Aquarium

Aquarium offers high player interaction as the other players can – and will – use their action cards to alter the available fish that you can buy and the price that you have to pay for them.

Each player starts with a set of nine action cards and $15. The deck is shuffled, then set up with three or four “Feeding time!” cards shuffled into the deck at various points. On a turn, a player first turns up a card from the deck if the market is empty (as it is as the start of the game). Then the player looks at the fish and plant cards in the market and decides whether to pass or try to buy them. If he passes, he takes $2 from the bank and adds the top card to the market; if he wants to buy, all other players get to influence what’s on the market and what the cards cost.

First, each other player chooses one of their five action cards for use in phase 1 of a buy. These cards force the active player to add, remove or swap a card from the market or simply allow the card player to make a fish swap of his own! (Players can also pass, with all action cards but the “pass” being set aside.) Second, each other player chooses one of their five action cards for use in phase 2 of a buy. These cards add or subtract 1 from the cost of the market, or double or halve the cost of the market. In the latter case, the player of the card receives money from the active player instead of those coins going to the bank.

Once the goods and the cost are set, the active player chooses to buy all the fish and plants on offer or none of them. The cost is equal to the sum of the card values, plus or minus any modifications, then doubled or halved as appropriate. All purchased cards go into a player’s personal aquarium. If a player has two identical fish, he can move them to a separate breeding tank where they will earn him 1-3 coins each turn.

Each time a “Feeding time!” card is revealed, players reveal one “food cost” card at random, then pay money equal to that cost times the number of stars on fish and plants in their aquariums. Any fish not fed starve and float away to the big toilet bowl in the sky. Each plant in an aquarium reduces the food cost by one.

After the final “Feeding time!”, players count the stars on their non-breeding fish, then receive bonuses for collecting all colored fish of the same size, all three sizes of fish of the same color and different varieties of plants. The player with the most stars wins.

Here, fishy, fishy, fishy…

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Kenjin

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A merciless war is raging throughout feudal Japan, fueled by the hunger for power or the desire for peace of its great lords. As one of them, you must defend your territory from the enemy threatening your borders. Now it’s time to command you troops and read through your opponent’s strategy to take over the battlefield and prevail!

Kenjin is a quick and subtle card game of bluffing and tactics. You share two random battlefields with each of the players next to you: one worth 4 points, the other 6.

You get a hand of thirteen cards numbered from 0 to 3. They are your peasants, thugs, lords. On your turn, send two of them to one or two of your battlefields. When all the cards have been played, each battlefield is won by the player with the highest sum of card values there. Some cards are always played face up, others always face down. Some of them also have a special power: Use your peasants (0) to lure your opponent’s troops to a battlefield, or to score more points if they survive. Play a Lord (2) early as it’s strengthened by each new reinforcement thereafter.

Terrains also impact a battle’s outcome: Peasants take arms to protect their rice fields, while military strength is not always enough when you fight over a palace. Once each battlefield has been scored, the player with the most victory points wins.

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Mr Lister’s Quiz Shootout

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Hey quiz slingers!

If you love ya quizzes and like yer lists, then welcome to my game – it’s like an old-style Western shootout but with brains for guns.

First, someone’s gonna ask y’all a question with a ton of correct answers. Find an answer and live to play another day. Get it wrong, and you’re out. But find a golden answer and you’re into the shootout.

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Aeon’s End

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The survivors of a long-ago invasion have taken refuge in the forgotten underground city of Gravehold. There, the desperate remnants of society have learned that the energy of the very breaches the beings use to attack them can be repurposed through various gems, transforming the malign energies within into beneficial spells and weapons to aid their last line of defense: the breach mages.

Aeon’s End is a cooperative game that explores the deckbuilding genre with a number of innovative mechanisms, including a variable turn order system that simulates the chaos of an attack, and deck management rules that require careful planning with every discarded card. Players will struggle to defend Gravehold from The Nameless and their hordes using unique abilities, powerful spells, and, most importantly of all, their collective wits.

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Not Alone

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It is the 25th century. You are a member of an intergalactic expedition shipwrecked on a mysterious planet named Artemia. While waiting for the rescue ship, you begin to explore the planet but an alien entity picks up your scent and begins to hunt you. You are not alone! Will you survive the dangers of Artemia?

NOT ALONE is an asymmetrical card game, in which one player (the Creature) plays against the rest (the Hunted).

If you play as one of the Hunted, you will explore Artemia using Place cards. By playing these and Survival cards, you try to avoid, confuse or distract the Creature until help arrives.

If you play as the Creature, you will stalk and pursue the shipwrecked survivors. By playing your Hunt cards and using the mysterious powers of Artemia, you try to wear down the Hunted and assimilate them to the planet forever.

NOT ALONE is a light immersive card game resting on guessing, hand management, and a pinch of deck-building.

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HMS Dolores

dolores

Eric M. Lang and Bruno Faidutti have joined forces to create the ultimate prisoner’s dilemma game. Do you cooperate and risk getting outsmarted by a greedy player? Or do you compete and risk losing everything?

You are pirates who just looted a ship and must negotiate how to split the treasure. There are seven types of loot with values from 1 to 3. At the end of the game, you only score the treasure types you have the most and least of.

On each turn, open four new treasures: two in front of you and two in front of your neighbour. Simultaneously decide how to split them. Choices:

Peace (I want the 2 in front of me)
War (I want them all)
First pick (I want just one, pick first)

If both players choose peace, split the loot evenly. If both choose war, lose all treasure. If both choose first pick, lose all treasure.

The game continues until the Dawn Card is drawn. 15 minutes!

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Sushi Go Party!

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Sushi Go Party!, an expanded version of the best-selling card game Sushi Go!, is a party platter of mega maki, super sashimi, and endless edamame. You still earn points by picking winning sushi combos, but now you can customize each game by choosing à la carte from a menu of more than twenty delectable dishes. What’s more, up to eight players can join in on the sushi-feast. Let the good times roll!

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One Night Ultimate Vampire

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No moderator, no elimination, no werewolves.

In One Night Ultimate Vampire, the sun has just set, and vampires have descended on your sleepy little town, slowly turning the villagers into even more vampires. Fortunately, the village has several residents with special powers, with most willing to help eliminate this fanged menace!

One Night Ultimate Vampire is a fast game for 3-10 players in which everyone gets a role: The nefarious Vampire, the well-meaning Cupid, the sneaky Assassin, or others, each with a special ability. In the course of a single evening, your village will decide who among them is a vampire…because all it takes is finding one vampire to win!

One Night Ultimate Vampire can be combined with One Night Ultimate Werewolf.

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Dead Last

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The Tontine. An ages-old investment scheme, where you just buy a ticket and could potentially make millions – if you are the last living member. But there’s a reason Tontines are illegal. They have a tendency to lead to murder. That doesn’t mean they don’t still exist. In fact, you hold a ticket to a quickly collapsing Tontine. With only a few dozen members left, it is now kill or be killed. It could mean a fortune, if you’re DEAD LAST.

DEAD LAST is a ‘social collusion’ game of shifting alliances, betrayals and murder for profit. There is no hidden traitor, as each of you is equally an ally and a betrayer at any given moment. Each round, you will conspire and then vote upon whom to kill, in an effort to be the last player standing and collect gold. You MUST vote with the larger group, just to stay alive, so alliances and gaining agreement on who will die is critical. Subtle communication, a glance, a nod, pointing a finger, flashing their targeting card, anything at all is completely legal. But don’t tip off your target – or they will ambush you instead.

A boisterous, party game of .45 caliber diplomacy for 6 to 12 players.

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The Bloody Inn

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France 1831: In a remote corner of Ardèche, the little village of Peyrebeille sees numerous travelers pass through. A family of greedy rural farmers is determined to make its fortune and has devised a diabolical stratagem to achieve this goal: Invest in an inn so they can rob traveling guests, allowing them to get rich without arousing the suspicions of the police! Whether or not their plan will work out, one thing is certain: Not every guest will leave this inn alive….

In The Bloody Inn, you are one of the competitive innkeepers, bent on amassing the most wealth. Unfortunately, your morals hinder you from robbing your guests… at least while they’re alive. Fortunately, your scruples have no qualms with murder. Of course, you can’t just have dead bodies piled everywhere: It’s bad for business, and besides, what if the police drop by for a visit? It’s all so much work! Perhaps you could employ some of the guests as accomplices? Everyone has a price, after all!

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