Overview
Uprise is a local indie board game designed by Alex Racine, which we had the opportunity to playtest ahead of its Kickstarter launch. Players are members of a secret society working to complete missions and overthrow the ruling elite — by building towers of bureaus on Top Hat cards according to their Secret Agenda.
Whitney’s Review
Likes
- Plays co-op, solo, and competitive — three games in one
- Cards let you directly impact other players’ games
- Secret Agenda cards can be rotated, adding a strategy puzzle layer
Dislikes
- The original theme was a little confusing (a change was in the works at the time of review)
- We ran out of Stache cards — unclear if we played something wrong
- Simultaneous play makes it hard to track rule compliance
First Impressions
We knew absolutely nothing going in, which meant zero bias. On first look I was intrigued: stacks of cards, red plastic bureaus, and a pile of green pigs in top hats (decoys that earn you bonus points). No central board — just a collection of components waiting to be figured out.
How It Plays
Each player draws three Stache cards, a Top Hat card, and a Secret Agenda card. The Top Hat card has a random 3×3 grid of pictures. Your Secret Agenda shows how your bureaus must be arranged on that grid. Before you can build anything, you need the matching Stache cards in hand — no match, no building.
Cards you can’t use can be discarded or stored in your Vault to buy upgrades like safe houses or bonus Secret Agendas. The bonus agendas are smart — swap in a new one if you’re struggling, and opponents won’t know your exact plan has changed. Secret Agenda cards can also be rotated any direction to match how you’re building, which makes the puzzle feel genuinely flexible.
You’ll also need money to purchase new Top Hats and extra Secret Agendas. If your towers or cards fall off, they’re out of play — so precision matters.
Other players can buy Moustache cards and play them against your hand: forcing you to skip a building round, removing a layer, or worse. This inter-player disruption is where the competitive mode really gets teeth.
Our Experience
We played competitively first, then solo. Both worked well. The competitive version is the most engaging — watching someone buy a Moustache card specifically to pull down your top layer (thanks, Ryan) makes for great table moments.
The game took about 20 minutes and was easy enough for younger players while strategic enough to keep adults looking for another round. Co-op mode is a great teaching tool: work through the logic together before cutting players loose in solo or competitive play.
Conclusion
We quite enjoyed our playtest and the games that followed. It’s a genuinely original design — part building puzzle, part hand management, part take-that. The simultaneous play keeps things moving fast. For a local Kickstarter game, the production quality and concept impressed us, and we were looking forward to seeing the finished version.
Note: The theme and visuals were still being refined at the time of this review. The final Kickstarter version may look different from what we played.
