Zogen

In Zogen, a.k.a. ゾーゲン, the player researchers want to rid themselves of their microorganism cards as quickly as they can, but they can do so only by observing the current lab environment and watching the one thing that changes, then “recording” it by playing their card.

In more detail, each player starts with a hand of sixteen cards, with each card showing 0-4 types of microorganisms, which are named “Maru”, “Tsuki”, “Yama”, and “Siri”. The start player for the round places one of their cards face up on the table, then everyone plays at once, trying to lay down a card that differs from the initial card by exactly one microorganism, whether one more or one less.

Thus, if a card shows “Maru” and “Tsuki”, you can lay down a card that shows either “Maru” or “Tsuki” or a card that shows “Maru” and “Tsuki” along with one of the previously missing microorganisms. You must say the name of the microorganism that is added or removed when you play a card, then everyone must match the card that you just played.

When a player has only three cards in hand, the round ends and players score points based on their rank in terms of how many cards they hold. Whoever has the most points after you’ve played the agreed-upon number of rounds wins.

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A Fake Artist Goes to New York

エセ芸術家ニューヨークへ行く – which is pronounced as “Ese Geijutsuka New York e Iku” and can be translated as Fake Artist Goes to New York – is a party game for 5-10 players. Players take turns being the Question Master, whose role is to set a category, write a word within that category on dry erase cards, and hand those out to other players as artists. At the same time, one player will have only an “X” written on his card: they are the fake artist!

Players will then go around the table twice, drawing one contiguous stroke each on a paper to draw the word established by the Question Master, then guess who the fake artist is. If the fake artist is not caught, both the fake artist and the Question Master earn points; if the fake artist is caught and cannot guess what the word is, the artists earn points.

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Startups

There are six companies that will change the world as we know it! You can be part of their success and be a investor. Try to become rich by making the right decisions!

Only the one biggest investor can get money out of each company. You must try to read the next steps of your rivals and use your capital and your three hidden cards to win against them and become the biggest shareholder!

You have to be lucky in this game but you must also think about your moves and analyze your rivals! You can play this card game with only a few players but also with many!

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Nine Tiles Panic

In Nine Tiles Panic (ナインタイル パニック), each player has a set of nine double-sided town tiles.

At the start of a round, three scoring cards are revealed, such as most aliens on a single road, most dogs visible, or longest road. All player then race to assemble their town in whatever pattern seems best, trying to score points for one, two, or three of the scoring cards as they wish. As soon as the first player decides that they’re done, they flip the sand timer and everyone else has 90 seconds to complete their town, then players determine who scores for which cards, with ties being broken in favor of whoever finished first. Players score points based on the number of players in the game, and players track their score on a chart over multiple rounds.

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Insider

Insider box cover

Do we really have free will? Who decides this? Are we controlled by what we hear and what we see, even while thinking we decide freely? Insider is a game that deals with these questions. While communicating to others, you have to find the right answers to a quiz or find the “insider” who is manipulating the discussion. The insider will do everything to hide their identity while misleading the others.

In more detail, players are assigned roles at random. One player is the “master”, and they secretly select a word from a set given in a deck of cards. (In a variant given in the rulebook, they can freely select and write down a word.) The “insider” player, whose role is not known to the other players, will then secretly view the word. The rest of the players are known as “commons”. The commons then have approximately five minutes in which to ask the master “yes” or “no”-type questions so that they can deduce the secret word. The insider attempts to secretly lead the commons towards the correct word. If the commons fail to guess the correct word, everyone loses.

If, however, the word is correctly guessed in the allowable time, the master flips the sand timer, and the commons and master have until the sand runs out to discuss the game and deduce the identity of the insider. If they guess correctly, they win the game together; if they do not, the insider wins.

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Yum Yum Island

In the game Yum Yum Island, players take the role of pelicans trying to feed the animals on the island. Each animal is represented by a cardboard cutout that has a raised, second level to identify the animal’s mouth. Inside the mouth is a pair of numbers — one green, one red — that shows how much vegetarian and meat-based food the animal needs in order to be satisfied.

On a player’s turn, they first roll the die to determine the difficulty level for that round, then they don the blindfold so that they can’t see the playing area. The player scoops up some amount of food from the supply (which has a mix of red and green tokens), reaches out their hand, and tries to place the food in an animal’s mouth. Any food that falls out or doesn’t match the animal’s needs is placed in the giant’s intestinal tract. The die roll might let other players give advice (“Move left! Pull your hand back!”) or allow the player to recover one bit of food or otherwise receive aid during the round.

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Detective Club

Detective Club is a board game for players who enjoy party, with simple rules that take just a minute to explain. Intrigue, sudden revelations, limitless creativity, and tons of fun await you in this game! Lead the investigation as a detective, or cover your tracks as the infiltrated conspirator. Discuss, accuse, object and try to convince everyone.

In Detective Club, on each round, one of the players secretly teams up with another — the Conspirator — and tries to make them guess a secret word using just two illustrated cards! Other players are detectives, who also know the word, but don’t know the identities of each other. Detectives have to find out who the conspirator is, making sure they don’t get accused by their fellow players!

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Combo Fighter

Called to an exclusive competition on an offshore oil rig by an eccentric billionaire, the world’s best brawlers, and martial artists will compete for lavish prizes and the glory of proving that they are the strongest and most skilled. In Combo Fighter you will play as one of these fighters competing to become the ultimate champion. You … Read more

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Piepmatz

In Piepmatz, you skillfully play bird cards from your hand to collect seeds and birds at the bird feeder. Seeds and mated pairs of birds in your collection are worth points. Single birds score only if you have the most of their species. The course of play is the same for all numbers of players. On a turn, you go through these three phases in order:

  • Play a card — Select a bird card from your hand and place it face up at a perch of your choice.
  • Resolve effects — Compare the birds on the ground with the bird at the perch. Take a seed card or add a bird to your collection. Move a bird to the feeder.
  • Draw new cards — Replenish your hand.

The game end is triggered when you are supposed to draw a card from an empty feeder deck. Play continues until all players have had an equal number of turns. Each player now chooses two bird cards from their hand and discards them face down. Once all players have done this, add your remaining two bird cards to your collection and commence the scoring. You score points for seeds, mated pairs of birds, and species majorities. Whoever has the most points wins.

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Rail Pass

In Rail Pass, 2-6 players work together to deliver as many goods as possible in ten minutes, with goods being represented by cubes and with the color of the cubes indicating their destination city.

During set-up and before the clock starts, players scramble the goods and arrange them in a row across the top of the city boards. The player controlling that city can see all the cubes that must be delivered but can pull goods only from the right or left end of the row when loading them on the trains.

Once the clock starts, all players take their actions simultaneously, in any order, and repeating any action as often as necessary. To transport cargo, a cube must first be loaded onto a short or long train piece that is at rest in the player’s home city train yard. No train can move without a crew peg, and no crew peg may travel beyond the adjacent city. In order to transport cargo to more distant cities, a train needs to stop and have the crew peg swapped or cargo exchanged between trains. While all this is going on, players must avoid dropping or spilling cubes when picking up or handing the train to another player. Additional terrain components such as tunnels and bridges can be placed between cities and act as additional obstacles to negotiate. When time runs out, calculate the score by multiplying the TWO LOWEST counts of cubes delivered to a city. Points are subtracted for dropped cubes, or cubes delivered to the wrong city and also for crew pegs that traveled beyond their adjacent cities.

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