30 Projects!
This week there are 30 projects on offer, all of the projects are spread across Kickstarter, Gamefound and Backerkit. With this many projects in one week, there is something out there for every taste and budget. Last week was also a heavy one in the Crowdfunding space so, think carefully before you back. my money this week goes to the eagerly awaited Hidden Leaders expansion, What about yours?
In Cthulhu: Death May Die, inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, you and your fellow players represent investigators in the 1920s who instead of trying to stop the coming of Elder Gods, want to summon those otherworldly beings so that you can put a stop to them permanently. You start the game insane, and while your long-term goal is to shoot Cthulhu in the face, so to speak, at some point during the game you'll probably fail to mitigate your dice rolls properly and your insanity will cause you to do something terrible — or maybe advantageous. Hard to know for sure.
The game has multiple episodes, and each of them has a similar structure of two acts, those being before and after you summon whatever it is you happen to be summoning. If any character dies prior to the summoning, then the game ends and you lose; once the Elder One is on the board, as long as one of you is still alive, you still have a chance to win.
The episodes are all standalone and not contingent on being played in a certain order or with the same players.
Freezing Inferno is a 1 or 2 players wargame set in World War 2 covering the 1939-1940 conflict between the USSR and Finland.
It is a hex & counter game with unique battle mechanism, a lot of strategy, some diplomacy and a number of features specific to the harsh winter conditions of the setting.
Freezing Inferno is medium level complexity and lasts from 3 to 6 hours. Variable setup and random cards bringing effects to the game offers great replay ability.
Words of a Feather is a beautiful party game with a unique focus on presentation and table presence. Players reveal words from the general supply and add their own words to the mix. All players try to write down matching words based on the clues provided. Players can bet their points if they are feeling confident about a match.
All players start with 3 words (cards) in their hand. On their turn, a player reveals 2 words from the general supply. The active player selects 2 words from their hand as clues and says, out loud, one additional word to make 3 clues. They write down their secret word and all players then write down a word that they think will match with another player.
All players receive 1 point if they write a word that matches with at least one other player. The active player scores 1 point for each person that writes down the same word(s) as them. All players can also place a bet of 1-2 points from their own supply. If a betting player matches with any other player, they double their bet in addition to the regular points they receive.
The game continues until all the cards are gone or 15 or more points are scored.
Hyperwars is a cyberpunk themed real-time area control board game for 3-5 players that can be played in 10-15 minutes.
Players take on the role of large Corporations set in the dystopian city of Urbana. You are competing for hegemony in the market of illicit products.
The game is played in two stages: the Action Phase and the Scoring Phase.
The Action Phase is played in real-time for exactly five minutes. There are no individual player turns. Players perform all actions simultaneously. During this phase, players use their Action cards to deploy Agents and move goods from their sources to the Districts they wish to control. Each District has strict needs the Corporations need to supply.
The Scoring Phase happens after the five-minute Action Phase ends. During that phase, the player with more Agents in a given District is said to control it and has the chance to fulfil the needs of that District, getting points for that or failing miserably. After all Districts are scored, penalties are applied based on the number of Actions cards they have left in their hands, and the winner. is determined.
Ofrenda
It’s time to prepare your ofrenda, tonight is the Day of the Dead! Make your altar the most beautiful of all, decorate the borders with papel picado, shower it with marigold flowers and bring only the freshest bread, food and drink, so the souls of the deceased can rest and eat and drink, recovering their strengths in their long trip between the land of the dead and the living. As night falls and the moon rises, light the candles and incense, let your altar become a guiding beacon for the spirits going home.
The Ofrenda Variant takes the Die of the Dead dice, caskets and steps, and transforms them into a dice drafting game in which players attempt to make their altars the most appealing to their ancestors. Instead of putting dice in caskets players are drafting dice from caskets, to reprsent the bread, candles, incense and marigolds which will adorn their altars.
The Ofrenda Variant offers a puzzle based spin on Die of the Dead, for players who love the theme and beauty but prefer something less on the luck side of things. In order to enable more people to play Die of the Dead to celebrate Dia de Muertos this expansion also contains a solo mode, something only possible with the cerebral nature of this variant.
Xolo
It's Dia de Muertos, along with dawn the spirits of the dead come out to pay a visit to their loved ones, party and eat and drink once again all their favourite dishes. But these souls are many and excited, they pass through the world in a hurry and sometimes even forget where their homes are, how come they don’t get lost? Luckily the xoloitzcuintles are here! The bonds with man’s best friend are so strong that they surpass life and death, and these loyal dogs are ready to help the dead find their way back home.
The Xolo Expansion introduces the xoloitzcuintle to Die of the Dead. These loyal dogs can be used to guide other players to caskets, encouraging them to pick ones which benefit you, for more dice manipulation options on the future. Featuring more ways to manipulate dice and each other, tokens, casket boards and custom dice, The Xolo Expansion takes everything people love about Die of the Dead and makes more of it.
Get ready for a merchant’s adventure ! Go on the roads of Karanor and become a wandering merchant in search for wealth and glory !
In Merchants of Karanor, you will try to reach 10 notoriety points before your opponents by opening new commerce's, achieving quests for the locals or even buying a private villa.
During your turn, you will perform 4 actions among 6 permitted : travel, collect resources, interact with a local, open a commerce, work or realize a special action. At the end of your turn, players will receive the income of their commerce and the production of their associates.
During your travels, you will be able to gathers rewards and advantages, recruit associates, buy some illegal services to the black market or find a rare artefact to improve your character or your business activities, in order to move faster to victory.
Interactions between players are an important part of the game. Everything in the game can be traded, sold or bartered between players. Black market cards will allow you to slow your opponents in their quest for glory and bring tensions to the negotiations !
In Cosmoctopus, players assume the role of devotees competing to prove their loyalty to the Great Inky One, a mysterious celestial octopod.
Devotees will guide Cosmoctopus through the Inky Realm, a flexible configuration of tiles, gathering cards and resources that represent relics, scripture, hallucinations and constellations. By harnessing the power of these bizarre objects and experiences, they will craft a powerful card engine, aiming to be the first devotee to gather eight tentacles and open a portal to the Inky Realm!
Ol’ Grizz slowly opened one sleepy eye and peered out from his den. The snow had all but melted in the warm sunshine and the smell of spring filled the air. The old bear found no joy in the beautiful scene though, he had survived enough winters to know the work that lay ahead. His mind reluctantly turned to thoughts of hunting and hoarding; stashing as much food as possible while the woodland was awake and bountiful.
The bear’s brooding was interrupted by an annoyingly cheerful voice: “Look Huni, another big juicy berry! This will be our biggest stash yet!” It was those two ridiculously radiant rabbits, Huni & Bunz. As he watched the little bunnies bounce from bush to bush a cunning plan started to form. Maybe he wouldn’t have to make such an effort this year? After all, there were plenty of other critters already hard at work! Ol’ Grizz pondered this new revelation. If he could apply a little pressure, maybe twist a tail or two, he might just be able to convince his new best friends to share...
In 'Survival of the Fattest', you take the role of a woodland critter and use your unique tricks and abilities to forage for food. Spend your gathered food to complete delicious recipe’s from the Market for in-game bonuses and end-game victory points. After 3 seasons, if you’ve fed your critter and accumulated the most victory points, you shall be declared the winner!
Survival of the Fattest is a visually stunning family-weight game using action selection, hand management and unique critter abilities!
Fit to Print is a puzzly tile-laying game about breaking news, designed by Peter McPherson and set in a charming woodland world created by Ian O’Toole!
Thistleville is the world’s most bustling little town — it’s a challenge to keep up with everything going on, from who took home first prize for their baked goods at the community fair to who has been digging in Mrs. Brambleberry’s carrot patch.
As an editor at one of the local newspapers, your job is to tell their stories!
The front page is due in just a few hours and you have no time for perfection. Grab the big stories before the other papers get a chance, and make sure you get the right photos too. A newspaper is a business, so the money has to come from somewhere — don’t forget the ads! After you’ve picked out a combination of stories, photos, and ads, it’s time to lay out the front page. Did you take enough tiles to fill the paper, but not so many that things have to be cut? Over the course of three hectic days, your skills will be tested as you compete to be the most newsworthy editor!
Fit To Print is a tile-laying game for the whole family. Players simultaneously collect newspaper tiles, stacking them on their desks until they think they have what they need to make the perfect front page. Then, they will yell “Layout!” and begin to lay out the page by carefully considering the placement of centrepieces, articles, photographs, and advertisements. When everything is just right, they yell “Print” to be the first off the press and gain their choice of centrepiece for the next round! This hectic spatial puzzle features over 100 unique newspaper tiles, 6 characters with their own special abilities, as well as 3 decks of Breaking News cards — so that each and every time you play you will be solving a new puzzle!
If real-time games aren’t your style, Fit to Print has a number of alternative modes to satisfy every type of puzzle gamer. In Slo-Mode players take turns drafting tiles from a shared market and arranging them on their front pages. In Puzzle Mode, take a specific set of tiles and piece together the highest-scoring arrangements. Whether you enjoy relaxing solo puzzles on your own, or frenetic action for up to 6 players, you will have a blast helping the critters of Thistleville tell their stories!
Welcome to the city of Copan, shining jewel of the Maya civilization. The city is flourishing, and as one of its ruling families, this golden age holds many opportunities for you to increase your influence and wealth. But Copan is destined to fall. Dark times lie ahead, and as you work to secure your legacy over generations, you have to face the city's slow decline. Your progress will hindered by dwindling resources, crumbling political structure, natural disasters, and war.
Will your family become a part of the history of Copan, forever carved into the steps of the hieroglyphic stair? Or will your story be forgotten?
Copan: Dying City is a heavy Eurogame for 1 to 4 players with both worker-placement and tile-placement mechanisms. The game features a reversed difficulty curve because when play begins, resources are plentiful, making most actions easy to accomplish. However, all resources are finite. When they reach critical levels, they trigger potentially devastating events, and once they run out, they're gone forever. Every move you make impacts the rest of the game, both for you and other players, as Copan's inevitable fate looms.
Weave and sell luxurious carpets in the bustling Persian market city of Tabriz. Fill commissions for the commoners and before long the merchants and royals will take notice as well. Earn the most prestige from completed commissions to win the game and become known as the undisputed master of your craft.
On your turn, you move one of 3 assistant meeples through the Grand Bazaar and take the action where it lands. Actions include buying, trading, and rolling dice for wool, camel hair, silk, plant dye, and carmine dye. Each assistant has limited range, but with careful planning you can set up a quick and efficient series of actions to net you all the materials you need for your commissions before another player completes theirs.
At the end of each turn, if you have the necessary materials, you may complete 1 commission you have in hand.
Resources are limited and the market fluctuates every round. Watch for opportunities to grab more for less, and be careful to avoid moments when the resource you need is out of stock everywhere. Gain skill to attract better commissions, move your assistants further in each round, claim and complete multiple commissions at once, and earn bonus prestige. Optionally, play with the Advanced Workshop Mode so every weaver has their own unique ability taken at the start of the game and at the end of every round.
When any player completes 9 or more commissions, or gains the maximum of 14 skill, the current round is finished and the player with the most prestige wins!
Includes a robust solo mode with multiple AI opponents.
So, what is it?
20 Strong is a new deck-based game system from Chip Theory Games, capable of being played in about 30 minutes or less. We say “game system” because the idea behind 20 Strong is a small nucleus of simple, adaptable rules that can then be applied to a variety of unique decks, each with their own set of mechanics. We are launching 20 Strong with three such decks – one set in the world of Too Many Bones, one set in Hoplomachus: Victorum, and one in the new universe of the space-faring Solar Sentinels. We have more decks in development and plan to release them regularly if our customers are excited by them. For now, 20 Strong is a solo-only game, but even that could differ in future decks using the ruleset.
Through the centuries Artisans have been skilled workers, specialized craftsmen in creating art, functional or decorative objects. Sculptures, drawings, jewellery, clothes, constructions of different shapes and sizes. The work of Artisans has shaped the history of art and some creations have reached such worldwide fame; they influence even the modern world.
Artisans is a fast and exciting but challenging family card game for 2 to 4 players which lasts 30 to 45 minutes. Players are trying to develop their skills in the use of seven different materials: clay, metal, wood, stone, gold, glass and textiles in such a way so that their level of expertise in these materials grants them the necessary skills to craft beautiful Art objects.
Each player chooses initially one from the nine available Artisan profiles. Each Artisan has a unique ability which helps and defines the strategy of the players. Additionally, each player takes randomly 6 material cards. Finally, 4 Art objects are drawn randomly and become available for crafting. All the material cards are depicting the level of skill (I -> IV) in each of their corners and all the Art objects are depicting the materials and the required level of skill which the players need to have so they can craft them.
A game is played in 12 rounds (the months of a year), where players are trying to craft Art objects and win victory points. Each round has 2 phases.
During the first phase, players are either sequentially trading or collecting material cards from a central market or craft one of the available Art objects. The first phase ends when one player signifies the closing of the market by claiming the first player token. Then all other players have one last chance to visit the market.
In the second phase, players are developing their skills by playing any number of cards of one material type of their choice. Every additional time they play the same material they upgrade their skill to the next level. However, they cannot play more cards than those that they have played on the previous level. Through this smart mechanism the number of cards played in each level matters, because at the end of the game every single material card scores points equal to the said level.
In the end of the 12 rounds players are counting the points from the crafted Art objects plus the points for the material cards and any additional points that their Artisan’s profile may score. The player with the most points is declared the winner!
Use the material market to your benefit, claim the first player token in the right time to close the market and smartly manage your material cards in an effective way! The numerous combinations, the great replay ability, the strategic decisions and the challenging competition will leave anyone satisfied! Embrace the role of an Artisan and let the beautiful artwork take you on a journey through art and history!
Adventure through the 220 islands of the Aegean Sea in a game in which every card can be an island, or one of the boats, temples, goods, and peoples occupying it. Your ultimate goal is to acquire goods and bring them back to your home island — but of course, all your opponents are trying to do the same!
Aegean Sea comes with five different decks representing the Athenians, Spartans, Cretans, Rhodians, and Ephesians. Every card in the game is a unique island in the Aegean, with unique game text. Islands are placed face-up in the middle of the table, and other cards can be tucked underneath to represent boats, temples, goods, and populace (under the left, top, right, bottom edges).
Boats let you transport goods. Population lets you have plurality at islands, which is required to take goods and use islands' effects. Temples (if with goods) allow you to draw more cards when you refresh your hand. And goods...are worth points!
Use your cards and effects wisely, and you'll be victorious.
Destinies is a competitive, story-driven, game of adventure and exploration, mixing an app and a board game.
Destinies: Witchwood is a new expansion for Destinies that adds new scenarios for players to explore. The world is filled with folklore-inspired characters, monsters, and adventures.
In each scenario, players will compete to fulfil either of their character's two possible Destinies. Players will develop their character's skills, gather items, complete quests, and uncover thousands of words of rich narrative.
In Witchwood, decisions that players make in a scenario can drastically change the world the characters find themselves in and can impact later scenarios.
Have you ever dreamed of building and managing your own zoo? Well now you can with Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game!
Build a zoo that focuses on marquee animals like Lions, Gorillas, or Elephants to attract and thrill guests. Or develop partnerships with National Parks on conservation and re-introduce endangered species back into the wild.
Strategically place food booths and gift shops to satiate guests, while generating revenue to help keep your zoo growing and thriving. The more money you generate, the more options you have at your disposal to create the zoo of your dreams!
With over 34 different species (most of them represented by 230 beautiful animal meeples), you have an abundance of options from which to select your favourite animals. But selecting animals is only the beginning! Just like in real life, each amazing animal will require unique care to meet their individual needs. Carefully balance group and enclosure sizes, social composition, and guest proximity, to try and achieve the right balance between animal and guest happiness. Happiness will play a particularly important role in animal reproduction, and new animal options for addition to your zoo.
Play your cards right, and you may find your animals having offspring! This is important for conservation projects but also a great source of popularity. However, it must not be forgotten that a place must be available once they get older.
With our “zoo in a box” – watch the zoo of your dreams come true, right in front of you!
Gameplay
In Zoo Tycoon the board game, 2-4 players compete to build the most successful zoo. In this strategic and thematic board game, each player has the freedom to develop their own zoo with over 34 species, food booths, zoo shops, etc. Each animal has its own care requirements focused on 3 key areas - popularity for visitors, educational value, and nature conservation. As with zoos in real life, players must find the right balance between popularity and conservation over the course of the game. In the end, the lower value between those two measurements will count as your final score.
Each game you play will be different, delivering high replay value. Thanks to a novel game mechanism, the animal market with supply and demand changes continuously. In addition, small events will shape the gameplay in every round.
Four unknown descendants of the Emperor have deciphered the forgotten legends and called upon the powerful guardian spirits of Oshra. Their ritual unearthed new treasures but also brought greed into the hearts of many. Will the new guardian leaders take over the land, or will the established powers prevail?
This expansion for Hidden Leaders comes with 3 new modules:
A new faction, four leaders, and 20 new heroes. The guardians are a powerful race. Everyone can use them, but use them sparingly or you might make the Guardian Leaders win. This adds a new layer of deduction, a new winning condition and many powerful new abilities to the game.
Artefacts will upgrade your leader character. Each artefact gives the respective player a unique ability that can be used 2-3 times during the game. This gives every player a unique play style and exclusive strategic options.
A bag full of nasty corruption tokens. Two times during the game, a wave of corruption allows you to secretly change the alliance of your heroes or the heroes of your friends. But be careful: some of these changes are dangerous traps that players can use to protect their heroes from attacks of their friends.
Varmints is a head-to-head contest between two crowds of critters as they race to devour all the trash in the neighbourhood.
Populate three alleys with fluffy, adorable pests and use them to raid the bins on the other side of the block. Defend your own bins with precise critter placement and tricky abilities. Call for backup and boost your plucky pests to outmanoeuvre the competition. Swoop, sneak, and scurry your way to dumpster-diving dominance, and may the fullest belly win!
A game of Varmints is organized into a series of shared turns, each consisting of a Day Phase and a Night Phase. During the Day Phase, players trade actions back-and-forth, playing one Varmint card from hand at a time. Varmint cards are placed in lanes (called "alleys") in order to defend their own Trash Bins while attempting to swipe Scraps from the opponent. During the Night Phase, the strategically positioned Varmint cards face off in individual alleys, and the quicker critter wins, removing one Scrap from the defending Trash Bin.
The game continues through cycles of Day and Night as alleys swarm with critters and scraps start to disappear from Trash Bins throughout the neighbourhood. Empty all of your opponent's Trash Bins before they empty yours, and you win the game!
An expansion to CoraQuest, a family dungeon crawling board game, that adds campaign rules to the base game.
Players are now able to level up your heroes between quests, and also keep treasure from one adventure to another. There are two full campaigns included - “The Curse of Hoodez” and “A Spotter’s Guide to the Dungeon”. Each campaign contains five brand-new adventures to play through.
There is also very simple guidance on how to turn the base game adventures into a campaign, as well as write your own campaigns yourself.
There are also new “Environments” to CoraQuest. And of course there are tons more heroes, enemies, treasure cards, and dungeon cards for you to play with too.
The Tesseract appeared in our skies six days ago, over the exact magnetic north of the planet. It was the size of a city block. Since that time it has been condensing, collapsing upon itself. It can now fit into the palm of your hand.
In the next 60 to 90 minutes, our world’s best minds will either find a way to contain and control the reactions of this alien artefact, or its exponentially increasing destructive power will remove our planet from existence, reconfiguring our space and time to the extra-dimensional needs of its creators. Can you and your team work together to shut down the Tesseract, or will humankind simply be a blip in the grand scheme of the universe? Time will tell.
Tesseract is a compelling, cooperative dice-manipulation game for 1 to 4 players. The focal point of the game is a block of 64 dice, the Tesseract, which sits at the centre of the board on a raised platform. Players will remove cubes to place in their individual labs, transfer them as needed to others, adjust the cube's values and, importantly, isolate the cubes into the containment matrix, neutralizing them.
To Contain a cube a player must have in their lab 3 or more cubes all of one value (a Set) or in sequence (a Run), either all of one colour or having none of the same colours. By filling the containment matrix completely (24 total unique dice) they will stop the reaction and win the game. But if the Tesseract has its last cube removed beforehand - or if 7 breaches occur, the game is lost and our world ceases to exist.
Asymmetric character abilities include a passive, 'always on' ability and a unique action that is only available to that player. Research cards earned during play help give players an edge, as do the even more powerful Containment cards, unlocked from the matrix.
Tesseract is a very challenging co-op game, with lots of replay value built into the number of characters and various threat platforms which govern the difficulty. The game scales remarkably well and has a solo mode that is every bit as engaging. The tension mounts quickly as the Tesseract sheds cubes at the end of every player's turn, primes them and potentially causes Breaches to occur, bringing us closer to disaster.
In Masterminds: Heist Society you are the shot-caller, assembling a team of operatives to take down the toughest modern-day heists!
We all love a good heist movie; Oceans 11, Baby Driver, Inside Man, and TV shows like Leverage bring us the thrill and suspense of assembling a team of specialists that combine their skills toward a common goal. Collecting the prize knowing they have pulled off the impossible. This game for 2-5 players aims to recreate the tension and thrill of planning and executing high-stakes heists, with cards and actions inspired by these movies and shows, as you and your fellow players take on the role of Masterminds.
Combining drafting, dice-rolling, and a strategic press-your-luck style of mission completion, Masterminds - Heist Society will test your risk/reward intuition as you play. Players can take it safe & slow to skip the die rolling and guarantee a win, but another player may swoop in and grab the prize out from under you with a more reckless luck-oriented plan. Either way, the prize goes to the first team to complete each heist’s combination of challenges
Hike It! is a highly thematic mid-weight board game that puts you deep into the Great Smoky Mountains with just your backpack and your wits. Choose your gear, plan your route, and learn skills while avoiding injuries, dehydration, bad weather, and pesky bears.
At the start of the game, players choose a trailhead and three scenic locations to visit during their trek through picturesque Great Smoky Mountains National Park, as well as the amount of gear and water they want to lug along. A lighter pack mean faster travel, but less capacity to deal with unforeseen events.
Players must cope with inclement weather and obstacles that present themselves while hiking toward their destinations. Along the way, they can stop at campsites and water sources to pick up more gear and water, build skills sets that make it easier to overcome challenges, and take side hikes and visit scenic spots for additional points.
And when a player is finished hiking, they return to the game as an aggressive bear to chase down any lollygagging hikers still in the park!
The hiker who had the best experience (most victory points) wins the game.
The Queen's Dilemma is a sequel to The King's Dilemma, the award-winning (and Kennerspiel des Jahres-nominated) interactive narrative legacy game, and uses the same Dilemma Card System to bring players into another adventure set in the Kingdom of Ankist.
Much of the gameplay of The Queen's Dilemma will be focused on a big map of the kingdom: players will take control of different regions, and manage them. There will be several resources to gather, with different uses, and players will be able to exchange them to construct buildings and other personal improvements.
The tense voting sessions and tough decisions that made The King's Dilemma such a huge success will still be there, right at the centre of the experience, but their outcomes will involve more than resource tracks going up and down this time. Event cards will have more varied effects too, having an impact on specific regions.
Trick Shot Second Edition is a tense, tactical, fast-paced game of ice hockey with cool plastic miniatures and a streamlined rule-set. The game strikes a fine balance between luck and strategy, while still being easy to explain and get to the table. Use smart positioning, special abilities of your skaters, and press your luck to outplay your opponent and score the most goals.
This edition offers new abilities for all the Arena cards, introduces new "player cards", introduces multiple improvements to game-play and more.
AoC - Age of Champagne puts you in the shoes of a young Cellar Master who inherits a family winery.
In competitive mode, among many possible actions, you will have to make wise investments, optimize the processing of your precious grapes to meet the demands of the different markets. 3 versatile workers are just waiting for your instructions to support you in your strategy.
The Cellar Master at the head of the most prestigious and eco-responsible Champagne Maison at the end of the 10th harvest will be elected Cellar Master of the Decade and win the Game.
JUST RUN is medium-weight, card-driven, tile-placement board game, with both cooperative and competitive scenarios, from Mr. X.
You are survivors of the zombie apocalypse, trapped in an abandoned, treacherous, and unfamiliar building. Somewhere in front of you is safety. Right behind you, a growing horde of the undead. So quickly gather whatever gear you can find--and run.
In the first game phase, you compete with other players for item cards in a panic-inducing timed round. You can use each item in very different ways, including combining it with another card to create new and improved gear.
In the second game phase, each survivor has two actions to do things such as--
Investigating and revealing new room tiles to build your path to escape. Searching for even better gear or, if you are unlucky, a catastrophic event. Using your gear in novel ways to get out of sticky situations. Fighting zombies--and sometimes other survivors.
The zombies, meanwhile, keep spawning and keep coming.
JUST RUN has six scenarios, ranging from cooperative search-and-rescue missions to everyone-for-themselves sprints. And you can play scenarios individually or combine them to create more challenging missions.
Winners must complete the scenario’s mission, escape with at least one health point, and reach the rescue chopper before it fills up.
You are all spies who have infiltrated an ambassador's mansion, each working for different countries. Accomplish missions and try to sabotage your target's missions to score points.
Each player gets a map printed off on a single sheet of paper, then hides it behind a shield, clipboard, etc. Identify your target - the player to their left. As you play, you'll be trying to figure out where they go while avoiding the player on the right that's tracking you!
Each round, you'll move from one room to another, completing or sabotaging missions, then asking your target a specific question. Your target must tell you the truth, but each question can only be asked once per game. Some questions reveal more information than others, but picking the right time to ask them can be really helpful.
At the end of the game, reveal your sheets. You'll score points from completing missions, sabotaging the missions your targets completed, and bonus points if you identified where your target went. Most points wins.
You are the king’s last fortune-tellers, but after tonight he’s going to make another budget cut and heads will roll. The sacrifices are scattered on the altar and the king is demanding a reading.
It’s time to make a future for yourself.
OBJECT Manipulate the Bird Sacrifice Tiles (referred to as “BS Tiles”) into lines of 3 with a shared attribute, called Portents, to collect Omen Tokens from the outside of the Altar. Use Portents to make sets of Omens with a common attribute called Fortunes. Create one Fortune of 4 Omens or two Fortunes of 3 Omens to win!
TURN SEQUENCE Each turn has two phases: Sleight of Hand and then Scrying.
In the Sleight of Hand phase, the active player manipulates the arrangement and composition of the BS Tiles on the Altar.
In the Scrying Phase the active player performs upkeep on the Altar and collects Omens for their Fortunes.
SLEIGHT OF HAND There are 3 steps in the Sleight of Hand Phase. It represents waving one’s hands over the altar with occult flair. Improvised incantations are encouraged.
1. Push The active player may push 1, 2, or 3 tiles off the Altar from a single side. These BS tiles may be pushed in any arrangement as long as they move in the same direction from the same side.
2. Replace After tiles are pushed off of the Altar, the active player fills the empty spaces on the Altar with new tiles from their hand. They may place their tiles freely in the empty spaces.
3. Palm All the tiles that the active player Pushed off of the Altar enter their hand for the next turn.
SCRYING This phase combines scoring and upkeep. There may be up to 4 steps depending on the game state. They are performed in the order below.
1. Check for New Portents The active player checks the Altar for any new Portents. If any are present on the Altar proceed to step 2. If not, skip to step 4.
2. Collect Omens If any of the new Portents on the Altar are in a line with an Omen Token, the player immediately collects the Omen(s).
3. Ignite New Burnt Offerings For each new Portent on the Altar, the player chooses a tile to turn into a Burnt Offering and flips it over to its lit side. Every new Portent requires a new Burnt Offering of its own.
4. Snuff Old Burnt Offerings If any Burnt Offerings were on the Altar during the Sleight of Hand phase, check if they are still a part of a Portent. If they are no longer a part of any Portent, flipping the Burnt Offering tile to its unlit side. If flipping a Burnt Offering over would create a new Portent, it stays lit.
The emperor is dead and the throne awaits its new host! Who will get the most support to claim the throne?
Five powerful houses decide the future of Japan, including the court of the Imperial Palace. Play skilfully to get the support of the clans that dominate the territories in these turbulent times.
Genpei stands out for its original mechanics where the players will chain actions to get them closer to victory by influencing more clans than their rival players. Easy to play but hard to master.
On your turn you must play one of the two cards from your hand. Whenever you play a clan card, it activates the clan marker on the corresponding clan wheel: move the marker to one of the two adjoining spaces and perform the action indicated on that space. You may perform a chain of actions during the same turn: whenever you draw a card as part of an action its clan marker is activated. Place your influence tokens to get the support of the Houses.
The player who receives the support of the most Houses (including the House of the Emperor) is declared the new Emperor and wins the game.
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