Light 23 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Skull

Skull is the quintessence of bluffing, a game in which everything is played in the players’ heads. Each player plays a face-down card, then each player in turn adds one more card – until someone feels safe enough to state that he can turn a number of cards face up and get only roses. Other players can then overbid him, saying they can turn even more cards face up. The highest bidder must then turn that number of cards face up, starting with his own. If he shows only roses, he wins; if he reveals a skull, he loses, placing one of his cards out of play. Two successful challenges wins the game.

Skull & Roses is not a game of luck; it’s a game of poker face and meeting eyes.

In Concept, your goal is to guess words through the association of icons. A team of two players – neighbors at the table – choose a word or phrase that the other players need to guess. Acting together, this team places pieces judiciously on the available icons on the game board. To get others to guess “milk”, for example, the team might place the question mark icon (which signifies the main concept) on the liquid icon, then cubes of this color on the icons for “food/drink” and “white”. For a more complicated concept, such as “Leonardo DiCaprio”, the team can use the main concept and its matching cubes to clue players into the hidden phrase being an actor or director, while then using sub-concept icons and their matching cubes to gives clues to particular movies in which DiCaprio starred, such as Titanic or Inception. The first player to discover the word or phrase receives 2 victory points, the team receives points as well, and the player who ends up with the most points wins.

Can you keep calm while bids are rising? Experience the exhilaration of real life auctions!

In Going, Going, GONE!, players try to win items by bidding on five simultaneous auctions while the Auctioneer counts down from 10 to 1! Players bid on these five simultaneous auctions by physically dropping their wooden cubes (known as “Bucks”) into any or all of the five transparent Auction Cups, each of which represents an auction for one or two Item Cards.

At the end of the countdown, the Auctioneer says “GONE!” and quickly places the Auction Paddle over the five Auction Cups to close the auctions. The player who has the most Bucks in each Auction Cup wins that auction and takes the Item Cards for that auction. Collections of items may be sold throughout the game for more Bucks, or players can keep building their collections to sell them at the end of the game. The player with the most Bucks at the end of the game wins!

Going, Going, GONE! is a simple-to-learn, exciting and unique game for players of all skill levels! It is ideal for playing in public spaces. Since the players control the pacing of the game and the variants used, the game adapts to the playing style of the players.

Blood Bound is a game of deduction, bluffing, and betrayal for six to twelve players. Each player belongs to one of two rival vampire clans, and fellow clan members must work together to capture the opposing clan’s leader. The catch? Identities are hidden at the start of the game, disguising ally and enemy alike. By attacking other players and forcing them to reveal information about their identity, players must distinguish friend from foe, and root out the rival leader!

Blood Bound provides a fun and fast-paced social experience. Unique abilities for each character ensure dynamic play scenarios. Ideal for larger gaming groups or parties, Blood Bound supports up to twelve players.

In Panic on Wall Street! you take on the role of a freewheeling capitalist out to outmaneuver your competitors and earn your place as a great industrialist.

Players are divided into managers and investors. Your goal is to earn more money than any other manager (if you are a manager) or more money than any other investor (if you are a investor) by the end of the fifth round.

Each round managers and investors negotiate with each other in a noisy, two-minute free-for-all to set a purchase price for shares in the managers’ companies. Investors then collect income from the shares they purchased but not until a roll of the dice brings (sometimes drastic) changes to the economy, with major consequences for the balance sheet of each player. Managers collect what they are owed from investors, pay fees for each of their companies, and buy new companies at auction.

After five rounds of play (5 months), the manager and the investor who have accumulated the most money are each declared victors, the undisputed masters of commerce.

Timeline: Inventions is a card game played using 109 cards. Each card depicts an invention on both sides, with the year in which that invention was created on only one side. Players take turns placing a card from their hand in a row on the table. After placing the card, the player reveals the date on it. If the card was placed correctly with the date in chronological order with all other cards on the table, the card stays in place; otherwise the card is removed from play and the player takes another card from the deck.

The first player to get rid of all his cards by placing them correctly wins. If multiple players go out in the same round, then everyone else is eliminated from play and each of those players are dealt one more card for another round of play. If only one player has no cards after a bonus round, he wins; otherwise play continues until a single player goes out.

Timeline: Inventions can be combined with any other title in the Timeline series.

This card game recreates an old-fashioned spaghetti western shoot-out, with each player randomly receiving a character card to determine their special abilities, and a secret Role card to determine their goal. The Sheriff has to clean out the town, with the aid of their hidden deputy, while the Outlaws must take down the law. The Renegade? Well, they’re all on their own…

In Jungle Speed, you must rely on your keen sense of observation and quick reflexes. It requires a steady hand — which can be hard to maintain during the many fits of maniacal laughter! The wooden Totem sits in the middle of the table, waiting for the player with the fastest reflexes to snatch it up and win the game.

Each player is dealt a hand of cards. In order to win you must be the first player to get rid of all of your cards. Each turn, all of the players reveal one of their cards. If two cards are identical, those players must make a grab for the Totem. The faster player then gives their cards to their unfortunate adversary.

To add to the difficulty, certain cards are almost identical, which can trick a hapless player into grabbing the Totem by mistake — a grave error. Other cards force all players to make a grab at once, change the method of play, or otherwise add to the difficulty.

This game entry refers to two nearly identical games which are not compatible with one another. Ages 6 and up. PitchCar and Carabande are dexterity games where large, wooden, puzzle-like pieces are used to construct a race track that looks very similar to a slot car track when finished. But instead of using electrons, players use finger-flicks to send small pucks around the track, a la Carrom. PitchCar is produced by Ferti. It currently has five expansions which add “tight” curves, crossroads, small jumps, long straightaways, 45-degree curves, and curved bottlenecks. PitchCar apparently also has two editions, where the first edition has the black laminate on the top and bottom of the track pieces, where the second edition only has the laminate on the top of the track pieces. In the BGG photo gallery, PitchCar has red rails.

You are head of a family in an Italian city-state, a city run by a weak and corrupt court. You need to manipulate, bluff and bribe your way to power. Your object is to destroy the influence of all the other families, forcing them into exile. Only one family will survive…

In Coup, you want to be the last player with influence in the game, with influence being represented by face-down character cards in your playing area. Each player starts the game with two coins and two influence – i.e., two face-down character cards; the fifteen card deck consists of three copies of five different characters, each with a unique set of powers.

When you take one of the character actions – whether actively on your turn, or defensively in response to someone else’s action – that character’s action automatically succeeds unless an opponent challenges you. In this case, if you can’t reveal the appropriate character, you lose an influence, turning one of your characters face-up. Face-up characters cannot be used, and if both of your characters are face-up, you’re out of the game.

If you do have the character in question, you reveal it, the opponent loses an influence, then you shuffle that character into the deck and draw a new one, perhaps getting the same character again and perhaps not. The last player to still have influence – that is, a face-down character – wins the game!

Skull

Concept

Going, Going, GONE!

Blood Bound

Panic on Wall Street!

Timeline: Inventions

Bang!

Jungle Speed

PitchCar

Coup

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