face value to claim low-brow contacts in the lounges or use the card's special powers to claim Jivecat contacts and cast spells (Zombie, Rada, Cheval, and Voodoo). For example, a 4 Zombie can be used to claim a "4" contact in the Lava Lounge. Card values can be added and subtracted from each other, allowing players to pinpoint just the right contacts to advance their plans. However, the player could use the card for its Zombie spell, instead. By paying a skull, they can place the card in their tableau as an extension of their hand allowing them to use that card's value for many turns in the future. In these ways, players create "cliques" of linked contacts in and among the four cocktail lounges (Lava, Cocoa, Tiki, and Neptune) trying to schmooze their way to the Jivecat contacts that score points. The contacts are limited though, so several players may be angling for a specific Jivecat. During play, a series of Skull Cards allow players to gain skull token reward that power their voodoo spells, and a Trend Card track presents players with monkey rewards for achieving specific contact configurations. The Trend cards also provide special bonus abilities to the players if they can maintain the required configurations. Each player has a martini glass to hold the contact chips and scores are kept through hanging cocktail monkeys on the rim of the player's glass. Orange monkeys are 1 point and blue monkeys are 5 points. Game end is triggered when one player reaches fifteen monkey points. The round is completed, bonus monkeys are rewarded for trends that have been maintained, and the player with the most monkeys wins. To add to the cocktail themed fun, each card also has a different cocktail recipe for adult players to mix and enjoy.
Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge supports 2–5 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge is 60 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge for ages 21 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge has a complexity rating of 2.6 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge belongs to these categories: Territory Building, Number, and Mature / Adult. Its main mechanics are Hand Management, Area Majority / Influence, and Network and Route Building. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge are: Seth Roback. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.