New to Games? 10 - Shut Up & Sit Down

The Champion of the Wild

Available direct from https://championofthewild.com/

The Champion of the Wild, formerly known as The Animal Games, is a light-hearted card-based social game for 3-8 players based on the following theme:

Players have attained super-stardom and handsome riches over many years due to their innate ability to communicate with and to coach animals of all different species. Now the greatest animal coaches from around the world (the participating players) have gathered for the ultimate test of their training prowess to see who will become The Champion of the Wild.

Three events are first selected – one from each of five different categories (speed, power, endurance, technical and team). These events can be any measurable activity, examples including the 100m sprint, high jump, ballroom dancing and hide-and-seek. Players are then dealt a hand of animal cards to choose from and must select one single animal to represent them across all three events, competing against the animals selected by the other players. These events are then played out by way of animated discussion and players then vote according to their opinion on the likely rankings (excluding their own animal when voting). Votes score points for the appropriate players and the player with the most points after three events wins.

The Champion of the Wild combines the fun and laughter of a conversation-driven social game with the challenge of strategic thinking required for animal selection and event tactics.

Who will be your champion?

Betrayal Legacy marries the concept of Betrayal at House on the Hill — exploring a haunted mansion — with the permanency and multi-game storytelling exhibited by Daviau’s Risk Legacy and other legacy games that followed. Betrayal Legacy consists of a prologue and a thirteen-chapter story that takes place over decades. Players represent families, with specific members of a family participating in one story, then perhaps an older version of those characters (assuming they lived) or their descendants showing up in later stories.

Why would people keep exploring a haunted mansion for decade after decade, especially when horrible things happen there? Curiosity, I suppose, or perhaps an ignorant boldness that comes from the belief that we know better than those who have come before. Look at all that we’ve learned, marvel at the tools we have at hand! Surely we’ll all exit safely this time…

As with other Betrayal titles, the game is narratively-driven, with elements that record the history of your specific games. The tools mentioned earlier, for example, become attached to specific families. This isn’t just a bucket; it’s my bucket, the one my grandpappy used to feed his family’s pigs when he was a boy, and while you can certainly use that bucket, I know how to wield it best from the time he spent teaching me how to slop. Yes, it’s an heirloom bucket, and when kept in the family, I get a bonus for using it.

In war-torn feudal Japan, the soldiers are restless. The endless battles, betrayals, and broken promises have the soldiers questioning where their loyalties lie. Meanwhile, the daimyo are strategising, marshalling their troops, and erecting strongholds to bolster the strength of their armies, all in pursuit of honour and ultimate victory.

In Gunkimono, players take on the roles of these daimyo, plotting their military advances across the countryside. Each new squad of troops yields victory points, but you may decide to forgo these points and save up for your stronghold instead. All the while, you need to keep an eye on your opponents so that their forces do not grow too large and expand at your expense.

As an architect in Welcome To…, you want to build the best new town in the United States of the 1950’s by adding resources to a pool, hiring employees, and more.

Welcome To… plays like a roll-and-write dice game in which you mark results on a score-sheet…but without dice. Instead you flip cards from 3 piles to make 3 different action sets everyone chooses from. Player’s will get to choose a house number and a corresponding action. You use the number to fill in a house on your street in numerical order. Then you take the action to increase the point value of estates you’re building or score points at the end for building parks and pools. Players also have the option of taking actions to alter or duplicate their house numbers. And everyone is racing to be the first to complete public goals. There’s lots to do and many paths to becoming the best suburban architect in Welcome To!

Because of the communal actions, game play is simultaneous and thus supports large groups of players. With many varying strategies and completely randomized action sets, no two games will feel the same!

Century: Spice Road is the first in a series of games that explores the history of each century with spice-trading as the theme for the first installment. In Century: Spice Road, players are caravan leaders who travel the famed silk road to deliver spices to the far reaches of the continent for fame and glory. Each turn, players perform one of four actions:

Establish a trade route (by taking a market card)
Make a trade or harvest spices (by playing a card from hand)
Fulfill a demand (by meeting a victory point card’s requirements and claiming it)
Rest (by taking back into your hand all of the cards you’ve played)

The last round is triggered once a player has claimed their fifth victory point card, then whoever has the most victory points wins.

Bargain Quest is a game of adventure and capitalism for 2-4 players. Players will take the role of shopkeepers in an adventuring town plagued by monsters. Players must draft items and then secretly choose which items to place in their windows to attract wealthy heroes to their shops.

Once all heroes have been equipped, they battle against monstrous threats, earning money and adding prestige to whichever item shop they most recently visited. Throughout the game players will encounter new heroes and monsters while upgrading their shops and hiring employees. Once the third monster is defeated the player who has earned the most gold and prestige is the winner.

After being stripped of all their possessions, a mage, a warrior, an elf, and a dwarf are forced to go rob the local Magic Maze shopping mall for all the equipment necessary for their next adventure. They agree to map out the labyrinth in its entirety first, then find each individual’s favorite store, and then locate the exit. In order to evade the surveillance of the guards who eyed their arrival suspiciously, all four will pull off their heists simultaneously, then dash to the exit. That’s the plan anyway…but can they pull it off?

Magic Maze is a real-time, cooperative game. Each player can control any hero in order to make that hero perform a very specific action, to which the other players do not have access: Move north, explore a new area, ride an escalator… All this requires rigorous cooperation between the players in order to succeed at moving the heroes prudently. However, you are allowed to communicate only for short periods during the game; the rest of the time, you must play without giving any visual or audio cues to each other. If all of the heroes succeed in leaving the shopping mall in the limited time allotted for the game, each having stolen a very specific item, then everyone wins together.

At the start of the game, you have only three minutes in which to take actions. Hourglass spaces you encounter along the way give you more time. If the sand timer ever completely runs out, all players lose the game: Your loitering has aroused suspicion, and the mall security guards nab you!

You are a collector of rare and valuable books in a thriving gnomish village. Recently, the Mayor and Village Council have announced an opening for a Grand Librarian: a prestigious (and lucrative) position they intend to award to the most qualified villager.

To outshine your competition, you need to expand your personal library by sending your trusty assistants out into the village to find the most impressive tomes. Sources for the finest books are scarce, so you need to beat your opponents to them when they pop up.

Fog of Love is a game for two players. You will create and play two vivid characters who meet, fall in love and face the challenge of making an unusual relationship work.

Playing Fog of Love is like being in a romantic comedy: roller-coaster rides, awkward situations, lots of laughs and plenty of difficult compromises to make.

Much as in a real relationship, goals might be at odds. You can try to change, keep being relentless or even secretly decide to be a Heartbreaker. It’s your choice.

The happily ever after won’t be certain, but whatever way your zigzag romance unfolds, you’ll always end up with a story full of surprises – guaranteed to raise a smile!

Fugitive is a two-player card game set in the world of Burgle Bros. One player is a fugitive trying to make it out of town while being pursued by an unstoppable agent. The fugitive plays cards face down to the table trying to work their way to a goal, while the agent must guess those cards to uncover them. If all the cards are face up, the fugitive is caught.

The Champion of the Wild

Betrayal Legacy

Gunkimono

Welcome To…

Century: Spice Road

Bargain Quest

Magic Maze

Ex Libris

Fog of Love

Fugitive

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